"I hate that old man. Why is he always doing this? It's just 8:45 and the door's already locked, damn it," complained one of the numerous students locked outside the lecture hall. There was a literal crowd of them.
"I overslept," said David, who had just arrived. He stared at the rowdy crowd of students cursing. There were also those pleading at the windows and doors of the hall, but David knew better than to join them. Instead of compassion, what those people usually got was the attention of the lecturer, and that never ended well.
"Argh," he rubbed his eyes in annoyance and let out a breath he'd been unconsciously holding from the moment he caught sight of the crowd. "What do I do? What do I do?" he muttered, pacing back and forth while looking around.
It was hopeless. Students were everywhere he looked. Some were even headed back—there was always going to be the unserious lot, though that number wasn't as much as usual given everyone already knew what would follow if you failed to sign your name on the attendance list.
David found somewhere to sit to rest his sore legs. He had practically run a kilometer from his area to find a cab. Not only that, but the campus ground itself was ridiculously huge, so making it to this very lecture hall had been hell.
David took close to an hour just waiting, hoping that maybe, just maybe, something would touch the lecturer's heart to open the door and let those who remained in. But it was no use. No use at all.
"I need to sleep," he made his final decision. There was no use hoping anymore.
David was never the optimist. The few times he had tried to be optimistic ended in disappointments. Nowadays, he kept his expectations low. At least that way, it wouldn't affect him much if things went south.
"The library?" he wondered, then realized he wasn't with his student ID. In a hurry to make it on time, he'd left that in his apartment. "Can't go to my usual spot too. Those guys could be there again," he rubbed his chin, thinking deeply about where he wouldn't be disturbed.
"Wait," his eyes widened slightly. He looked to the far south from where he sat. There was a huge four-story building. Within those rooms was an empty, never-used lab—one he'd chanced upon a few days ago. "Could it be empty?" he wondered.
There was only one way to find out, and that was to head there himself.
The journey wasn't as tormentful as running all the way from the gate to the Natural Science Department hall.
"Good morning," he would occasionally hear, then simply wave back, or if the person seemed to know him, respond with a "Morning" in kind.
A few floors up and he was at the last floor. He headed for the fifth room. When he got there, he tried the knob and, just like the day he discovered it, it was open. David smiled in satisfaction, pushing the door open. It made a squeaking sound, giving way to the lab. He walked in, closing the door behind him so no one would notice it was being used. He took out his rag from his pocket, but just as he was about to wipe down a spot, he stopped dead in his tracks.
"Huh?"
There was someone else in the lab.
A young woman in a pure white sports jacket. She was wearing a black cap with the words "Bad Girl" embroidered on it, her lustrous long chestnut brown hair spilling out from the side of the cap and behind her in a waterfall. Her eyes were protected behind ridiculously huge circular transparent glasses that reached halfway down her cheeks. She had a black blouse on, which could be made out from her halfway-zipped jacket, and a knee-length black skirt.
"Wow," David blurted unconsciously. Even if those comically huge glasses blocked out most of her face, what he could make out was enough to leave him awestruck. She was beautiful.
"Um... I... I didn't know someone was here," David stuttered.
She tilted her head, not even a single word in response.
In that instant, he realized he had no reason to explain himself, and he felt even more awkward.
"I'll just... stay over there," he said, taking a seat relatively far away from where she sat. However, she was literally seated on the table facing forward, so no matter where he sat, he was going to see her.
"What am I even doing? Am I a child?" he shook his head to clear his mind.
Cleaning the chair and table, he sat down and brought out a red hardcover book he'd taken from the library a week ago and was to return by the end of this week. "Three Stages of Psychology" was the title printed on the front cover. Flipping to page six, he began reading.
Occasionally, his eyes would tilt up to look at her. She was still sitting there, arms folded, just staring ahead strangely.
"What's the time?" he wondered, pulling out his phone. 9:01 AM. There was still a lot of time before work. He turned it off and kept reading, flipping through the pages whenever he was done with the previous one.
It went on and on until eventually, his eyes drooped shut and he slept.