Randy woke up face-down on the floor. When he opened his eyes, he realized he hadn't slept in bed since last night.
He got to his feet and tried to work the stiffness out of his joints. But Randy's back ached terribly.
He hobbled toward the bathroom inside his boarding room, stretching both shoulders as he went. He still wasn't fully awake. It wasn't until he was brushing his teeth that he remembered what had happened to him the night before.
Staring blankly into the mirror, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. The bathroom was dark because he'd forgotten to replace the lightbulb.
Ah, how miserable it was to be forgetful.
The bathroom relied entirely on the light coming through a tiny gap in the window glass. Fortunately, it was already eight in the morning, and the sun was beginning to rise. The bathroom he occupied was dimly lit.
For some reason, he began to feel uneasy. Randy's heart pounded. He paused in the middle of brushing his teeth when he felt water splatter onto him from above. Even though ... he hadn't washed himself with water at all yet.
Randy looked up. Water splashed across his face again. This time, he was sure it had come from the bathroom next door.
The bathrooms in this boarding house were connected. Each room had its own bathroom, separated only by a wall that didn't quite reach the ceiling.
Even the water basins were shared. If Randy left his dipper in the basin for even a moment, it would definitely go swimming into the basin next door.
Again ... a considerable amount of water splashed against his face.
“Stop messing around, Di!” he yelled irritably. As far as he knew, Adi occupied the boarding room next door. Randy's room was at the very end.
Adi was his neighbor on one side. On the other was a wall that faced someone else's house.
Silence. The splashing stopped, too. Randy waited a moment, afraid Adi might pull an even nastier prank. But nothing happened. In the end, Randy started brushing his teeth again.
He had just rinsed his mouth when water from the bathroom next door splashed across his face again. Randy clicked his tongue in annoyance. He approached the plywood wall and knocked on it hard.
“Don't mess around, Di! It's not funny!” he snapped. “I'll get you back for this, you know!” Randy threatened.
As far as he knew, Adi was a quiet guy who didn't talk much. He never played pranks, either. So it was strange that Randy thought Adi was messing with him.
Knock ... knock ... knock ...
Instead of stopping, Adi knocked back. That kid was unbelievable.
“Di!” he shouted angrily.
“Heeheehee ...”
Thump!
Randy froze.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. The soft laughter rang loud and clear in his ears. For some reason, he suddenly remembered what had happened the night before—something “kind of” terrifying.
It was like déjà vu.
Slowly, Randy began backing out of the bathroom. The splashing still hadn't stopped. His heart pounded faster, the deafening beat hammering in his ears.
He began to feel uneasy.
Randy left his boarding room and looked at all the boarding-room doors lined up beside his.
Many of the residents were already coming and going that morning. Some of them were college students like Randy. The rest were workers.
He stared at Adi's boarding-room door, which was tightly shut. The light was off, too. Randy approached and tried the door.
Locked!
“Di!” he called loudly. There was no answer from inside, even after he called several times. On his last call, Mr. Rahmat—the resident in the room next to Adi's—appeared from behind his door. The man, who worked at a rubber factory, greeted him warmly.
“Adi went back home, Ran.”
“Went back home?” He repeated Mr. Rahmat's statement. His hand suddenly slipped off the handle of Adi's door.
“Yeah, yesterday. Totally out of nowhere. He said his mom was sick back home, so he hurried off. Didn't he tell you?”
Randy shook his head weakly. Mr. Rahmat then left him standing there, limp and exhausted. His legs felt like jelly. He couldn't move. His hand reached for the wall to support his body.
Randy glanced at his boarding room, whose door was slightly open. The memory of the soft laughter and the water splashing across his face came flooding back.
If it wasn't Adi ... then who was it?
That morning, Randy arrived at college looking listless and bleary-eyed. After what had happened—an experience that left him too afraid to enter his boarding room alone—he decided not to shower.
It was definitely a new experience. But it was better than passing out from fear.
As he walked toward class, Randy stretched both arms, which felt sore. The twenty-three-year-old man repeatedly massaged his shoulders. It felt as if he were carrying something incredibly heavy.
The classroom was already crowded when he entered. Almost every seat was taken except for a few in the front, which was exactly where students didn't want to sit.
And, as luck would have it, Randy got a front-row seat this time. His body had no energy for taking in a lesson, especially since the first class was taught by Miss Ria.
He ... hated English.
Randy walked toward the seat in the far corner at the front. Right afterward, the woman with waist-length hair—known as the youngest lecturer at Universitas Atmadja—entered the classroom.
Miss Ria wore a blouse and a calf-length floral skirt. Though she was still very young, she had managed to become a lecturer in this faculty. She was probably only two or three years older than Randy.
That was saying something, considering Randy had been unemployed for three years before entering college.
From her seat, Miss Ria scanned the students, looking at them one by one. It was something she always did before starting the lesson.
At first, everything seemed normal, just like on the previous days when Miss Ria taught. But for some reason, her gaze stopped on where Randy was sitting.
Miss Ria stared intently at Randy without blinking or showing the slightest expression. It was unusual, and it made him fidget.
Randy turned his head from side to side. His other classmates were probably curious about Miss Ria's behavior, too, because they looked at him with puzzled faces.
Randy had no idea what was going on with the English lecturer. Why was she suddenly paying attention to him?
Could it be ...
Because he hadn't showered?