But slowly, Jesper forgets any negative feelings towards Wylan Van Eck and is instead enchanted by the polo and vest combo he wears religiously and how he balances precariously atop a stool cross-legged while he paints. How the cuffs of his sleeves have paint stains because he refuses to roll them up. And the way, even when he's moving, he has a calculating stillness that draws Jesper in as if he is watching the other play a game of chess.

Wylan, on the other hand, falls for the way Jesper manages to look just as shocked as him when he says something ridiculous, how he trips and knocks over everything, and how he always finds a way to never wear the same outfit twice. Jesper throws himself into any challenge in front of him with an unwavering confidence in the unknown, disregarding any caution and need for forethought, something Wylan could only envy.

Every day, the two boys come to school and wait through their classes, go to the art room and pretend not to feel some force tying them together, and leave only to wait to come to the art room again the next day.

Jesper tells Wylan of his dropping grades because he feels that there is an engine inside him that won't stop running, and when he sits in class, or maybe even stands idly, he just can't stop this feeling of going, going, going. The only time he felt truly in comfort with himself was when he was running from some kind of danger with Inej and Kaz.

In response, Wylan talks about the pressure on him to get good grades from his father after dropping out of a prestigious private school only a couple of months before his mother died. And how, although he can solve practically any math equation in front of him and complete college-level science labs without blinking an eye, he will never be successful because he can't write a single essay, read a single test question, or complete any of his father's endless tests.

Although completely different people, they fall in love because they share the same feeling of having been made for a different world, and had instead been placed in this one.