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Rain.
Jiseol's steps came to a halt when she saw the first few raindrops leave their fading mark on the concrete pavement. She bit back a groan, peeling off her headphones to listen for any sounds that could hint that the rain wasn't going to be friendly. At the first grumble of thunder, the hand holding her umbrella dropped to her side, now deemed useless.
It was a half an hour past midnight and there weren't many people left in the library, not that there were many in the first place. Most of the students preferred to spend their study week at home—if they even did any studying, that was. Jiseol was the same, preferring her own desk and the comfort of studying in her pyjamas, but tonight she made a run for the library because one of her neighbors had been screaming at her husband for frying an egg with the shell on.
A contraction of cramps in her lower body had her clutching herself; aside from not wanting the risk of getting struck by lightning or getting drenched, Jiseol was at a physical limitation to get the bus home. Getting a taxi as a lone passenger was honestly a potential horror story but she was at her wit's end on how to get home safe and sound. She then looked around the library patio and saw another guy leaning against the pillar, simply staring up at the sky. Initially curious, a sense of warmth then encompassed her when she realized that it was her very own roommate. Just her luck—it was a scene written right out of a movie.
For a brief moment, she was stunned by Donghyuck. He wasn't looking all classy in a suit like he did during the masquerade ball, in fact he looked like he just threw on whatever he saw; black sweats, white shirt, black leather jacket and a faded grey cap. The yellow light of the patio illuminated his beautiful tan face with a golden glow and it was crazy to Jiseol that someone could look that good at such an odd hour of the day. What she didn't understand was why his beautiful face seemed so crestfallen, so far away.
Donghyuck had been acting different the past week and Jiseol didn't know how to go about it. He had been very quiet and strangely calm. He never picked fights with her, no dirty jokes or complaints that she was hogging the TV with her scary shows. Sometimes he would barely notice that she was in the same room. Jiseol was so concerned about his change of behavior that she even started a mini fire in the kitchen where she was forbidden to get him riled up, to get any sort of emotion out of him really, but his only response was to put the fire out and tell her to be more careful.
"Donghyuck," Jiseol approached him. He didn't hear her the first time and it took three tries for him to finally snap towards her.
"Oh, hey." Donghyuck greeted her plainly. It felt like a dagger to the chest. What happened to the Donghyuck that would make kissy faces at her when she called?
"I didn't know you were at the library tonight." Jiseol commented, finding it weird that she didn't bump into him at all the whole evening.
"One of the kids on the floor above us was throwing a tantrum. Apparently as a response, the dad started throwing a tantrum too. And it made me want to throw a tantrum, but I've got to delay it because my Third World Politics paper is more important," Donghyuck rolled his eyes.
