“So how long do you think you’re going to sleep?” A voice startled her awake the next morning. She pulled herself up into a sitting position, mind still hazy and drowsy with sleep. 

“Huh?” She managed, her own voice hoarse from the night. As her mind cleared, a couple of things became apparent to her. 

One, she was on the futon still and her back was now paying for that decision last night. 

Two, the voice in question was her roommate, looking sleek in her leather jacket and long black hair, leaning against one of her bedposts.

And the final, most confusing thing was that her bed was made and no trace of the boy could be seen from the previous night. She blinked a couple of times, clearing her vision, thinking it might be her still hazy mind playing tricks on her. She squinted in confusion when she realized that it wasn’t a trick of the mind. He really wasn’t there.

“Were you so tired you couldn’t even collapse on your own bed? You should really take it easy with the studying you know, you’ve even missed your first class today –” At those words, she bolted past her roommate, staring at the alarm clock on her nightstand. It had been turned off, signaling that someone had disabled it when her alarm for her 9 AM class had gone off. 

“How— Where—I need to go.” She rambled, her thoughts racing and nothing quite making sense other than the fact that it was now almost 1 in the afternoon and she had class at 2. She wobbled around the room, feeling a little sore and off balance from standing up so quickly.

Her roommate was immediately next to her, holding onto her arm before she went down. “Hang in there, man. Don’t move so quickly, you’ll get sick and then we’ll really have a problem.” She nodded, her roommate was right. She needed to take it easy, she was out of it and the amount of questions whirring in her brain weren’t helping. The overzealous amount of hours she’d been putting into the library rather than getting some must needed rest had done a number on her as well. 

Her roommate gently gripped her other arm, pulling her to face her. She blinked at her roommate. 

“Deep breath, you’ll get to Dr. Yoo’s class on time. Let me help you get ready. Go put yourself together and I’ll get your clothes.” 

She stumbled her way through the door, noticing that his shoes were indeed gone from next to her own boots before making her way to the bathroom. She squinted in the blast of artificial light in her vision, fumbling for her brush and basics of her makeup. 

If she hadn’t double-checked, she would’ve made a grave mistake when it came to her contact solution to relieve her aching eyes. She looked down at the bottle currently in her hands, reading the label. 

Disinfectant Solution. The first aid kit was still out, and stood as a reminder of the strange boy from last night. Who couldn’t read, if she remembered correctly. She frowned down at the bottle, removing her contacts and going about her routine, pulling her hair back into a bun and creating a face that looked like she had a social life and still got good grades and at least nine hours of sleep. 

As the saying goes, look put together even if you’re falling apart on the inside. She sighed, pushing her glasses up her nose before hurrying back into the room, checking her alarm clock. 1:15. She silently thanked that she had mastered putting on her usual makeup in a short amount of time. It came in handy a lot more often than you’d expect it to.

Her roommate shoved her selection of clothes at her, smiling. “I thought you’d put your glasses on today – I did good.” Of course you did, she wanted to retort. Her roommate was a Fashion Industries and Design major, she has to know what looks good and expect the choices people make with their looks. 

“Thank you.” She said instead, hurrying into the garments while keeping an eye on the clock by her bed. The campus was only a short walk away, but she needed to hurry if she was going to get her spot in class. 

1:32 and she was ready to go, coffee thermos in one hand and slinging her book bag over one of her shoulders, calling a farewell as she left the apartment, all thoughts of the boy, the disinfectant, and a missing piece of technology she had yet to realize was actually missing in the furthest corner of her mind. 

11:05 pm. It had been a long day of classes, and there she was, same as last night, hunched over her textbooks and notes. She pushed her glasses up her nose once more, looking at the wall clock across the room. She had locked herself up in the library once again after classes, wanting to finish her last minute assignments and a head start on her final papers before her exams came around. The previous late night and all around exhaustion was starting to wear down at her, and she was wondering just how comfortable her book would be if she just laid her head down for a few minutes –

Thump. 

Her head jolted up, her eyes wide and mind alert, the memories from last night reeling at the familiar sound. All she found though was a fairly annoyed group of girls that she had come to know as her roommates looking down at her.

“I knew we’d find her here.” Her actual roommate sighed, slipping her long hair over her shoulder. Her two other apartment mates, one blonde and another with exceptionally dyed blue hair nodded in unison. 

Her roommate turned her attention back to her. “Why didn’t you answer your phone? We’ve been worried sick!”

“My… phone?” She asked slowly, blinking. Reaching down to her pocket, she attempted to pull out her cell phone. It wasn’t there. Her brow furrowed, shifting to look in her bag. 

Still no phone. 

“Did you lose it?” One of them asked, and she had to sit and rewind her day and previous evening… And then it hit her. She had left it, light on, in that alleyway when trying to get that boy out of there. She sighed. She couldn’t very well explain that to her roommates, now could she?

“I guess so.” She shook her head, “Sorry. I didn’t realize it was missing.” 

Their response was a small round of sighs and hushed whispers about how she needed more rest and shouldn’t be holed up in the library so much. Her roommate was the first to say something directly to her. “Come home. I’ll drive you to get a replacement tomorrow, it’s Friday after all.”

Was it? She tilted her head, rewinding her week in her head. “So it is.” She admitted, surprised she could’ve forgotten the day of the week. Maybe her roommates were right, she should get some more rest this weekend. Papers could wait a mere two days, right? She gathered her things, following her roommates along the way home, listening to them chattering about this and that, plans, parties, and occasionally adding in her own thoughts and promises of getting rest this weekend. She didn’t want to bother them. 

She had gotten distracted when passing the alleyway, squinting to find any trace that her phone might still be down there, but the battery probably had long run out and it was more than likely that another street rat had come along and pocketed it, hoping to get some cash for it at a pawn shop. She snorted to herself. She hoped they liked her barrage of k-pop and acapella Christmas songs. 

“Hey… Do you know what this is?” She was shaken from her thoughts, her roommate looking over at her, piece of paper in hand. “It was taped to our door.” She took the paper, taking in the sheer detail and intricacy of the drawing she saw.

It was the bottle of disinfectant, and a hand. Upon closer inspection, she recognized her college’s ring and the hem of her sweater. It was her hand. “Hm. No idea.” She shrugged, her eyes never leaving the page. She gave a small smile as her roommates chattered again, confused on why there was such a strange drawing on their door. 

But she knew… It was a stranger saying thanks. She tucked the paper into her pocket, thinking it would be the last memento of the strange young boy from the alleyway she’d ever get.

By the time Monday rolled around, she felt much better and relieved that her parent’s insurance mostly covered her phone loss. She still had to pay a pretty penny for the new phone model, but she had one and could contact everyone again, much to her roommate’s relief. The dark circles under her eyes had visibly lightened, which was definitely a plus. 

Maybe Mondays weren’t so bad, she had thought when she got up that morning, turning her alarm off and getting ready for her classes. She even put in a little extra effort to look nice, her long sleeved romper and leather jacket complimenting her body and her heels. Her roommate walked in, whistling at her.

“Well, damn. Looking good for a Monday! What’s the special occasion?” She asked her, settling into her desk chair and spinning to face her. She shrugged, fixing her hair in the mirror before picking up her bag.

“Just feeling good today. It’s going to be a good day.” She stated, before pocketing her glasses as well, remembering that sometimes in the late evening, her contacts make her eyes hurt and it’s better to be prepared than struggle with her vision when walking back to the apartment. 

“I hope you have a good day, it’d be a shame to look so good and have it ruined.” Her roommate waved, turning on her laptop and plugging in earphones. She nodded and set out to campus, feeling good and sure about herself and the day ahead. If her Monday was good, that could only mean the week would be just as good, if not better, she reasoned. As she settled down into her first class of the day, she could only hope it would follow her gut feeling.

It had been a good day so far in her opinion. In her first lecture her professor let them leave a whole twenty minutes early, which had doubled her usual lunchtime on Mondays. She smiled as she slid into her next class, taking her usual seat by the window. She only had this and then her vocal lesson, and she’d be done for the day. Mondays weren’t so bad after all, she had decided.

Lecture had started, her professor handing out the printed power point before going about her lesson. She crossed her legs, scribbling down her notes in the margins and underlining important bits that her professor had emphasized. If she discussed them in lecture, chances were they’d be on the final exam and she wasn’t about to chance her grade by even a sliver. 

As lecture droned on, however, she found herself getting bored, having read the chapter before class, and she realized that she was able to follow and figure out the more important parts of the lecture before her professor had brought them up. So ever so slowly, she found herself drifting off into a daydream realm, casually writing tidbits as she --

Thump.

At first, she feigned ignorance, assuming it was her imagination and attempted to follow deeper into the depths of her mind.

Thump.

She jolted a bit this time, her mind alerting her that it wasn’t just her subconscious playing with her, and after finding that her professor wasn’t luring over her in an intimidating manner (as intimidating as a 4’11 Taiwanese woman could be – which was actually quite intimidating) she turned to find the sound. All of her classmates were bent over their notebooks, furiously scribbling while looking in-between the chalkboard and PowerPoint presentation back to their writings. Her brow furrowed, glossing over the window --

Thump. Thump.

The window, she saw the rock hit it that time. She leaned forward to see who was the culprit. Her eyes widened, seeing a figure with a worn out flannel and an oversized jacket that was all too familiar to her dreams.

It was the boy from that night. She stifled a small gasp, settling for a small intake of breath as she assessed the situation. She hadn’t expected to see him again, not after the picture left on her doorstep. She had thought that was his thank you and goodbye, and hadn’t given him much thought. He had shown up a couple of times in her dreams, sure, but only because a meeting like that is one that she couldn’t easily forget. 

Thump.

She redirected her attention from her thoughts back down to the quad where the boy stood, pebbles in hand and waving animatedly at her. She tilted her head, a quiet way to let him know that he had her attention so she wouldn’t get in trouble by her professor. He gestured towards him. 

He wanted her to come to him. She shook her head quickly, turning her head back towards the professor. She had helped him but she hardly would consider them friends, after all they hadn’t even exchanged names. Hardly even acquaintances, she reasoned. 

Thump Thump Thump THUMP.

Startling her and a few students around her by throwing particularly hard with the pebble, she glared out the window, only to tense up as her professor came over to see what was the matter.

“Do you know who that is?” The woman asked, turning to her. She swallowed. “My brother’s friend. I don’t know why he’s here.” She quickly lied, shaking her head. Her professor pursed her lips, looking down where the boy was winding up to throw another pebble.

“Please go and see what’s the matter before he breaks the window and does more than disrupt my class, if you please.” She dismissed her, and she felt her cheeks burn as she gathered her bag and left, stumbling down the steps in the building and out the large double doors that led to the quad. He seemed pleased until he caught the annoyed expression that she was sure was apparent on her face.

“What do you want? Why are you even here? Do you even know how–“ She was cut off by the boy grabbing her wrist, pulling her away from campus. 

“Stop! Stop that!” she protested, yanking her wrist from him. He turned to her, lifting an eyebrow. She scowled. 

“I’m not going anywhere with you. What do you want?” He didn’t respond. “Answer me!” She demanded, crossing her arms so he couldn’t grab her again. 

He shook his head, “We don’t have time, come on –”

“What do you mean we don’t have time?” She pressed, adjusting her bag. He scowled this time, not hesitating to grab her elbow and tug her along again, towards the back way off campus this time. 

“Don’t have time. I’ll explain once we’re safe.” He insisted, tugging more as he picked up his pace. 

“How are we not safe—” She was answered by two gunshots firing back from the quad. He turned to her, pausing.

“What the hell was that—” She shrieked, before he grabbed her by the arms and made her face him.

“Run with me. Now.” 

Second chapter up! Hope that everyone's enjoyed the first one -- I didn't add an author's note then bc I was excited about this. What do you think so far? What do you think our female lead will decide? Subscribe, recommend, comment, all of the usual things that makes me smile! Hehe, Happy Reading and have a Happy Wednesday (or Thursday, depending on where you are!)
~Rye / Smile