Evening Game

Chapter 22

"Good morning, Ethan."

Chione greeted him with a grin as he entered his classroom. As usual, they were the only ones in class so far.

Also like usual, she was there before him, as if waiting for him.

"Umm, morning."

He wasn't expecting this. When his mind told him to be excited about tomorrow, he meant the hours after school, when he was inside the game going around with Chione. He didn't expect her to treat him like this in school. Seeing him stand at the door, Chione tilted her head.

"Is something wrong?"

She's so cute!

It was something Ethan didn't expect he would ever find himself thinking about. Chione's words made him freeze in front of the door. His brain told his limbs to move forward, to act any less weird, but his limbs refused, as if stunned by Chione's mere existence.

Chione suddenly got up from her seat and approached him. She brought her face close to his. Ethan felt his face suddenly burning, as if trying to rival the sun itself.

"Are you sick?"

Ethan lost balance and pathetically fell to his back.

"Ah, you alright!?"

She kneeled down and brought her palm to his forehead.

"Your forehead, it's hot!"

"I'm- I'm fine! Sorry, I couldn't sleep well last night."

That was a lie. Last night's sleep was probably one of the best sleep he had in a while. He felt refreshed today, ready to face the day, but the one that made him feel dizzy was the girl kneeling in front of him.

His heart wasn't ready for these feelings.

He slowly reached out for her hand and carefully removed it from her head. A sudden realization that he was holding her came into mind. It was about to spur panic when his brain weapon switch a hammer out of thin air and hammered down on the idea as fast as possible, allowing his nerves to stay in a calm state. Once her hand was far enough, he let go and got back up.

"I'm fine, don't worry."

He said, flashing her a smile.

"You can smile too..."

"Of course I can."

He said as he made his way to the seat.

Throughout school, he couldn't help but feel someone's eyes on him the entire day. Once school ended, Chione confirmed his suspicions.

"I can deal with it, don't-"

"Then explain that thirty-two you got."

"Thirty-two..."

How did Chione know about his chemistry exam score? They now sat on the second floor of a fast-food restaurant not far from the school. Ethan had his reservations about meeting her so close to school, his eyes glancing around the floor, looking if any of their schoolmates were nearby.

He didn't recognize anyone, nor did he see anyone in a school uniform around.

All those things aside, he still didn't get what caused Chione to call him out here-

"Midterm exams are coming next week, so until next week, I'll make sure you study with me!"

Now he knew why. She slammed the paper down, just strong enough to make her look terrifying, but not loud enough to catch anyone's else question. She sat back down and sipped the lemon tea she ordered as casually as possible, as if asking 'any complaints?'.