Chapter 16
1518 Words
The festival had ended, but its echoes still lingered like stardust in their bones.
By the time night fell over the campus, a tired calm replaced the vibrant rush of the day. It was a little after 9 p.m., and the English Department's seminar room—usually bustling with discussions and debates—was now filled with the exhausted hum of page flipping, yawns, and the distant sound of a ticking clock.
Everyone had gathered in quiet solidarity to catch up on the assignments they had abandoned for the past few days. The festival had been glorious, but their coursework hadn’t paused to celebrate. Papers still had to be submitted. Deadlines still loomed.
Hana leaned against a bookshelf, trying to highlight a line from her notes for the fifth time but kept missing the sentence.
Tessa sat beside Raya at the large round table, her head drooping slightly as she scribbled something in her notebook, then scratched it out and tried again.
Eli was sprawled across two chairs, dramatically whispering, “This is punishment. Academic punishment. I'm going to sue the calendar.”
Ryan was nearby, flipping through his copy of Modern Poetic Theory, brows furrowed in deep focus—though occasionally, his gaze drifted.
The yellow-toned lights from the vintage sconces gave the room a quiet warmth, like a safe bubble of stillness inside the sleepy campus.
Eventually, the exhaustion began to win.
Hana stood up with a groan. “My brain’s leaking out of my ears. I’m going back to the dorm.”
“I second that,” Eli said dramatically, gathering his mess of notebooks. “Good luck, survivors.”
One by one, the team began to pack up and leave.
Tessa was the last to stand. She gave Raya a small, apologetic smile. “I’m dying. I can’t stay up any longer. My body has given up.”
Raya chuckled softly. “Go rest. I’ll be fine.”
“You sure? The department ghost is rumored to haunt post-deadline victims.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
Tessa squeezed her shoulder and left with a lazy yawn.
And then there were two.
Raya didn’t notice right away that Ryan hadn’t left.
She had curled into the corner of the table with her laptop and scattered papers, typing quickly, flipping between tabs and scribbled notes. Her brows were furrowed, tongue poking out slightly as she focused on aligning her final paragraph just right.
Across the room, Ryan sat with one leg draped over the other, a pen tucked behind his ear, but he hadn’t touched his book in a while.
He didn’t really know why he stayed.
He could have left with the others. He didn’t even have anything urgent to finish. But something felt strange about the idea of walking away while she was still there—small, determined, surrounded by chaos and coffee-stained notes.
So he didn’t.
He watched her from his seat across the room.
Watched how she brushed her hair behind her ear absently every time she leaned closer to the screen. How she chewed on the end of her pen while reading. How the corners of her lips curved ever so slightly when a line finally clicked.
The library was still, silent but not cold. There was something soothing in the quiet clicks of her keyboard. Something grounding about her presence.
Eventually, Ryan's eyes began to flutter closed. He shifted, arms folded on the edge of the table, cheek resting on top.
Raya didn't notice until her laptop pinged: Document Saved Successfully.
She leaned back with a long sigh and rubbed her temples. Her neck ached. Her eyes burned. But her assignment was finally done.
She stretched her arms over her head and turned slightly, expecting to say something—maybe even joke about how she was the last one standing.
But her words caught in her throat.
There he was.
Fast asleep.
Head resting on his arms. His face turned slightly toward her. One arm still loosely holding the pen he’d forgotten he was holding. His lashes were long, his mouth relaxed, and his chest rose and fell in the soft rhythm of deep sleep.
Raya blinked, a little stunned by the quiet beauty of the moment.
He didn’t leave.
A smile tugged at the corner of her lips—small, surprised, and unspoken.
She rested her chin on her knees and simply watched him.
There was something disarming about seeing him like this. The same boy who had been calm and commanding during the festival, the same one who always seemed to know what to do. Now fast asleep, softened by the dim light, looking almost boyish. Almost delicate.
His guard was down, and for a brief moment, she saw a version of him no one else did.
Peaceful. Still. Dreaming of who-knows-what.
Maybe this was why he stayed. Or maybe he didn’t know either.
Raya didn’t wake him.
She didn’t say a word.
She just sat there, watching quietly, letting the silence stretch into something intimate and golden.
A hush that didn’t need filling.
A moment that didn’t need explanation.
And beneath the warm glow of the old library lights, surrounded by books and fading echoes of laughter, the night exhaled—and held its breath for them.
The morning light crept in slowly, slipping through the dusty blinds of the seminar room windows. It stretched across the wooden floors, warming the scattered papers and notebooks, before gently landing on the two figures still asleep in the heart of the room.
Raya sat slumped in her chair, arms crossed on the table, her cheek resting against her elbow.
Across from her, Ryan was still in the same position—peacefully asleep, barely moving.
The silence was broken by the unmistakable creak of the seminar room door.
“Raya?” Tessa’s voice floated in, groggy but laced with curiosity. “You alive, babae?”
Her footsteps paused.
A beat.
A gasp.
“Oh. My. God.”
She took a step back dramatically and then hissed out in an exaggerated whisper, “You two spent the night together?!”
Raya stirred. Her brows furrowed slightly as she blinked awake, disoriented. She lifted her head just as Ryan shifted, groaning lightly at the intrusion.
“What an odd thing to say first thing in the morning,” Raya mumbled, voice still thick with sleep.
Tessa looked scandalized and absolutely thrilled. “Don’t you ‘odd thing to say’ me! You’re telling me you both disappeared last night, and now I walk in to find you sleeping across from each other in the department seminar room like it's some secret romance hideout? This is real-life fanfiction.”
Raya rubbed her eyes. “Tess… we were just studying.”
“Oh, sure. Studying. And I bet at some point, your hands accidentally touched while reaching for the same pen—”
Before she could finish her dramatics, the door creaked open again.
Eli stepped in, hair a chaotic mess, hoodie falling off one shoulder. “Guys, has anyone seen—” He stopped. Then grinned. “Well, well, well. Would you look at that.”
Ryan finally lifted his head, blinking clearly. “What… what time is it?”
“Time for answers, Romeo,” Eli said, dropping his bag with a loud thump. “So? Did you two elope last night or just forget how dorms work?”
Ryan looked confused for half a second before the realization hit. He looked at Raya, who just rolled her eyes.
“Oh my god,” Tessa giggled, eyes gleaming. “They’re looking at each other like something happened. You did share a moment, didn’t you?”
“No,” Raya said flatly, but her cheeks were betraying her.
Ryan let out a sleepy chuckle. “You guys have way too much energy for 8 a.m.”
“You’re deflecting,” Eli said, wagging a finger.
“Okay, okay,” Tessa leaned forward, planting her hands on the table, eyes dancing. “Just answer this—who fell asleep first?”
Raya hesitated. Ryan glanced at her.
Raya sighed. “Him.”
“Aw!” Tessa clutched her heart. “You watched him sleep?!”
“I was finishing my assignment!”
Eli dramatically dropped into the chair beside her. “Our girl stayed behind to work, and this man said, ‘Not on my watch,’ and fell asleep across the table just to be near. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.”
Ryan snorted and stretched. “You people are so dramatic.”
“Tell that to your adorable sleeping face,” Tessa teased.
“Okay,” Raya stood, gathering her things. “Let’s get out of here before you start planning our wedding in the library.”
“Oh, we’re already halfway through the guest list,” Eli chimed.
As the group laughed and teased their way out of the seminar room, something warm lingered between the teasing. An unspoken thread that neither Ryan nor Raya tugged on just yet.
But it was there.
And neither of them minded.
- Writer
