Chapter 1- Change is good…right?
“Jin…” The voice that spoke these words were still a bit unclear as Jin Cheng woke up from her daze, the cold wind that blew through the small crack in the window biting at her nose from the chill. She closed the car window and looked at the documents in her hands, her mind still consumed by her own thoughts.
“Xiao Jin-“ Mother Cheng looked back at Jin Cheng with a slightly worried expression on her face.
Father Cheng looked in the rearview mirror and scoffed, “See- she can’t even hold a proper conversation with you, how do you think she’ll be fine living on her own in a place as big as X City?” That was a rhetorical question. Jin Cheng knew that but she interjected anyway.
“Mom, I’ll be fine, I was just thinking…there are plenty of people who leave home at this age anyway…” On the outside it sounded like she was talking to her parents but she mostly said this to reasure herself, as she’s done only a hundred times today.
Her heart was restless as she looked out her window at the busy city, her thoughts unknown.
16:00pm- {[CIUX] Chinese Independant University of X City}
“Have a safe trip back!”, Jin Cheng hollered behind her as her silhouette shrunk into the distance.
She didn’t look back, not even once or she might have cried and begged her parents to take her back with them. She pushed the negative thoughts down to the bottom of her heart and instead took big strides as she aproached the CIUX University gates, decisively turning off her phone. Her luggage was heavy so as she made her way towards the registration desk she would stumble every few steps but no one came to help her.
“Everyone here looks so peaceful…in their own little world”, Jin Cheng wondered if she would be the same after a she got used the place. She still felt a pang of guilt, leaving her friends and little brother behind. Jin Cheng took a look at her reflection in the black screen of her phone. One after another, tears started to fall on the blank screen, her vision blurring. When she blinked her vision would clear for a moment before it was blurred by more tears, “I’m sorry for leaving you Xiao xiao…” *No, brother wouldn’t want me to be sad* she shook her head and wiped the tear soaked screen with her sleeve and approached the registration desk.
Jin Cheng smiled awkwardly at the receptionist as she came to an abrupt halt at the desk, “Hi, I’m Jin Cheng, I’m new here.” She handed the receptionist her documents for registration and smiled gently at the woman, “I’m here to register for a dorm.”
“Ah…I see, a new student” The receptionist smiled back and sorted through a few documents and handed her a file and key. “This is your dorm key and everything you need to know about CIUX is in this file.”
“Thank you Miss, have a wonderful day!””Same to you dear…” Jin Cheng quickly scanned through the file and looked for her room number, “Ah there! Room 169” She burried the file under her arm and rushed to her dorm hoping to get there before her roommate. She was pleased to see that her roommate wasn’t there yet so she decided to apply the ‘First come; first serve’ rule and chose the room on the right, setting her things down and taking in her surroundings.
“So this is college life…..boring as expected…it’s also way too quiet in here. Xiao xiao would have livened this place up nicely.” She smiled gently and took out her speaker. She scrolled through a list of songs that he prepared for her a few days prior and connected her phone to the speaker. Jin Cheng cranked up the volume so that it was loud enough for the whole apartment to hear and grabbed her hairbrush, pretending that it was a mic. She would dance around the whole room and sing along, a lot of memories surging through her mind.
On the other side, outside of the dorm apartment stood a tall woman exuding a cold air frozen in place as she listened to the laughter inside. The hand that was about to turn the handle twitched and retracted slowly. “A noisy one…”, the woman then walked away calmly….never having opened the door again.
Jin Cheng fell asleep soundly, having the best nights rest she’s had in a long time. Maybe it was the effects of emotional strain more than the physical strain that drained her and let her sleep right through the night. This was the first time in years that she’s been able to fall asleep without her pills. *Mom would be proud*, Jin Cheng thought as she looked at the bottle with the label she’s so familiar with, Sleep_Away. It was a pill that was especially prescribed to insomnia prone patients such as herself. She would often have to take these pills to make her fall asleep but she would still wake up now and then during the night. She didn’t know why but she felt like she wouldn’t be needing the pills for a while. As she thought this, she tossed the bottle into her drawer and got dressed.
Jin Cheng yawned and poured herself a glass of warm milk just like she does at home. “Huh..the door’s closed”, she narrowed her eyes as she scrutinised the door that was previously wide open. “I guess my roommate came in while I was asleep. I should probably go say hi…” Jin Cheng tilted the glass and downed the last bit of milk. She quickly put the glass in the sink and ran over, hesitating before her knock finally landed on the door.
[Knock knock]
The only thing that greeted her was the echo of the knocks as silence continued to engulf the apartment. “I guess she already left…a strange one.” She shrugged and swung her bag over her shoulder as she left, the door closing with a click behind her.
For a while there was only silence but if you listened closely a faint sigh could be heard from behind the only closed door in the house. A small smile tugged at the corner of the woman’s lips as she sat by her desk in silence.
