Naked

"And that concludes this chapter. The information regarding the next joint quiz will be posted on MS Teams, so please keep an eye out for that."

Irene sighs in relief as Ms Yanti's class finally ends. There's only so much thermodynamics she can handle in one sitting after all. She quickly packs her bags up and leaves the classroom to head home for the day.

"Irene, Irene!"

At the sound of her name, she turns her head to see Theresa, a friend of hers majoring in environmental engineering. Even though they were in different majors and faculties, they shared their physics and chemistry classes last year and got close to each other in the span of that year.

"Hey Tess, you done for the day?" Irene asks, putting her long, light brown hair into a ponytail.

"Pretty much! My last class is Introduction to Structures and the professor doesn't really give a shit about attendance anyway." Theresa says as she yawns. "Bandung's been quite cold these days huh?"

"I think the weather's just fine, better than two weeks ago at least." Irene answers as they both walk down the stairs.

"Oh, have you heard about the thing people have been talking about?" Theresa asks.

"What thing?"

"Y'know, the recent murder in the Physics department building."

"Wait, what? I don't think I've heard of it." Irene asks, her interest piqued from the sudden news.

"Well, I don't blame you for not knowing, really. The university is keeping it tightly under wraps, especially with the rumours going on surrounding it." Theresa cautions, fiddling nervously with her curly, black hair.

"What rumours?" Irene prods, wondering what rumour could be involved in a murder that people are afraid to talk about.

"That the killer isn't exactly human."

The sudden answer comes from behind them and the two girls simultaneously turn their heads to the campus's resident heartthrob, Kai Putra Irawan. He majors in environmental engineering as well, making him both Theresa's classmate and Irene's former classmate as well.

"What do you mean the killer isn't exactly human? Stop with all that nonsense, Kai." Irene says, rolling her eyes in irritation.

"Well, there have been a string of murders similar to the one in the Physics department building. A lot of people believe that the culprit is either a human who hired a witch doctor to do their bidding... or simply an actual ghost with great power." Kai explains as if that's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah right, things like that aren't real. Ghosts and paranormal stuff are made to keep children and adults in check."

"Now, now Irene. Keep talking like that and a ghost might just come to you for a not-so friendly visit."

"Okay, I think we should um... stop the arguing. Whether the murders are done by ghosts or humans, what matters is someone died and it'd be best to respect the deceased, yeah?" Theresa interjects, stopping the argument between Irene and Kai.

"You're right, Theresa. How impolite of me." Kai says with that swoon-worthy smile plastered on his handsome face. "Oh, I need to go. Volleyball practise starts in 15 minutes. See you tomorrow, Theresa, and pray the ghost isn't offended, Irene."

Kai laughs as he leaves the girls, going to the opposite direction of where they're going. "Annoying." Irene mumbles as she leads Theresa to the back gates of campus where it's closer to their homestays.

Kai Putra Irawan, campus's resident heartthrob and the person everyone either wants to be with or wants to be. Star volleyball player, top student in his class, has friends everywhere despite being an international student which has always had a bad reputation among regular students, with a handsome face to top. Standing at a solid 188 cm (6'2), upturned dark brown eyes, nearly flawless tanned skin, neck-length, straight black hair with a wave at the tips, and a good sense of fashion, he's bound to be the centre of attention and turns heads easily.

Irene doesn't like to admit it, but she may have felt a sense of rivalry with Kai since back in their first year. If someone were to ask her what her vision of university life was, it would be eerily similar to the one Kai is living through at this very moment. But, Irene quickly realised that due to the different circumstances surrounding their upbringing, it was bound to happen. She knew that if only Kai had been the one to go to the US instead, he may have struggled a little, but maybe not considering he seems easily adaptable.

"Are all Indonesians that superstitious to believe a rumour like that?" Irene asks as they continue heading towards the back gate.

"Um... mostly, I guess? There are some people who don't believe in the supernatural, but most people I know do." Theresa answers, pursing her lips. "Let's- let's not talk about it anymore, Kai just likes joking around though sometimes his jokes do get a bit... scary."

"Yeah, let's not talk about it anymore--" At the sound of her phone chiming, Irene stops her sentence and opens up her phone to see a notification from her extracurricular senior asking her to stay behind for a bit to help with her extracurricular recruitment details. "Actually, I don't think I'll be able to walk home with you today. Urgent extracurricular stuff I need to take care of."

Theresa frowns but nods in understanding. "Alright, you better order a taxi bike or something and not go back alone when it's too late, okay?"

"I will, I will, I promise."

Irene turns around after giving Theresa a wave and heads to the west campus centre where her senior asked to meet her, the distance between where she currently is and the west campus centre is quite a walk, but she pushes through anyway. She goes through the campus grounds, passing old and new buildings alike with most students being STEM majors and a few art and business students in the midst of them, doing their respective works in the campus's comfortable enough environment.

She finally spots the west campus centre that is usually accompanied by the sounds of basketballs and volleyballs not too far from it. Kai did mention volleyball practise was about to start earlier, so Irene concludes they might have just started. She pays it no mind and quickly enters the building, going down the stairs where the extracurricular activities have their own rooms. She heads for the one at the end of the hall, the farthest one from the restrooms and peeks in to see her senior working by himself.

"Irene! Thanks so much for coming on such a short notice." Her senior, Fahri says. "Shinta had a family emergency last minute and had to leave and I have some work that I need to finish by tomorrow. I have about two hours to spare and help, that's fine by you, right?" He asks, exhaustion evident in his voice.

"If you want to head back first, it's fine, Fahri. You sound like you need some rest..." Irene says, seeing the pitiful state her senior is in.

"No, no. I'll help so we can finish this quicker. I'll be able to sleep peacefully tomorrow anyway so it'll all be worth it!" Fahri beams.

"... No, I really think you should head back first and rest..." Irene mumbles as she takes a seat next to Fahri, scanning the work he's done so far. "You're barely functioning properly, it'd be better to get some rest in. I can handle this, it's fine."

"But--"

"No buts, Fahri. You go back to your homestay and rest!"

Fahri finally relents and leaves the room and hopefully campus as Irene finishes what her seniors have started. Though, maybe she should've accepted Fahri's help or at least called up her friends for help as the project is taking longer than she expected.

By the time Irene's finsihed most of the project, the time on her phone shows 9.30 p.m., far later than she planned to stay in campus for. The lights outside are dim and judging by the silence, it might be only her in the building at this very moment. Irene starts to gather up her things but stops when she hears the faint sound of a woman moaning a few rooms away from her, without the silence, she might have not heard it as it's just barely noticeable.

"Really? At campus?" Irene mumbles as she finally finishes packing her things.

Irene tidies the room up before walking out and locking it, turning to leave only to see Kai stalking in front of the only room in the long hallway with its lights on. His expression is barely visible, though she can see that his the corners of his lips are pulled down into a frown. She walks over to him, wanting to ask him what he's currently doing, stopping just far enough for him to hear, however Kai quickly turns and heads over to her, clamping her open mouth shut and putting a finger to his lips, signalling her to be quiet.

"Don't make a sound." Kai whispers into Irene's ear, his breath tickling the shell of her ear.

Kai's eyes motion towards the lit room and Irene follows, only to see something she never thought she'll ever see.