LOGINOlandria's POV Sleep refused to come because every time I closed my eyes, the memories started over again. With the first thing my brain insisted on replaying being Karl's face. She'd pushed open the hospital door carrying a paper bag and a bottle of juice, taken exactly three steps inside, then stopped so abruptly I was surprised she hadn't dropped everything. Her eyes had moved from Ernest...to me...then to the embarrassing lack of space between us. If embarrassment could kill, I'd have died right there in that hospital bed. I could still hear the dramatic sigh she'd let out before saying, "I leave for fifteen minutes." I had genuinely considered asking the nurse to sedate me. Instead, Karl had looked between us with the expression of someone watching two hopelessly oblivious idiots finally catch up with reality. She didn't tease me nearly as much as I expected. She simply reminded me that my discharge papers had been signed and
(Olandria’s POV) I should not have opened the forum. That thought repeated in my head approximately six seconds after Karl handed me my phone. “Maybe don’t check anything stressful yet,” she warned while peeling another orange beside my clinic bed. Which, naturally, guaranteed I checked immediately, because apparently self-destruction was one of my hidden talents. At first, everything looked normal. Missed chats, workshop updates, a reminder about project reviews. Then I saw it. Anonymous Post \ Finalist Review Controversy? My stomach dropped instantly. Karl noticed my face change almost immediately. “…What?” I didn’t answer. I just tapped the group post open with numb fingers instead and that left my entire chest hollowed out. There weren’t names directly mentioned, but everyone was reacting to the controversy attachment sent. “She always gave me weird vibes.” “Not surprised honestly.”
(Ernest’s POV) I couldn’t focus. That became obvious twenty minutes after leaving the clinic when I found myself standing in the middle of the photography studio holding the same camera lens for an embarrassingly long amount of time without actually doing anything with it. “…Bro.” I blinked slowly. Dante, another photographer I'd gotten acquainted with recently, stared at me from across the room with open concern and mild judgment. “You’ve been holding that upside down.” I looked down. The lens was, unfortunately, upside down. “…Right.” Dante burst out laughing immediately. “Oh, you’re finished.” “I’m not doing this with you today.” “ I saw you carrying a girl to the clinic and now you can’t function.” He leaned back against the table dramatically. “Cinema.” I ignored him, finally setting the lens down properly before dragging a hand across my face. My body still felt tense in a way I couldn’t shake off. Because, every
(Olandria’s POV) The first thing I noticed was the smell of antiseptic, clean linen, medicine, and something faintly herbal lingering beneath all of it. The second thing I noticed was the pounding in my head. I frowned slightly before even opening my eyes. My body felt heavy, like someone had replaced my bones with wet sand overnight. I could hear the faint tapping of rain softly against glass in a slow steady rhythm. For a moment, I couldn’t remember where I was. Then fragments came back all at once. The river, the phone call, the panic, me falling. My eyes opened immediately. It was met with white ceiling, bright lighting. I glanced around and noticed a curtain partially drawn beside a small clinic bed, and Karl? The second she realized I was awake, she practically launched herself toward me. “Oh my God, finally.” I blinked slowly at her while she fussed over me immediately, adjusting my blanket, touching my forehead dramatically like she
(Olandria’s POV) I woke up to Karl staring directly at me.Not in a normal way either. She looked like she’d been awake for a while just… waiting. Her chin rested against her palm, curls spilling across the pillow while morning light slipped through the curtains behind her. The second my eyes opened fully, she grinned. “…So,” she said. “How was the kiss?” I nearly rolled off the bed. “Oh my God,” I grabbed the blanket and yanked it over my face immediately while Karl burst into laughter beside me. “That good, huh?” “Karl.” “That means yes.” “I hate you.” “No you don’t.” She kicked my leg beneath the blanket. “Now move. I’ve been waiting to interrogate you.” I groaned loudly into the pillow, which only encouraged her further. “You ran away, didn’t you?” I rolled my eyes at her and she gasped dramatically. “YOU DID!” “I panicked!” “You fled the scene of the crime!” she yelled back. I pulled the bla
(Olandria’s POV) I didn’t stop walking until I reached Karl’s door. Actually, walking was generous. I was somewhere between speed-walking and fleeing a crime scene. My hoodie hung half off one shoulder because I’d thrown it on too fast, and my heartbeat still hadn’t recovered from the disaster I’d just willingly participated in. Kissed! I kissed Ernest! No. Worse! Ernest kissed me and I kissed him back like I’d been waiting for it. Heat rushed straight back into my face at the thought. “Oh my God,” I whispered to myself for what had to be the fiftieth time that night. The hallway lights glowed dimly overhead while rain battered the windows at the far end of the corridor. Thunder rumbled again outside, softer now but steady, like the storm had settled in for the night. Unlike me. I knocked on Karl’s door too hard and too fast. There was a long pause. Then I have another knock because c
It's the weekend and three days since I've been breathing the same air with Mr. Smug face. I took a day off from work to arrange myself into my new space. I stacked my sketchbooks on the small shelf by the door, color-coded because order was the only thing keeping my brain from short-circuiting w
“I’m homeless,” I muttered, lazily transferring my anger absentmindedly onto the paper I was holding. We just finished our class and for the first time, I wasn't able to even grasp what was taught, which was unusual considering my mind is always preoccupied every now and then with my final thesis
I should have just worked on that forsaken toilet when the issue was milder, if I had, I wouldn't be in this bloody mess. But there I was; halfway down the hall, arms filled with sketchbooks and rolled canvases, my brain still locked inside the charcoal-smudged anatomy sketch I had abandoned in S
By the time I reached the café, my thoughts were tangled and loud that it overpowered that of the annoyingly loud coffee machine. The familiar scent of coffee grounds and baked sugar wrapped around me like a different kind of survival. “Lan!” Marcus, my very loud co-worker, called from behind







