My Universe

17: “It’s always better when everyone’s asleep.”

When the janitor finally left the dormitory building to head back home after finishing his work, the whole building became quiet with just little natural noises filling in the deafening silence. For a dormitory that looked cheap for never having renovations, each room was actually soundproof though it was not completely soundproof since low muffled voices could still be heard if one stands right in front of the door of a room. It was already midnight though they did not really expect majority of the students were asleep since that was how university life is.

The two women who were completely conscious at that hour stood in front of a steel door on the far corner of the second floor in the building. The raven never noticed the door as it was her first time to see its existence while she wondered why they were standing in front of them. When she turned to the brunette that she was with, she saw how the taller woman was rummaging in her pocket for something until she pulled her hand out with two small black hair pins.

“Don’t tell me…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Aster responded with a cheeky grin on her face as she went closer to the door and bended over to be on the same height as the doorknob after leaving the small black plastic bag that the raven just noticed down on the floor for a while.

Winter let out an exhale in disbelief when she saw the latter bend the hair pins in certain angles before slipping them in the hole of the doorknob. The raven did not understand anything about the process though she only knew that the brunette had one of the hair pins inside as a lever while the other hair pin was pushed up and down inside the lock. Winter knew that what the taller woman was doing was likely illegal though she could not help but be fascinated at how skilled she was when she heard a click after a few seconds.

Before Aster turned the doorknob open, she turned her head back to lock eyes with the raven as she grinned proudly before slowly twisting it and pushing it open, loving how Winter slightly widened her eyes in surprise and awe while looking at the door that got unlocked in less than a minute because of the brunette’s amazing lockpicking skills.

“How are you so good at this?” Winter asked as she followed the taller woman when she walked up the stairs.

“Experience. I’ve always been good.” The brunette let out a boastful laugh as she stood in front of the door that was on top of the stairs this time.

Aster lived in different kinds of lives which was why she basically had a lot of skills that people rarely or never had. Lockpicking different kinds of doorknobs was just a simple thing to do that she might plead the person, who challenges her to do it, to give her a difficult task that would make her spend a lot of tears, sweat, and blood instead of something that was as easy as writing the alphabet.

Again, the door was successfully unlocked with no difficulty as the brunette pushed the door open to let the cold breeze greet them. Seeing the dark sky with shiny white sprinkles, Winter got excited as she rushed to step out to the rooftop and roamed her eyes around the sky that was filled with plenty of stars above her with her mouth left ajar in awe.

The sight made the hazel-eyed woman let out a chuckle as she slowly walked toward her. “You look as if you have never seen stars in your whole life.”

“Can I not admire the stars? It’s not like it’s illegal.” The raven rolled her eyes before walking toward the parapet to see the whole view of the street that they were at.

“All right, no need to be mad already.” Aster smiled in amusement as she followed the latter and leaned on the low wall to join her stare at the view.

The dormitory building was not as tall as hotels though they did not mind since they could still the pleasing sight of the city even though they could not see the actual whole view of it. Some buildings and stores could be seen to join the lampposts on the sidewalks in making sure that the streets were not pitch black in sight.

Winter was not exactly a fan of stars, the moon, or the whole astronomy; though it just never failed to amaze her as she felt pleasant and peace from simply staring at the twinkling stars like they were acknowledging her presence and saying hi.

“It is really nice to be here at around this hour,” Winter spoke as she returned her eyes back to the space above them.

“Yup. It’s always better when everyone’s asleep. That way, no one can disturb my peace here,” Aster simply replied while watching a stray dog stop walking on the sidewalk to scratch its ear.

“Yeah.” A small smile crept up on the raven’s face as she felt peace.

All of the things that caused heartbreaks and struggles to Winter that made her desire to stop functioning from the past few days were slowly being healed temporarily for the night with her head becoming clear as she let the cold wind gust her face that seemed to also blow the negative thoughts that were clinging in her head away and she was relieved for that even though she knew that the moment would not stay for a long time. Winter knew the agony that she had been suffering with from a lot of things would eventually get rid of her peace of mind and continue living in her head as if it was their home where they belonged from the very beginning.

The raven realized that she was overthinking again as she lightly shook her head to stop herself from doing so and turned to divert her attention to the whole rooftop for her to roam around this time after spending a few minutes in stargazing. The brunette turned around and leaned her back on the parapet while watching the latter explore the rooftop, which could be considered as an empty space, like a little kid being on a playground for the first time.

There were two reasons why Aster had a smile painted on her face while she was watching Winter: she thought that the raven was adorable and she could confirm that the raven was not the same person that she knew.

Aster, a person who was born with a special characteristic which would make her travel to another universe after six months, was not oblivious enough to not notice the suspicions in the actions and way of speaking of Winter. The brunette assumed that Summer from another universe might have made her go to the current universe that they were at, though she could not completely confirm it since she was confused why Winter seemed to be clueless and have no memories about almost everything; another thing that she was confused about was that the raven seemed to travel to another universe for the first time when that was not possible because Aster was born having that special characteristic already.

“Cool. There’s a chair,” Winter said as she went to pick up the foldable black chair that was on the corner and unfolded it.

Whatever the reason was, Aster decided to continue with her observation on Winter by going with the flow naturally for now. With a friendly smile, the brunette pushed her body off from leaning on the low wall and walked toward the raven while raising the plastic bag that she had and briefly shook it, making the sound of cans clattering audible. Taking one can out, Winter slightly widened her eyes in surprise at what she brought.

“Are you even allowed to bring alcohol?” the raven asked.

“Duh. I’m literally 20.” The brunette shrugged as she handed the latter a beer can, which she accepted anyway.

“You got a point there.” Winter stared at the can for a while as she suddenly felt like it had been a long time since she consumed alcohol even though it had just been a few days since the last time.

There was only one foldable chair on the rooftop since Aster had always been to the rooftop alone that she decided to leave it. Students were actually prohibited to go up to the rooftop because of one incident that happened years ago; one of the students held his birthday party on the rooftop as everyone staying in the dorm went up until someone almost fell from the roof because of the hyperactivity that occurred, which resulted to the owner of the dormitory deciding to forbid anyone from coming to the rooftop by always keeping the doors locked. But apparently, no one knew that Aster was the only person with amazing lockpicking skills and courage to go up to the rooftop by herself without letting anyone spot her.

The sound of hissing from the cold beer brought satisfaction as they heard it after opening their cans of beer together. The brunette placed the plastic bag on the floor as she took a sip on her beer while leaning her back on the wall that was close to where the raven was sitting. Drinking cold beer while letting the cold breeze kiss her skin and listening to the serene nature was basically Aster’s favorite thing to do as she had always preferred a quiet place to drink alcohol than to drink in a cramped club with upbeat music blasting from the background.

A sigh of satisfaction escaped Winter’s lips after taking a long sip on her beer as she loved the way the cold liquid ran down her throat, loving how refreshing it was. For some reason, the raven started to love the moment that they were in as she unconsciously thought about how she wanted to drink cold beer on a rooftop during late at night again while hoping that Aster would invite her again next time if ever.

Winter cleared her throat as she turned to meet eyes with the hazel-eyed woman when she could not handle the uneasiness that she was feeling from her long stares. The brunette winked at her when they met eyes, which made the latter look away again.

“So anyway, I think that this is really nice.” Winter cleared her throat as she stared at the stars again instead of the brunette.

“Yeah, you told me that earlier.” Aster let out a small chuckle.

“It’s just so fascinating, you know. Like, how did you even discover this place?” the raven spoke with a small smile on her face.

Winter was not lying when she said that she was fascinated by the atmosphere, which was what she just wanted to have at all times. It was almost like the romantic atmosphere that she used to have with Claire before though every moment with Claire was unbeatable, of course.

The raven was starting to feel a bit flustered when she noticed that the woman that she was talking to had not responded for quite a while now as she turned to see what she was up to, only to catch her just staring at her. Not to look like a mind reader, but Winter noticed that Aster seemed to have a lot to say just by seeing her hazel-colored orbs.

It took a few seconds before the brunette decided to finally break the silence and speak, “Why do you seem like it is your first time to be here? You have been here before.”

Winter stared at him blankly while blinking a few times before she realized that she was the one who was making herself suspicious for other people, specifically the person who brought her to that place where there was a tranquil atmosphere.