Chapter 26
It was a place she’d impulsively gone to in order to avoid some tick-like man whose name she didn’t even know.
On top of that, the shooting club members seemed to have a certain pride in their group. Exactly the kind of gathering Anita disliked. People like that usually loved policing and pecking at those within their circle.
She had only planned to attend a meeting where the members were so lax they could forget it existed, just enough to keep up appearances…
Anita bit her lip in regret. She should have snatched the application form back the moment it landed in Richet’s hands. If she had swallowed her embarrassment just once and withdrawn her decision, she’d be feeling much more at ease right now.
But the milk had already been spilled, and it was too late to change her mind.
In that sense, the rain was a relief.
Members obsessed with propriety weren’t likely to hold a gathering in the mud on a rainy day.
“Oh, damn. Just kill me instead.”
A somewhat overdramatic whimper reached her ears. Anita glanced over and quickly understood the situation—it looked like an exam date had been set in the near future.
An exam.
Could there be a better excuse to skip the meeting?
She’d already finished all the studying she needed, so no extra preparation was necessary, but it would still make a great excuse.
To attend her anatomy lecture, she needed to head over to the next building. Hugging a thick book to her side, Anita walked toward the entrance.
The entrance doors were wide open. The closer she got, the damper the floor became, probably because rainwater had blown in. Water splashed under her heels with every step, and she felt an unpleasant chill.
Raindrops came flying in at a slant. Anita took a step back. If only they had connected the buildings during construction.
Out on the lawn beyond the entrance, students were running and cursing in the rain. Anita had no intention of covering her head with a jacket or book and sprinting across like they did. She’d rather skip the lecture altogether.
“Anita.”
“…?”
She’d been looking far ahead and hadn’t noticed what was right in front of her. At the sound of her name, she turned her head without thinking—only to flinch. The man pushing his wet hair back as drops slid from it was Rutger.
“Heading out?”
Anita shook her head and stepped back again. The water dripping from his coat hem had splashed onto her shoes. Realizing it, his face showed a touch of embarrassment.
“You hated water, didn’t you?”
“That’s right.”
Anita disliked water. That was why she hated rainy days even more. The damp chill seeping into wet clothes made her shudder.
Her gaze swept over him from head to toe. Seeing the thin shirt clinging to his forearms made her shiver again. Sorry, Rutger, but she had no desire to end up looking like that.
She decided to skip today’s lecture. She wasn’t passionate enough to wade through rain to attend. Three absences might earn her a warning, but once should be fine.
Besides, going into a dark anatomy classroom with blackout curtains drawn and the air reeking of formalin on such a damp day sounded unbearably dreary.
Without hesitation, Anita turned away. The anatomy lecture was in the next building, but the library was in her current building—Building 2—so that’s where she planned to go.
“Where are you going? Don’t you have anatomy class?”
Halfway down the hall, Anita turned back in surprise.
“How did you—”
“You’re carrying an anatomy textbook.”
The look he gave her was like she was the dumbest person alive. Anita wished she could crawl into a hole. How could she be so stupid? She cleared her throat and shifted the book to hide its cover.
“I’m not going.”
“What? You’re skipping class?”
His eyes went wide with disbelief.
“That’s right.”
“Why?”
“Because I feel like it.”
Wondering why he was reacting that way, Anita soon remembered he was quite the model student. Even before coming to Aberdeen, when he attended the all-boys school Fenon Hall, he’d never missed a day of class. Yet he’d never worn his uniform shirt properly and his tie was always tossed aside.
Anita, on the other hand, wore her uniform so neatly it was almost stifling—but skipped class fairly often.
“I see. Then you’re going to the library? I’ll come with you.”
Rutger casually suggested while wringing water from his shirt hem. Anita found herself nodding absentmindedly as she stared at the droplets falling from his clothes.
He often told her she was boring and predictable. At first, she’d been offended, but now she’d accepted it—it wasn’t exactly untrue.
“Looking like that, won’t you get kicked out by the librarian?”
“I’ll wash up and change first. You go on ahead.”
“…Where will you wash up?”
“There’s a shower room the swim team uses.”
“Why not just go back to the dorms?”
“Too much trouble.”
And showering at school isn’t? She could never understand how his brain worked. With that, Rutger disappeared somewhere on the first floor.
The hallway was full of other students drenched like him. Carefully avoiding contact so as to stay dry, Anita walked on.
Unlike the damp, unpleasant first floor, the second floor—where the library was—was cool and dry. She rubbed her arms, trying to shake off the moisture clinging to her clothes, and walked down the corridor.
Most classrooms on the second floor were used for afternoon lectures, so aside from the library, they were dark and quiet.
Inside the library, there was no one. The librarian must have gone for lunch.
Quiet wasn’t a bad thing.
The library was massive, with two floors connected by a spiral staircase. There were plenty of books, but most were dictionaries or academic papers—nothing that would kill time in an interesting way.
Choosing a seat far from the large windows, Anita sat down. Sitting by the window on a rainy day like this would be cold enough to see her breath.
She opened her anatomy book. For the first thirty minutes, it was easy to focus. But after that, her gaze inevitably drifted to the clock on the wall. Catching herself zoning out, she forced her eyes back to the book.
Her concentration didn’t return. So she started reading the text out loud under her breath.
She kept repeating the same line over and over.
Finally, she sighed and shut the book.
It dawned on her—she was waiting for Rutger.
That was far too inefficient. It wasn’t as if they’d planned to talk; their destinations had just happened to match by chance.
