Chapter Text
The life of a university student usually followed a very simple pattern: wake up in your dorm room, get ready for the day, drive to campus - either by public transport or with your own car - grab food in the cafeteria, meet friends, maybe discuss some homework over breakfast, head to class, either head to after school activities if you signed up for any or to the library to do homework with or without friends, eat dinner at the cafeteria or en route to the dorm, return to the dorm, take a shower to wash off sweat from being outside, finish remaining homework and then relax and finally go to bed. Rinse and repeat the next day.
Phukan’s life roughly followed that pattern. Except his mornings were usually a little bit more chaotic, with him trying to find the right colour of underwear, socks and cardigans to wear, depending on the day of the week. He’d always think about laying things out the night before but then he’d end up forgetting it and falling asleep.
But yeah, other than that, he was a normal student. An average young male, almost 21 years old at this point, almost 180cm tall (177cm but hey) with short black hair. He wouldn’t stick out in a crowd - if not for his coloured cardigans - and so most people would, and did, overlook him.
Unlike his best friends. They stuck out - in more ways than one. But in a good way, at least in Phukan’s opinion. It was one of the reasons why he liked them after all.
His friend Jin would be considered good looking and attractive and yet nobody approached him because of his personality. Jin liked to look and talk about the sky and the weather and often made ominous predictions that more often than not, would come true. So he had been branded as somewhat of a weirdo. But Phukan liked him because Jin was a very kind and gentle soul and the things he talked about were very interesting - to Phukan.
Then there was Tri, who was quite tall for a girl and carried herself with confidence but not arrogance. She was strong and steadfast and would always have your back. Next to her, Nalin, was almost the polar opposite, more petite in built and height and just overall cute. A person who was beautiful inside and out, with a warm heart and smile.
Next to them, Phukan was nobody at all. But that was okay. He’d gotten used to it. Things had always been like that. And he didn’t really mind. It made life peaceful. The downside might be that nobody had really shown any interest in him - romantically - but to be honest, neither had Phukan. He’d thought of people as pretty and nice or even more than that but he’d never felt attracted to anyone. So he didn’t really miss it. And because he was too normal and average and boring for the bullies to pick on, he’d never gotten into trouble.
It was a good life. He couldn’t complain about it.
Sitting down at the usual table with his bread of choice for the day and a bottle of sweetened tea, Phukan greeted his friends. “Morning!”
“Morning Phu! What bread did you get today? Strawberry? Chocolate?” Nalin smiled at him.
“Mh, I actually felt like something savoury today and got bacon and cheese.” Phukan admitted. It had been usual for him to choose something that wasn’t sweet in the morning but when he’d stood in the store his hand had just reached out to grab it.
“How rare. I wonder if something is going to happen today?” Nalin cocked her head to the side.
Phukan fidgeted. Yeah. He’d had a feeling as well. His underwear had gotten a hole in it. So he’d worn a backup pair. “Maybe. We should ask Jin.”
“He isn’t here yet. Which is also rare. He also wasn’t in his regular spot,” Tri pointed out. “The one where he says is the best vantage point to look at the clouds from here.”
“Now I’m sure something is going to happen today,” Nalin frowned. “Let’s just hope it will be something good and not some kind of bad omen.” She looked at Phukan, “Right?”
“Right,” Phukan nodded.
Jin appeared when they were already done eating. “Where were you?”
“The wind changed directions, so the clouds went a different way. Something’s coming.”
“Something?” Phukan chanced the question but it remained unanswered. He hadn’t expected an answer, so that wasn’t surprising.
For some reason Jin’s prediction sounded a lot more ominous today than it usually did. It only made Phukan’s feeling of unease even stronger. Something big was coming. Something big was going to happen. Maybe he should stop by the store and get some flowers on the way home. Having more lucky coloured items didn’t sound like a bad idea.
When classes started, the prediction and the sinking feeling were pushed to the back of Phukan’s mind as other things occupied his thoughts for a while. So it wasn’t until Phukan made his way to his car to go home that he noticed that the hallways of the university seemed to be abuzz with something. People were talking and looking around.
With curiosity and not in fear. So that at least was a good thing.
He still made sure to get himself some nice flowers on the way home, along with some dinner.
And his luck lasted just until he made it through the door of the dorm complex because behind him, all hell broke loose outside. Torrential rain and roaring thunder descended onto the city. The flashes of lightning outside hurt his eyes a little bit.
Phukan was glad to be inside and to be dry.
The same thing unfortunately couldn’t be said about his laundry. The weather forecast had said it would be sunny but well. Jin did say the clouds had changed directions. So maybe he’d been talking about this. While it was something bad - something unlucky - it could be worse.
So Phukan took in his laundry - nothing had been blown away, so that was good - and put it straight back into the washing machine for another short wash. He’d hang things up inside overnight. Maybe the air-conditioner would dry it out by morning even.
Re-heating his food while he changed into different clothes, Phukan finally went to sit down and eat dinner, while watching one of his favourite shows on his tablet.
He had just tossed away the empty containers when he heard a sound. At first he didn’t think much of it - this was a dorm, there was noise outside all the time - but then he jumped when someone clearly knocked on his door.
Worrying his lip, Phukan weighed his options. The day wasn’t over yet. Bad things could still happen. But maybe if he didn’t open the door they wouldn’t. And who knows maybe whoever was in front of his door would just go aw-
The knocking continued.
Well, no such luck.
Walking over to his door, he looked through the door hole to see what was going on on the other side. If it was just some weird kind of prank - there were still some hazing activities going on for the new first years after all - he wouldn’t bother.
However what he saw on the other side made Phukan-
For some reason he blanked completely and in the brief moment where his mind sort of became nonexistent, he seemed to have opened the door.
“You. You’re the one. The one I’ve been looking for!” The person on the other side said and Phukan found eyes looking at him. Straight at him. As if they were staring into his soul.
When his mind finally came back online, Phukan shook his head, “You must have the wrong door.” And then he closed the door in the handsome guy’s face.
His heart was racing. But not because he was scared. No. This didn’t feel bad. It felt good.
Maybe because the guy had been really handsome. Like seriously. And well, to be told that-
No. Phukan shouldn’t let his thoughts go down that direction. It would only bring him pain.
The guy had made a mistake. He was sure of it. He’d gotten the wrong door. It happened. The corridors of the dorm all looked the same after all and there were no names either.
There could just be no way that the other had been looking for him.
Pulling away from the door and making his way over to his bedroom, Phukan went to brush his teeth quickly before he crawled into bed and under the covers.
For some reason, his chest felt heavy.
“Don’t be such a dreamer, Phu. You know that’s all there is to it.” He told himself. “Dreams and delusions are just that. They won’t do you any good.”
A flash of lightning could be seen outside and then the thunder almost seemed to make the building shake. Phukan grabbed his favourite stuffed animal and hugged it close. He’d sleep and let that storm blow over. And then tomorrow will be a new day. A better day.
The storm was gone by the time Phukan woke up and went down to the parking lot the next morning, however the new day started like the previous one had ended.
With the handsome guy appearing in front of him.
“Nong!”
“Good morning, phi,” Phukan raised his hands to make a wai at the male from the night before. He blinked when a bag of different breads and a bottle of tea were offered to him.
“I’m sorry for what happened last night. I didn’t mean to scare you or anything.”
Ah. Maybe it had been a prank and everything after all. But it was still nice of the senior to check on him and even to apologise like this. Considering the other was a senior he really had no obligation to do it. So Phukan wanted to accept this as it came from the kindness of the other’s heart. And he’d been taught to return kindness with kindness.
“Oh,” Phukan looked up. “It’s okay, phi. You didn’t have to-”
“But I wanted to,” the other smiled and Phukan felt his heart skipping a beat when he saw the expression on the other’s handsome face. It only made him look even more handsome. “Nong-”
“Phukan. My name is Phukan,” he introduced himself. “Phi…?”
“Cirrus.”
“P’Cirrus,” Phukan nodded and then took the bag and bottle offered to him and made another respectful wai. “Thank you very much. But again, you didn’t have to. I was surprised but you didn’t scare me. It wasn’t the craziest thing I’ve seen in the dorms either.”
Then Phukan excused himself and made his way over to his car, saying he really needed to get going. His heart was still beating a little faster than normal but it was nowhere near how it had been racing the previous night. But well, according to his friends ‘talking to a handsome person will do that to you’, so Phukan chalked it up to that.
He caught a glimpse of Cirrus in his rearview mirror but as the other disappeared from his sight, thoughts about the senior also disappeared from Phukan’s mind. For the time being.
At that moment, Phukan hadn’t thought about things much. Meeting someone new wasn’t anything strange after all. Or significant. However, he would soon find out that crossing paths with Cirrus would have a huge impact on him and drastically change his life.
But that was something only future Phukan knew. Present time Phukan was blissfully unaware of what was still to come.