1 The Missing Woman

Life is a mysterious thing. At first, it was a strange yet not-so-bad experience. You're glad that you were born. You have experienced many failures. But your parents told you that you could start again. Then, in the next chapter of your life, you've experienced the cruelty of reality. Tragedy hit you. Your loved ones, especially your parents, die. You fought with your lover, and most of the time, you're struggling financially. You question everything. From the nature of the world to the god you worshipped, and finally, your very existence. It's such a bizarre thing to experience. You started to wonder why we're living in this world. Why are we here? What's our purpose? Happiness? Perhaps. Reproduction for the human species to survive? Maybe. From another perspective, there's not much point in living. We all die—and that's a fact; we know that, yet, when the time comes, we're afraid of leaving this world. You might even say that life is but a preparation for death. Then, is death the answer to everything? We don't know. We couldn't find an answer in our world, so we raised our heads and directed our sight beyond Earth—stars, galaxies, planets, meteors, black holes, etc.; perhaps, the answer lies in the stars? Yet, the moment we directed our eyes beyond space, what greeted us was our insignificance. We're a mere speck of dust in the grand scheme of things. The size of the universe is something beyond our tiny human brains could comprehend. Yet we didn't stop. The vast distances of space did not stop us from peering through our telescopes in search of meaning. At some point, we directed our attention to the tiniest things—atoms, and we found another world beyond what we thought was the smallest—subatomic particles. Each time we found another discovery, we're reminded of our insignificance and experience the grandness of the universe. Who created the universe? Who is the being behind everything? God?

* * *

Rufus' favorite place to kill time was at the rooftop of the library building. Though many people frequent the library, very few knew of the place. It's so obscure that janitors even forgot the whole floor. Even the wired fence that needs reparation had long rusted. A bit of force is all it takes to tear it down. Currently, aside from him, there should only be at most six people who would come to this place from time to time. Rufus knew all of them, yet, right now, there's someone whom he hadn't met before. It was a woman.

At the edge of the worn-down fence was a hole. Seeing that there's no one else around, it is evident who is responsible for the damage. There's no other explanation on why she would do this. Her intention was as clear as day—suicide.

"There's no going back if you jump."

Rufus's voice awoke the woman who was about to end her life. She creased her forehead and turned around. "Who are you?"

Rufus saw her face. Her eyes had a tinge of red, and beneath her deep, black eyes were huge eye bags. Though she wore a haggard expression, it didn't diminish her beauty. "I'm your classmate in Data Structure by Mr. Rommel. Room 205 every Tuesday and Saturday. Maya Cure, right?" He paused and continued, "Well, are you going to jump or not?"

The woman named Maya stepped back, and indifferently looked at Rufus. "I remember now. You're friend with that loud and annoying, quasi-intellectual man."

"Quasi-intellectual? Aren't you a rude one? Aric was there to learn and learning means to engage in a fight with the professor. Anyway, why don't you jump now?"

The muscles of Maya's face twitched indiscernibly. "And why should I do what you say?"

"I've never seen a beautiful woman fall to her death before." Rufus clapped his hands. "Right! Why don't you tell me your story first before you jump? I'm sure after your death, everyone would want to know your story. I'll pass on your stor—ah!" Maya didn't let Rufus finish his sentence before throwing a fist on his face.

Rufus hadn't expected this woman to assault him in broad daylight. And not to mention, without any hesitation. Rufus struggled as he lay on the ground. Maya was on top, raining punches on his face. He truly underestimated her. This arm and leg strength...is she an athlete?

Maya stood up and gave one last kick on the man's head. She didn't seem bothered that she had beaten someone else. On the way down, she encountered a bespectacled person, Aric, who had watched the whole scene through the slit of the door.

Aric smiled at Maya but was ignored. Seeing that she didn't bother with him, he rushed to his unconscious friend and took a few pictures of his bruised and black-eyed face. Aric shook Rufus and lightly slapped his face. "Hey, you okay? Were you having a lover's quarrel? I didn't know you were dating Ms. Cure."

Rufus opened his eyes with difficulty but only managed to open the right one. The other eye was black and swollen. "That damn bitch. I was trying to use reverse psychology or something that I saw on Twitter…it worked indeed, but I'm now messed up."

"Eh? You're actually dating her?"

"As if. That bitch was trying to jump to her death. It hurts. Well, it's kinda my fault too. I deserved this. But that bitch…"

"Let's go, tell me the details later."

* * *

Other than the people making fun of Rufus' face, the next few days' classes passed by unremarkably. And because he was only classmates with Maya Cure on a single subject, he didn't see a single glimpse of her. The thought of revenge didn't appear in his mind. Though his intention was good, he might've made it worse. Eventually, Rufus saw Maya again, and unexpectedly enough, the latter apologized.

"I'm sorry. You don't really mean what you said, right?" said Maya. A few days had passed and, her expression was still the same. She seemed to have become thinner.

Rufus tried to smile, but his slightly swollen face prevented him. "No, it's my fault. You don't have to apologize."

"Does it still hurt?" asked Maya, concerned.

"Nope, it doesn't," said Rufus. "You should worry about yourself first. Are you properly eating? And those eye bags, do you have insomnia?"

"I'm having trouble sleeping is all."

Rufus took out his phone. "Here's my number, if you need some help or someone to talk to, call me."

Maya stepped back and glanced at him. "Eh? Okay… Here's mine as well." She took out her phone and gave him her number. After the two exchanged contacts, Maya bid farewell and hurriedly left.

Just as Rufus was about to leave, a voice came from behind. "Eh? I didn't know that you were friends with Ms. Cure, Rufus."

"What's up, Mark?" greeted Rufus. But in his mind, he cursed. Of all people, why has this person shown up?

"What's up your ass! You exchanged numbers with that Maya Cure. You do know a lot of guys court her, right?" Mark grinned. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone if you answer one question."

"And the question is?"

Mark sneaked to Rufus and whispered, "So what's up with you and Maya? You two are dating?"

Rufus's face twitched, he forced a smile. "No way. You do know she's out of my league, right?"

* * *

Two weeks passed by, and during that time, Rufus would meet with Maya at the rooftop. At first, He felt uncomfortable talking to a beautiful woman alone. But when he remembered how this woman beat him up, her innocent image in his mind shattered. The content of their conversations was often random. They talked about the school, the people, their lives, politics, culture, technology, etc. As tempted as he was, Rufus didn't ask why she was suicidal. He decided to wait for her to bring it up. But in the end, Rufus indirectly probed her during their talks. He didn't manage to find anything.

"Strange, she's not here?" Rufus took out his phone and re-checked the date and time. "She's not coming, huh? Should've at least informed me." He decided to wait for her. After thirty minutes of fiddling, Rufus pocketed his phone. He felt lost. His gaze swept around the empty floor. When had this rooftop become so spacious? He contemplated for a while before deciding. "Fine. I'll find her myself."

Though Rufus and Maya talked a lot, he had no idea where to find her. He planned to meet up with Aric, who has many connections. The first thing he did is to ask around the campus. Aric doesn't have a one-stop place where you could find him like an NPC. He's always going around from one building to another.

"Hey, have you seen Aric?" Rufus asked a bystander just outside the faculty room.

"TechAric? Yeah, he was with Irene near the women's dorm."

Rufus thanked the person and made his way to where Aric's at. While on the way, he thought about Maya. It just occurred to him that all this time, he was not the one leading the conversations—it was her. For some reason, he instinctively felt something was strange. His mind was about to wander off when a voice called out to him.

"Going home already?" Aric looked at Rufus before his attention went to the laptop on his lap. By his side was a pretty woman with light brown eyes. It was Irene.

"You're getting thinner and thinner, Rufus. I bet I'm stronger than you," Irene jested.

"This is the result of going for a course I'm not interested in," Rufus replied gloomily.

"Oh? Then what are you interested in?"

"Hm, let me think…" Rufus placed his hand on his chin. "Right, you're friends with Ms. Cure, aren't you?"

"Ms. Cure? Who?" she asked.

"Eh? Maya Cure. Your friend."

Irene raised a brow. "Maya Cure? Who's that?"

Rufus squinted his eyes. During these past two weeks, he knew Maya was friends with Irene. She mentioned Irene from time to time, and he confirmed this with Aric, especially the person in question, Irene. "You're kidding, right? You don't know her?"

"I don't."