To Be the Perfect Childhood Friend - Chapter 2

Anita had barely put her bag into the luggage compartment when she began to worry about what she would do if Rutger came looking for her. What would she say if he asked me why she ran away?

Despite her worries, Rutger was nowhere to be seen until the train blared its horn and pulled away.

‘Maybe I’m overly self-conscious, did I really think Rutger would be thinking about me all day? Even if he did enjoy teasing me, he wouldn’t be interested enough to come and bother me.’

No one could read her thoughts, but Anita’s cheeks were burning hot. She pressed her cheeks against the cold window and shuddered with embarrassment.

‘Pull yourself together, Anita. Rutger doesn’t give a damn about you, he’s just there to bother you when he sees you, and he usually forgets you exist.’

***

Inside the station, which was filled with loud noises and shaking that made you think there was an earthquake, a man with black hair was sitting against the wall with a listless face.

At 7:30 train to Waldher rolled by, and Rutger kept yawning in the empty station with a bored expression on his face. His body was protesting at being up earlier than usual.

Yeah, he should be in bed by this time.

Running a hand through his frizzy hair, Rutger pulled a ticket from his inside pocket. It was for the 12:30 to Waldher.

As Anita had predicted, he planned to wake up slowly and leave the house around lunchtime. Until he heard that Anita was taking the early morning train.

She clearly had no idea how dangerous a deserted train station could be.

He had just arrived at the train station and had no idea how many people were watching Anita before he called her.

Just imagining those filthy bastards flirting with Anita made me sick to my stomach. Luckily, they looked away when the train arrived.

What do you do for five hours, anyway?

Rutger looked around the train station slowly, boredom written all over his face.

Deciding there was nothing else to do, Rutger stretched out on a chair and covered the light with a newspaper. With the newspaper over his face, he looked like a homeless man, but Rutger didn’t care. As long as he could make up for the lack of sleep.

After a while, passengers walking through the station were startled by the sound of wind blowing in the distance: a homeless man, a well-dressed man, laughing with a newspaper over his face.

Rutger could not suppress his laughter at Anita’s extreme action of tearing off the book cover, fearing that he would make fun of her. Passengers passed him by as if they were looking at some crazy person.

There was always something radical about Anita. She could be gentle and calm, but when she got angry or excited, she would run like a bull in a china shop.

He would close the newspaper and close his eyes, and only after a long time would he burst into laughter again. He remembered Anita, alone in her room, ripping the cover off the book with a serious face.

Beep!

Another train pulled into the station. His laughter was drowned out by the deafening noise.

Meanwhile, Anita, oblivious to the fact that Rutger was laughing like a maniac at her, stared down at her book.

The black pages were clearly written and the white pages were paper, but she couldn’t read them. It must have been her favorite book, read over twenty times.

Is this Imperial?

I think it is.

Anita frowned and held the book up to her nose, her eyes betraying their owner’s will and coming together in one place, refusing to read the words. Drowsily, Anita blinked frantically, forcing her eyeballs back into their sockets.

Suddenly realizing that she was on a train and not in her own room, she quickly scanned her surroundings. 

Luckily, the other passengers in the compartment were too busy minding their own business to witness her exploits. Feeling somewhat relieved, Anita put down her book and began to take in the scenery outside.

She watched the trees and plains pass by quickly, until they faded into a blur of tall buildings and brick houses, and she prepared to get off.

Anita stepped off the train and looked around.

‘I’m not looking for Rutger, I’m just looking at the scenery.’

With that lame excuse out of the way, Anita stopped looking for Rutger and exploring the station and went outside to wait for her carriage.

Arriving at the school, she didn’t even bother looking around the campus and headed straight to her dorm.

After getting her things organized, she skipped dinner and left the room. She felt queasy from the long, bumpy train ride. She decided to get some fresh air to clear her head and visit the Royal Library at Aberdeen University.

The landscaping was well thought out and the dormitory buildings were separated from the main campus by a long park. As she walked along the well-traveled dirt path, Anita let out a long sigh and made a note to herself.

Stay out of sight. 

Stay unnoticed.

She might end up in the same room as Rutger, but the school was big enough to take up half a city, and she wouldn’t have any classes with him, so the chances of running into him would be slim.

Anita had a natural knack for flying under the radar, or to put it more bluntly, she had no presence. Rutger, on the other hand, was always in the center of attention, wherever he was.

No contact, but that’s okay.

Anita walked, avoiding the leaves on the ground as if they were landmines. From a young age, Anita was good at playing alone.

After walking for a while with her eyes fixed on the ground, Anita suddenly looked up and her face became contemplative.

He was taller than everyone else, with curly black hair and broad shoulders.

The back of his head was Rutger’s. And he was already surrounded by students, just as Anita had predicted.

Anita had an extreme aversion to crowds, and Rutger was avoiding them.

She couldn’t go where there were two bombs to avoid. Anita slowly turned around, acting as if she had just remembered something urgent that she had forgotten, even though no one was paying attention to her.

Anita, proceeding as naturally as possible, was about to take another step when she was relieved to see that nothing happened.

“Anita!”

“…….”

“Anita! Where are you going?”

She couldn’t see, but it wasn’t hard to imagine Rutger calling out to her with his long arms outstretched. 

Unable to respond to his call, Anita walked forward as if she hadn’t heard.

After calling her name a few times, Rutger quickly stopped calling, probably thinking he had mistaken her for someone else. Anita breathed a sigh of relief at silence, but somehow she felt sick to her stomach.

Moving her cold fingertips, Anita placed them near her heart and exhaled slowly. Her heart must have thought she’d just sprinted. She’s been like this for so long, just hearing Rutger’s voice, just seeing his hair.

Her fingertips are cold, her heart is racing, and her brain is as white as a sheet of paper.

Her voice is ragged, words are gibberish, and eyes are rolling, looking for a place to run.

Anita couldn’t tell if she was afraid of Rutger or if she liked him.