Rooming With The Criminal | ✓

02 | the criminal wakes

02

the criminal wakes

AS SHE GULPED down the last spoon of Katsudon, her eyes didn't leave the laid, topless man on her couch. She could faintly see the movement of his chiselled chest going up and down, letting her know that he was still alive and breathing. The ointment rubbed over his bruises were shining under the light and time ticked by as Akari thought of grabbing her phone and calling the police.

Something told her not to.

She placed the empty bowl back on her bedside table as she let her thoughts drift to Julian Jones on her college campus. She had never spoken to him, not even once. It came as a surprise to her that he even knew her name.

As Akari slid her way to the bathroom to dry up those blood stains and clothes, she realised she wasn't bothered too much by this entire situation because deep in her heart, she knew there was nothing too dangerous to worry about, or that's what it felt like.

For all she knew, it could be the blood of a deer that he accidentally chopped or something.

She hoped it was.

During the first days of University, she remembered how everything was new and her first weeks were filled with girls gossiping about hot guys and Julian Jones easily came into that category. He was antisocial from the beginning but he somehow made it seem gracefully cool with his devastatingly handsome looks.

Akari had seen her fair share of girls trying to flirt their way to Julian Jones, but she hadn't heard of any successful ones. Gossip doesn't come by easy in her life due to her major being medicine. Everyone there had a lot of research papers and books on their plates to care about social lives too much. Kappa Thi Theta helped balance her socialising, a piece of advice they had received from a kind senior during their first years when Akari and Ha-eun were just newbies.

She didn't know what major Julian Jones was but she was sure it wasn't medicine.

"I heard people saying that they saw Jones in Sketch Alley." Nora whispered to Ha-eun. Both girls sitting beside her as Akari was disturbed from reading her book. Her ears automatically tuned in to the gossip.

"Sketch Alley?"

"Do you think he sells drugs?" Nora whispered lowly and Ha-eun shook her shoulders. "He doesn't seem like the type to sell drugs."

"I wonder why he doesn't speak to anyone though." Nora sighed. "Such a shame for a guy that hot."

"You have to agree though." Another girl-Katie, chirped into the conversation. "He is hot. He would have made it in one of our Uni's Fine Specimens if only he was social enough. I don't care if he sells drugs."

'Fine Specimens' are what the girls call the hot guys in the University. So far, she knew there were 4 on that list.

Akari had rolled her eyes then, blocking out the rest of the conversation before continuing to read her romance book.

Akari spun her mind back to the present, eyeing the body on her couch, and sighed. All she had to do was wait and it was a tedious process. Time seemed to tick by slowly and she was getting sleepier as minutes passed by. Her thoughts drifted to other scenarios of spotting Julian Jones on her University's campus and all those times, he seemed harmless.

So, why was he here with bloodstains on his hands and t-shirt?

And, just like that, Akari's eyes shut tight against her soft covers as quiet breaths and two peaceful heartbeats were all that can be sensed in the room as the two humans lured themselves to sleepiness.