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Nearly the entire body of Spooky High is crowded at the school fun fair (sponsored by KnifeLand), laughing and shrieking with their friends. Oz is no exception to this rule, happily feeding a bag of kettlescorn to his phobias and trailing after the color crew. Vicky says that kettlescorn is gross, but Oz always figured that a good day at the fair was incomplete without it, in fact, he loves it. The sweet caramel, crunchy bite, and contemptuous flavor has Oz’s fears devouring it by the handful. Amira is currently attempting a balancing act of stuffed prizes while Brain contributes to the madness with his crazy claw machine skills. Disaster strikes when Amira (sight obstructed by plush animals) runs straight into Damien. The collision sends her (Brian’s) hard earned winnings to the ground, where rabid students snatch up as many as possible, because Spooky High students are unhinged. Oz clutches his kettlescorn closer to himself and braces for conflict.
What happens instead is a full blown prize winning competition. Damien vs. Amira. The most prizes won by the end of the day wins. Loser buys everyone drinks afterwards. Oz decides this is more than okay, and jogs to catch up with the now combined groups. This fair has the most bizarre prizes. Stuffed creatures of indeterminate species, jar of thumbtacks, an entire live horse. Damien teases Oz for holding on to a yellow penguin(?) creature Amira had just gifted him before returning to a ball tossing game. Oz takes the lighthearted jab with a laugh, and turns away to collect himself. He’s liked Damien for a while now, but would sooner be damned the admit it. By now, everyone has an absurd amount of prizes won by both Damien and Amira. Although, it looks like Miranda's serfs are doing most of the carrying. Vera claims to be beneath cheap fair prizes, but Oz sees a small stuffed paw poking out of her purse. He thinks it’s sweet, but he isn’t going to draw any attention to it.
The score is close, but both are determined to win. Damien and Amira approach whack a mole, and nearly destroy the machine while playing. The lack of fair property damage is probably due to not wanting to give the vendors any excuses to withhold prizes. Oz considers this a win. And so does Damien, who excitedly shouts his victory. The vendor, a gruff old lady, hands over a cheap metal ring. Just a basic band with lazy engravings. Damien looks at it for less then a moment before carelessly handing it to Oz. He fumbles, almost dropping it, before sliding it onto his finger. He feels his face lightly flush when examining his hand. Oz knows it doesn’t mean anything, but he pretends that it could have been on purpose. It’s nice to imagine. Perhaps Damien knew that there could be significance if he handed it off to someone like Vicky, or Brian. Maybe that’s why Damien handed it to Oz. Plain, safe, random. It doesn’t mean anything, but Oz grins anyway.
Some teasing starts when Polly sees it and jokingly congratulates them on the engagement. Brian offers to be best man, and Miranda starts talking event catering. Vera explains the joke to Scott. Liam scoffs and gives a speech about how weddings are too mainstream. Amira tells a very unfunny joke about wedding cake, but they all laugh regardless. Damien laughs the loudest.
It’s just a joke
In typical monster competitive style, Amira wins by one prize in the last available minute. Said prize being a purple sticky hand, but that doesn’t matter. I’m sure years later, Amira will find it and smile fondly, but who gives a shit. All that matters now is that Damien owes them drinks, and Amira demands boba tea! Oz slides into a large booth, and with just his luck, Damien sits right next to him. Damien glances at Oz’s hand and smiles smugly, “nice ring”. Oz is mortified, but that’s not out of the ordinary. He hides his hands under the table. Brian gives him a pointed look, but says nothing. The drinks are good, and the smiles are big. Oz considers today a success.
At the end of the day, Oz takes the ring off and examines it closer. Small misshapen stars are indented into the surface. How nice. He carefully puts it on his bedside table and goes to sleep.
____________________
The fair is closed the next day, and students of Spooky High begrudgingly return to school. Oz swings by Vicky’s apartment to grab coffee before school, as usual. Vicky gushes about Scott giving her a prize at the fair, and Oz listens intently. Unfortunately, the topic of gifting prizes quickly turns her attention onto him. The absence of The Ring brings another bout of teasing as Vicky says “divorced so soon? I was really rooting for you!” Oz groans. Not this again. Vicky agrees to drop it, but not before singing “here comes the bride”.
The two of them meet up with Brian and Amira at the shop, only to be met with the same relentless teasing! Oz isn’t going to last the day like this! The color crew are the only ones who know about his crush which makes this a very targeted attack. He covers his face and lets out a dark chuckle. His jaw unhinges and he states, “If any of you bring this up during school, I will find you, and I will bring your biggest fear to your doorstep”. The color crew shudders before laughing even harder. Oz joins in too.
To prove that he is capable of acting normal about The Ring incident, Oz sits next to Damien and polly at lunch. She starts a fascinating conversation about the carbon footprint of importing drugs, but is interrupted when a portal opens right next to her. To everyone’s dismay, the Interdimensional Prince walks out, and sits Very Closely to Damien. He procures a marriage contract with a snap of his fingers, and pulls out the gaudiest, chunkiest, ostentatiously ugly ring Oz has ever seen. Where did he even buy that? The prince jumps on top the table right on his lunch (I guess he doesn’t technically need to eat, but still), and loudly proclaims his undying love to the demon prince. As per usual, Damien lights up with fury, ready to reject him. This time however, Polly interjects by saying “you’re too late dude, Dames totally gave a ring to Oz yesterday”. Damien looks at Polly, confused, until a look of understanding crosses his face. He then looks to oz, expectantly. Oz isn’t wearing The Ring , but does his best, “Oh uh, yeah! That’s right, but I must have left it at home. Sorry?” Oz says, feeling sheepish. Damien looks…disappointed? That can’t be right. The Interdimensional Prince relents anyway, and follows back into the portal looking dejected. Polly winks at Oz, and nothing else is said about The Ring .
_______________
In the safety of home, he puts The Ring back on. His phobias giggle and blush, staging elaborate proposals on his shoulder. Little shits.
_______________
Oz skips morning coffee as petty revenge on the phobias, and enjoys a relaxed morning. Upon his arrival to school…there is no school. A paper notice tacked onto a charred post reads, “DAMIEN WUZ HERE”. The paper then combusts, because of course it would. In the distance, Damien can be seen running from Principal Giant Spider and laughing maniacally. Cute.
Suddenly, the blur of Damien becomes much less blurry as he charges towards him at full speed. He grabs Oz and drags him forward screaming, “Move it or lose it!”. Now a two person chase, Damien maneuvers him around the burned remains of the school like someone who has Definitely done this before. Figures. Oz vaguely sees the color crew in the distance and does his best approximation of a shrug while running past them. They take a turn towards the city and the principal is still hot on their trail. Damien frantically futzes with his Porta™ (portable portal) but there’s no time to dwindle. Oz grabs his arm and jumps into the shadows. They reemerge in an alley across town.
…
“Okay, what the FUCK was that?” Damien screams.
“Keep it down, principal Giant Spider could be anywhere. I shadow jumped us”
“You what?!”
“Shadow jumped…”
“Dude, I wish I knew about that sooner. Fucking Metal!”
“…Thanks. Anyway, we’ve got to lay low for a bit”
(Several law enforcement units can be heard in the distance)
The alley is inconspicuous and a good hiding spot, so they sit down. Damien sits just out of sight from the street to be on lookout. They’re both giddy from the chase and grinning at each other. Oz is about to ask about the events leading up to the fire, but Damien breaks the silence first, and simply states “you wore the ring today”. Oz chokes and a phobia pinches his arm. He really didn’t mean to be wearing it, but admitting to putting it on to fulfill a selfish and embarrassing desire was not what Oz would consider a smart option. He also desperately does not want to turn the mood awkward. Luckily, he took that iguana improv class last year and felt morally okay with lying. “Yeah, I figured that it was good proposal repellent, since that seems to be an unfortunately common occurrence at school. Lunch yesterday gave me the idea”. Damien looks at the ring thoughtfully, then frowns. “Makes sense”.
They sit for a few minutes before Oz breaks and asks about the fire. Turns out that Damien had a project due, and figured that this was easier than asking for an extension. Oz doesn’t blame him, the teachers are not the most lenient monsters. Probably because the school keeps being set on fire, but who’s to say? They fall into light but steady conversation until the coast is clear. Damien begs Oz to shadow jump them back, and he’d do nearly anything for him, so he drops them back to school. The building is already being reconstructed, but won’t be ready for another day. Even with the expedited building process (this happens pretty often). Damien looks away towards the school, then back at Oz. “I thought you were lame when I met you at the fair, but you’re actually kinda okay. My friends and I are gonna hang during the arson day off. You and your friends should come with. I’m not buying drinks this time though so don’t fucking expect that out of me Ever again”
__________________
The color crew happily accepts the invite, so they make their way to the pancake diner. Oz is pretty chuffed with himself for playing it cool. Ever since the fair, the two groups have been getting closer. “Over here Oz!” Damien waves him and the group over to their booth. Damien makes room for Oz to sit, and the rest of them squish further in for Brian, Amira, and Vicky. It’s a bit cramped. Soon after, tall, elegant, lucious piles of pancakes arrive at the table. Everyone is hungry. They dig in and make rambunctious conversation. The waiter rolls her eyes at them, so they talk louder. The group laughs about the interdimensional prince and all his failed attempts to trap them in wedlock. They make a tier list for all his craziest ideas. One time Miranda had to compete in a game show hosted by him. Yeesh. This prompts Oz to excitedly explain how The Ring prevents stuff like that from happening, and heartily thanks Damien for giving it to him. It’s the perfect cover! And technically true!
Damien looks irritated at this, and suddenly pushes out of the booth, knocking Oz to the floor. He marches over to the nearest monster sitting alone, and punches them squarely in the face. The monster falls forward into their pancakes, and Damien leaves the restaurant.
Oz, now just sitting on the floor, looks towards the group for an explanation. It’s not out of character for Damien to attack strangers, but this feels less than normal. He sees Polly roll her eyes and say he’s “such a dramatic baby”. Oz interprets that as not needing to worry. He situates himself back onto the seat, and conversation picks up again.
As amusing as it is to see Vicky flirt with Scott, and getting caught up in the anatics, Oz finds himself glancing towards the door. It’s been an hour and he’s worrying if he did something wrong. Should he not have mentioned him? Is he embarrassed that he gave him a ring at the fair? Brian, like the incredible and perceptive friend he is, speaks up on his behalf,
“So are we going to talk about Damien, or just leave it as is…”
“LIKE HELL YOU ARE!” Damien bursts through the doors and stomps towards the group. He Squeezes back into the booth next to Oz, and is visibly anxious.
Nobody says anything
Damien hasn’t blinked for 6 minutes. It’s weird.
Brain starts up again, “So are…”
“Nope”
“okay”
Damien proceeds to finish the pancakes and down a glass of orange juice, slamming it down on the table.
Vera gives him a side eye, and he has no idea what that means. He and Vicky share a weird glance. Scott sneezes. So Oz decides he needs to fix the mood, and as a wise therapist trapped in a bottle once said to him, “stop overthinking and go with your gut sometimes”. So Oz just starts laughing. Unhinges his jaw and laughs (not something he does frequently, opting to speak telepathically on most occasions) Loudly. It doesn’t even sound right. Kinda forced and in a creepy way. Then he stops. Restaurant patrons are staring. He seals his face back together and excuses himself to the restroom, pushing past Damien to get out. When he gets back, nobody has said a word.
Amira speaks up first, “Really Oz? What was that?”. The rest of the color crew begins laughing. “I panicked!!” Oz shouts. Soon they’re all laughing. Even Damien. Probably at them. It feels like he somehow failed the event…
__________________
The week that follows is awkward, but manageable. He keeps The Ring on to at least keep up the fib. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it though. It’s become a steady presence. Taking it off feels weird now, like there’s a ghost of it right under. Currently, Oz is occupying himself with a writing assignment. He fidgets, tracing the star engravings with his thumb, while he structures his argument. It’s a good essay. The teacher will be pleased.
Finishing early, he heads to the restrooms at the back of the school. Might as well take his time, there’s not much else to do. He carefully sets the ring on the porcelain sink, Where someone has passionately graffitied Shit Suckzzz , and splashes water on his face. Oz takes a good look at himself in the mirror. He’s tired. It feels like he messed everything up. Polly still seems friendly towards him, but she’s like that to everyone. Damien hasn’t so much as glanced in his direction. Probably thinks he’s a freak. At least Vera has been consistent in her coldness. He loses himself in thought for some time, until Damien collides with him near the sinks. He looks frazzled. Oz, spooked and a bit weirded out, turns away and heads back to class.
The teacher hands him busywork, so he resigns himself to the mindless droll. Oz thumbs over his ring finger again, and feels the absence of metal. Confusion, then mild panic sets in. Looking over and under his desk, up his sleeve, in his backpack, the ring is nowhere to be seen. Realizing he must have left it during the bathroom trip, he quietly slips out of the room to retrace his steps.
Oz comes face to face with the very real phrase, Shit Suckzzz, and it feels mocking. The Ring is not where he left it. He checks the floor and almost debates searching the trash before stopping himself. He pulls out his phone and quickly makes a group call to the color crew. At this point, Oz wants to cry. He’s melting a little in panic. His friends pick up, clearly not caring about their schoolwork, and tell him to take some deep breaths. Through blubbering incomprehensive words, the group is able to parse out that he lost The Ring . Oz is quite embarrassed, but his friends know how much it means to him. After some supportive words, Vicky gives everyone a section of school to search, and tells Oz to find Valerie. There’s a good chance that she swiped it to sell. It’s like a nightmare lost and found. One time, Amira had to buy her homework back. It doesn’t help that official school policy states “finders keepers”.
Having collected himself, Oz sets off to the cafeteria. Valerie usually sets up shop in the back corner, and today is no different. He gets closer and she beckons him to sit. She smugly shows off her wares and gives a scarily convincing sales pitch for a lemon. Oz asks if she has any rings, and to his surprise, she procures a small box full of them! She explains that it’s been a trendy and amusing way to ward off the interdimensional prince, ever since some random monster successfully fooled him. Oz chuckled and nervously dug through the pile. What if someone already bought it? The closest one he could find was higher quality then his original and a size too small. Valerie, sensing her customers displeasure, asks him if there is something specific he is looking for. Oz describes the star ring, but she hasn’t seen any matching the description. Oz feels dejected, but Valerie promises to keep an eye out. Even says she’ll offer a discount. He appreciates the gesture. In return, Oz buys the lemon and thanks her for her time.
————-
Before the phobias can even think about eating that lemon, Oz unhinges his jaw and swallows it whole. When life gives you lemons, eat them to assert dominance. Oz checks his phone for any updates from his friends. Nothing so far, it’s probably gone. This felt like a sign to move on.
—————
The next week at school, Oz noted that nearly the entire student body wore a ring. Guess that makes him a trend setter! Except he didn’t even keep up with his own trend. Occasionally, the Interdimensional Prince could be seen stumbling around the halls in a baffled stupor, which brought immense satisfaction to everyone who was once targeted by him. He’s such a hassle to deal with.
In general, life without The Ring has gone back to normal. As stupid as it sounds, Oz is almost glad to put it all behind him. He’s a little embarrassed to be honest. Making a big deal over something so small. Causing his friends to worry in the process. They won’t have to fret any longer! Amira waves at him across the cafeteria, so he figures the color crew found empty seats. Score!
Oz sets his lunch tray down on the table. A white plate with a sprig of parsley in the center…interesting choice. Better than the bowl of knives he received last week. His phobias couldn't even eat that. Or that one time all the food was replaced with chairs. He shudders at the memory. It’s scarier than it sounds if you think about the implications.
Even though the menu gets worse every day, at least one thing stays consistent. The color crew usually remains mostly unscathed. Today was supposed to be no different, but in the midst of a scintillating conversation (teasing Vicky about Scott), a very familiar portal opens in the middle of the room. Most monsters don’t pay it mind anymore. Ringed fingers armed with rejection. The Prince makes intense eye contact towards anyone sparing a glance in his vicinity, pleading his case. On his fifth lap around the room, he spots the color crew. Particularly, Oz. Who is ringless. Fuck. “Don’t make eye contact” says Vicky
“And hide your hands” Brian adds sleepily
He approaches Oz, who slowly turns around against better judgment.
“I cannot ignore your radiant presence! You’re practically glowing! It’s a marvel you haven’t been snatched up yet” and other such tacky phrases.
He offers a bouquet of roses to him and continues his bombast.
“I’m not interested, sorry”, the phobias start moving frantically in protest of his advances.
He continues anyway, “You can’t ignore our spark!”
“Really, dude, please go away”
Oz is trying to be nice about it, though he really shouldn’t be.
Amira and Vicky begin to stand up with the intention of breaking his nose. Brian stays asleep.
“Playing hard to get, you can’t fool me!” The prince then grabs Oz’s hand, “look here, no engagement!”
But before Oz even starts to retaliate, Damien has crossed the room, grabbed his wrist, and yanked him away from Oz. He was planning to unleash a fear into his mind, but this works too. Honestly, he’s relieved at not having to engage directly in conflict. Damien starts shouting for him to back off, eyes ablaze and looking for a fight. When the prince keeps pushing, Damien lets out a frustrated groan, and runs a hand over his face before reaching into his pocket and tossing a ring to Oz… The Ring .
“Damien…why do you have this?”
Damien turns back to the prince and raises his fists
The Interdimensional Prince pulls out his Porta™ as fast as possible and leaves the scene.
“That asshat wouldn’t have even approached you if I didn’t steal your ring, so take this whole interaction as an apology”
what?
He leaves quickly. Running off to who knows where.
Vicky looks as dumbstruck as Oz feels, Amira might set something on fire, and Brian napped through the whole thing, only just now waking up. During the commotion, The Ring was dropped. Valerie walks over and picks it up. She hands it back to Oz, free of charge. Oz laughs. Most of the cafeteria is staring at them, minus a few who have no cares left to give. Fair enough.
Oz is now completely confused by Damien, and wants to go after him, but cannot seem to think of a single good reason for doing that. He’s prepared to let this be another weird Spooky High incident. Might even get him a mention in the yearbook. His phobias, however, disagree. Encouraging Oz to see this through. Damien stole his ring, the least he can do is try to get an explanation. The phobias ramp up.
“Alright, enough squabbling, I’m going!”
________________
For maximum search efficiency, Oz just starts shadow jumping at random. Nobody said anything about accuracy.
Parking lot - nope
Gym - nope
Bathroom - nuh uh
Back of school - no luck
Library - unlikely
Amphitheater - no…wait, what was that sound?
Oz emerges from the shadows and sees Damien run to the dressing room, presumably to hide. He almost loses sight of him, until a prop sword is knocked over and starts a domino chain of props, costume racks, and boxes falling down one after the other. Damien, standing at the center of the wreckage, drops his phone. While frantically trying to pick it up and access Porta™, one last box (labeled Comedic Anvil) topples over and crushes it.
so Damien is left just standing there, staring down at the box.
“FUCK!”
Oz makes his way over, sidestepping various theater items. The phobias emerge in anticipation. He stops in front of the fallen prop sword, which cuts a clean separation between them.
“Looks like your shoulder blobs are having a heart attack. What do you want”
“Uhhhhmmm” Oz nervously pulls at the hem of his sweater, “why did you steal back the ring you gave me? And follow up question, did I do something wrong? I thought we were sorta friends for a while. And I miss that. It was fun”
“Are we friends?” Damien tilts his head back up.
“Well, I’d like to be, I enjoyed hanging out with you and your friends. I guess I made a fool of myself already though”
“Don’t worry about that, I told them all beforehand that you’re a total noob, they had low expectations”
“...Thanks? I think?
“Yeah whatever”
“So uh, now that we’ve established that we’re friends-”
“Don’t get too comfortable. I’m only using you for your sick powers” He smiles a little, barely noticeable
“-what’s the deal with The Ring ?”
“Nothing, just thought it was fucking ugly and couldn’t bear to see it on you any longer”
“I find that hard to believe”
“WELL YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT, SHITFACE ”
And with all his remaining boldness, Oz say’s the most daring thing yet…”NO!”
Damien locks eyes with him, blood rushing to his face. He looks nervous
“FINE, YOU WANT THE FUCKING TRUTH?!”
“YES… please! Can we just clear up this whole situation?!”
“Okay okay, fine. Whatever. I didn’t mean anything when I gave you The Ring , I swear! I just didn’t want to hold it and you were in close range. But after my friends started teasing me about it, I started noticing it more. Noticing YOU more. And seeing you wear it made me feel a bit mushy. And MY FRIENDS KEPT BEING SO ANNOYING ABOUT IT!! WOULDN'T SHUT UP ABOUT IT!!! ESPECIALLY POLLY!”
“Oh?”
“Shut up. I’m only saying this once”
Damien doesn’t continue, instead opting to just stare at Oz intensely.
A few seconds pass before he speaks again.
“ANyway, when you helped me run from Principal Giant Spider and used your shadowy powers it was really kinda awesome” Damien continues in a ramble
“That, combined with seeing you wearing the ring that I gave you was making me confused. It was a fun day though so that’s why I invited you to hang. When you told everyone that the Interdimensional Prince was why you were wearing it… I uh. I Felt rejected? Which is weird I know, because the ring didn’t mean anything, and the prince is a dick so you were the one being reasonable-”
Sorry for pushing you onto the floor by the way-
-And then everything was so confusing and I knew that it all started with that DAMN ring! And it drove me crazy seeing you wear it so I stole it from you. The End”
Oz and the phobias blink at him in unnerving unison
“OKAY THERE'S MORE. Yeesh. I like you and you’re stupid little phobias so I felt terrible and maybe a little jealous when the Interdimensional Prince approached you”
Damien’s blush intensifies and he turns away from Oz
Wow. Holy shit. Oz was gonna faint. The phobias start fanning him.
“Damien” he began and tried to take a deep breath, but began speaking at record breaking speeds “I wore that ring because I like you, and I wanted it to mean something so I pretended that it did but accidentally dug too deep so I lied and accidentally created prince repellent which is really useful but really I just wanted to wear it because it was from YOU and I really really like you but I thought that there’d be no way you would ever like me cause I’m just some dorky nobody freak, but I held on to it anyway”
Damien turned back around
“You’re not wearing it right now”
Oz says nothing in return, instead reaching into his pocket and pulling it out.
Damien stays quiet
Oz extends his hand with the ring resting on his palm across the prop sword. Damien picks it up and traces the patterns with his thumb. Oz begins pulling his hand back but Damien grabs it and pulls towards him. Oz stumbles forward across the sword. Damien doesn’t let go of his hand, and intertwines their fingers.
“Well uh, sorry for the misunderstanding?” Oz laughs
“Yeah yeah, whatever. I’m so nice and cool that I’ll forgive you for making me act like an idiot”
“”Pfft, sure. What now?”
Damien carefully slides the ring back on Oz’s finger. “Now we can figure out if this, or I guess I should say if We, will work”
“I’d like that”
____________________
The two monsters walk onto the stage of the amphitheater hand in hand. Oz is grinning so intensely, he doesn’t care that he’s not concealing his maw of sharp teeth. Polly is the first one they notice outside,
“Dames! Found you! Did I miss it? Shit, I totally missed it!
“Miss what?” Oz implores
“The big confession DUH! I’ve been trying to set this up for weeks! You two are seriously such idiots. Entertaining, but still idiots”
“Are you shitting me right now? You knew? I’VE BEEN BETRAYED!”
Oz squeezes Damiens hand and laughs, breaking Damien’s train of thought about breaking Polly’s face.
Polly sees the the glint of metal on Oz’s hand, “Nice ring”
“Thanks”
“Oh by the way, I’m gonna tell everyone about this kay bye!” Polly hightails it back to the main building.
Damien is fuming and about to chase after her
Oz get’s ready to follow, reasoning that they need to get back to class
Damien suddenly has a better idea
“Fuck this, we’re ditching today”
“But I have a project due”
“You’re such a dork”
Damien pulls out a match
“Don’t you dare”
Damien lights the match
Oz sighs
Damien sets fire to the school and looks at Oz like the cat who caught the canary. They run from the growing flames out to the parking lot. Damien sits down to admire his work. Oz has a better idea. He grabs Damien’s hand, pulls him up and towards the nearest shadow, and jumps them to the top of a nearby building. A much better vantage point. They sit by the ledge and watch. The students, used to much worse happening, easily evacuate with the casualty of just heading to class. Damien stops watching the flames for a moment (a Very rare occurrence), to watch Oz, who seems to have embraced that whole “Damien burning down the school for a petty reason” thing. He gently turns Oz’s head towards him and asks if it’s okay to kiss him. He says yes. Damien puts a hand on Oz’s cheek to tilt his head up before leaning down and sweetly kissing him. They make out with the fire glowing bright, and the sun slowly setting. It’s very picturesque. Oz gently pulls back, untangling a hand from Damien’s hair. He pulls The Ring off his finger, takes Damien’s hand, and puts it on his.
“You win”