“Something?” I blocked the doorway, making no move to let them in.
“Oh, nothing important.”
Emily looked aside and said casually, “Jason wants to head to the station early tomorrow, so I’m here to help him pack. I stopped by to see you while I was at it.”
Her eyes returned to my suitcase, sharp with scrutiny. “Have you…bought your ticket? Standing? Are you on the same train as us?”
Jason also looked at me with apparent concern. “If you’re on our train, that’d be great. We could look out for each other on the way, and it’d be easier to share the luggage…”
I caught his false expression and spoke slowly, “I didn’t buy a ticket.”
Both of them froze. Jason recovered first, his tone carrying a faint gloating edge. “Ah? You didn’t get one? Then, Liam, how will you get home? No standing left either? What now?”
Emily’s face turned sour. “Liam, what have you been doing these past two days? Didn’t I tell you to buy a ticket? Now you say you don’t have one? Planning to walk home from school?”
Watching them act out their routine of good cop and bad cop, I almost laughed.
“I have my own way to get back,” I said evenly.
“What can you do?”
Emily’s tone already brimmed with impatience.