It's been a while since Deen went to the dorms.
She doesn't normally go there since the girls normally are the ones to go to her apartment or look for her at the studios. One of the reasons why she doesn't go there is because the lobby is always occupied and its always noisy, some of her classmates are there too and she don't like small talks so she tries to avoid crossing paths with people she knew. The girls' assigned room is at the third floor and they don't have an elevator so she slowly walks the stairs to not tire herself.
She doesn't want to come here to be honest, but Tungsten wants her to check on Astra since she's been unresponsive to everyone's text and he can't catch her at work or to any of her classes. Jrey can do the checking easily since they're roommates but she's been busy at composing and producing new music for her finals and hasn't been at their dorm for long, only going there for some time to bath and Astra's not around when she's at their dorm. That leaves Deen to do the checking because Tungsten can't get into the dorm secretly, what with all the people at the lobby.
Deen can hear the music coming from the girls' room when she reached their floor. She silently gave her thanks to no one because she doesn't know where to look if Astra's not here since Tungsten looked for her everywhere already except the dorms. She used the spare key that they gave her that she never used and opened the door to find Astra blasting a song while lying down at the floor while singing with the line "But how could I hate her, she's such an angel. But then again, kinda wish she were dead." Deen frowned at her friend's drama and let out a sigh to not roll her eyes.
"You're a sight for sore eyes." Deen said after hearing the next line of the song and Astra hurriedly sat up upon hearing her. "How long have you been there?" She asks while holding her chest where her heart is. "Long enough to hear you singing." She said and went to sit in front of the other. She silently took the foods out of the bag that she's been holding and silently opened the boxes as Astra watch her with an open mouth. Deen held a piece of chicken and put it at the other's mouth causing her to break out of her reverie and hold the piece and eat it quietly. "Heard that you've been MIA lately, thought I was the only one doing that." She said while chewing her food silently. Astra scoff at that and aggressively bit her piece of chicken. "Trouble in paradise?" Deen asked when Astra stayed silent. "You know that you can talk to me anytime, right? Want me to beat Tungsten up?" She continued that made Astra roll her eyes. "You love the guy more than me. You won't beat him up even if I asked you too." She answered bitterly that earned her a frown.
"What are you saying? That guy irritates the hell out of me." Deen answered, suddenly conscious at how she treats her friends. "You say that now but he makes you smile more than me." Astra answered again bitterly. Deen's not a patient person, she never has been one and no matter how much she wants to roll her eyes and sarcastically answer her friend, she let out a breath to calm herself and try to understand her sour mood. "Did Tungsten did something wrong? He's actually the one who asked me to come here and bought these foods because according to him, you've been avoiding him for days." Astra made a sour face at this and stood up, going to her bed. Deen's about to do the same but then she heard Astra sniffing and she let out a silent sob that is heard because of the sudden stop of the music. Deen stops at her attempt for standing up and stared at her friend's shaking shoulders.
She doesn't know what to do.
She's never been the one to comfort someone. That's Jrey's job and Astra's too, not her. She normally just watches whenever one of her friends cry, letting Astra or Jrey hug each other when the other cries. She's the one who listens when they want to talk, not the giver of comfort, this is one of the reasons why the three of them are always present when one of them is having a hard time, because the other makes up for the one that the others is lacking, but Jrey's not around today so Deen's lost.
What should she do? She's not one for physical contacts.
She's about to say "Fuck it. Fuck projects." And call Jrey but Astra began breathing heavier so she uses her "Fuck it" to herself and went to hug Astra. She held her friend's shoulders and made her turn around for her to hug her comfortably. Astra understands what she's trying to do so she moved without a word and hid her face at her neck. She grimaced at how wet her neck and she swears that there's a mucus in there too because it's quite sticky but she didn't say word and awkwardly patted the other's back.
They stayed like that for a while, letting the loud music muffle Astra's sobs. She wants to ask what's wrong or maybe call Tungsten and pressure him to think about what he did wrong but she don't know how to start her questioning. Tungsten seems to be clueless as well when he went to the studio and ask for her even though he knows that she's currently having a class at that time. They never really bother each other when they know that they're in class so her first thought went to think of the worst things when Tungsten excused her from her class and nearly pushed him off the stairs when he asked her to check if Astra's in their dorm and handed her the bag of foods. Now that Astra's crying in her arms, pushing Tungsten must've been the greatest thing she would have done today. Her fingers itches to get her phone and call Tungsten just to yell at him.
She knows that it's bad, to just blame Tungsten in something that even he doesn't know the answer of but Astra isn't the kind to cry over petty things. Well, she cry over movies but that's the only petty thing that makes her cry in Deen's opinion. Astra's work or class is out of the question because she normally tell them if there's something wrong even if no one's asking.
She's already planning a hundred ways to hurt Tungsten when Astra sat up straight and used her blanket to wipe her tears and blow her nose. Deen made sure to show her grimace at her friend before reaching for the water bottle at the floor and handed it to her friend.
"Don't tell anyone about what happened today. Especially Tungsten." She said. "But why? He's clearly worried when he came looking for me. You should talk to him." She suggested but Astra gave her the look that says, "I don't want to talk so zip your mouth." Deen sighs at this and let Astra lie in her bed to sleep.
She stood up and went to get a new blanket and tuck her friend before fixing the mess at the floor and slowly went out, not forgetting to put water at the bedside table.
"Is she there? How is she doing?" Tungsten asks right after Deen took a step out of the building. Tungsten innocently look at her when she reaches for his cheek then a loud shout of pain is heard when Deen pinches his cheek so hard that it instantly turned red when she let go. "What's that for?!" Tungsten shouted caressing his abused cheek. He tried to reach for Deen's cheek for revenge but she slaps his hand so hard that he let another shout of pain. "You're cute, do you know that? Way too cute that I wanna pinch those cheeks so hard until they're red." She said and starts to walk away. "Just say that you have the hots for me and go." Tungsten said as he follows her. Deen made a gagging sound before punching him at the arm. "Stop! Geez, you're so brutal today." He said clutching at his arm and took a step away from Deen. "I'm just bored and you're the perfect punching bag today." She said before stopping in her tracks and look at Tungsten. "You should give Astra space for a while. We didn't talk much when I was at their room, she don't want to talk right now so we just have to wait for now." She said that made her friend more worried for his girlfriend. "She's been avoiding me." He whispers. "Us too. But if we want her to open up to us quickly, we wait for her own time. We don't want a repeat of her ignoring you for months when you tried to pressure her to talking when you guys are still friends." She advises and Tungsten made a face at the memory when Astra ignored him for months and even went as far as acting like Tungsten doesn't exist. "Okay. But if she talks to you guys then please tell me so that I'll know what to do before approaching her." He asks. They talk for a while before parting away and a promise of hanging out soon once Astra's doing fine and Jrey is done with her projects.
The next day a very excited Ryu came knocking at Deen's door at 6 AM. Deen grumbles while opening the door and let Ryu in to do his work while she went back to sleep in her room. She would help at the packing if only Ryu came later that day but no, he's way too excited to do his job and make it look good early in the morning.
When Deen woke up, she went to check on Ryu at her studio and suddenly had the urge to smack another human being when she saw the frame that Ryu bought. "Didn't I tell you before to never buy that frame because it's hella expensive?" she said frowning and crossing her arms in her chest. Ryu gave her a smile and a peace sign, "This one's a special gift so I'm gonna put the best frame."
"It's a good thing you never did that to the other gifts that I painted or else we'd still be a broke college students. Gosh, this is too early for me to handle." She said and went out to make coffee but before she is out of earshot, she heard Ryu saying "It's already 10 in the morning."
She's already half done with her coffee and is staring at the wall in her living room when Ryu came out with the painting and placing it near the door and went to sit beside her. "What took you so long fixing that painting? I better not receive some embarrassing complaints for that." She said that made Ryu giggle. "I didn't do anything, just stared at it for quite some time." He admitted. "That's disgusting. Your fanboy self is embarrassing too." She said. "You can't blame me. Ash is really handsome and you happen to paint him realistically." Deen just took a sip in her coffee and went back to being silent.
"Zirrius asked for your number by the way and I gave it to him." Ryu said after a while. Deen looked at him frowning, "How many times did you give my number to people?" she asks.
"Don't look at me like that, I only gave your number to him."
"You better not give my number to people next time even if they're your idols or something." Deen reprimanded. She's not mad, just acting like it bothers her just so she can hide the sudden loud beat of her heart. Ryu genuinely looks apologetic when he looks at her and was about to say something when she cut him off. "I'll let this one slide tho. But please ask me first next time. I really don't like people suddenly messaging me or calling out of the blue. Having the four of you constantly texting me is enough head ache." Ryu gave him a teasing smile at this. "Oh? Have you checked the guys? Suddenly interested in them?" she only shrugged her shoulders as an answer.
"If only you knew." she says in her head.
"Just go and deliver that painting since you want to give it personally, you opportunist." She said as she gently pushes Ryu. He squeals running to where he put the painting down and shouted a bye before she heard the door closing. She chuckles at her friend's action and finished her coffee.
She heard her phone vibrating at the kitchen where she left it last night so she stood up to go and wash her cup before checking the message.
"Want to check the museum with me next weekend?" the text reads sent by an unknown number. "This is Zirrius by the way." Another message follows. She smiles at this, of course she knows. No one would randomly text her to check out a new place except her friends and she knows it if it's them because it's always a food place. She replied with an "Okay. Just send me the location and I'll meet you there." She receives the address then and a "see you soon."
She would love to stay home today since it's one of her few free days and she's not in the mood to do some work but Tungsten's quite busy today and can't do his usual job to check up on the girls (the perks of having a rich friend, especially if he's dating one of your friends, and he wants to earn a brownie points from the said girlfriend's friends), he doesn't really need to do all of those actually but he kinda got used to doing it when he used to court Astra and get her friends' approval. And since its Deen's free day, she agreed to go and check on the girls. Astra already made it clear yesterday that she wanted to be alone so she texted her to not to forget drinking water and eat lunch or snacks in between work and classes. Her friend didn't really told her about wanting to be alone but they've known each other deeply to know what the other wants by their action.
After getting ready to head out, she went to their usual diner to grab something for Jrey, Tungsten told her that he'd be out of town so she didn't get him anything, a yay from her wallet.
When she's done ordering, one of her professor saw her and called for her so she reluctantly went to their table to say hi.
"This is Ezrah by the way." Her professor introduces his companion. "She'll be your new professor next semester and might be the one of the judges of your final exhibit before graduating." He continued. Deen smiled at her and introduces herself. The lady looks young and Deen doesn't recognize her, her professors are quite known artists in the country so she doesn't know why she could be a judge, she's not trying to judge her capabilities it's just that she's a new face and looks young to be their judge. "Oh right! You probably don't recognize her but she's an amazing artist in her country so the school asked her to come and teach for a year." Her professor said after sensing the confusion in her. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. It's just that you look pretty young to be one of our final judges." She quickly apologizes. "It's fine. I get that a lot but I've been painting since my younger years so I got a lot of experience, enough to teach you soon." Ezrah says that Deen's professors follows with an "a prodigy of her generation." He brags.
They talk for a while and when her orders came, she said her goodbyes to her professors. Ezrah gave her a smile then and something akin to realization crossed her eyes when her professor called her by her complete name, a habit of her professor whenever he says her bye to Deen.
Deen doesn't want to stay for long with Jrey's food so she brushes her observation off and went to see her friend.
She brushed it off now, not really thinking much of what her new professor would bring to her soon. And if only she paid attention more to her, she would have noticed the necklace she's wearing, the necklace that she gave to someone a few years back.