[ Not the Claude she remembers, and not the Marianne he remembers... does this mean that their friendship as they know it is forged on the back of a lie? His lips thin as he considers this. Everything he knows about Marianne could be wrong. She seems identical to how he remembers her, but the circumstances of her life could be different in a hundred little ways, unbeknownst to him. It's a discomfiting thought.

It's also a thought that he can't bear to linger on for long. ]

You don't seem all that different to me either. It wasn't really that you wanted to attend. All students had to. And besides, I don't think Hilda would have taken no for an answer.

[ He sighs, shaking his head and carding his fingers through his hair. ]

Man. This is gonna give me a headache. Even if we're not as we know each other, we're still close enough that we didn't catch on for months. That's gotta count for something. [ He raises a brow at her, joking, ] Think the Claude you know would be mad I've poached you for a while?