My Universe

50: “And thank you for saving me that night.”

“Really? It was you? The mysterious person who was also the last person I saw before everything turned black was you? Seriously? You are not joking?”

Some people are weak with praises that they would cover their faces to protect themselves from exposing their blushing shy face as if they are not enjoying the feeling of being showered with compliments, while the other people are completely comfortable with it that they are able to wear a confident smile on their faces and take in every positive word that other people utter about them. Everyone could basically tell that Aster was the latter one. There was this one time when she won first place in a national essay competition; not only did the news article talk about her victory in the competition, but the fact that she was completely confident as if she had already expected her win in the first place was also published on the article.

At the moment, it seemed that Aster had revealed a new side which she did not know she had for the first time. After accidentally sharing to the raven that she was sure about her herself being the one who attempted to save Winter from the truck on the road that night, the brunette just found herself feeling shy all of a sudden from the questions that she was being bombarded with by the latter.

“I-I mean, I remember jumping on a woman from being hit by a truck and I have a feeling that was you. Anyway, it’s no big deal.” Aster let out a chuckle as she looked away like she could not handle the eye contact.

The raven had her eyes sparkling in awe while staring at the woman across as she was amazed that the woman across her was the same person who jumped on her on the road that night. Even though Winter’s body in that universe was likely to be in the hospital for major injuries with Aster’s body in that universe as well, the raven was still thankful and fascinated that the brunette still tried to save her from having her life end that night because of the truck. For some reason, Winter felt like she owed her whole life to the brunette as she told herself that she must start being nicer to her.

“It is a big deal, Aster! You saved my life!” Winter said, almost in a loud voice. Fortunately, she was able to control the volume of her voice despite the joy that she was feeling. “I basically owe my life to you. I can’t believe you just told me about it now.”

“Come on. It’s not that big of a deal. You might still be in a comatose or something in that universe, you know.” Aster took her glass as she sipped on the cola.

“Still! You’re so amazing. I can’t believe a cool hero like you is having dinner with me right now.” The raven giggled as she took the last fried chicken drumstick and put it on her plate. “I love chicken drumsticks, but I’m giving it to you because you deserve it.”

The brunette turned to look at the woman across her who had a toothy grin on her face, which uncontrollably brought a smile on her face as well. Aster had done things that people became grateful for as she was used to the praises from other people; but for some reason, hearing Winter give her compliments and seeing her give her a huge genuine smile on her face with her eyes lighting up just made the heart of Aster flutter. It was satisfying to see the raven in a bright mood that the brunette was having the urge to more things just to put a smile on her pretty face.

***

“Come over again next time. We need more pretty customers, you know,” Debby said with a grin on her face as she waved at the both of them.

“I would love to.” Winter chuckled as she waved back.

The raven had become less awkward with the older woman thanks to the presence of the brunette, who was basically the person that makes sure no one in the conversation becomes out of place. Debby told Winter about how she knew about Aster having tons of flings but never bringing any of them to her restaurant for a meal as the brunette defended herself by trying to convincing the raven that she was not a player that her aunt was making her as. The whole conversation was basically full of laughter, which washed off the uncomfortable feeling that Winter was feeling earlier.

The two women turned to face each other after the older woman went back inside her restaurant since there were still a lot of customers that she had to serve. The raven let out a chuckle in amusement at how ridiculously immature the brunette was when she stuck her tongue out as soon as they met eyes. Winter was basically already getting used to the childish antics of Aster as she no longer gets annoyed by it.

“I want to ride the bike this time!” Winter said as she stood by the vehicle before the latter could even come close to remove the locks.

“Do you know how to?” Aster asked as she inserted her key in each tiny padlock.

“Duh. I wouldn’t volunteer if I couldn’t, you know.”

“You could be flirting with me so I’d teach you.” The brunette flashed a teasing smirk on her face as she winked at the latter, which resulted to her earning a slap on the shoulder.

“You just had to add that remark.” With a scoff, the raven rolled her eyes.

“All right. Hop on.”

Aster took a step back from her bicycle as she gave way for the shorter woman to go and take a seat since that was what she wanted, after all. The raven looked at her with eyes that were asking for reassurance if she could really ride the bicycle this time. Finding the look that she just gave adorable; the brunette gave her a nod as a response with a smile on her face. With that, Winter excitedly sat on the saddle as she wrapped her hands on the handles while looking back at the latter to gesture her to hop on behind her, which she did with no hesitation.

It was not steady for a few seconds when Winter began to pedal across the road, though she was able to balance well with the help of Aster who was standing on the pegs by maintaining her balance on the bicycle and gently moving the shoulders of the raven to directions that would keep the balance. Feeling comfortable already, the both of them could not help but laugh in amusement at the experience which they were in at the moment as if there were not any people around them that could be throwing weird glances at them. They were currently at their own world where no one but them only exists.

For the first time, it was Aster that was standing on the pegs behind the cyclist as she was always the one who was riding the bicycle. Now that she was experiencing, she could finally understand the excitement that the raven was feeling earlier as she thought about how refreshing the experience was. Being there was making her be able to know what the smell of freedom was. At that point, the brunette just wanted to stay there for the rest of her life without abruptly having to switch universes as she started to fall in love with the breezy wind slapping her face while standing on the bicycle like there was nothing that she had to do—like tomorrow does not exist, Aster was loving that kind of vibe. After all, having the special ability of switching bodies in different universes ever since she was brought into existence was making her slowly exhausted and sick of it.

After the fun experience, they arrived at the dormitory as the brunette felt like the ride took such a short time. That is basically the disadvantage of being too comfortable in a fun situation because time becomes the antagonist that hates seeing one happy, so it makes the seconds run extra fast than usual for the happiness to die down as soon as possible.

The two women stopped in front of the dorm room of the raven. They were sharing the same thought as they both just realized that it was already nighttime when all of the lightbulbs in the building were switched with some of the people that were staying in the dormitory as well going to the cafeteria to have dinner. They found it funny how they only realized that it was nighttime because of those two reasons and not the clear sight of the sky which was already completely dark when they were outside earlier.

“So, thanks for the dinner,” Winter said as a smile spread across her face. “And thank you for saving me that night.”

“I didn’t really save you,” Aster said, almost in a mumble, as she looked away once again because of the shyness that she was feeling. The feeling was indeed different when Winter was the one that was thanking her for saving her and not just anyone.

“Come on. Just say ‘you’re welcome’ or something.” The raven nudged the taller woman.

“Okay, okay. You are very much welcome, Season Girl.” A chuckle escaped the mouth of the brunette. “Head inside now.”

Winter let out a giggle before nodding and holding the doorknob while her other hand was waving at the latter. “Bye-bye.”

“Good night.” The taller woman smiled.

Without throwing one last glance, the raven entered the room and shut the door behind her as she fished her phone out from her phone when she noticed that her roommate was not around the dorm yet. Wanting to know if the art student was having fun at the moment, Winter was about to click the button to send a message to her when a message popped up from the exact same person that she was just about to text. A smile of relief and delight appeared on the face of the raven when she saw what the message was composed of when she opened it.

It was a photo that Alice took; she was playing computer games in an internet café with the same man from earlier while eating instant cup noodles. Seeing how the art student looked genuinely happy with the smile that she had on her face, it made her feel happy for her. Perhaps it was Alice’s soulmate that finally came to her life.

The raven replied to her message with a meme that was expressing her joy for her as she locked her phone since she did not want to distract her by extending their conversation. Instead, Winter decided to take a quick shower since she was exposed to different kinds of germs from the environment for the whole day.

After refreshing herself with a nice quick shower and finishing everything that she had to do after a shower, the raven jumped on her bed as she took her phone when she suddenly thought of the brunette. Winter giggled as she remembered how adorably shy Aster looked earlier when she was talking about how awesome she was for attempting to save her from getting hit by a truck that one night. Wanting to see more of her reactions, Winter was about to send a message to her with the same words when a message from a person that she did not expect suddenly popped up.

Like a lovesick teenager, Winter instantly got up from the bed in surprise as she stared intently with wide eyes at the message to check if the name of the sender was really the same person that she was thinking at the moment while her heart started to throb in a fast pace.