On This Secluded Place

I: Library, The Place For Loners

The sky darkened and the clouds above me clumped together signalling the arrival of rain. I have no choice but to vacate the rooftop and spend the rest of my lunch break somewhere else.

I have been spending my lunch break here for a month since school started and it's the first time that it rained. With this, I have no other place to stay. Yes, my classroom is not an option because my classmates are staying there and they're the main reason I have to spend my lunch break on somewhere else.

How about the library?

Oh yes! Great thinking skills, my brain! I'm actually done eating anyway so I'm free to enter the library. Obviously, the only reason that I don't spend my lunch break there is because food is prohibited inside the facility. I regulary go there during other breaks such as vacant hours of our poorly-constructed senior high school schedule.

I bet you've already guessed that I'm a loner and yes, you're right! Of course this is Eric Ramos, the self-proclaimed king of loners of this campus. The guy who always avoids people if not related to class. Meh, even in class, I rarely participate in oral recitation even though I know the exact answer that the teacher is looking for just to avoid interaction with them.

So much for self introduction, I pushed the door of the library open. As expected from an air-conditioned room, weak burst of cold air welcomed me. With that, I untied my below shoulder length hair to cover my nape a little from the cold. If only food is allowed inside...

Wait, you might be wondering why I have such an abnormally long hair for a high school student. Well, it's because during my previous school years, I somehow avoided all of the boys' hair inspection done by the school because everyone just don't care about my existence. And luckily, this school I'm in right now don't have any haircut policy as they believe in students' "individuallity". That's actually pretty convenient.

I went to the section where fiction books are located. To my dismay, I haven't found a book that piqued my interest thus resorting to choosing by random. "Journey to the Cold Arctic" ok, the title sounds like bad news to me. But, you know what they say, expectations only lead to disappointment that's why I want my own expectation of this book to be ruined because that would only mean that this book is good.

Wee! Jackpot! No one's here! I took a seat at the nearest long table to read. Ugh, who am I fooling, no one comes to the library that it's not really a jackpot or of any sort at all.

"The northern seas are cold, like my soul." ok I had enough, this book is trash. So much for being a middle-aged sailor, the protagonist sounds like an edgy high school boy who's trying to be cool in front of the girls. Heh, despite hating the story, I still continue to read it just to pass the remaining thirty minutes before the start of afternoon session.

Oh! That development is quite unexpected. I was engrossed in the book that I almost didn't notice the entity that took a seat one chair away from my left. With that, my body instantly tensed up with the frightening presence that this unknown being emits. To be honest, never once in my life that I felt this mixed feelings of horror and comfort. I know it sounds weird and ironic but it is what it is. I turned to see the ghost who invaded my personal space, not minding the terror that I might see. Lol, two-meter radius is too big to be one's personal space.

She's, well, a girl, a beautiful one, at least in my eyes. She tied her almost-touching-the-floor hair in a loose low ponytail. Yes, her hair is that long. Her eyes are what I described as lethargic, especially with those eyebags. She also have these eyelashes so thick that it looks like an applied eyeliner. I repeat, in my eyes, she's gorgeous, possibly the most beautiful I've seen so far. Don't you dare judge me! You know that beauty is in the eye of the belolder, right? Also, she's not really a ghost. hehe