A step away from love

01. Switching seats

Jiew was late for the first class of the morning, so he ended up missing the place he liked to sit in the classroom: the third desk by the window on the left of the room. It was a comfortable position in which he enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the morning breeze at the same time, so he could easily focus on the content the teachers were talking about.

But due to his delay, he would have to settle for his second favorite place: the desk behind his first favorite. And, of course, the one who had stolen his place was the one and only Yong.

Once classes started, Yong was quite complicated and rude to deal with, always ignoring him or treating him badly for no apparent reason, and Jiew almost thought of switching classes because of that. But as the time passed and they got to know other classmates, the taller's nagging was nothing more than silly jokes about his height, something Jiew could easily ignore because he reciprocated as sassy as him.

In fact, Yong was a good company to have around. Jiew liked how the two could share comfortable silences without having to create unnecessary chitchat, studied in an organized and productive way, and had a similar kind of taste for music and movies, so they always ended up hanging out together. It was almost as if they were in sync and made almost little to no effort to communicate with each other.

One thing led to another and, little by little, Jiew was getting so used to the giant's presence by his side that spending a day away from him was almost unbearable, so they had exchanged phone numbers and always disturbed each other at any time of the day too. They had met on college orientation day, but Jiew could already feel how precious that connection was to him.

So, seeing that Yong had taken his place, didn't really bother him. He only gave a brief tiny smile and sat in the available chair to start taking down the notes that he needed from that class. However, moments later, Jiew noticed that his friend at the front desk wasn't paying attention to the teacher, quite the contrary, he was sleeping heavily or at least, trying to.

This was a bad habit the man had and, because of that, he always ended up asking for Jiew's help to study when he got bad grades. Not knowing how to refuse the request and using that time to be with the one he liked the most, Jiew accepted to give the tutoring classes without any major problems.

But now that Jiew occupied this second favorite place in the room, he ended up getting distracted from the class and focused on the man in front of him. The light breeze gently ruffled a few strands of his hair, but as he was taller than Jiew, the sun's rays caught him underprivileged, hitting his eyes directly behind his lids and preventing him from sleeping peacefully. This bothered him to the point that he gave up on napping during class and started to pay attention to what the teacher was saying, which encouraged Jiew to do the same.

After class, all the students left to enjoy the break by doing something relaxing to balance with the tension of the student routine, but all along Jiew's mind was busy with another kind of question. It wouldn't be the most appropriate to provide a good condition for his friend to sleep better in the classroom, but at the same time, he didn't want to see Yong feeling bad. Yong lived alone in the capital to attend University and his family had stayed in the province where he had been born and lived his entire life. It was certainly difficult to adapt to the new situation and that's why he ended up sleeping in class. Jiew then had an idea to help him with this.

The next day, Jiew arrived early and immediately chose the front seat. That one favorite of his. That way, he knew that Yong would be forced to use the back seat in which because of the position he wouldn't be disturbed by the sunlight. However, to his surprise, the giant took a while to understand his suggestion and wanted to create a fuss because of it:

"Hey, Jiew! This is my place! Move to yours now, go, go, go!"

Yong found himself inclined to tease Jiew even though he knew that position wasn't the best for his morning nap.

"I want to sit here! Stop being a big baby and sit in the other chair, Ai Yong!"

The taller one was inclined to accept the dispute only because the teacher entered the room and both were forced to end it and focus on the class. At least Jiew did it, while Yong snored quietly in the back seat.

For three days this routine repeated itself until Yong was feeling a little better from catching up on lost sleep. However, still worried about his friend's altered routine, Jiew decided to implement a new tactic.

"Hey, how about we change our tutoring schedule?"

"What do you mean?" Yong asked suspiciously.

They then agreed to start tutoring one hour before classes in their faculty, since the library opened earlier. Yong complained the entire time until they entered the small study room Jiew had reserved for their session.

However, as expected, only one of them ended up doing something academically productive. Yong soon found a comfortable position at the table and fell asleep. The situation repeated itself for a few more days and soon the taller one had recovered enough energy to attend the morning classes without needing to sleep during most of them, which also helped his performance with his grades.

Yong would occasionally watch Jiew walking ahead of him or calling him for coffee and would even want to ask if it had all been on purpose or just a coincidence. Afraid of having his theories rejected, he ended up quiet about it, silently grateful to his friend.

So they were one step away from love. In front of it, but unable to touch it.

-----------

Notes:

Let's see where this journey will take them! 💙