To Each, Their Own

The campus library was quieter than I remembered.

Sunlight spilled through the tall windows, casting long, lazy streaks across the worn wooden floors. Dust floated in the beams, dancing like tiny constellations in the stillness. The soft rustle of pages turning and the distant hum of the world outside were the only sounds left to fill the space.

I sat in the same corner I always had. The same calculus and chemistry books sat stacked in front of me, untouched. Same titles. Same authors. Same ridiculous attempts to make sense of a world that rarely made sense.

Funny how this used to be the place I went to whenever I wanted to disappear. Not like I was ever in the spotlight to begin with. I just... didn't wanna exist in a place that didn't acknowledge my existence. For me, that was pretty much everywhere except here.

Suddenly, a soft sound broke the quiet. It was something like a gentle pop.

I looked up.

Chloe stood there with one hand around a bubble tea cup. In the other hand was a straw she used to pierce through the plastic cover. She was still as soft-spoken as ever, hiding behind those gentle eyes.

"S-sorry, Aikami," she whispered, leaning over me. "Did I disturb you?"

"No, not at all. What's up?"

"Here" She handed the cup. "I got you some bubble tea. It's roasted oolong. Is that okay?"

"That's perfect. Thanks, Chloe."

"Yep!"

She settled into the seat across from me, opening a book she clearly had no intention of reading, occasionally sneaking glances at me over the edge of the pages.

I let out a quiet scoff, shutting my book. "Something you wanna say?"

"No..." she mumbled, handing me a fortune cookie. "Just admiring you."

"W-what the... You could be a little less awkward about it."

"Hehe."

Moments later, the quiet shattered.

"Found ya!"

Lana dropped her bag onto the floor with a dramatic thud and flopped into the chair beside me like it was a couch in some dive bar.

"How's it going, Lana?" I said.

"Nothing's going, but that's exactly the problem. This campus is so boring. No assassins, no war, not even a fistfight over scarce bread. How do you mortals survive in such a bland environment?"

She reached over, shamelessly stole my bubble tea cup for a sip, and ruffled my hair like I was some kind of pet dog.

"Could you not?" I muttered, swatting her hand away.

She just grinned. "What? You didn't seem to have an issue with Alice giving you a sweet little kiss on the cheek."

"W-what are you even saying?! I did have an issue!"

"But you liked it, didn't you?"

"I..."

Then, as if on cue, the final chair slid out smoothly, and Alice gracefully lowered herself into it.

"Don't mind me, Aikami," she smiled. "Answer as you were going to."

"You being here doesn't really help me..."

"Heh. I never claimed that it would. Well?"

They all looked at me with those expectant glares, anticipating an answer they already knew would come.

I mumbled. "Why am I being put on the spot like this...?"

"Because you like us," Lana chirped.

"Because you're attached to us," Chloe added quietly.

"Because deep down," Alice purred, leaning her chin onto her hand, "you'd be lost without us."

I opened my mouth to argue, then sighed and slumped back in my chair.

"...Fine. I lose."

That earned a satisfied hum from all three of them.

I don't know when it happened. When their chaos became my comfort. When their voices became the thing I waited for. When this all started feeling like home.

Lana kicked her feet up onto the table. "And? Watcha gonna do about it? Gonna kick us out and go back to your broody loner routine?"

I glanced at them. The warmth in Chloe's smile, Lana's reckless energy, Alice's cool confidence. And suddenly, the idea of them not being there felt… unbearable.

I shook my head. "What good would that do me?"

"Well, you'd finally get to have some time to yourself," Chloe said. "Weren't you always saying how we intruded on your everyday life?"

"It's not like you won't just break in even if I did kick you out."

"Hehe, I don't think I know what you're talking about, Aikami."

"Yeah, sure." I leaned back and let out a sigh. "Besides, even if I tried to get away, I'm sure I'd get dragged back in an instant. What was it you said before? I belong to you now, right?"

Alice smirked, leaning forward and jabbing a finger against my chest. "That's right. You'd do well to remember that."

"Why'd that sound like a threat...?"

"Hmm... I suppose in a way, it was a threat. You thought your life was meaningless before us, didn't you? Then you'd best prepare yourself, for dancing with fate... is perhaps the most dangerous thing you can ever do."

I chuckled. "Well, lucky me, fate is on my side."

"Ho~? I wonder about that."

With that, the four of us just sat there in the mid-afternoon glow.

No big declarations. No sparkling photo ops. Just scattered books, a couple of bubble tea cups, and the weightless kind of silence you only get when you're with people who matter.

Chloe absentmindedly doodled little flowers in the margins of a textbook. Lana leaned her chair back dangerously far, a toothpick between her teeth as she hummed some old tune. Alice quietly read through a book she clearly had no interest in, occasionally peeking over the edge at me.

As for me, I just… let it happen.

I used to think I was meant to be alone. That fate had already decided my story before I ever had a chance to write it myself.

This life of mine… it's a mess. But it's mine. And for once, I'm not hanging by a thread anymore.