My Universe

20: “Did you think that I’d forgive you after that?”

The face of the raven twisted into a grimace of disapproval as she stood in front of the small wooden wardrobe with her arms crossed across her chest. She had seen Summer’s wardrobe and what were inside though her reaction was always the same. The clothes that were in the small cupboard were totally different from the usual clothing that Winter had in hers. There was one thing that could be concluded from the difference and that was that Winter could never be Summer.

The raven decided to plan on using her free time in exploring around the streets as she realized that she had never been to anywhere aside from the dormitory, university, and the restaurant where she and Aster ate lunch at. Winter wrote her observations in the universe that she was in on the notebook that had the most blank pages among all of Summer’s notebooks which were supposed to be used for lecture notes. She could not help but feel embarrassed of herself when she accidentally started to compare her handwriting that looked like it was written by a doctor with Summer’s handwriting that made it obvious how she was definitely way better than Winter by how she writes in cursive neatly. Winter basically knew the cursive form of only five letters in the alphabet.

After feeling insecure about her handwriting for a second, the raven got over it quickly as she focused on picking an outfit to wear to go outside after. Since her plan was to roam around the streets, Winter had already thought of an outfit to wear in her mind while she was brushing her teeth, though that went into waste as soon as she swung the door of the wardrobe open to reveal the bland fashion of her alternate self.

“Ugh, whatever.” A groan left the raven’s lips before finally deciding on an outfit to wear.

Since the clothes that she was wearing were simply just an indigo sweatshirt with a pair of black sports sweatpants, it did not take a long time for Winter to get dressed as she looked at her reflection on the mirror with only one thought in her mind: she still looked good even in a simple, casual outfit.

The raven then remembered about how she had a bad reputation in her university as she decided to get the black bucket hat that she found in the wardrobe to wear for anyone to not see her face since she knew that anyone from her university would see her outside with no doubt. After tying her shoelaces, Winter was finally ready.

Chatters could be heard from every corner as the raven stepped out of the room and made sure to not bump on anyone while heading toward the staircase with her hand tightly holding on the notebook that she brought to record more observations that she would get. Some people still recognized her beneath the bucket hat though it was because they certainly knew where her room in the dormitory was.

Her eyes roamed around the street as she made sure to memorize every detail that could be spotted on their street when she got out of the dormitory building. There were stores next to each other across the dormitory and there was a road that had a pedestrian lane between the dormitory and the university. The lampposts on the sidewalks that were switched on brightly last night were turned off as they rested for the day with the sun taking over their job. It looked like an ordinary street.

Winter started to take a walk by the sidewalk opposite from where the university was as she felt like the certain things that she was looking at were things that she had seen more than a thousand times and she assumed that was caused by the memories of Summer in her subconscious. Everything, including the stores and facilities, looked familiar and nothing new to her as the raven decided to write that down on her notebook. Because of her familiarity on the place, it would not be that difficult to forget about the directions back to the dormitory as she thought.

While taking a walk by the sidewalk, Winter could not help but feel fascinated when she was seeing plenty of similarities with the places that she had seen in her original world; such as how the moon logo of the convenience store in her universe was the opposite of the convenience store in that world with it having a sun logo. It was like déjà vu when a motorcycle suddenly drove off in high speed on the road while a stranger that happened to be passing by her talked about how annoying the rider was for causing an abrupt noise as the very same situation happened in Winter’s original world the day before she woke up in another place.

A familiar tune diverted the attention of the raven from the motorcycle that was already out of sight to it as she turned around to see an ice cream truck stopping on the side. Winter loved ice cream as she immediately rummaged in her pocket for her wallet before she was too late since she knew that the ice cream truck would go away after serving a few people. Just when she got her wallet, disappointment only dwelled in her when she saw only a few bills and coins were inside that were supposed to be for lunch.

With a sigh of surrender, the raven slipped the wallet back in her pocket before continuing to walk away from the truck. She could not help but be annoyed at her alternate self for being poor that she could not even buy one ice cream for herself. Though of course, Winter did not want to be toxic so she forced herself to get over it quickly by telling herself that it was just ice cream and that she could eat ice cream as much as she wanted if she went back to her world.

Winter continued to roam around the streets while recording some of her observations, such as the similarities that world had with her original world, when she suddenly had a feeling of uneasiness. Feeling agitated, the raven fastened her pace as she held the notebook tightly on her chest while hoping that her instinct was wrong.

Stop following me, Winter screamed in her mind as she pursed her lips tightly and took a turn to a narrow alleyway with hope that her instinct of a person following her from behind was just her overthinking. There were plenty of people walking along the sidewalk as well though she could still sense someone following her since she did have the same experience from a year ago when a creep was tailing her during the day but fortunately, Hana and Tina came at the right timing before he could even get close to her as the three of them then left with the creepy stranger stopping.

There was a big garbage container on the corner as the raven did not hesitate to run toward it and crouch behind it to hide. She gulped in nervousness while both hands held tightly on her notebook to prepare to attack with it when she heard the same sound of footsteps getting closer though it stopped for a while as she held her breath.

A feeling of relief surged through her as she let out a low sigh when she heard the footsteps going away while she imagined the stalker giving up by leaving the alleyway. When the footsteps could no longer be heard, Winter stayed on her spot for a while since she doubted that the stranger had already left, which she took as a tip from thriller films.

Another ten seconds had passed before the raven decided to slowly peek her head out, though before she could even see a thing; she felt a gentle poke on her back.

Winter widened her eyes as she was about to smack the person’s face with her notebook when the person stopped her from screaming by covering her mouth when she turned around to see a well-known face. A playful smile flashed on her smile as usual as the raven realized that it was no wonder the hand which was on her mouth felt oddly familiar.

“Hey, hey,” the brunette singsonged before taking her hand off the latter’s mouth.

“You’re such an asshole!” Winter yelled in exasperation as she raised her arms to give the taller woman a powerful hit with her notebook.

“W-wait! Don’t hit me!” Aster widened her eyes and immediately grabbed the latter’s wrists to stop her from slamming the notebook on her head.

The raven was huffing in rage and disbelief as she struggled to pull her hands back from the taller woman’s grip; but to her surprise, the brunette was pretty strong. As much as Aster wanted to laugh in amusement at the sight of the latter looking like a little angry chihuahua, she managed to hold it in by pursing in her lips tightly while using her strength to stop her from causing any assault out of her anger even though she knew that she deserved a slap on the face with a notebook for looking like a creepy stalker.

“Do you think this is a joke? Do you not have any idea how your foolish actions can literally traumatize a person?!” Winter yelled while twisting her wrists in attempt to escape from her hold.

Aster was taken aback at her outburst as she could see flames blazing in her eyes while the laughter that she had been holding in died down, realizing that the situation was getting serious. She did not know the feeling of remorse though she decided to loosen her grip on the latter’s wrists while looking away.

“Okay, that was a stupid thing for me to do. I’m sorry,” Aster spoke in a serious tone that she perfectly learned from movies and plays.

The brunette grinned internally in success when the latter seemed to start calming down as her hands slowly dropped to her sides, which gave her the cue to completely let go of her wrists. She felt proud of herself for being able to calm a wild tiger down like she was a professional.

But just when Aster thought that her genuine apology was accepted, she suddenly felt a strong hit on her arm as everything turned white in sight for a split second. A small smile stayed on her face despite having a feeling that her arm might have been detached from her body and flown away to a far distance.

“What? Did you think that I’d forgive you after that?” Winter scoffed as she stared at the taller woman who seemed to have lost her ability to speak because of the unexpectedly intense pain that she caused.

After all, it was a good thing that the raven chose to major in psychology as she got to apply what she had been studying about in the real world. Since she had been staring directly at the hazel eyes of the taller woman, she could see how the brunette would not keep eye contact with her as she also could not see any hint of genuineness in her eyes that it became obvious how Aster was just saying those words to stop her from attacking her.

“O-okay. I did deserve that,” Aster spoke after recovering though she could still feel the throbbing pain on her arm that she was starting to think if her bones actually broke. “I didn’t know you were that strong.”

“Oh, so you want more?” The raven raised her notebook again as panic evidently appeared on the brunette’s face while she immediately took a step back with her arms in the air.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

A scoff escaped Winter’s lips as she dropped her hands back to her sides when she realized why Aster was following her in the first place.

“Wait, why were you even following me like a creep in the first place?”