The afternoon was as scorching as it could get. The sun's rays were blindingly golden. And maybe if I weren't so immersed in my internal matters, I would've had the chance to admire the scenery of such a compelling time of day.

We, Sojin and I, were stalled by my question at the mouth of the Administration Building. It felt gratifying that, while I waited for her answer, nobody had the fascination of passing by, which left us completely undisturbed.

Sojin. What a pit of mysteries she was. Seriously? The Head Principal? So was that why he had ordered me to leave his office the last time? Because his conversation with Sojin involved personal matters? But wasn't that being unprofessional? Heck, wasn't he too old for her? How old was he anyway?

And then there's the more disturbing one: Jongdae. Even if Sojin said she had only liked him as a potential friend, it wasn't particularly reassuring. And when was that exactly? Dang, I couldn't believe I'd come to a point where I'd be wary of my friends becoming competition. I hated the very thought.

At last Sojin decided to address my query. She began with a small smile. "It's a little complicated but I'll try, okay? Be patient though."

Patience in exchange for her effort to explain? Then she really had no idea what I was willing to give up for even a glimpse of the elusive mystery that she was. I couldn't get any happier that she'd try. For me.

I squeezed her hand in a gentle attempt of beckoning. "Let's walk?"

But her smile morphed to a frown. "We're supposed to be studying, Luhan."

No. "Uh, yes." No. "You're right." But I really wanted to know. And yet I couldn't afford to be selfish and irresponsible either.

"Luhan."

I could be imagining it but the way my name escaped through her lips seemed a little different. It sounded.. special.

I felt special.

"We'll get our texts, settle somewhere other than the library and then.." A flicker of uncertainty momentarily darkened her face, but she opted to brush it off. She really was trying. It made my heart swell with mirth. "And then I can talk, deal?"

It was more than I could ask for. I beamed. "Deal."

"I've never shared this place with anyone," Sojin explained when we'd collected our notes and she was leading me out the campus and heading for a path I had never ventured into. "So don't go off telling people about it, alright?"

As soon as my eyes landed on the 'place,' it was understandable why she had never shared it with anyone. But I also figured there was no need to fret over having it discovered. Because unless people held an equally retarded mental disposition, they were bound to shun this place.

I dilly-dallied a few steps behind. "Sojin..?"

"Yes?" She looked back, startled by our distance. "Oh, sorry, was I walking too fast?"

"N-no but.." I gazed beyond her to behold the magnificent setting sun. It was deceitfully inviting. But it didn't change the fact that the cottage she was clearly headed for was dangerously positioned by the lip of a sharp cliff! I would die the second I got any closer, I was so sure of it.

"Luhan, it's a cottage," Sojin sighed, hopping back towards me.

"I know." There was no way I was going there. "It's a cottage at the edge of a cliff though, in case you haven't noticed. And in danger of falling off."

"It's not gonna fall off." She took my hand. "For your information, that hut's at least five meters away from the edge."

"Five meters!" I resisted the soft tug she exerted upon my hand. "How alleviating, Sojin."

"What is it with you and high open spaces?" She grinned.

"The same thing that's going on with you and confinement."

She seemed to have grasped the notion as her teasing grin evolved into a sour grimace. "Right. But this is the only place I go to for studying." She sighed. "Aw, man."

I considered a compromise. "We can squat there," I offered, pointing to a grassy clearing a safe distance away.

She surveyed the area I was referring to and for a second I thought she didn't approve of it, until she asked, "Is that okay with you?"

She was such a worrier for other people, wasn't she? "Yeah, sure."

And as long as my back remains facing the ominous descent, I added mentally.

I learned that Sojin and I were at par even in our training progress - we had both finished mastering the indicated coverage. So for two straight hours, we focused on advance topics.

This was where our school stood at an unparalleled advantage; we studied way beyond the given coverage. This year we were tasked by our trainer to include Accounting and Finance, which were a royal pain. As if it weren't enough that we were pushed beyond sanity with all the imaginary notions in College Mathematics.

I was racking my brain for an alternate solution to arrive at the cost of capital without the necessary values readily stated when Sojin spoke.

"What?" I raised my eyes to meet hers.

"I said look over."

I didn't think. I just complied, which I would have regretted considering the altitude I was bound to see if not for the awe associated with gawking at the metropolitan twilight.

Over the cliff was a mixture of natural colors. The creamy sky above melded perfectly with the glaring lights from the lively city below. It was very unearthly, the view. The kind that blew you away and fleetingly sent you to a realm you had never before been. Like plunging into a classic painting - only better.

"See?"

I jerked. Sojin had scooted beside me, her grinning lips matching her lazy eyes. She looked so free. She felt free. It was very contagious.

"It's not so bad," she added.

"It's still.. so dangerous."

"It's good dangerous." She rolled her eyes, producing a sheet of paper from behind her. "Let's compare answers before the light completely disappears?"

Right. I hadn't noticed our illumination dim. "I'm not done with the last item, though," I admitted as I hauled out my notebook. I had decided to record my answers in a springed set of papers after I had lost a total ream of solutions and computations days before the mock. It was a pitiful waste.

"That's okay," Sojin smiled. "I skipped four, nineteen and twenty, actually. I'm going crazy over the proving. Who proves of a set of countable infinite? How can infinity be counted? How can you count infinite?" She laughed. "Unless we're counting, like, INFINITE infinite. Hey, d'you know them? Really cool dudes. Su