yessss! i'm thinking she probably only took ancient runes because a friend wanted a study buddy. it was definitely not in her usual wheelhouse, but she was a hardworking student and would've passed with flying colors, turned in excellent essays, etc. if he was a challenging professor, i think that actually would've encouraged her instead of made her balk because she loves a challenge, which is how she got into doing all that darker stuff with her boyfriend anyway because it was harder than most of what she was learning at school! i think once the rumor mill started, there definitely would've been a few rumors circulating that her boyfriend was the one who was actually behind it because he was so Bad Vibes and she was the sunshine one, but she refused to ever name him as being a part of it and completely took the fall. HOWEVS, i could totally see her writing to tove to thank him for at least trying to stand up for her character and the letter turn into a rambling mess of "i thought he loved me!!!! and i guess he didn't!!!??? and i don't even know if we're officially broken up!! and he won't write me back!! and i did all this for him!!!" because, you know, seventeen and panicked. so the boy definitely would've been on tove's radar at that point!