Project Cupid | Ongoing

14 | guilty as charged

"WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME YOU STARTED DATING?"

Moe thrust the news at me one afternoon we'd gone out for bubble tea. She'd given me a call, screaming about how we had to meet up for some "girl's talk", and hours later, here we were.

"Dating?" My brain short-circuited. "I haven't gotten to that chapter yet. I'm at the beginning of Hira's route—"

"I'm not talking about otome games!" Moe seemed ready to rip out her hair. "You and Takumi!"

All at once, it sunk in. I took a prolonged sip of my caramel milk tea.

"Was Saeki busy today or something?"

"Focus!" She snapped her fingers in my eyes for emphasis. "Seeing as you're not denying it, it's true?"

"It is not," I refused immediately, relishing in the creamy taste of caramel and brown sugar. "We're nothing more than rivals."

She frowned, completely done with me. "Rivals? Are you kidding me? Have you seen the way he looks at you?"

"Like he can't wait for my imminent downfall? Yes, it's very cute."

"No." She slapped the table. "Like, all he wants is to pin you to a desk and do unspeakable things to your body!"

A staff member passed by at that exact moment, and performed a horrified double-take.

"Keep it PG, Moe," I said.

"Fine," she caved, holding her arms up in surrender. "Kiss you. With tongue."

Not the tongue.

"I have a sense for these kinds of things," she said. "He's obsessed with you. You make up every single star and constellation in his entire universe. Any day now he's going to get on his hands and knees and beg you to marry him."

Oh, wow. This was getting out of hand.

"Moe, I have to sincerely ask: do you hear how ridiculous you sound?"

She petulantly frowned. "An overactive imagination can be a lot of fun if you give it a chance. Come on. You seriously don't see how fixated he is on you?"

I thinned my lips. "I can see that this "fixation" is not romantic."

"Well, it is," she insisted. "Only, the guy himself hasn't noticed. Or, if he has, he's a damn good liar."

Once Moe made up her mind, there was no use arguing. She had a retort for everything.

"Everyone in our class is talking about you two." She took another mouthful of her matcha-flavoured boba. "Takumi's never shown interest in anything except academia. He's rejected hundreds of confessions these last ten years. There was even that one rumour, if you can remember, about how the reason why he keeps turning them down is because he doesn't go for girls."

Ah, yes. That dreadful rumour.

It had spread a couple of years back when Takumi had rejected one of the most popular girls at our middle school. She was scornful, simply because she couldn't believe that any attractive guy would ever turn her down. Unless, of course, the guy in question was gay and had absolutely zero interest in the opposite gender.