One of my roommates at the dorm was a competitive person.

Whenever I studied, she would be anxious.

If I opened a package, she would ask me what I was buying. She would also pressure me to tell her my whereabouts.

There was even a time when I turned in my bed, she suddenly opened my divider curtain and asked me if I was secretly studying.

I was literally going to go insane, but our nonchalant counsellor told me that I was overreacting.

After that, I failed to secure a postgraduate position, but she managed to study overseas. When she returned, she became my supervisor.

She told everyone she met that I was a very competitive person, and she kept assigning a lot of tasks for me to do. In the end, I died from overworking.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw her get into my bed.

I recorded the sound of pages flipping and turned on the night light. I played the recording for the entire night.

If she wanted to be anxious and lose her sleep, so be it!

The dorm was extremely quiet. Even a small squeak sounded very loud.

I sat up from my bed and turned on the night light. Then, I watched someone slowly draw the divider curtain around my bed.

Through the small gap, I met her gaze.

It was my roommate, Jane Smith.

She saw that I had noticed her, so she drew the curtains completely.

“I heard you tossing and turning, so I thought that you were secretly studying behind our backs!”

Right after I heard that familiar phrase, I finally believed that I was reliving this day.

The last time I saw her peeking, I screamed from fear, and she explained herself in the same way.

She even said, “I’m just concerned about you. See, you’re still turning on the night light at 2 a.m. You’re hurting your eyes, or worse, ruining your health!”

However, I had nightmares the entire night. The next day, my other roommates reminded me not to disturb them at night.

I wanted to explain myself, but Jane lied to the others. She would claim to care for me and enjoy spending time with me.

After that, I realized whenever it looked like I was studying, she would interrupt me.

This was because she would get anxious if others were better than her. Yet, she was not willing to work hard.

I almost went insane. I feared how others would perceive me, but I had no money to rent a place alone. I could only request for a room change from the counsellor.

However, the counsellor rejected my request. “Why are you being such a bother? Who would have so much free time to observe your every move?”

In the end, I failed to secure a postgraduate position due to my poor mental health. After a few years of working, I was still a junior employee. Meanwhile, Jane studied abroad and became a supervisor when she returned.

She told everyone in the company, “Rue Anderson and I knew each other from college. She was such a competitive person back then, so she must be the same now!”

My seniors at work heard that and took advantage of me. They gave me a lot of tasks, and I became incredibly sleep-deprived. As a result, I passed away from being overworked.

Seeing that I was not replying, Jane glanced over at my bed. “You’ve already sat up. Don’t tell me you’re preparing to study?”

I stared at her expressionlessly.

“If I said yes, would you feel better about it?”

She smiled sheepishly and climbed down the bunk bed’s ladder.

I took out my phone and recorded a five-minute clip of me flipping the pages of a book. Then, I placed my phone on my bedside and played the recording on repeat for the entire night.

Following that, I put on my earplugs and eye mask to fall asleep.

If she wanted to be anxious and lose sleep, she could be my guest!

The next morning, I woke up at around 8 a.m. after a good sleep. I was in a great mood.

I quietly freshened up and packed my bag, as I planned to visit the library.

The divider curtains opposite me suddenly opened.

Jane looked tired with her dark circles. “Rue, where are you going?”

I put on a fake smile and simply answered, “I’m going to save the world.”

After that, I took my bag and left her behind in the dorm.

The first thing I did as I headed to the library was turn off my phone’s location.

Then, I opened a shopping app and bought more secure curtains for my bed and the desk underneath my bunk bed.

No one in our dorm had such curtains.

When we first started college, all of us who stayed in the same room discussed this.

Jane had a look of disdain. “I don’t like those curtains. They’re so stuffy, and they’ll limit your space.”

I still wanted to install those curtains, but she told me, “Look, we just met. We need to spend more time getting to know each other. If you install those curtains, others might think that we have a bad relationship when they see it. Besides, our walkway’s already quite narrow. With those curtains, it’ll be even narrower. It’s going to be hard for us to walk!”

Our two other roommates agreed with her, so I followed the majority.

However, I did not care about them anymore.

I focused on studying in the library for over an hour.

Suddenly, I felt a shiver run down my spine.

As expected, I saw Jane looking around between two shelves.

I wanted to push my books onto the seat nearby to make it look like it had been taken. Unfortunately, it was too late.

Jane immediately sat beside me as she panted. “Rue, you’re too competitive. It’s so hard to find you!

“You were studying the entire night, weren’t you? I heard you! I even saw you turning on the night light…

“We’re roommates, so why are you hiding this from us?”

I stared at her expressionlessly and used my pen to point at the sticker on the table. It said “No speaking.”

She did not understand what I was pointing at. She thought I was indicating that I wanted to continue studying.

“Hey, I know you like to study, but it wouldn’t hurt to get some rest! Don’t tell me you’re so competitive that you skipped breakfast just to study?!”

I turned around and ignored her, as I wanted to focus on my book.

Jane took out her phone and gasped. She then started to tidy her hair.

“I was rushing out today, so I didn’t even manage to put any makeup on. I didn’t expect someone to flirt with me on AirDrop!”

I glanced at her phone. Someone had AirDropped her a photo.

Jane glanced at her surroundings. No one was looking up, so she shyly accepted the request.

It was a photo of a pig.

[Damn it. Can you shut the hell up?]

She then fell silent.

Jane kept glancing at what I was doing. When she saw that I was watching some lectures online, she took out her tablet too. But since she could not talk in the library, she could not stand it and left.

Thanks to that person who shut her up, I was able to study in peace for a few hours.

I did not care about the high shipping fees, so my new curtains arrived in the afternoon.

I took my parcels and returned to the dorm. The room was not soundproof, so I could hear them talking as I reached the door.

“Oh, my. Why is she so competitive? Can’t she just enjoy her college life?”

“That’s right. She had the lights on all of last night, and this morning, she went to the library to study. No wonder she always gets the highest score in our year! But even if she’s still young, she can’t torture herself for such a long time!”

“Whatever. She doesn’t care about her health, so why do you care about it so much?”

I opened the door with my key and walked directly to my place.

They immediately went quiet. But Jane could not maintain her silence when she saw my two parcels.

“Rue, what did you buy?”

I simply said, “ Mosquito nets.”

Jane did not believe me. She picked up my parcel and saw for herself.

“Rue, why are you changing your curtains? This is the type that surrounds your bed from all sides!” she said loudly.

I took down my previous curtains and prepared to put on the new ones. “Didn’t we agree to not get these privacy curtains?!” she shrieked.

I glanced at my other roommates, and they also stared at me in confusion.

“If I didn’t see your eyes in that mirror on your desk every time I turned around, I wouldn’t need to spend the money on this,” I answered indifferently.

There was a mirror on Jane’s table. I only noticed it after some time before I relived this day.

That mirror was not for her, though. She used it to scrutinize my every move.

Right then, Jane’s expression froze. “I’m just a little more sensitive than others. I get curious whenever I hear something.”

I stopped what I was doing and looked at her. “So, you heard me tossing and turning last night. Then, just because you’re sensitive, you climbed into my bed to peek at me?”

Jane was speechless.

Our other roommate was quite direct with her words. “My god, Jane, were you filming a horror film?”

I lowered my head. “That’s right. Last night, I couldn’t sleep after I saw her peeking through the curtain. This was despite turning on the night light the whole time.”

She could pretend to be an angel, but I could also play the victim card.

She was not the only person who had learned some tricks from TV shows!

Jane became a bit frantic and immediately shook her head. “No, that’s because you’re too competitive. I heard the sound of flipping pages.”

I continued, “Since I couldn’t sleep, I started to read so that I could fall asleep again.”

Our two roommates stared disapprovingly at Jane.

One of them said, “Can you send me the link? I don’t want to be frightened in the middle of the night.”

The other roommate said, “Me too! Me too!”

Jane’s expression darkened as she watched all three of us switch to privacy curtains.

Of course, the curtains themselves would not be able to stop her.

Two days later, our roommate, Penny Dunne, walked in just as I was about to head out.

She saw me and simply asked, “You’re heading out?”

Before I could say anything, Jane interjected, “Are you going to volunteer? I saw your club’s notice on it. This could give students extra credit and a chance to receive a scholarship. How could Rue not go since she’s such a competitive person?”

I smiled. “Well, why don’t you be a bit more competitive and work to get it too? Do you feel like you won’t be able to do it?”

Penny looked a little peeved.

I remembered that Penny was volunteering at this time too.

We were students, so obviously we would try our best to get scholarships regardless of the amount.

Penny slammed her bag onto the table and said, “Do you see yourself as a camera? Why are you stalking her? You’re acting like surveillance.”

Jane’s face turned ashen, and she muttered, “I just saw it by coincidence.”

I did not waste more time with her and left. While I was distributing work with the other volunteers, I saw Jane coming over.

She glanced at me. “Rue, I really didn’t mean anything bad by it. Seeing you work so hard, I actually signed up to be a volunteer too. Let’s do it together!”

I was expressionless when I saw the fake smile on her face.

In my last life, I had also participated in this volunteer work. I had been tasked to share a couple of movies with some children.

However, when I sat in the dark classroom, I could not focus on the movies at all. All I could think of was Jane’s eyes in the dark.

Whenever I turned around, Jane would be staring quietly at me. I could not bear it, so I quit volunteering. I could not get my credits and lost the chance to receive the scholarship.

In the present, Jane seemed to look at me with pity. “Rue, if you manage to complete your volunteer work, you’ll be able to receive that scholarship!”

“How would you know?” I asked.

She smiled at me. “I calculated your scores, and you’re only ten marks behind me!”

Her smile from our past life overlapped with her current smile.

I nodded and smiled in return. “Alright.”