The Nerd in the Corner

Chapter 2: The Power of Romance Doesn't Work on Me

If romance was a flower, then I'm a leaf.

In the same way that I find humans' severe desire for acquiring romance repelling, many, if not the majority of the population, also question why I don't experience romantic attraction— which would thereby lead to a lot of uncalled-for comments.

One such example of a scenario playing out would be the case of this gentleman standing before me right now.

He has brought out the topic that I may be a lesbian because he couldn't dig up any kind of information regarding my crushes. First of all, the audacity of this mere stranger. Second of all, he didn't even take the effort to verify whether his sources would be reliable. If he had done so, then I shouldn't have had to deal with something this disrespectful. But apparently, according to him, my classmates — which could be considered strangers to me — are a reliable source of information.

What a waste of time.

My History teacher right here loves to poke his nose in other people's business, especially if it concerned teenagers' crushes and love life. Not only does he ship people he can during our class hours while being extremely proud of it, but he also continuously uses the money students' parents paid for his salary to constantly preach about never judging others.

How ironic that the preacher himself is the one who went against what he's preaching.

Oh, well. Life is full of ironies.

Today is just another piece of evidence of that.

As I watched him consistently blabber on his bizarre theory, I wanted to so badly tell him to shut up.

However, doing such a thing to a teacher would be disrespectful, so I must restrain myself.

Even if he were the first one to commit the act of disrespect.

In a desperate attempt, I hastily searched through the thousand books I've read in my memory, both fiction and non-fiction. But my efforts are wasted and I am left to fend off for myself in a scenario I couldn't escape from. If this was a game, I would have quit a long time ago. If this was a book, I wouldn't even finish the first chapter. If this was a poem, I wouldn't have even remembered the title.

Still, it was none of the above.

I sighed, and the man took notice of that. Only God knows how badly I have been restraining myself from explaining what was none of his business. Yet, I wanted to be the bigger person, and I believed that someone so obnoxious doesn't deserve more of my precious time. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion to say:

"Mr. Han, I've lived my whole life in social isolation. That means that I am stigmatized as a loser with no friends. Naturally, it only makes sense if no one knows which amongst the billions of humans on this planet I happen to like. But for someone whose dinner isn't even guaranteed, I assure you that is the least of my concern— if it even is."

"I imagine someone who basked in attention from birth would have a hard time coming to terms with that."

Alas, the thousand practices I constantly replayed in my mind have borne fruit.

With that, I took my leave. The moment I walked past him, the heaviness in my heart was lifted off. It felt as if the thorns pricking my mind suddenly vanished. For once, it felt so liberating. From then on, I never once heard a word from him again.

Our academic days went by normally and every lunch, the group of bad girls would gather up in the center. With the loudest laughs and the loudest voice, they'd fill the whole room with gossip about their new boyfriends. We were all well aware of how much they switched from one man to another like how they switched their clothes. If a lover performed so poorly towards them, we would not only know of their overall appearance but also the size of their genitals.