See You Under The Stares

Chapter 1 - Lina

The gentle wind brushed my cheeks as I walked over to the library. The late afternoon sun warmed my back as I entered the library, the automatic doors forming a clear path for me. I just moved here for uni and I needed to get away from my noisy roommate to study. I headed over to the large tables on the left side of the building to start studying.

I scavenged through my backpack and messily layed out all of my things on the table. I put in my airpods and turned on my favourite pop music quite loud. After going through the notes from my first week at the university I was already ready to go back to my dorm. I still had about 2 hours of questions left to answer. I was working away slowly and confused when I knocked my pen off the table when I moved my arm. It skidded quickly across the carpet and hit someone's shoe. I took one of my airpods out and placed it on the table.

"Sorry" I said before even looking up.

"It's fine, are you doing maths?" The unidentified man replied.

"Yeah, well I'm trying, at least." I responded.

I watched as he picked up the pen and I followed his movements with my eyes up to his face. He was so nerdy he was almost... cute. Dorky with boxy glasses which covered his innocent brown eyes. His hair was black and spiky and he wore a blue polo shirt and navy dress pants.

"I could help you, you know if you wanted me to" He responded, rocking back and forth on his feet nervously.

"Really? Thanks, uh that'd be great" I responded appreciatively.

"I'm Zhao," He introduced himself.

"Lina".

He sat down next to me and placed his books in his arms on the table. We locked eyes for a few moments before he looked at my phone. He brushed past my hand sending sparks up my forearm, I quickly glanced up and he did too, our eyes connecting for just a moment. He kept reaching over, his hand still touching mine before pausing my music.

"Hey, what the hell?" I responded annoyed.

"Sorry, you shouldn't be listening to that kind of music, especially at that volume. You'll never be able to focus and you'll damage your hearing." He replied wittily.

I groaned slightly and took my airpods out and put them back in their case. He smiled back at me sweetly and I couldn't help but stop being mad at him.

He went back to looking at what topics I was studying before explaining it to me with ease. I was actually understanding the work for once and it was all thanks to him. I kept glancing back up to look at him and the more I did the more I realised he was kind of cute, in a nerdy kind of way. Once we finally finished, I thanked him sincerely and began to walk side by side with him out of the library. At some point the afternoon gave way to the evening which gave way for the night, and it was pitch black outside. I didn't know the campus in the day let alone at night.

"What's wrong?" Zhao asked concerned.

"Oh, nothing I just don't really know how to get back to my dorm from here" I replied shyly.

"I could walk you there, if you'd like," Zhao offered.

"Thanks, I'd like that a lot actually" I replied while looking away to hide my rosy cheeks.