Ren woke up with sunlight brushing against his face and his phone barely hanging onto the edge of his bed. He blinked slowly, still half-caught in the dream of the night before or maybe it wasn't a dream at all. The memory of Tulip, laughing as she crouched beside that little boy, handing him her half-eaten sandwich like it was the most natural thing in the world... it lingered like the aftertaste of something warm.
He reached for his phone instinctively, checking his messages before anything else.
"You're up early," Tulip had replied.
Sent at 7:08 AM.
No emojis. No double texts. Just those three words, and somehow they carried more weight than anything else he'd read that morning.
He stared at her message for a moment longer than he needed to, thumb hovering over the keyboard.
"Not really early. Just... couldn't sleep."
He erased it.
"Good morning. I was thinking about something and thought I'd text."
Deleted again.
He finally settled on a simple:
"Couldn't sleep. You?"
Sent.
Seconds turned to minutes. Ren turned the phone face down and lay back. Why did it matter? She was just... a friend. A chaotic, annoying, unpredictable friend who ruined chess games and asked weird questions like "do you think clouds get jealous of balloons?"
And yet...
He reached for the phone again.
Tulip: "Sleep was mid. Dream was good tho."
Ren: "Oh yeah? About what?"
Tulip: "You."
He froze.
Then a second message appeared.
Tulip: "jk lol. u wish."
Ren let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding half-disappointed, half-relieved. That was Tulip. Always two steps ahead in sarcasm and four steps behind in saying how she really felt.
Still, he smiled. It was impossible not to.
The morning passed in slow pieces: brushing teeth, skipping breakfast, getting scolded for skipping breakfast, and then finally logging into the study group server. But Ren's mind wasn't on his assignments. It hovered somewhere between Tulip's typo-riddled texts and the softness in her eyes yesterday.
He scrolled through his chat with her again.
At the top, beside her name, was her profile picture a cartoonish doodle of a tulip wearing sunglasses.
Underneath it: "Level 23: Chaos Mage | Dreamer | You Still Owe Me Ice Cream"
He tapped on the chat box.
Ren: "You still want that ice cream?"
This time, her reply was instant.
Tulip: "Only if you're buying. And only if there's sprinkles."
He felt the corners of his mouth lift again.
For once, he didn't overthink it.
Ren: "Deal."
Later that night, after their playful texting and some normal day events (classes, a few messages exchanged, etc.), Ren's back in bed and this time, he can't sleep again. Not because of anxiety, but because he's thinking of her. Maybe Tulip sends him a spontaneous voice note or meme. Maybe they play a chill late-night mobile game together.
Then, just as he's about to sleep:
Tulip: "You know what? You're like... safe."
Ren pauses. That one hits different.
He replies after a minute:
"So you're saying I'm boring?"
Tulip: "No. I'm saying you're the kind of person I'd want to sit with on a rooftop at 2am and just... exist."
Ren reads it again. And again.
And instead of overthinking it for once he replies:
"Same." Then puts the phone down and smiles at the ceiling.
Outside his window, the night felt softer somehow like the world itself was holding its breath.
Maybe this was what it felt like, to fall for someone slowly. Not with fireworks but pixel hearts and rooftop dreams.