She remembered me????
That caught me off guard.
Ever since I transferred to middle school in this southern city, I'd kept my head down and played the invisible kid who lived in books and test papers.
Meanwhile, Runa had been the center of everyone's conversations even back then.
The gap between us felt like weeds next to the moon.
I didn't expect that after we went to different classes in high school and didn't see each other for a while, she could still call my name right away.
No wonder posts about Runa on the school forum always stayed peaceful, and you rarely saw a single nasty comment under them.
Even just this kind of memory was enough to make people like her fast.
"Yeah, that's me."
I came back from the brief surprise, and I adjusted my black-framed glasses as I answered politely.
"Long time no see."
Once I said that, the basic social stuff was done.
My body was already turning to leave.
The rooftop was great, but once there was another person here, especially someone with the campus belle aura, this place stopped being quiet.
I just wanted to end this awkward run-in.
But she didn't seem like she was going to let me walk off that easily.
"Luke, it really has been a long time, right?"
She took a small step forward, and it was light, but it pulled me back into her talking range.
"Have you gotten used to high school?"
She held the closed book at her side, and her posture stayed neat and proper.
"Classes are heavier than middle school."
The topic was clean, and there was no good excuse to force my way out.
My feet stopped after only a couple steps.
If I brushed off a former classmate's friendly concern, it would look forced and antisocial, and it wouldn't fit the normal background guy act.
So I turned back to face her.
"It's fine. It's all the same," I said as I shoved the vocab booklet back into my pocket.
"Every day is just doing problems and taking tests, so you get used to it."
My answer sounded pretty negative.
Runa didn't do what most people would do, where they toss out a few empty comfort lines.
She just listened, and then she spoke once she was sure I'd finished.
"Yeah, everyone's the same," she said softly, "but I remember you always stayed focused."
She didn't talk like a top student showing off how easy everything was.
Instead, she brought up the past in a calm, gentle way.
"Back then, after class, everyone would be messing around, but you'd always pull out a book and study at your desk."
That made me think back to middle school.
She used to sit by the window too, and her quiet aura felt different from mine.
I shut myself off from everyone, but she was more like the calm center of a whirlpool, and classmates would drift over to ask her questions.
No matter who it was, she'd explain the same thing three or four times without getting impatient.
I also remembered the school running charity donation drives a few times.
At the top of the anonymous donor list, there'd be a huge number that matched her family background.
Nobody talked about it, and she never bragged about it either.
Those quiet images stood in sharp contrast to Seraphina on the field earlier, where every move felt planned.
Even campus belles had a gap between them.
Seraphina's friendliness felt like a tool.
She used it to pull more attention and worship so she could prove her worth as the campus belle.
Runa's gentleness felt like it came naturally.
She kept it to herself, and she didn't need other people's reactions to prove she was good.
Looks like this corny world still had normal people.
While that thought crossed my mind, Runa asked in a soft voice, "Luke, you look tired. Did you not sleep well last night?"
As sharp as ever.
The dark shadow under my eyes had basically become my personal trademark, but today I was more worn out because that whole act with Seraphina drained me.
And somehow she still caught it.
"Yeah… kinda," I said, but I stayed alert inside.
Normal or not, I still couldn't drop my guard around someone who paid attention this closely.
Talking to someone like her meant spending even more energy to keep the mask in place.
"No wonder," she said, and then she suddenly shifted into a question I didn't expect.
"Was it because of what happened downstairs today?"
She leaned forward a little, and it took some of the normal distance out of the conversation.
Her clear almond eyes showed concern.
"You must've felt pretty bothered by it, right?"
She asked it in a smart way.
She didn't ask what happened, and she jumped straight to how I felt.
And just like that, she pulled the talk toward the real point.
So was this the real reason she came to talk to me?
My nerves tightened in an instant.
I didn't get it.
Why did she know about it?
And why was she bringing up Sera?
They were both campus belles, and the forum treated them like the "red rose and the white rose," so maybe there was some kind of rivalry nobody talked about.
A bunch of thoughts flashed through my head, but my face stayed lazy and easygoing.
She couldn't see what I was really thinking.
"Oh, that," I said, and I gave a small smile while I acted like it was nothing.
"It didn't bother me. It was a tiny thing."
I swapped my role from involved to bystander, and I framed the whole conflict as a normal mess caused by overly eager guys.
Then I added a little gossip tone that matched an average boy.
"And Seraphina even came over during free time in PE and said hi," I said.
"She's friendly with everyone, and you've probably heard she's like that."
That line did two jobs.
On the surface, it explained her behavior and pinned it on her friendly personality.
Underneath, it sent a message to Runa.
I have nothing to do with Seraphina, and she treats me the same way she treats any random guy.
So don't waste time digging through me.
After I finished, I watched Runa's reaction.
She listened without cutting in, and her clean eyes didn't show whether she believed me or not.
"I see," she said as she nodded, like she was thinking it over.
"Then I guess I worried too much."
She didn't push further.
It sounded like that question really was just a former classmate checking in.
But the calmer she stayed, the more cautious I got.
"Runa, if there's nothing else, I'm heading out," I said, and I pointed toward the stairwell.
"I've still got papers to finish."
"Okay," she replied.
"You work hard, so I won't bother you."
I gave her a small nod as a goodbye.
Clang.
After the heavy rooftop door shut, the roof went quiet again.
Runa didn't move, and she didn't go back to reading right away.
Her eyes stayed on that rusty metal door like she wanted to see through it and follow where the boy disappeared.
A long time passed.
She lowered her eyes, and her thick lashes cast a fan-shaped shadow in the sunlight.
The soft curve of her lips dipped down just a little.
She raised the hand that wasn't holding the book, and she rubbed her thumb lightly over her lips, again and again.
The motion stayed slow and careful, like she was completely focused on it.
Then she said a name in a voice so low it almost vanished into the wind.
"Luke…"
She repeated it, over and over, like she was testing the sound on her tongue.
And her quiet, delicate face stayed under the soft autumn sun without changing.
Gentle.
And spotless.