"Aether." He called my name and it was music to my ears as it felt like a cloud nine for me.
He pinned me to the nearest wall and glanced at my lips before his gaze went back to my eyes. He leaned closer to my ear and made me gasp as soon as he brus...
Class has already ended, but I haven't left the classroom yet. I was assigned to clean the room today.
Venti insisted on helping me, but he had a meeting to attend since he's the president of the music club, while Xi had a novel to finish and was probably going on a date with his boyfriend at the library.
The other cleaners already bailed on me, so it's just me, the broom, and Xiao.
Yes. You heard me. Xiao chose to stay and help me clean, even though he had basketball practice today.
How sweet, isn't he? But you know what's funny? My plan is to make him fall for me, yet I'm the one who fell harder.
Don't pin me on this one. This kind of gesture is making my heart skip a beat.
In fact, my intrusive thought is giving me the motive to clean the whole school.
What a bright future ahead, right? Becoming a janitor.
Anyway, my sister bought me a magazine last week about steps to flirt with your crush. I know, right? How lucky I am to have this educational advice from a limited magazine edition.
Don't worry! I reread it a couple of times and secretly practiced it in my room at night. Now for the final test.
Step 1: Make eye contact and smile.
Obviously, it was impossible for him to make eye contact with me since he was wiping the board, so his attention was focused on the scribbles written on it.
"Xiao."
He turned around and met my eyes. "Yes?"
I battled my eyelashes and planted a cute smile on my face.
"Why are you weirdly looking at me like that?" Okay. Not the reaction I want to see.
Step 2: Compliment him.
"Nothing. I just wanted to say that you look natural when you clean."
You suck.
I know! It was terrible. You don't have to remind me. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
"Uhm. Thanks?" Way to go, self. You just made things awkward.
Step 3: Use body language.
"Xiao, can you help me with this?" I said, tucking my hair behind my ears.
"Sure," he replied. Are you serious? He literally had no reaction. Did he not find that cute?
Step 4: Tell a joke.
This is going to be easy. Thank you, Google. "Xiao."
"Yes?"
"Do you know why bananas wear sunscreen?"
"No, why?"
"Because they peel." Never mind. Abort the mission!
"Cool." Man down! I repeat, man down.
Pass me the shovel. I'm going to dig my own grave because that was so lame and corny. Don't trust anything from the internet!
Step 5: End of conversation.
I failed. I'm going to burn that magazine later. I sighed and sat down on a chair, looking upset.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Yes. Never better!" Chef kiss to sarcasm.
"Okay."
He resumed cleaning, and moments later, I find myself enjoying how he can't erase the doodles written on the top corner of the board. He's too short to reach it.
I giggled when he already did a tip-toe, yet he still failed to erase it. I stood up and snatched the rug from his hand.
"Here. Let me help you."
He became silent. How weird. Does it hurt his pride to help him? He could just say no if he doesn't want my help.
"What's wrong?"
I noticed that his ears turned red. "You're too close," he whispered.
Oh. An idea popped into my head. I placed my hand on his side, pinning him against the wall.
"Short."
He looked mad, which made me laugh. He hates it when people underestimate and talk about his height.
"Sorry, it was not—"
He cut me off and suddenly pulled my hand as he switched our positions, so he's now pinning me.
"Not funny."
His deep voice sent shivers down my spine, and my breathing became uneasy because of how his leg was in between mine.
"Stop that."
"What?"
"Stop biting your lips," he said, blushing.
I didn't realize that I was biting them out of habit until he pointed it out, so does that mean he's paying more attention to my lips than to what I said?
"Why? Did it bother you?" Please say yes.
"Yes." And Aether wins. I think my plan will prevail faster than I expected.
"Sometimes it makes me wonder if you're acting clueless on purpose or if you really just don't know."
"What do you mean by that?"
I ran my fingers through his locks. "What are you doing?" he said nervously.
"Do you want to know?" He nodded in reply.
"Let's find out."
He slowly closed his eyes as I leaned forward, planning to give him a kiss. Our lips were about to meet until the door opened.
"Aether! I'm here." Venti showed up with a broom in his hand.
He froze when he saw us. He looked at me before he swifted his stare at Xiao, then back at me.
"Ah! I left something at the music room. So, let me just put the broom here and leave." Venti was about to head out, but Xiao stopped him.
"No! Do that later and assist Aether on his cleaning duty," Xiao replied, immediately backing away.
"But, didn't you already—" Xiao cut him off and handed him a broom.
"Basketball practice." Excuses. He said earlier that he's not going to train today because he chose to accompany me.
He stole a glance at me before he swung his bag around his shoulder and left the room.
"Bitch. Before you get mad at me, the meeting was cancelled and you didn't tell me your crush was here. What happened? You were about to get your lips over him."
"I know! I was only trying to flirt with him using the magazine I read, but it sucked because it didn't work out."
"A magazine? Are you serious? As much as I wanted to know the details, something tells me I shouldn't ask for my own sake."
"I'm not planning to tell you either because it was so cringeworthy and shameful. Anyways, after that, I teased him about how short he is, and it ended up almost kissing him."
"Wow. You moved fast. Way to go."
"But now, it makes me worry about how he'll think of it," I said, sighing.
"You lost me. Isn't that a good idea to make him realize what you feel about him?"
"Yes. But I'm just worried about how he will react. Will he be disgusted by me? Will he pretend he doesn't know me? Will he avoid me? I don't know."
"Girl, you think way too much. What I see is progress, and your flirting game didn't fail. Probably at first because of how dumb you are following what a magazine tells you." You got that right.
"Look, hun. Let me ask you a question. When you leaned forward to kiss him, did he stop you?"
"No." He didn't, right?
"Then, there's your answer. It only means that he needs time to realize what he feels about you. And as for you, you need to step up your flirting game! Make him fall for you."
"That is exactly my plan. I want him to confess to me."
"Good! So, don't overthink things. If he avoids you, then find a solution to the problem. Easy as that. Best friend? Ha! I'm not blind. Bitch, the way he looks at you has tension. He just didn't realize it."
"Are you saying this to feed up my delusions?" I said, jokingly.
"No. I told you the truth as your cupid," he replied with a wink, which brought me a smile.
"Now, get your ass up and let's go!" He stood up from his chair and dragged me outside.
"Go to where?"
"To an almond shop as an apology for my interruption. My treat."
"Who are you? What have you done to my friend? He was never this kind."
He rolled his eyes. "Consider this lucky because I'm in a good mood today and this is only an obligatory treat, so my heart can be at ease."
"Your call. Treat me to a dozen of them."
He chuckled. "Slow down, almond wife. You can just admit that you were famished."
•••••
Author's Note:
How we reacted when the kiss didn't happen:
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
