Chapter 56: 56. I Need Some Male Friends To See If They Have Someone Important (Wanna Steal)

He went to find Kyle.

He spotted Kyle Hudson near the library entrance, located on the east side of the main quad, which featured a small area of benches that students used as an overflow reading space in good weather.

Kyle was engaged in conversation with a tall, broad-shouldered man. The man had the confident demeanor of someone who had been told since childhood that he was destined to be athletic and had embraced that expectation.

He had the easy, confident posture of someone used to being the most capable person in physical space and had made peace with that being the primary thing people led with when they described him.

Mike recognized this type of person. He had encountered individuals like him in different countries, all exhibiting a similar way of moving. Their competence in a specific domain was always evident, communicated through their body language, regardless of whether they were aware of it or not.

He crossed the quad.

"Hudson," he said, as if they had already established this was how he was going to address him, which turned out to be effective enough that Kyle turned around without questioning the familiarity.

"Oh, hey." Kyle had the slightly self-contained expression of someone who was friendly but careful. "Hawk, right? From the economics cohort."

"That’s me," Mike said.

He looked at the other man with the relaxed, direct openness he used when he wanted someone to feel assessed positively. "And you are?"

"Joseph Hayden." The man had a firm handshake in the way of someone who had been taught handshakes communicated character and had taken it seriously. "Business program."

"And apparently football, right?" Mike said, noting the training bag near his feet.

"Captain this term," Joseph said, with the specific tone of someone proud of something and trying to sound neutral about it.

"First month in?" Mike said.

Joseph looked at him. "How’d you know it was new?"

"You said ’apparently football’ without disagreeing," Mike said. "If you’d been captain a while, you’d have led with it."

Joseph looked at Kyle. Kyle raised his hands slightly, the gesture of someone saying, "Don’t look at me."

"Economist," Joseph said.

"Postgraduate economist," Mike said. "There’s a difference."

"Yeah? What’s the difference?"

"We’re more annoying about it," Mike said.

Joseph laughed, and it was a real one. "Fair enough."

Mike leaned against the library wall, settling in comfortably for a conversation that promised to be engaging. Kyle and Joseph both shifted slightly, unconsciously rearranging themselves to welcome the addition of a third person.

"You two are from the same block?" Mike asked.

"Orientation week," Joseph confirmed. "First day. He looked lost, and I knew where the canteen was."

"I wasn’t lost," Kyle said. "I was reconsidering my route."

"He was lost," Joseph said to Mike.

"I believe you," Mike said to Joseph.

"See," Joseph said.

"I don’t need this," Kyle said, though the corner of his mouth was going.

They talked for a while about the campus—the faculty, the library system, and the various topics new students typically discussed during the first weeks. This was a time when everyone was mapping their surroundings and figuring out who was worth getting to know.

Mike asked more questions than he spoke, which was his usual approach with new people. Both Kyle and Joseph fell into the rhythm of conversation without realizing they were sharing considerably more information than Mike was.

"Are you studying international economics?" Joseph asked.

"Trade infrastructure specifically," Mike said.

"What does that actually mean?"

"It means I spend a lot of time thinking about why goods move the way they do," Mike said, "and who decides when they stop."

"Sounds like logistics," Joseph said.

"Logistics is the how," Mike said. "I’m more interested in the why and the who."

"And that takes two years to study."

"The easy part takes two years," Mike said. "The rest takes longer."

Joseph considered this with an expression that indicated he respected the difficulty of the task, but did not particularly want to undertake it himself. "Good luck with that," he said, genuinely.

"What about you?" Mike said. "Business program with a football captaincy. What’s the plan after?"

"Management," Joseph said. "Either a sports organization or something adjacent."

"I want to run something." He expressed his ambition directly, without the hesitation that many people show when they doubt whether others will respect their goals. "Not just play forever. I want to run things."

"That’s a clear picture," Mike said.

"My dad always said you should know where you’re going before deciding how to get there," Joseph said. "I thought it was annoying advice at sixteen, but turns out... that old man was right." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"It usually is," Mike said.

He looked at Kyle. "What about you? Economics into what?"

Kyle had the thoughtful expression of someone who had considered this question seriously and was still working through it. "Research, maybe," he said. "Or policy."

"Something where the work actually connects to how decisions get made." He paused. "I would rather not end up writing models that nobody outside academia reads."

"Most of them don’t," Mike said. "Outside academia."

"I know," Kyle said. "That’s why I want to do the other thing."

"What’s the other thing specifically?"

Kyle regarded him thoughtfully, not with defensiveness, but as if weighing how much to share about something he genuinely cared about.

"I want to make the research matter to those who can take action," he explained. "Policymakers, institutions—the people who actually make decisions."

"That requires access," Mike said.

"Yeah," Kyle said. "I’m working on what that looks like."

"Contacts matter more than papers in that world," Mike said. "Most of the time."

"I know," Kyle said. "I’m working on that too."

Mike nodded, genuinely agreeing with the observation. It was clear that Kyle Hudson was striving to create something authentic. His passion was evident in the way he spoke about his ambitions.

’Which makes the Madison situation more interesting,’ Mike thought. ’He’s got genuine ambition and genuine taste in women.’

’Both quietly managed...’

’These qualities are not visible from the outside unless one is paying attention.’

He filed it.

At one point, Mike looked across the quad at a group of women from another faculty passing through and said, with the easy observation of someone who found the world generally interesting, "This place has a remarkable distribution of attractive people."

Kyle laughed, a little surprised. "Bold."

"Just accurate," Mike said.

"Joseph’s your man for that," Kyle said. "He knows everyone."

"I know the football intake," Joseph said, "which has some overlap."

"And I am familiar with the business program, as well as most social aspects of District 3," he said without apology.

"You’ve been busy for one month," Mike said.

"I’m a social person," Joseph said. "I don’t see the point of being in a new city and not meeting it."

"Fair," Mike said. "What about the postgraduate cohorts? You know anyone in international economics?"

"Not yet," Joseph said. "But I know someone in the policy program and two people in finance."

He looked at Mike with an assessing expression, similar to that of someone who networks with intention rather than habit. "Are you looking to connect with anyone specific?"

"Just orienting," Mike said. "Getting a sense of who’s here."

"I can introduce you around if you like," Joseph said. "Saturday usually there’s a crowd at the social house near the sports block."

"There are mixed programs with some faculty members, which are good for meeting the general population."

"I might be busy Saturday," Mike said, which was true — he had plans at Maya and Marc’s place at seven. "But we can find another time."

"Anytime is fine for me," Joseph said, and meant it in the easy, open way of someone who kept a wide net and didn’t worry about holes in it.

Mike looked at Kyle. "You go to those things? The social house?"

"Sometimes," Kyle replied, his self-contained demeanor returning. It wasn’t defensive—just cautious. "It depends on what’s happening."

"He comes when I make him," Joseph said to Mike.

"He’s more of a—" He gestured vaguely.

"Private person," Kyle finished.

"I was going to say homebody," Joseph said, "but yours is more diplomatic."

"I’m not a homebody," Kyle said. "I just have specific things I’d rather be doing."

"Like what?" Mike said.

Kyle looked at him with the expression of someone who had just been asked a question they were going to answer honestly because the alternative was being evasive about something that shouldn’t require evasion.

"Mostly reading. Sometimes cooking. Talking to people I actually know."

"Quality over quantity," Mike said.

"Something like that," Kyle said.

"That’s not a bad approach," Mike said. "Most people mistake volume for richness."

Kyle looked at him with the slight recalibration that happened when someone said something you agreed with and hadn’t expected to. "Yeah," he said. "Exactly."

"He has a girlfriend," Joseph said to Mike, with the satisfied tone of someone who had found the explanation they were looking for.

’Fucking knew it...’