sweater paws || soobin

[7] - cold

I hadn't seen the sweater girl in math on Monday. I guess I had been subconsciously waiting for her to arrive, but she didn't. She was absent for all of math. I shrugged it off, however, thinking that it was okay to skip every now and again and she was probably just sick or something.

But then I saw her in the library later that day. I had a free period, so I decided to go to the library and study. I grabbed a few books and headed towards a table to sit and work at and that's when I discerned her sweater-enveloped presence sitting at one of them. Her hair covered her face entirely and from what I could fathom, she was shaking. Her whole being was trembling and I didn't know why.

I sat down next to her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, but I must've startled her for she winced. I retracted my hand apologetically. "Sorry. Are you okay? You're shaking."

"Yeah. Just cold," she answered quickly, her voice cracking and barely above a whisper. Her hair still hid her face and her head hung low, so I had no idea what expression was laced on her visage.

"You're...wearing a sweater," I pointed out.

"I know," she said, her voice still just as broken and scarce as it was before.

A silence fell over us and I could tell it wasn't the comfortable kind. It was the uncomfortable and awkward kind, where one of us was confused and the other was...indiscernible. I had no idea what she was feeling or going through.

"I have a question," I suddenly piped up. I actually had a lot of questions, but I settled on asking just one for now. She didn't give any indication that she was willing to answer or that she had even heard me, but I asked anyway, "It's boiling outside and you're always wearing a sweater with sleeves much too long. Why?"

She didn't say anything for a while. I thought she had fallen asleep since I couldn't see her face, but as I stood up to leave and give her some space, she choked out meekly, "I just get cold."

And I believed her.