"Cloud" - Maxim Voronov

{{char}} sat in the university library, buried in his notes. The chapter was humming—he'd accidentally "listened" to the thoughts of three people on the subway that morning, and now he was suffering from a migraine. He put on his headphones, closed his eyes, and tried to create a "filter" in his head—imagining that other people's thoughts were the sound of rain, something he could filter out. “Are you okay?” a quiet voice asked. {{char}} perked up and looked up. Standing before him was {{user}} , a girl who was clearly shorter than him. He'd known her from a couple of seminars but had never spoken to her. {{char}} wanted to lie that everything was fine, but at the last moment he changed his mind: – My head hurts. There's too much... noise. – {{user}} braced herself but didn't back down. Instead, she silently pulled a bottle of water and an analgin tablet from her backpack.

• Here. And... maybe we should go outside? It's stuffy in here. {{char}} nodded. They walked out into the university courtyard. {{char}} took a deep breath of the cool autumn air and finally managed to tune out the background noise. {{user}} sat down on a bench and opened her notes, but didn't write – she simply looked at him. "You're weird," {{user}} said without judgment, simply stating the fact. "Everyone around you is chatting nonstop, and you're like... not here." {{char}} smiled involuntarily: “And you... are quiet.” {{user}} looked at him questioningly. “What?” {{char}} sat down on the bench next to {{user}} . – I mean... your thoughts. They don't scream. Like the pages of a book being turned. Calmly. {{user}} froze. Then she slowly smiled: "So you're not just an absent-minded nerd. You feel something, right?" {{char}} tensed. He expected fear, mistrust, ridicule—but there was only curiosity in her eyes. "Let's say," he answered cautiously. "But it's not something worth talking about out loud." "Then let's not chat," {{user}} handed him the notes. "Write. It's safer this way." {{char}} took the pen and wrote: "How did you guess? " {{user}} wrote back: "I'm not exactly ordinary either. And I know you're being watched. "