About half an hour passes.
Skylar walks slowly toward an empty grassy area behind the dormitory. Her footsteps are hesitant, cautious, like she's not entirely sure if this is a good idea. The soft rustle of grass beneath her shoes mingles with the faint chirping of crickets and the whisper of wind. From a distance, the dormitory building stands quietly, its windows glowing like scattered fireflies.
A familiar figure sits in the middle of the open space, surrounded by nothing but moonlight and stillness. Julian Jiang. His back is slightly hunched, eyes gazing into the void as if the night itself might answer whatever's tormenting him.
Skylar gulps: "Will he forgive me...?" she wonders. "What if he lashes out again like before...?"
She presses her fingertips into her palms, trying to hide her trembling. Still, she steps forward, slowly closing the distance between them.
"Sorry," Julian says.
Skylar blinks. She's still a step behind him when his voice slices through the silence, low and heavy. Her breath catches.
"Huh?" she mutters, unsure she heard right.
Julian leans back onto the grass, looking up at the sky without turning to face her. There's something in his voice—part childlike guilt, part weary maturity.
"Sorry. About earlier."
Skylar slowly sits beside him, careful not to let her knees touch the damp earth just yet. She tilts her head, looking at the stars above.
"I'm sorry too," she says, almost in a whisper.
Julian pats the grass next to him: "Lie down."
Skylar peeks down at her uniform and back at him: "No."
"Why not?"
"It's dirty," she replies plainly.
Without warning, Julian reaches out and tugs her sleeve. With a yelp, Skylar falls beside him, hitting the ground with a light thud. Her eyes widen, but she doesn't move away.
The grass is cool. The stars are vast.
And somehow, it feels... peaceful.
Julian lets out a soft sigh: "I wish you could be more childish sometimes."
Skylar furrows her brows: "I am childish. It's you who's not."
Julian's eyes flutter open slightly, then drop closed again: "I don't need to be—"
Before he can finish, a small body suddenly throws itself over him. Julian lets out a startled grunt as a soft hand clamps over his mouth.
Skylar straddles him, her expression full of wild determination.
Julian's cheeks turn a faint pink. He stares at her, eyes wide.
"Don't say that! I'll make you as childish as every other teenage boy out there!" Skylar declares.
"Ahm on't eed!" (I don't need!) Julian protests, muffled behind her hand.
"YOU DO!" she yells even louder, leaning down.
Julian blinks up at her, baffled and vaguely flustered. There's a flicker of something—somewhere between confusion and awe—as he watches her eyes gleam under the moonlight.
And then he slowly, gently pushes her hand aside.
"Are you getting off?"
Skylar freezes.
She looks down, realizes where she's sitting, and immediately screams: "AAAAAAAAA!!!!"
Julian jumps, startled. In a panic, he waves his hands and covers her mouth: "Why are you yelling like that?! Are you crazy?!"
Skylar swats his hand away, glaring at him: "What the heck was that?! Can you NOT grab my mouth like I'm some loudspeaker?! You brute!"
Julian stiffens. The word stabs him right in the chest: "I... I didn't mean to. Sorry..."
Skylar turns away with an exaggerated huff. Arms crossed, cheeks puffed: "Hmph. I forgive you."
Julian blinks at her profile. There's a pout on her lips, but no real anger in her voice.
"Hey... you think the stars are pretty?" he asks softly.
Skylar lifts her eyes. The sky is full of shimmering lights, scattered like diamonds across a velvet canvas. She stays silent for a while, then slowly smiles.
"Yeah. I do. And I hope my life, after all of this... will be just as beautiful."
Julian turns his head, watching her: "It will be," he says.
He tries to smile. It's stiff, a little awkward—the kind of smile you practice in a mirror but never quite get right.
Skylar snorts: "Ugh. Industrial-grade smile again."
"What?"
"I told you, don't give me that manufactured grin."
"I did?"
"Well, I'm saying it now."
Julian exhales dramatically: "Fine. Next time, I'll give you a real one."
Skylar turns toward him with a sly smirk. "So all this time, you've been giving me fake smiles?"
Julian pauses.
One second.
Two.
Three.
"Of course not, dummy!"
Skylar bursts into laughter: "Haha! You're so easy to fluster! It's adorable!"
Julian flails, his arms suddenly uncoordinated: "Hey! I am not! Don't use that word on me!"
She laughs harder.
And then, in the quiet of the night, something magical happens. They both laugh. Not out of politeness, not out of sarcasm. Real, unfiltered laughter.
They laugh like kids. Like survivors. Like two broken souls that found one unbroken moment.
Maybe for others, laughter like this comes easy. But for Julian and Skylar, it's a treasure. A diamond buried in the wreckage of a storm.
And tonight, under the silent stars, it belongs to them alone.