The bell rang, a clean chime dropped into a still pond of hallway air.

Third time, maybe the fourth; not one student drifted by here—a tiny miracle, like snow refusing to fall.

Hedi let go, hands unhooking like leaves slipping from a branch. No one can hold forever, not under this cold sky.

“Wait...”

“Whining won’t work. We’ve got things to do.” The words clipped like dry twigs.

“Just a little longer.” Her plea hung like mist.

“No—way—” Hedi struggled, each elongated syllable like boots pulling from mud. “We’ve held long enough.” The rest jammed in her throat, a river dammed by Selina’s iron-clip hands.

Selina answered with a soft gripe, like wind nudging shutters. “In a bit, I won’t get to hold you.”

“Only on campus,” Hedi said, a rule like frost on stone.

“I’m cashing in a lifetime of hugs now!” Her vow flared like a spark.

“Don’t exaggerate. Let go.” Her tone smoothed like calm water.

“No!” The refusal snapped like ice.

Hedi bit her lip, brows drooping into a bent eight, a little bird weathering sleet. She didn’t shout or thrash, yet her deep breaths rose and fell like waves, and her quick glances flashed with a stubborn ember.

“Let go.” Her voice was level, a small boat skimming a glassy sea, leaving no wake.

Selina stood frozen, a statue in snowfall, staring long at Hedi in her arms like a keeper at a hearth.

Around them, the air moved wrong, like a stream running uphill. Bare trunks lined the path like ribs, and battle-scar snow-scars weighted the world with winter.

“Let go... then I’ll let go...” Selina tried to smile, a thaw that didn’t come.

“Am I spoiling you too much?” Her question rose like a pale moon.

“No.” The denial fell like a pebble into sand.

Silence. It pooled between them like ink.

They were wordless for about fifteen seconds, time ticking like sleet on eaves.

Hedi rubbed her eyes, hands diving into her pockets like swallows into eaves. She stared up at the bloated gray clouds, bellies swollen like whales.

“After this... no more hugs?” Her voice drifted like smoke.

“If it’s like today again, then no.” The boundary stood like a fence.

“It won’t.” Her promise was thin as reed grass.

Hedi sighed in a strange voice, a reed flute out of tune. She gave Selina a light hug, then let go fast, wary of those clamp-strong arms.

Turns out I do spoil her too much, she thought, a soft confession like breath on glass.

Show a pitiful face, and my heart goes dull as a blunt knife. The rule of no cuddling at the academy was my own broken ice. Time to refreeze it.

In empty places, we’ll do secret things, like fireflies under reeds with no one watching.

Thinking and walking, Hedi moved toward the library, steps slowed like rain easing, hoping to walk abreast. Selina matched her with the same drift, keeping two or three steps away like a kite on a short string.

“Oh, so you’re giving me the silent treatment now.” Hedi teased, a cat batting a thread.

“No.” The word sat cool as frost.

“Really?” Her doubt tilted like a willow.

“Really.” The insistence stood like a stake.

“Fake?” The poke flicked like a pebble.

“Really!” It rang like a bell.

Hedi sped up, a sudden gust that forced Selina to quicken too. Then she stopped dead, a wall of air, and Selina bumped in blankly like a moth to glass.

“You say you’re not sulking, yet you almost knocked me over.” Her laugh rippled like a brook.

“I’ll knock you over!” It came bright as a spark.

“Don’t. We already hugged long enough.” Her warning was a palm held like a leaf.

“Not that,” Selina pouted, lips a little bow. “You scolded me!” The complaint flared like a match.

“I didn’t.” The denial was soft as ash.

“Really?” The question pecked like rain.

“Really.” The echo stayed steady as stone.

“Fake?” The challenge hissed like steam.

“...Fake.” The surrender dropped like a leaf.

Selina roared, a prehistoric beast cracking mountains—“Ugh—ah—”—voice ripping like thunder. She wrapped Hedi’s slender waist, and for a breath Hedi braced for a clean German suplex, like a gull diving. Luckily, it was a spin, a whirl of skirts like leaves.

They toppled together, dizzy, like two tops run down. Limbs lost their weight, then shrank and stretched at random, as if a funhouse mirror had quietly rewritten their bodies.

“So dizzy... you almost made me throw up.” Her complaint wobbled like a candle flame.

“I’ll make you throw up!” Selina shot back, cheeky as a fox.

“I didn’t scold. If I must measure it—” Hedi’s thumb and forefinger pinched closer, leaving the tiniest gap like a moon-crest. “Only this much.”

Selina said nothing. Plans unfurled in her head like maps. She pictured the scene at home, ignoring tears and pleas, moving like a cold machine, carrying out a wordless, unbroken punishment that peaks in bliss like tides flooding.

Again and again. Countless times. Let the body twitch on instinct like a struck harp.

Then the Professor would shed her usual sternness like a coat and look up with tender, tear-glossed eyes, a lake in moonlight.

Her lazy drawl would climb higher, a true girl’s voice like a skylark.

Even if she fainted, pale as paper, I wouldn’t stop! she thought, a vow carved like ice.

Make those clear words blur, then babble, then baby-talk, like a river turning to mist.

“Your face...” Hedi shivered without meaning to, a chill like a draft under a door. “Did the temperature drop?”

“Today’s colder than yesterday.” Selina’s tone was snow-flat.

“I thought—” Hedi began, a cloud snagged on a peak.

“Thought what?” The hook hung like a fishline.

Hedi shook her head, unable to say it, a shadow she couldn’t name. It felt like something terrible was prowling close, a storm dog padding the ridge.

She searched her mind and found no warning sign, only the skin-prickle of cold wind, a tremor mistaking itself for danger like reeds rattling.

“Aren’t you returning books? If we don’t hurry, class starts again.” Her reminder chimed like a bell on a gate.

“Right.” The answer clicked like a latch.

Hedi rose and brushed dust from her clothes, little clouds like flour. She walked quick toward the library, footsteps stitching the path like needles.

The hall was wide, its diffused light soft and even like milk in a bowl. Oak floorboards answered underfoot with a low echo, a drum in a hollow log.

Tall, dark-brown shelves reached the ceiling in ranks like pines. Heavy tomes stacked in each row, leather covers breathing faint ink, mixing with the paper’s dry scent like rain on soil.

Hedi returned the last batch of books to the library girl, who today was reading a classical novel, pages floating like lily pads.

“About the transience you mentioned,” the girl said dully, a voice like a wooden spoon. “We got new books. Might be what you want.”

“Academic papers?” Hedi asked, a net cast into deep water.

“Possibly.” The answer landed like a small fish.

Hedi nodded and took the spiral stairs the way a spiral shell winds. Her gaze crossed the broad atrium like a bridge. She saw the second-floor reading area laid out in tiers, and study rooms behind glass like tiny worlds set in the library’s body.

“Who’s that girl?” Selina asked, wary as a cat in wind. “An administrator?”

“Who else—my secret lover?” Hedi’s tease flicked like a tassel.

“Professor!” Selina hissed, name sharp as sleet.

“Quiet. This is a library.” Her hush fell like snow.

Selina lowered her voice and repeated, “Professor,” a whisper coiling like smoke.

“You—your possessiveness is a bit much, isn’t it?” Hedi smiled, a crescent behind clouds.

“Don’t joke about that!” The protest struck like a thrown stone.

“She’s a third-year here. When she’s not in class, she works as an admin,” Hedi said, a simple line like a path. She cut Selina a glance. “There’s nothing between us.”

“You never told me.” The sulk pooled like rainwater.

“Because it’s not interesting. When I tell you academy stories, I pick the fun parts, don’t I?” Her tone was a fan, light and teasing.

“That’s what you say.” Suspicion clung like burrs.

Hedi sat in a hidden corner, jaw tilting slightly like a sundial. “My bad. I just wanted to see your reaction—”

“You still can’t joke like that!” Selina’s rebuke snapped like a twig.

“My fault.” The admission was quick as a nod.

“Perfuntory!” The charge bit like a midge.

Hedi tugged Selina’s hem, an invisible thread drawing her close like a tide. In the hush of the stacks, Hedi left a kiss on Selina’s smooth forehead, a petal pressed on porcelain.

Then her fingers traced Selina’s ear, reading its shape like Braille, mapping it like a crescent dune.

“Will that do for an apology?” Her whisper brushed like silk.

“Barely.” The answer edged like a knife dulling.

“Good girl~~” The coo fell like warm rain.

“No more jokes like that.” The boundary drew like chalk.

“Such a big jealous cloud,” Hedi said, settling Selina on her lap like a lapful of sunlight. “I like you. From start to finish, it’s you, and only you.”

Selina fell silent, thoughts knitting plans like spiders spinning. Jokes or scolding, I don’t care, she vowed, a drumbeat under skin.

Get your apology ready! Her resolve gleamed like a blade wrapped in velvet.