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It is another night of Stelle struggling to sleep in the Express. They thought that it might've been a bad decision to sleep with March 7th but she, first, offered them to sleep in her room and it would be bad to turn it down—Dan Heng said it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Usually, Stelle tolerates March's sleeping behavior, from putting her leg on top of their body to pushing them away, but March kicking Stelle's butt out of the bed was their final straw. Stelle takes one of March's pillows and walks out of the room.
Stelle stands in the hall silently—embarrassed to make any more noise after the loud thud their butt made after falling—they try to regain their consciousness. Their whole body now hurts from the impact of March's kicking, she is really strong after all. Stelle's legs still feel 'wobbly' so they decide to sit down in one of the booths next to the window.
A door sliding can be heard, slowly opening next to March 7th's room. It's Dan Heng. His body looks tense as he looks around the hall—probably got alerted by the loud thud and is trying to identify where it came from. He then notices Stelle sitting in the booth, looking at him with those golden, thoughtless eyes. Stelle lightly waves their hand before using it to cover their yawning self.
“My guess is that it was you who made that noise?” Dan Heng relaxes his posture and leans on the door frame.
“Affirmative.” Stelle tilts their head to the side, cuddling March's pillow.
“What happened?”
“Let's say I was evicted in the room by a sleeping March 7th.”
Dan Heng softly chuckles while shaking his head, reassured that it was nothing bad, “Well, it's a March behavior, I suppose.”
Stelle smiles and yawns, very loudly.
“You must still be tired. You can stay in my room for a while.”
“Well, I was but since you're wide awake, I might as well disturb you.” Stelle slowly stands up from their seat, trying not to stumble, and walks past Dan Heng to his room.
Stelle slumps on the floor, hugging the pillow that they took. Dan Heng closes the door behind and picks up a book that is lying on his work desk. Stelle's eyes follows his movements.
“Are you not feeling sleepy?” Stelle asks. He technically looks like he has drank ten coffees in a single day and that the idea of sleeping never crossed his mind—or so that's what Stelle thought.
“No. I'm going to continue reading this book.”
“Haven't you read that?”
“I have. I just like rereading and revisiting the stories.”
“Wouldn't it be tiring to keep reading the same thing over and over again?” Stelle tilts her head to the side again, making Dan Heng smile a little bit.
“Not really, I reread books because I find some of the narratives intriguing. Besides, this isn't the only book I read.” Dan Heng sits next to Stelle on the floor.
The room was cold and both were silent. Stelle's breathing and the sound of paper flipping from Dan Heng's book are now audible. It's an awkward moment. That is, before Stelle decides to break the silence.
“Can you tell me the story?” Stelle looks at Dan Heng. He looks back and raises an eyebrow,
“This book?”
Stelle simply nods, burying half of their face in the pillow. Dan Heng closes the book and lays it on his lap.
“It's kind of a long story. Would you like to hear the summary?”
“I'm fine with that.”
Dan Heng then tells the story to Stelle—whose brain is almost going to shut down. The story is indeed interesting and amusing to hear, Stelle tries to ask a few questions about the story to make it seem like they're listening. But Dan Heng's soothing and calm voice is too much for Stelle that they try to fight their eyelids from shutting down and their mouth from yawning. They don't want Dan Heng to think that they find the story boring. It's just that after the pain from their body has subsided, Stelle feels relieved and also exhausted.
Dan Heng is now halfway through finishing the story but he notices that Stelle has gone quiet, so he decides to stop and check up on them. Their face is almost covered by the pillow but their eyes are still visible, slowly and separately blinking like how a frog would.
“You don't have to force yourself to listen to me, you know?”
Stelle jolts their head up from the pillow and blinks multiple times to try and wake themselves, “I'm not sleepy, I promise.”
Dan Heng chuckles, “You can sleep in my bed. It's fine.”
“Are you sure?” Stelle looks at Dan Heng's futon placed on the elevated floor, “How about you?”
“Don't worry about me. Go get some rest.”
Stelle slowly stands up from the floor, trying to find their balance, and proceeds to go to Dan Heng's bed. Stelle pulls the blanket up and lays down before covering their whole body with it, leaving their face open. They didn't know that it'd be much more comfortable to sleep in a futon—and to add, the futon also smells handsomely good.
Dan Heng stands up from the ground, holding the book that was in his lap, and heads towards the door.
“Goodnight, Dan Heng,” Stelle says softly, they don't even know if he heard it, but they start to drift off to sleep.
Dan Heng looks back and smiles, “Goodnight.” He opens the sliding door slowly to not disturb the sleepy Stelle and closes it after he exits. Just as he did, everything went silent.
Stelle finally wakes up and sits their body up. They stretch their body and exhale slowly with happiness and contentment; it's the first time they had a good night's sleep after sleeping with March 7th. Stelle stands up and fixes the bed before heading outside of the room.
They headed to the lounge and saw Himeko making coffee for herself.
“Good morning. Had a great sleep?” Himeko greets Stelle with a soft tone.
They wave and smile back. But before Stelle gets to sit in one of the chairs, they are greeted by an angry and pouting March 7th.
“Look who decided to sleep in another room.” March crosses her arms in her chest, “I thought we were buddies!”
“Well, you kicked and pushed me around the bed 'til I fell off.”
“Thanks for leaving me like that and guess what, you can't sleep in my room anymore.” March walks away while stomping her feet. Stelle is now truly evicted.
Stelle plops down the chair and sighs, Himeko then sits next to them, holding a cup of coffee and a newspaper.
“Can I sleep in your room, Himeko?” Stelle huffs.
“You can but only on the floor.”
“Anything just to have a place to sleep in.”
Himeko chuckles before shifting her gaze to the newspaper. Pom-pom approaches Stelle with a glimmer in their eyes.
“Stelle, can you help Pom-Pom with something? There's an itsy-bitsy problem in the Express and it needs to be fixed immediately! Maybe afterward, Pom-Pom can give you a place to rest.” Pom-Pom places their hands behind their back and starts swaying—sort of pleading like a puppy.
Stelle sighs and nods in agreement. They wanted to look for Dan Heng and check up on him but that might be postponed, for now, they'd have to do a few quests.