"The Prediction."
The university library hummed with the quiet, nervous energy of exam season. Students were buried behind towers of textbooks, fueled by coffee and panic.
But at the secluded corner table near the window, the atmosphere was different.
It wasn't the stress of exams that made the air heavy—it was the boy staring at the girl.
Alex sat with his chin resting in his palm, his expensive watch catching the afternoon light.
He wasn't studying.
He was studying her.
Opposite him, Noah didn't look up.
Her focus was laser-sharp on her phone screen, her thumb rhythmically swiping left and right.
She wore a simple, worn-out hoodie that contrasted sharply with Alex's tailored shirt. She looked tired, the kind of exhaustion that came from balancing top grades with a part-time job.
But right now, she wasn't working. She was on a mission.
The silence stretched between them, thick and suffocating, until Alex finally snapped.
"What exactly are you doing, Noah?" Alex asked, his voice laced with irritation.
"I'm finding matches for you, Alex," Noah replied, her voice maddeningly calm as she kept scrolling on her phone.
"Exactly. How can you do this to me?" Alex snapped. "I get it—you don't feel the same way I do. But this? You're crossing a line."
Finally, Noah paused. She didn't look up, but her finger stopped hovering over the screen. "How many blind dates have I actually arranged for you so far?"
"None."
"Exactly," she said, resuming her scrolling.
"So, since no one has bothered you yet, why stop me?"
Alex let out a frustrated huff, running a hand through his perfectly styled hair.
He looked around the library, indifferent to the glares of students trying to study.
To him, the world was something he could buy, but the girl in front of him was the only thing he couldn't afford.
He had skipped a gala dinner with his father's business partners to be here. He had ignored three calls from his family.
All to sit on a hard wooden chair and watch Noah try to give him away to strangers.
He watched her profile—the stubborn set of her jaw, the way her eyelashes fluttered when she was annoyed. It drove him crazy.
She was treating him like a charity case, a project to be managed, while he was ready to burn the world down just to hold her hand.
"If you're so adamant about being a matchmaker," he said, his voice dropping lower, "why not just be my date instead?"
Finally, Noah looked up at him. She let out a dry chuckle. "Alex, did you hit your head recently? Any memory loss?"
"Memory loss?" Alex looked confused. "What are you talking about?"
"I already told you. I don't like you," she said bluntly. "You're just fixated. You've been obsessed with me through our first two years of university.
If you keep this up, you can kiss your dream of being a professional doctor goodbye."
"My grades have never dropped, Noah. Don't change the subject," Alex countered, leaning in. "I can sense you're uneasy. Let's handle this like adults, shall we? Tell me the real reason."
"Adults? Right. We're in our twenties," she scoffed. She set her phone down and turned to him, her expression turning serious.
"Okay. You want the truth? You're rich, Alex. Not just well-off. Filthy rich."
She gestured between them.
"I don't want my story to become a drama. I prefer the quietest life possible.
I want to be a doctor, responsible for my own deeds, not a burden to someone else's dynasty.
I want to prepare for my own farewells in peace. With you... life would never be like that."
"I promise," Alex said, his eyes pleading. "I won't let our life become a drama."
Noah's fingers curled into a fist on the table. She looked at Alex—really looked at him.
He was beautiful in that effortless, golden-boy way.
He spoke of the future with such arrogance, such certainty. He thought love was enough to conquer reality. It broke her heart because she wanted to believe him.
God, she wanted to believe him.
But she knew better. She knew the weight of an empty bank account.
She knew the sting of judgment from people in his social circle.
She could already see the cracks forming before they even started.
She wasn't rejecting him because she didn't feel anything. She was rejecting him because she felt too much, and she knew that falling for him would be the most dangerous thing she ever did.
She took a shaky breath, forcing her voice to remain steady, even as her heart hammered against her ribs.
"Life is unpredictable, Alex."
"Exactly, Noah! So why fear a future that may never even happen?"
"No," she shook her head slowly. "Life is unpredictable in the worst ways possible. Imagine it, Alex. One day your family decides they don't like me.
They want you to marry for connections—connections I don't have.
Or imagine if I were to get pregnant, and suddenly communication breaks down between us, and I'm forced to leave."
She looked away, her voice trembling slightly.
"You know those clichéd stories we hear all the time? They aren't just drama for the sake of drama. They exist because they carry the hint of real life. I don't want you to wake up one day and regret ever meeting me."
The memory played on a loop in his mind, sharp as a blade.
[Present Day]
The library was gone. The sunlight was gone. The hope of youth in the twenties was gone.
Alex stood alone in the dark. The sky had cracked open, rain pouring down in violent sheets, soaking through his black coat, plastering his hair to his forehead.
He wasn't in a library anymore; he was standing in front of a cold, grey headstone.
He wasn't a desperate student anymore.
He is Doctor Alex, the renowned neurosurgeon. He had the money. He had a career.
But he doesn't have her.
The fear she had expressed all those years ago... it wasn't just paranoia. It was a prophecy.
And as the rain mixed with his tears, Alex realized the cruelest truth of all: no amount of regret, no amount of money, and no amount of medical skill could ever bring her back.
He cried, his shoulders shaking, the sound torn from his throat and lost in the thunder.
"You were right, Noah," he whispered into the storm, his voice breaking. "Life is unpredictable in the worst way possible."