1 Meteors Descend on a Lovely Night
A shooting star.
Brighter than the rest.
She squinted and shielded her eyes with her arms. Its light overwhelmed her sight,
.
.
.
.
.
It was coming right at her.
Searing her vision and bathing everything in its brightness.
Was this how it all ends?
Everything turned dark and cold after that, only the memories of how mundane her last hours had been stayed lingering.
It had been Friday night for Chan Lee. Looking out the window, she could see the soft glow of the moon behind the billowing clouds. It was a pale comparison to the lights ever present in an urban city, especially at night. Fighting back a yawn, she forced herself to pay attention on her professor.
She couldn't wait for this lecture to end already.
"Alright class, I'd like to give you an assignment—"
Groans erupted within her class before the professor shushed them and continued. "It's quite a short one, you guys only need to read chapter four: Introduction to Meteorology on our textbook." He gave them a tired smile. "We'll have a discussion of your learnings by Monday, okay? You're all dismissed, have a good weekend!"
She sighed, scribbling down on her notebook to make sure she didn't forget about it. Once she was done, stuffing her things in her bag she glanced at the exit. Her classmates streamed out like a school of fish, she would wait for them to leave first. Not exactly fond of the idea of squeezing in with everybody else to go out.
"Hey, so where are we off to tonight?" A loud male voice asked.
She didn't need to look behind her to know who it was, Hua Zhao. She could imagine his lips curled up in a grin—
"Man, we should get some drinks! Hey teach, want to join us?" an even louder voice asked their professor who was packing his papers into a suitcase. It was Bo Ling.
"Why don't you kids go home!" Professor Mo waved at them goodbye, joining the students who went their way.
She blinked at the word 'home.' She was aching to get home already and rest, between movies and television series she'd get her assignment don—
"Geez, it's so boring at home. I want to eat dinner, let's go to this new restaurant downtown—"
"Zhao, why don't we head to a karaoke bar? There's drinks and food!"
It must be nice to be able to go out with friends—she blinked and snapped out of it. She wasn't eavesdropping, they were practically announcing it to the entire room with how loudly they were discussing it. She shook her head and glanced back at the door. The crowd of students thinned so she should get going now too.
"Hey, you!"
She froze. Don't look back.
"Chan Lee right?"
And that was her.
She reluctantly turned around to face the group of friends, "Uh, yes?"
"Got any plans for the weekend?" Zhao asked her. A friendly smile, which struck a stark contrast with his rogue-like appearance, glowed brightly on his face.
"...staying at home."
He lifted a brow, "Well, uh, that sounds relaxing."
She nodded. "It is, thanks. I hope you guys have fun." She made her quick exit before they could say anything else.
* * *
Why did she say something like that? Stupid!
'They were just being nice to me...' She silently decided while she fished out her keys. 'Maybe it was only him.'
The others had given her odd looks when she talked with Zhao. It was as if they had been shocked to see that she had been there the entire time.
She walked inside her small apartment and slipped off her shoes. Why was she even getting worked up over it? She walked over and sank into her bed. A thought slipped through her mind.
Maybe they were planning to invite me? She laughed. Who was she kidding? But even if they did… she would have refused. It was a waste of both time and valuable resources. Also known as money.
She looked at her wall clock, it was nine-thirty in the evening. Her stomach grumbled. "I should have gotten something at that convenience store."
Scolding herself, she reached for her phone. She glanced down at a pop-up, which, for some reason, was talking about a meteor shower tonight, instead of more useful things like rain. Rolling her eyes, she swiped the notification away and went for her usual food delivery app.
"Ah, I'm blowing my budget… but it's the weekend, and I'm too lazy to go and eat outside." She scrolled down food stores before deciding on a classic rice meal.
"Okay!" She put her phone away and shut her eyes. "Food gets delivered in half an hour, I should get changed… and after I eat, I'll get my clothes. They should be dry by now."
Living in an apartment meant a lot of the facilities were shared by the numerous residents. They had the laundry room on her floor, just beneath the rooftop. It was situated for convenience on air-drying their clothes. The landlady rented out to various tenants, from a single tenant like her to a small family cramped in a room.
* * *
Chan Lee rubbed her stomach in satisfaction, glancing at her empty takeout box. "Well, that was a good meal. I'll gather my clothes, and then…"
Stifling a yawn, she got up from her seat and made her way to the rooftop, a laundry basket in hand.
The night sky was dotted with stars, but their light seemed frail and ephemeral under the brilliance, man-made radiance of gaudy neon signs, screens and billboards, each of them more meaningless than the next.
"Pollution," she muttered and grabbed for her shirt from the clothesline.
"What was that?" A male voice asked.
She flinched as a bedsheet in front of her was pulled away. It revealed a familiar figure. Han Jing.
"Did I scare you?" He asked, his lips twitching slightly.
"You almost gave me a heart attack," she sighed loudly. "You're too old for silly pranks."
He chuckled and tossed the sheet into a basket very much like her own. "My bad, you were gazing at the skies too much. Are you looking for aliens or something?"
She rolled her eyes, gathering more clothes into her arms. "No, there's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be seeing much unless we have a telescope lying around or head over to an observatory."
"Ah, such a shame th—" He stopped, looking away from her.
"Yeah…" her attention focused on the white underwear in her hand. Wordlessly, she dropped it in her basket. "Gee, it's like you haven't seen any female undergarments before."
"Still!" His face was red as he lifted his basket, turning away from her. "You shouldn't be just draping them for everyone to see. Bye!"
He marched back downstairs, a soldierly cadence infecting his steps. His silhouette cut a stiff shadow in the weak light of the stairwell landing, forcing Chan Lee to bite back a smile.
She tossed another white piece of cloth into her basket, and then eyed her vicinity. There were at least a dozen pieces of underwear hanging around besides hers for him to be embarrassed about. "Well, I guess this is why a guy like him still lives with his family."
It didn't take too long for her to finish collecting her belongings. Wiping the sweat off her brows, she caught her breath and stared at the sky. If she squinted her eyes, she could make out some of the stars twinkling in the sky.
"That's Venus, Little Dipper...and uh, I should look up books on astronomy some—"
It shot out of the sky.
A streak of light.
Her eyes widened, "Woah."
And then another one flew past it.
Meteors.
Then the next ones came along.
The sky was soon lit up by the heavenly fireworks.
Chan Lee put her basket down and fumbled her shorts for her phone. She needed to record this—
A shooting star.
Brighter than the rest.
She squinted and shielded her eyes. Its light overwhelmed her sight,
.
.
.
.
.
It was coming right at her.
First there was darkness swirling all around her, devoid of anything but the inky blackness. Then there was pain. A searing, blistering agony that forced her eyes shut. Tears ran down her cheeks, but at the very least, she was still alive. A miracle, considering that what looked like a freaking meteor had just barreled down onto her frail form.
It was this pain that was clear evidence that she was still very much alive. Gravel, rough and sharp, brushed against her skin as Chan Lee opened her eyes, grunting and wincing from the sheer effort of doing so.
Groaning, she sat up and clutched her head. What had happened? Did she blackout? She didn't seem to have any injuries. A coldness permeated the air that drew her attention...
...and met someone else.
Clouds billowed around the pair, alight with a fey glow. There, in front of her, a stranger stood quietly, his face impassive and unreadable. His blue eyes scanned the area, his gaze drifting from left to right...stopping when it fell on her.
"C-Chang'e?"
Their expression wavered as he immediately moved towards her. With a hand reaching for her, the thick mist dispersed as they suddenly keeled over, collapsing.
A wave of panic rose through her chest, "Oh crap! Where's my phone—?!" Her phone had been unceremoniously dumped onto the floor, probably from the collision with whatever that had been."Holy moly, okay no crack. Woah, thank goodness you're alright." She unlocked her phone and ran her fingers for the emergency hotline.
She tossed her gaze to the person, alien—?
He was still on the floor, completely unconscious. Her nerves pulsed as she stared at him, what would she say when the paramedics came?
Oh you know, he crash landed here on a shooting star—what was that? She didn't go on a trip to Jupiter or Mars. You know, he actually seems fine? No blood trickling or pooling around his head.
Who was she kidding? He could be having some kind of concussion right now!
