Downer
Corey was concerned for Argo and Harmony and hoped their situation worked out as best possible. But he had something much cheerier to look forward to after dinner. Irina had snagged him an English translation edition of a magazine that had an interview with Kseniya.

Personal information about Kseniya Simonova was hard to come by. Corey knew that she was a former model, that she'd only been working with sand art for little more than a year before the touching and beautiful performance that made her famous, and that she'd donated all the prize money to a good cause. He can always stand to know more about her causes, and her work, and maybe there'll be more pictures -- classy pictures, Kseniya didn't do salacious stuff. She was an artist -- so he can try sculpting her properly.

Corey's never pretended not to be a boy infatuated.

It's a good article, talking about her degree in psychology, her avoidance of urban life, her causes, her concern about not getting to talk enough about said causes on television -- Corey finds it infuriating that they won't let her talk more --

And then he comes across a phrase he wasn't expecting. 'Kseniya and her gallery-owner husband.'

Husband.

It had only ever really been a joke, of course. 'Saving himself for Kseniya Simonova.' Of course it had. Of course any rational person knew that he had little chance of meeting her for any length of time and that she was several years older than he. It had only been a joke, explaining his perfectly legitimate lack of interest in pursuing girls right now in terms of his adoration of Kseniya. It wasn't really any more purely-speculative an infatuation now than it had been before.

But...

When it came absolutely down to it, Corey wasn't always a rational person. And he'll just curl up sadly in his room.