➻ university!

In the humanities building, the murmur of a handful of voices—eager chatter and the occasional laugh—flitted throughout the sub-hallway leading to the lecture hall's secondary doors. The previous audio engineering class had long-since been over, its students well on their way to their next classes, the canteen, or anywhere else they needed to be before the top of the hour. Still, a few lingered, staying behind to take advantage of the question-and-answer session offered by the guest speaker: a local assistant engineer who'd spent the last hour or so speaking on various fake me out, silent props.

Sooah stood at the end of a small semi-circle, laughing along with a witty joke told by one student and fingers habitually nudging her loose glasses back in place. When it seemed that the conversation was winding down, the speaker took a quick glance at his watch and sent an apologetic glance to everyone. "I don't want to hold you all up, you should get going," he said before plucking a few business cards from the pocket of his blazer. He distributed each of them, encouraging future contact before bidding everyone adieu, and Sooah went on her way.

Eventually making her way out of the building, she in a sharp breath through her teeth as the chilly mid-winter air hit her despite the coat she'd slipped on just moments before. In the same beat, a gust of wind blew by and took the top page of her notes away with it. "Ah—!" she reached out to try and catch it, only for it to continue on, landing a couple of metres away.