The air in the room had gone stiff. They all sat like soldiers waiting for a command, backs straight and shoulders tight.
However, the stranger seemed oblivious to the tension he caused. He hummed a lazy tune, tossing a coin in the air and catching it again and again like he hadn't just disrupted their fragile peace.
Liora tried not to groan aloud. How could someone be this relaxed?
To her surprise, it didn't take long for the tension to loosen. After a few awkward moments, Zhao Ren cracked a dry joke about the man looking like a peacock in a post-apocalyptic jungle, and a few chuckles followed. The others seemed to take that as a cue to breathe again.
Even Liora found the atmosphere relaxing slightly.
Still, she didn't laugh. She only observed him carefully.
She noticed every time he shifted his weight, like a predator getting comfortable in someone else's den.
And more than anything, she watched how Eli kept sneaking glances at him.
