Chapter 12
Early the next morning, Julie was jolted awake by the shrill, polyphonic ringtone from under her pillow.
Still half-asleep, she fumbled for the phone. Used to the seamless touchscreens of a decade later, her fingers clumsily mashed the buttons until she finally managed to kill the infernal noise. By then, she was wide awake.
“...”
After a brief, agonizing mental struggle, she accepted her fate. At least it wasn’t the dead of winter yet. Getting out of bed wasn’t absolute torture.
Moving as quietly as possible, she washed up at lightning speed, grabbed her textbook, and slipped out of the dorm.
Tania asked groggily from her bed, “What are you doing?”
Julie shushed her. “Going to the track.”
Tania mumbled, “You’re insane,” and passed back out.
It was insane. Terrifyingly insane. The Gaokao wasn't until next year, but midterms were staring her right in the face. If she didn't start cramming now, her parents were going to have simultaneous heart attacks when they saw her report card.
Stepping out of the dorm building, she stretched her arms over her head.
The boys' dorm wasn't far from the girls'. As she walked down the steps, planning to take a half-lap around the track before hitting the books, she froze. Walking down the tree-lined path toward her, wearing headphones, was Warren Gale.
“Morning, Warren~”
Julie hadn't expected to run into him this early. Looking closely, she realized that unlike her half-dead, forced-awake state, he looked incredibly sharp and refreshed.
It reminded her of the future. Bayview had hosted a city marathon once to encourage citizens to exercise, and Warren had supposedly run the entire thing and brought home a medal.
Even a decade from now, as a highly successful executive, he remained low-key and disciplined. When other guys smoked, he ran. When other guys drank alcohol, he drank milk. Even Gary Blacker had once joked that Warren had carved restraint and self-discipline directly into his bones, calling him a total psychopath.
Warren stopped in his tracks.
His first genuine thought was that his watch had to be broken. Why else would he be running into her right now?
As he stared at her in mild doubt, Julie was sizing him up too.
It seemed like whether he was eighteen or twenty-eight, his uniform of choice was always sweatpants—either black or gray. His sneakers were spotless. But what really caught her eye was the carton of milk in his hand.
It was a local Bayview brand, simple packaging, a design that hadn't changed in years.
Whenever she had bumped into him in the corporate breakroom, he was always casually leaning against the counter, drinking a carton of milk.
She hadn’t realized that her boss had been drinking the exact same brand for a decade.
Is it really that good?
Following her gaze, Warren looked down at the carton in his hand. For a rare second, he looked genuinely blank. Not overthinking it, he held it out to her. “If you want it, take it.”
If he had run into literally any other classmate today, he would have done the exact same thing. He viewed it as paying off the Kit Kat debt.
Julie hurriedly waved her hands. “No, no, it’s fine! I was just curious. You always seem to be drinking that brand. Is it really good?”
As a local, she had obviously had it before. Honestly, taking away the hometown nostalgia filter, it tasted completely average.
Had her palate just failed to grasp its brilliance?
Warren, a guy who could smoothly answer almost any complicated question thrown at him, was momentarily stumped. A flicker of unease rose in his chest. “It’s alright. Just a habit.”
That’s it? Just a habit??
Julie was slightly taken aback.
“Oh, I see...” If she hadn’t been hyper-fixated on memorizing her textbook right now, she definitely would have dragged her boss into a longer conversation to build rapport.
Instead, she offered a cheerful wave. “I’m heading to the track first.”
Warren gave a single nod, glancing at her before heading toward the cafeteria. The morning light was just beginning to break as they walked past each other in opposite directions.
It should have been a completely ordinary, passing encounter.
Except that after morning study hall, when Julie and Tania went to the campus store to buy drinks, Julie spotted that exact brand of milk sitting on the shelf.
She and Warren weren’t close at all. Because she was already fixated on the future version of him, discovering that he had maintained this exact habit for over ten years made her subconsciously believe there had to be a reason.
Basically, she had been successfully influenced.
Without a second thought, driven entirely by the mindset of “I need to see what’s so special about this,” she grabbed a carton and paid for it.
Since she was still completely stuffed from breakfast, she didn’t poke the straw in immediately. She carried it back to the classroom and casually placed it on the corner of her desk.
A few minutes later, Warren and Gary walked in through the back door. Walking down the aisle, Warren's gaze inadvertently swept over the desks and stopped dead.
If they hadn’t had that conversation this morning, he absolutely would not have noticed the milk carton sitting on her desk.
Gary nearly crashed into his back. “Did you get paralyzed or something?”
Warren didn't say a word. He continued walking to his seat and smoothly pulled out a piece of scratch paper, his expression completely unreadable.
Not far behind him, the sound of girls chatting and laughing drifted through the air.
