It was an awfully bright morning, Annisa and Jasmine decided. The morning sunlight stung their weary eyes so much, those two girls had to wear sunglasses on their way to their campus building. Annisa felt so stupid really. They were walking so fast, in order to avoid weird stares that was thrown at them. Finally, they took off their sunglasses when they arrived at the shady parking lot of their faculty area. Who knows not sleeping in 24 hours could make someone become this allergic to sunlight.

“I feel like turning into ashes.” Said Jasmine, sluggishly climbed up the stairs to their classroom, with Annisa following, looking as sluggish as her friend. The girl put her hand on her forehead to control the giddyness she felt.

“I want to skip class so bad.” Annisa said, she was panting the moment they reached second floor.

“Oh really??” Jasmine suddenly turned and threw a witty smile to her friend behind her, she stopped right in front of their clasroom’s door. “Aren’t you suppose to have so many energy for today’s class?”

Annisa frowned and went silent for quiet a moment to process the meaning of Jasmine’s words. Then when she did understand, she rolled her eyes while smiling. “Do I look like I have energy?” She asked her friend, pointing to the very much visible eyebag hanging under her eyes.  

“Well yeah, hearing your story from last night, you should have a lot of energy right now.” Jasmine continued while walking inside their clasroom, and greet their other classmates whose already arrived. Annisa just smiled when hearing Jasmine’s comment, and her smile widened when last night’s reminiscence smoothly passed inside her head.

Last night, Annisa and Chanyeol returned to the pool after Chanyeol bought himself and Annisa a cup of cappucino. They sat together in the pool’s sitting area and enjoy the cold near-dawn air. It was chilly, she could feel the wind whiffled on her face, but of course she didn’t mind.

Surprisingly, that night Annisa initiated most of their conversations. Well, even though it was mostly about their class’s subjects, gossips about their professors, or about Jasmine and Sehun, once or twice. But at least during the conversation Annisa longed to have, she finally knew how it feels to really talk to Chanyeol. First, she found out that Chanyeol was actually a guitar player and a drummer. That was why his research topic was about music and first impression. After that, while they were talking about Annisa’s birthmark, Chanyeol showed her a long scar that streched on the back of his body, just below his neck, Annisa asked why, and Chanyeol said it was an accident that happened when he was still a little kid. Even though Chanyeol didn’t mention a specific incident, Annisa chose not to ask more about it. But the funny thing is, during their conversation, Chanyeol’s native language still occasionally slipped out from his mouth. Something like, “Ah, arasseo” or, “Jeongmal?” Annisa thought it was extrimely cute.

Also, between the comfortable conversation they had, Annisa even got the chance to see Chanyeol smoked, watching whirlwinds of smoke escaped his mouth, followed by the burned smell which later encircled them. Other than that, Annisa liked it everytime Chanyeol raised his eyebrows when he heard something interesting, when he raised only one corner of his mouth while bearing those brilliant smile, or when he laughed he’d pull the end of his eyebrows down and made Annisa feels like she was the funniest girl he’d ever met. She would never get bored talking to him.  

In the end, Annisa realized that she had to go back when Jasmine called her, with a high tone Jasmine reminded her that she still had a report to finish. Chanyeol laughed at this. Annisa recalled he said, “Go now, your Mom is calling.” With a heavy heart Annisa left right away after the call. But before she left, Chanyeol said to her to keep believing in magic. Annisa didn’t know what that really meant but she said yes anyway. The sight of Chanyeol who started to open his laptop was the last thing Annisa saw before she returned to Jasmine’s room. Annisa flew on a cloud on her way back.

Of course after finishing her report, instead of sleeping the two bestfriend spent the rest of the night talking about Annisa’s unexpected encounter on the pool. Jasmine said she didn’t regret calling Annisa in the middle of her conversation with Chanyeol, because if she didn’t, she believed Annisa won’t return until morning came. Well, yeah, Jasmine might be right.

“Okay guys, I can see your eyebags, I’m happy because that means you’re working on the report.” Right after entering the class, the chubby Australian professor went straight to the point. His witty statement invited a stressful groan form his students. Mr. Walker just let out a little laugh hearing this.

“Alright guys. Since you’ve worked hard, please submit your report now.” Without waiting any longer, everybody started to stood up from their seat and walked towards the front table, including Annisa. She waited her friends in front of her to submit first. As Annisa was about to walk to Mr. Walker, someone suddenly stood beside her, causing their arms to brushed each other. Annisa automatically turned her head only to found a looming figure stood beside her, covered in black hoodie. But she knew right away it was Sehun, and he was alone. When submitting her report Annisa saw Sehun submitting two report to Mr. Walker.

“Chanyeol is absent today, Professor.” Sehun added, after receiving a confused look from his professor for submitting two report at once.  He walked away after Mr. Walker nodded. It seems that all class’s stare was directed at Sehun. No wonder, the guy walked inside the class with his head covered in hoodies, and he took the seat at the far end of the class. Annisa looked to the back where Sehun sat, almost all his face might be covered by the hoodie, but she could still see the corner of Sehun’s mouth, and there it was, a fresh bruise, purple and salient above his milky white skin. Annisa finally turned her eyes away from Sehun with a frown.

***

“Jas, did you get my email last night?” Adilla, one of Jasmine’s research group member showed up first to their quick group meeting that afternoon in the library. Adilla put her bag on the chair beside her before sitting next to Jasmine.

“Yeah yeah I got it.” Jasmine nodded while opening her laptop.

“So how was it?”

“The research was not really related to ours, but we can use the result to support our hypothesis.” Jasmine said, she could see Adilla smiled when she heard this.

“Phew, I thought you wouldn’t like it.”

“No, I like it, it’s good.” Jasmine answered.

“Afternoon, girls.” Kevin, the other member on their group just came. Behind him Sehun walked with a stone face as usual. That day Sehun didn’t wore a hoodie he had been wearing for the past two consecutive days, instead, that day he wore a gray polo shirt with a dark blue jeans. It’s been three days since Annisa told Jasmine that she saw a bruise on Sehun’s face, and even though the bruise had faded, she could still see the purple shades on the left corner of Sehun’s tiny mouth. 

But that wasn’t all. Chanyeol had also been absent for three days. Sehun didn’t say anything much, the only words that came out of his mouth about his bestfriend was, “He’s sick.” Period. Nothing more. The other classmates didn’t dare to ask more to the cold guy. There had been gossips of course, many people said Sehun and Chanyeol got into a big fight, and Chanyeol left their apartement. But nobody had confirmed that. Even Kevin, the guy who was always seen with both Chanyeol and Sehun didn’t know anything about Chanyeol’s whereabouts. Because of that, Annisa’s mood was as bleak as a dark cloud for these past two days. Well not only Annisa of course, the whole class could see Hee-Young’s mood was also bad for these past two days. 

“Did you guys wait for a long time?” Asked Kevin while he took a seat right in front of Jasmine, Sehun automatically followed by taking a seat next to Kevin.

“No, I just got here.” Adilla said.

“Okay, so . . . umm today we’ll just going to talk about the research design . . . right?” When asking this Kevin looked totally uncomfortable. He exchanged stare with Adilla a couple times. Realizing this, Jasmine sighed, she understood why both Kevin and Adilla talked like that, because the last time their group talked about research design, Sehun called Jasmine a neurotic perfectionist and Jasmine left in the middle of the discussion. After that both Sehun and Jasmine are in total silence within the presence of each other.

“Sure. Where were we last time?” Jasmine tried to look enthusiastic. And because of that, Kevin and Adilla startled, they seemed shocked bcause finally Jasmine was willing to open in the presence of Sehun. For a moment there Jasmine was looking at Sehun, and the platinum haired boy was looking at her too, his face might say nothing, but his stare somehow looked confused. Jasmine almost let out her contendent smile that said, “I can be professional, unlike you, stone-face.”

“Well . . . the last time Sehun suggested a field study, and you suggested a lab research.” Adilla added, furiously opened her notebook. She took note almost on every group discussion, so all the important arguments must be inside her tiny yellow note. “Both Sehun and Jasmine had quite a convincing arguments, but we haven’t decide which research design we’re going to take.” Adilla added.

Jasmine took a deep breath before she said this, “ Well I think we could take a vote. But since we’ve only got four people, if the result is 50:50, we’ll ask someone else to vote.” Even though right then Jasmine sounded so sure, in her head she was about to burst out because she still thought that her idea was the right one. But she remembered what Annisa said to her, if she didn’t pushed her ego down, her score would be a mess.

Both Kevin and Adilla give a shocked looked at each other, while Sehun fixed his stare right into Jasmine’s eyes, maybe that was his way of expressing his confusion, Jasmine concluded, because Sehun never talked so the girl assumed that Sehun must’ve talk using his ice-cold stares.

“Sehun, what do you think?” Kevin asked.

“Do whatever you like. You know which one’s better, right?” That was a long setence for someone like Oh Sehun to say. But that long sentence made Jasmine wanted to punch him right on the face.

“You sure? You don’t want us to just disscuss?” Adilla tried to make sure.

“Yeah, just do it.” Said Jasmine, leaning her back while crossing her arms, and she looked back at Sehun right on his dark brown iris.

Kevin shrugged, and nodded at Adilla. “Okay then, let’s get this over with. Whose agree with Sehun’s idea, please raise your hand.”

Jasmine kept her hand tight, not in a million year she’s going to raise her hand. But, apparently there are three people in front of her who just raised their hands. Jasmine could feel her heart sank. Kevin, and Adilla agreed more to Sehun’s idea. That means during all those fierce arguments between her and Sehun, Adilla and Kevin already thought that Sehun’s idea was better. They asked Jasmine for discussion just so they wont hurt Jasmine’s feeling.

“We’re sorry Jasmine, we thought Sehun’s idea is more suitable for these kind of research.” Kevin opened his mouth right away when he could see Jasmine’s expression getting darker bit by bit.

Again, Jasmine inhaled, closing her eyes for a split second and remembering what Annisa said to her about her score. Yes, she might lose now, but not later. The girl responded to Kevin’s statement by using a forced smile, and said, “Okay. That’s fine.” It wasn’t fine, of course.

After hearing that, it was the third time Kevin and Adilla showed a shocked face, but this time their face looked somehow relieved. Jasmine didn’t want to look at Sehun’s face or she’s going explode right there.

“We’re done, right? I have to go back immediately.” Within a speed of light, Jasmine grasped her bag, closed her laptop and was ready to go away.

“Y . . . yeah, sure.” Startled because of Jasmine’s quick and sudden action, Kevin and Adilla automatically stood up from their seat.

“Okay, see you guys next time.” With that, Jasmine walked away still with a forced smile hanging on her face. She tried to control her breathing as she stormed off on the library hall. She was about to pass the library’s main entrance when someone suddenly grabbed her right arm.

“What?!” Jasmine made a loud nose in response, she even startled herself. First, she looked at the big hand that encircled her arm, then she finally laid her eyes on it’s owner, it was none other than the stone-face guy she just met. She pulled her arm off Sehun’s hand right away. “What do you want?”

“Where’s you friend?” He asked, his low tone voice sounded serious. Well, he did always sound serious, but this time Jasmine sensed he wanted to say something important. There must be a reason for someone as ignorant and quiet as him  to chased Jasmine all this way.

“Which friend?”

“The one whose always with you.” He said, putting one of his hand on his pocket. With Sehun standing right in front of her Jasmine just realized this guy is tall and intimidating.

“Icha? Why?” Questions automatically popped up inside Jasmine’s head. She’s trying to figure out why did Sehun was asking about Annisa.

“Chanyeol’s looking for her.”

***

Below the murky night heaven, a guy stood still. He stood on the edge of the tallest building he could find and outdared the blowing wind that strucked him, looking to the city that sparked right beneath him. There was bruises all over his face, some still fresh, red and eminent, some already stayed for more than a day, darken into the color of dark purple. On the corner of his mouth there was a trace of clotted blood, a sign that couple hours ago fresh blood had trickled down from there. But there was no trace of weariness on his stiff face despite the long and exhausting fight he just had. Anger still burned beneath his roaring red eyes that was looking down.  

He could feel the numbness on every inch of his body, he was one hundred percent convinced that beneath his shredded sweater, there will be more bruises and clotted blood. He just had no time to pay more attention to it now. He was looking for something even more important than all the scars on his body or even himself, something that he had fought for these grueling two days.

All of his senses are wide awake, right then he was like a spider web, he’ll tingle even from the tiniest stimulation. Despite the place where he stood, he could hear what the people were saying inside the car beneath him, he could see what people held in their hand, he could smell the aroma of the street food far below, but there was one peculiar odor, lingers, detected by his sharp senses. Though the smell was so faint, it was different, he recognized it right away for the scent didn't belong to any human being. The guy directed his eyes to where the aroma came from. His stare clashed with something.

There it was. A hooded figure right in front of him. A smile of contentment flared upon his face, he wont finish until he got this one. There was an excitement inside his chest, he liked it when adrenaline rushed under his skin, run within the flow of his blood. With the tension raising he felt a hot flare inside the tips of his fingers, wich later turned into a burning fire.

He is indeed a hunter.

Hunter, with a power of fire.

(to be continued)

Writer's Note 

Sorry for the short chapter, do enjoy! :D