8:30 pm

Outside of the room 106, fireflies span everywhere, dancing with the revealing stars of dusk. Some unfortunate ones would fall into the pool and dissolve their greenish light into the water; it oddly shines and reverberates this fluorescent gleam of fireflies. Even in August, the heat didn't die down a bit unlike how fast night falls. Between the cries of the crickets, only the sound of the water passing through the pool's filters. Chlorine evaporates in the air.

Without waiting, and without thinking, I jumped into the pool with my clothes on, her clothes on, but more seriously, with her in my arms.

I'm a fucking jerk.

As soon as I realized that, I held her tight and I thought: did I kill her? I killed her. I have killed her, haven't I? With such a frail body, such frail lungs, I must have killed her. Just in that briefest instant my head was underwater, I realized how thin her limbs and her life were. I could imagine her life floating up from her body like her dress in the water. I held her tight.

She coughed.

"…Dummy, *cough*, DUMMY, *cough*, DUMMY, DUMMY…!" and she coughed again while anchoring to my shoulders.

"OH GOD! YOU'RE ALRIGHT! SORRY, SORRY!"

She coughed for some time while I held her tight.

"…I… I could've died…" she started sobbing. "I could've died, Mr. Burglar…"

"Sorry, Aurora… Sorry, SORRY! I know it was stupid—so fucking stupid… FUCK—FUCK!"

"…You're holding me too tight," I didn't even realize that too before she coughed and sniffed and patted my back. "Just… don't do that again."

"I won't, I won't—I promise…"

Her tears blended with the chlorinated water. And so dumbly like that, I could've lost her. Why is human life so dumbly thin?