"What?"
"You ran," I repeated. "The drain works both ways, but only under specific conditions. Mutual giving. Neither person holding back, not even a little." I came around the desk and stood beside her, close enough that she had to tilt her head up to keep track of me. "You pulled away before the circuit could complete. Right at the edge of it."
Cheon turned in her seat to keep facing me, the movement deliberate, controlled, the kind of thing someone does when they refuse to let their back be exposed. "You're saying I needed to stay longer."
"I'm saying you needed to be present. Fully. No part of you already halfway out the door."
"That's ridiculous." The word came out clipped, precise, the academic register she reached for when something made her uncomfortable. "I was there. I didn't go anywhere."
