It was a place she impulsively visited to avoid a man who resembled an unknown tick.

Moreover, the members of the shooting club seemed to take pride in their association. It was a social gathering that Anita disliked. People in such groups often enjoyed regulating and belittling those within their own group.

She had planned to go to a place where the members were so unreliable that they forgot about the gathering…

Anita bit her lip in regret. She should have seized the moment when the application was about to go into Lice’s hands. If she had awkwardly withdrawn the decision once, despite the embarrassment, she would have been much more at ease by now.

Anyway, the milk had already been spilled, and it was too late to change it now.

In that sense, the rain was sweet.

Members who seemed to cling to dignity would probably not hold a meeting on a rainy day on the muddy floor.

“Oh, damn it. Just kill me instead.”

A somewhat intense murmur was heard. Anita turned her head slightly and quickly grasped the situation. It seemed that the exam dates were set for the near future.

An exam.

Was there a better excuse to skip a meeting?

Although Anita had already finished the necessary studying, it could be a great excuse.

To take an anatomy lecture, you have to cross to the next building. Anita held her thick book at her side and headed towards the entrance of the building.

The entrance door was wide open. As she approached, the floor became damp, as if rainwater had entered. Water splashed from under the heels of her shoes. It felt somewhat sticky.

Raindrops flew in diagonally. Anita stepped back. It would have been better if the buildings had been connected when they were built.

On the lawn beyond the entrance, students were running around, shouting profanities. Anita had no intention of running out into the rain with a jacket or book over her head like them. She’d rather skip the lecture.

“Anita.”

“……?”

Lost in thought, she didn’t notice what was right in front of her. When her name was called, Anita turned her head in surprise. The man wiping rainwater off his hair was Rutger.

“Let’s go out?”

Anita raised her head and took a step back. It was because the dampness falling from his clothes had stained Anita’s shoes. He soon realized it and a sense of awkwardness appeared on his face.

“You hate water.”

“I do.”

Anita disliked water. That’s why she hated rainy days even more. The wet and damp chill seeping into her clothes was more unpleasant than anything.

Anita’s eyes swept from the man’s head to his toes. She shivered at the sight of his thin shirt clinging to his biceps. Anita felt sorry for Rutger, but she didn’t want to end up in such a state.

Anita decided to skip today’s lecture. She wasn’t passionate enough to go in and get soaked by the rain. Three absences would probably result in a warning, but one absence should be okay.

Entering the anatomy lecture hall, darkened by thick blackout curtains on this damp day with the smell of formalin lingering, felt both gloomy and depressing.

Anita turned her body without hesitation. Although the anatomy lecture hall was in the adjacent building, she intended to go to the library in Building 2, where she was.

“Where are you going? I thought you had an anatomy class.”

Walking to the other side of the hallway, Anita whirled around with a puzzled look on her face.

“How….”

“Because you’re holding an anatomy textbook?”

Seeing his face, as if he couldn’t believe it, Anita wished she could disappear. She was so stupid. Anita turned the textbook she was holding in the opposite direction to hide the cover.

“I’m not going.”

“What, you’re going to skip class?”

His eyes widened in disbelief.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because my heart tells me to.”

Anita suddenly remembered that Rutger was quite a model student. Even before coming to Aberdeen, when he attended Pennon Hall, an all-boys school, he was a diligent student who never missed a class. Despite that, his uniform shirt was never properly tucked in, and he always threw away his tie.

On the other hand, Anita wore her uniform with meticulous care, but she often skipped classes.

“So, you’re going to the library, then? I’ll come with you.”

Rutger casually made the suggestion while wringing out the moisture from his shirt. Anita stared blankly at the water dripping from his clothes. He often said that she was a boring and predictable person. Anita had been annoyed by that at first, but now she had resigned herself to it.

It wasn’t entirely untrue.

“Just be careful not to get kicked out by the librarian if you go like that.”

“You go ahead, I’ll go wash up and get dressed.”

“…Where are you going to wash up?”

“There’s a shower room for the swim team.”

“Why not just go back to the dorm?”

“It’s a hassle.”

Wasn’t it less bothersome to shower at school? Anita couldn’t understand his thought process at all. She couldn’t comprehend the structure of his brain. With that, Rutger disappeared abruptly to somewhere on the first floor.

In the corridor, like Rutger, students soaking wet were wandering around. Maintaining the only fluffy state in the already half-flooded corridor, Anita walked carefully to avoid colliding with them.

Unlike the first floor, which was filled with moisture, causing discomfort, the second floor where the library was located was dry and cool. Anita, brushing off the clinging dampness on her clothes, walked down the corridor.

The lecture halls on the second floor were dark and quiet, except for the library, which often held afternoon lectures rather than morning ones.

No one was in the library. The librarian must have gone to lunch.

It was quiet, which can’t be a bad thing.

The library was huge, with two floors connected by a spiral staircase. There were plenty of books, but most of them were dictionaries and treatises, so there was nothing interesting to pass the time.

Looking for a place to sit, Anita chose a seat away from the large windows. On a rainy day like today, sitting by the window would be cold enough to make her breathe.

Anita opened her anatomy book. It was easy to concentrate for the first half hour or so, but after that time, her gaze naturally drifted to the clock on the wall. After staring at the clock for a while, she regained her focus and returned her attention to her book.

But her concentration wasn’t as strong as before. Unable to concentrate, she began to mumble her way through the book.

She found herself reading the same lines over and over again.

Eventually, Anita sighed and closed the book. Now, she realized that she was waiting for Rutger. This was too inefficient. She hadn’t planned to engage in a conversation with him, and it just happened that their destinations coincided.