As Kyle denounces his younger self as a jerk, Wilhelm shakes his head with a chuckle. He tries to imagine a teenage Kyle as his classmate and wonders if they would have gotten along. Hillerska was full of egos jostling against each other, but Wilhelm had learned the exhausting art of getting along with people you don't necessarily like, of laughing with someone at a party even if nothing they say is especially funny.

Of course, his posh boarding school must be a very different world from what Kyle describes. It sounds like some kind of military academy. In answer to his question, he nods.

"I didn't want to go there at all at first, but...it grew on me. I met some good friends there."

Wistfulness creeps into his voice, bitter and sweet.

"The actual school part was okay. It was just math, literature, history, all of that." A pause, in which he peels his blade of grass apart down the center. "Is it weird that sometimes I miss just...going to class?"