João shrugged at Louisa, although he wished she didn't go to talk. Aspen... wasn't being Aspen. Well, she was. But something was off. Or maybe something was excess, like when she laughed at him. All in all, Louisa was gone. It would be interesting to watch, actually. Or would have been, if Aspen Odessa hadn't cowered to answer him truthfully.

Only, he couldn't hear them so well there over the noise of the hall.

He wondered why Louisa wouldn't just turn back as soon as she was finished. He was tired after all the fight, he was wet, and he was humiliated. He just wanted to go back to his dorm. But he stuck around and waited for Louisa. For some reason, he was very tense about this and just couldn't leave. He could feel something would happen.

And it happened alright. Apparently, Aspen deemed it was okay to hex Louisa too, because that was exactly what Louisa yelled after 'losing it'. He closed his eyes for a moment and wished fiercely this was a dream. He rarely wished, so maybe it would come true... but it didn't. Louisa's kicking sound was there. He figured it was time to intervene, or else, it would end uglier than it already was. He took a few steps towards them but Louisa was already making her last speech... or sentence. Now that he was closer, he could hear it well and wanted laugh madly. It was childish, funny and meant nothing to Aspen. But he didn't. Because it was rude and because he was too tired to laugh. Instead, he bent down to look at Aspen as if he pitied her.

"Disappointment," he muttered as loud as she could hear, still at a funny angle. He didn't know whether it would have an effect on her, but that was how he thought of her right now and he wanted her to know that as the last thing she would get from him. After holding her gaze another second, he simply turned around and followed Louisa.

Thus, Odessa won her stupid challenges. He was going to play no more.