Prologue

"Are you gonna jump?" L asked, staring at the person standing on the ledge of a 15-storey apartment. L thought that this day will just be the same it has always been. Quiet and peaceful. He thought he is going to spend his Sunday afternoon lying on the hard ground of the rooftop, his sunglasses perched in his nose, sleeping.

For all the things that L has, for all the things that he gets whenever he wants to, sleep is the most evasive of all.

Instead of his normal routine of walking into the rooftop and lying on the ground, catching the most needed sleep, he walked into a girl standing on the ledge. He has yet to see the girl's face. All he knows is that the girl looked fragile, vulnerable, standing with her back at him. Her hands are clenched into a tight fist, her knuckles turning white.

The girl turned her head a bit on the side upon hearing his voice. L didn't fully see her face, but he could see the gentle outline of her tall nose and pouty lips. "What if I do?" the girl answered with a soft voice but with all seriousness. L contemplated his answer. Honestly, he doesn't care if the girl jumped or not. He's a selfish, arrogant, and a cocky bastard, so he doesn't really care about other people, at all.

And he wouldn't start now.

"Well if you do, give me a few minutes so I can leave you alone. Don't want to get questioned by the authorities about some girl who jumped off in the rooftop where I was." Putting his hands on the pocket of his expensive jeans, L waited for the girl to answer. He never gotten an answer. He got a laugh instead.

A seriously beautiful laugh that shouldn't have done anything inside him.

"I do plan to jump. But not right now."

"Then I'll go do what I always do here. Just be quiet, will you?"

L didn't have to ask. The girl didn't say another word, nor made even the smallest noise.

Yep. Still there. He checked. Twice. Within ten minutes.

Which is quite unusual of him. He never pays attention to other people twice. Actually, he doesn't give attention to people with no significance whatsoever in his life.

L should have realized at that moment that something has changed. That he's no longer the selfish bastard that he always is. The encounter was weird. And might be classified as something just a little bit out of the ordinary from his mundane life. But he didn't recognize it because at that time, he is still the most selfish, arrogant, and cocky bastard he always was.