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"Why is it so cold?"
I curse in puffs of condensation with every step. I have adopted a brisk gait that gets me places faster without the requirement of running. But it doesn't work as effectively when your body is stiff with cold and deprived of adequate sleep.
The world is blurry as I blink out tears that have nothing to do with the dulcet vocals of a Korean soundtrack singer in my ears, singing about a painful love. I continue to curse as my teeth clatter together and I slowly lose all feeling in my fingers, despite being tucked away into the warm sleeves of my university hoodie.
"Aish, I should've brought gloves. Ah, seriously!"
The man walking in front of me flicks a glance over his shoulder at me, frowning at my stupidity. Or perhaps he is just wondering what the person uttering nonsense looks like.
I disappear further into the folds of my hood, shrinking away from the holes like a tortoise in its shell.
There. Now no one can see me. But why am I still cold?!
The library engulfs me in a temperate, centrally heated embrace and I emit a sigh as I regain circulation in my extremities. I still have time before class, so I plop my bag onto the deliciously empty wooden table and take a moment to soak in the warmth while my eyes wander.
There's no one here! my mind squeals gleefully. I then crinkle my nose, silently berating my mind for squealing. We are better than this, Aria.
I decide to sit down and open my laptop, lazily scrolling through twitter but not registering anything. These spare minutes before a class are always tedious and wasteful, yet they fill me with such happiness.
They are my last few minutes alone, before I must face the frivolous babble of the classroom, or rather, the class mates that I neither know nor care to know.
Ah, I'm so lazy I can't even be bothered to socialize anymore.
Was it laziness, though? Or rather, a survival tactic?
Someone has entered the library. Someone with a skip in their step, but the kind of skip that is softened by a gentle swagger.
You can tell a lot about the way someone walks.
With only two minutes left of solitude, I fix my curious gaze on this newcomer. He seems to be aimlessly wandering between the shelves, every so often picking up a book, flicking through it, then shrugging as he carelessly shoves it back. He carries himself like he has all the time in the world, but behaves as if he is on a tight schedule construed by an empty inner monologue. His clothing hangs loose on his body, his face is obscured by a hood as well as a caramel brown fringe, and would you look at that! His shoelaces are untied.
He is a loner, just like me.
It's as if he can hear me, for in that moment he turns around, and through the staggered lineup of books on the shelve, we make eye contact.
Don't make eye contact, Aria, remember?
I'm the first to look away as I clumsily stuff my laptop into my backpack and sling it over my shoulder, heading for the automatic glass doors. I always feel a jolt of adrenaline once they slide open for me, like I have the power to move them with my mind alone. I slip into class right on the dot, my heart fluttering as it always does whenever I make an entrance.
My heart flutters further when I see a familiar hooded figure stroll past outside the door, his shoelaces slapping the linoleum rhythmically as he hums a familiar tune.
Where have I heard that song before?
It doesn't hit me until after that particular class ends that he was in fact humming the melody of the same Korean soundtrack song I was listening to on the way to school.
Freaky.
【★】
MC's name is Aria haha like Aria from Pretty Little Liars
