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“Pen?” Colin asked.
“Hm?”
“What is hanahaki disease?”
Penelope felt her heart stop. She could quite literally feel it skip a beat. That was not the bad part though. The bad part was feeling it catching the next one. Feeling it continue to beat faster than it ever did before. Not feeling a giant whole appearing right there in her bedroom she might throw herself into and disappear forever.
Her flight reflex contemplated jumping out of her second story window, which, while not quite killing her, might allow her to fake amnesia and never speak of this incident ever again.
“Pen?”
Bullocks. So, fighting it was.
“Why are you asking?” She didn’t look up, forcing her voice to be light and casual.
“Because I just wanted to open a new tab to access the uni server, but your browser was already open on … Archive Of Our Own. It all looks pretty interesting really, but I have no idea what hanahaki disease means.”
Defeatedly, Penelope looked up to find Colin sitting on her bed, her laptop that she had stupidly lend him for his assignment, perched on his lap, the screen facing her. In bold letters, it read 17 Works by LadyWhistledown. The top right corner and its Hi, LadyWhistledown! banner fully cementing her mortification.
Instead of the mocking expression she had feared, Colin smiled softly. “I should've guessed that you’re a Hinny fan.”