My Universe

28: “Did you know that crows hold grudges?”

The raven pursed her lips in tightly as she made all of her braincells function like a factory quickly with all of her energy that she almost got a headache because of having to think of a lie that would defend herself. It was when she realized that she would have to get used to it and practice her smile in case she would be featured on the Guinness World Records for being the first person to construct the most lies in a short span.

Winter already had an assumption that Summer and Aster had a bad relationship with each other, though she did not expect it to be that bad to the point that Summer actually loathed the existence of Aster. The memories with Aster being confused about her fewer mean acts toward her before the both of them opened up to each other appeared in her mind as she realized that it was no wonder why Aster seemed to be a bit flustered whenever Winter would interact with her. It turned out that Winter was supposed to act like a total bastard to Aster, after all.

“We’ve matured. The past must be buried, after all,” the raven spoke with a small smile on her face to sound natural.

Fortunately, the waiter came to serve their dishes which made their conversation about her and Aster supposed to be hating each other end there as it should. It was also a good thing that Alice seemed to not be completely focused about them as her attention was instantly diverted to the food on the table in front of them. Her eyes sparkled in joy while she intently stared at the sweet and spicy pork that the waiter just laid right in front of her. The smoke entered her nostrils as she could feel her stomach grumbling because of how delicious the aroma was that she could already imagine how tasty the food would be.

After the waiter left, the both of them immediately took their utensils to begin eating their meal. Neither of them bothered to bring up a conversation as they were both contented to just eat. They exchanged a few words about their positive feedbacks on the dishes that they ordered as they would tell each other to try the dishes that the other had not. Winter did not have to worry about Alice running out of money as she found out that she was an only child from a wealthy family when she saw her paying for their meal with a credit and when Alice told her that she was her parents’ favorite child since she was their only child.

While they were eating, the art student could not help but notice a few changes on the eating habits of her roommate. She slightly squinted her eyebrows in confusion when she saw how Winter drank the soup of her noodle soup before eating the noodles since the thing that she recalled was that Summer used to begin eating the noodles immediately first instead of what she was doing at that moment.

Alice ignored it as she thought that her roommate could be doing something new for once, not until she noticed another change of her food habits which was the fact that Summer used to eat most of the spicy dishes; but Winter was not eating at least one sweet and spicy pork. It was a bit unusual of her as the art student thought that the raven might not like the dishes that they ordered, though that could not be the reason since Summer was never the picky type especially when the food that she was eating was bought by someone else.

Alice eventually decided to ignore all of those as she suddenly recalled about what happened yesterday that made her swiftly drink her cold iced tea before speaking, “By the way, Summer.”

“Hm?” Winter uttered as she threw a glance at her before slurping on her noodles in the quietest way possible. She was never fond of food ASMR videos as she disliked the loud sounds people make when people eat.

“I was in the milkshake shop near our university yesterday after my last class ended and guess who came?” The short-haired woman looked excited to share the whole details about it.

“Who?” the raven responded since she literally did not know anyone in that world aside from Aster and Alice that she could think of as a guess.

“It was Liam and his friends!” Alice leaned in forward to whisper loudly as a giggle followed right after.

“Oh, really? What happened?” Winter asked as her curiosity got piqued to hear a new name.

The art student suddenly let out a groan as she buried her face on her palms, which made the latter surprised. Observing how she reacted like that, the raven got a hunch that something that involves embarrassment and regret might have happened yesterday. After all, Alice was always expressive with her feelings that it was sometimes easy to guess what was going on in her head.

“You weren’t there with me so I got anxious when they sat at the table right next to me,” Alice spoke without raising her head. “I feel like a loser.”

“Did they recognize you or initiate a conversation with you?” the raven simply asked as she leaned back on her seat while taking a seat on her cold iced tea that she immediately fell in love with for having the taste that exactly matched to her drink preference.

“I doubt they even know I go to the same university as them.” The art student heaved a sigh before lifting her head, which revealed her cheeks having a bit of blush.

Winter slightly widened her eyes as she let out a chuckle of amusement when she saw her roommate, who just pouted in response. Because of that, the raven did not have to think about who Liam was as her reaction made it obvious that he was her crush. Alice basically looked like a girl from middle school who often tells stories about how happy she is for the little interactions that she gets with her crush. Winter suddenly remembered how she was exactly the same when she had a crush on the student council’s president in elementary school.

“That’s fine, you’re fine. You’re not a loser for being anxious when you’re physically near the person that you like. That’s normal,” the raven said with a smile on her face as she took a bite on the wonton that she had been craving for.

“Yes, you’re right. But…” A sigh of disappointment escaped the lips of the art student as she rested her forehead on her fist. “The thing is, I embarrassed myself by almost tripping when I panicked and left the place.”

“Oh.” The raven pursed her lips in as she slowly nodded, understanding why the latter was feeling like that.

“Ugh. I just really hope that his attention was only focused on his friends that time,” Alice said before shoving a piece of sweet and spicy pork in her mouth out of frustration for herself.

“At least you didn’t fall with your face flat on the floor,” Winter replied as she reached out to give her roommate a soft pat on the head as a gesture of comfort.

The raven completely related with the short-haired woman as she would also get mad at herself whenever she accidentally does something or end up in an embarrassing situation because of her clumsiness in front of Claire. It was a bittersweet thing to remember since Claire would never think that she looked like an i***t for being clumsy.

When they were done eating, the both of them were about to stand up and leave the restaurant when Winter suddenly sat back down.

“Hold up.” The raven carried her bowl of noodle soup that only had the broth left as she brought it in front of her lips for her to drink it.

Alice’s mouth was left ajar as she watched her roommate drink all of the soup until the bowl was completely empty, which was a new sight to her because the Summer that she knew was not a soup lover as she would leave half of the soup in the bowl without bothering to finish it all. For some reason, the art student was having suspicions about her roommate though she forced to get rid of them because of the guilt that she was having.

Again, the short-haired woman decided to not ask any questions about the sudden change of eating habit of the raven as the both of them left the Chinese restaurant right after without wasting any more second there. The roommates talked about how delicious the food was and that Alice wanted them to go eat there again next time in which Winter agreed.

There were a lot of vehicles passing by the road that a traffic might occur anytime as the roommates stood in front of the pedestrian lane while waiting for the timer on the pedestrian traffic lights to reach zero and turn green so that they could cross the street and return to the university already.

“Do you want to hear a fun fact?” Alice spoke as she crossed her arms across her chest.

“Yeah, sure.” Winter took a look at the time on her phone to check if she had to worry for being late to her afternoon class. Fortunately, she still had 20 minutes left.

“Did you know that crows hold grudges?”

The raven slightly furrowed her eyebrows as she thought about it for a while before responding, “No. Why and how do they hold grudges?”

“Apparently, crows are able to recognize the face of their abuser or abductor even though years have passed. If they recognize their faces, they would instantly attack them,” Alice said.

“Really? How did you find out about that?” the raven asked as she internally felt bitter when she remembered how Claire used to tell her random fun facts that she would find on the social media apps that she was always using.

“I was searching for reference images of crows and I happened to find myself reading facts about crows later.” The art student nodded. “Basically, crows are like humans. Humans never forget the pain that they experience along with the cause of it.”

The raven nodded in agreement as she thought about how she turned out to be an anxious person whenever she notices people giving her contemptuous looks because of what happened when she was in middle school. Apparently, Winter used to be a part of a group of female friends as they were the popular group back then until her so-called friends abruptly isolated her one day as if they were never friends. They would throw scornful looks at her whenever they would walk past her, which made Winter cry every night. Until Winter turned 20 years old, she was still clueless why her ex-friends suddenly ended their friendship since she could not even think of anything that she had done wrong to them for their friendship to be erased like it never existed in the first place.

Because of what happened that time, Winter had always been cautious of how people would look at her, which was why she felt the most uncomfortable when it seemed like she was back to her middle school years.

The roommates crossed the street when the green pedestrian traffic light lit that the pedestrian lane was also crowded because of the other people who were in a hurry to cross the street as well. The both of them were about to enter the campus once again through the gate when a certain woman with navy blue hair above her shoulders caught the eye of the raven as if there was a spotlight directed on her among the crowd that she was in.

After seeing that smile of hers, Winter froze on her spot.