...
"𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒹𝑜𝓃'𝓉 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎'𝓇𝑒 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒻𝑒𝒸𝓉, 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂 𝒾𝓃 𝓈𝓅𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝒶𝒸𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎'𝓇𝑒 𝓃𝑜𝓉."
Interesting.
I breathe heavily; the words get stuck in my head as I read them. This just reminds me of him.
𝑅𝒽𝓎𝓂𝑒.
A cold wind rushes its way to my chest as I remember his face—his exquisite face that makes my entire being go crazy and far from its normal state. I sigh, letting that cold wind out of me. When will I ever...
"Ugh! Why can't I get this right? Gosh!"
Red screams as she erases something she's written from her poor notebook, which obviously needs a break from her "nerdiness".
I close the book I'm reading and turn to my best friend, who is now annoyed. She did, in fact, distract me from my intense thoughts.
I ask amusedly, "You know there's a reason why academics exist—to teach us; why are you even answering that when it's going to be discussed next week?"
She scratches her head using the pen she is holding. "Because I'm bored?"
"You're just a nerd," Ace comments with a big smirk on her face.
Red responds, disregarding what Ace just said, "The prettiest one, though." She smiles brightly while adjusting her oversized eyeglasses.
She is indeed undeniably pretty; her big, innocent eyes scream attractiveness. I would probably date her if she was born a guy.
"But still a nerd," says Ice, the final member of our small group. And while her expression of stillness and seriousness may make it difficult to believe that she is making a joke, after years of friendship with her, we have already acknowledged that she actually has a sense of humor.
Red pouts this time and continues on with what she was doing earlier.
Currently, we are relaxing in our favorite spot during break time. Contrary to the busy environment of the school canteen, we like how calm this part of the school is.
We are in our fourth year of college and have known each other since we were seven.
Red is the smartest of us. She is part of the debate club. Ice and Ace are nonidentical twins. Ace is my clubmate in the writing club, while Ice doesn't have one. She is a very quiet, introverted person who hates many weird things. Despite both having the same mother and being born on the same day, the two couldn't be more different. Ace is the upbeat, straightforward girl, whereas Ice, as I have mentioned, is more of a laid-back type. Even so, their affection for one another is pretty similar, warm, and sweet.
As for myself? Well, I am just one of those normal, almost invisible students at the university. You know how there are those genius students, weaklings, athletes, gangster wannabes, players, and, well, jerks and meanies who are quite famous at school? I don't belong in any of those.
"Hey!"
I turn to see Lance, my cousin, who is smiling widely, making his monolid eyes disappear. He puts his hands on my shoulders while disregarding the adoring glances from the other students. Well, he's always been lovable, sweet, and very kind, which explains why he's got a lot of admirers.
We are close to each other. He's living in our house since his parents left for Korea 3 years ago. He's half Korean so that explains why he has one of the cutest eyes I've ever seen.
He became close with my friends too, well except for Ice which is totally understandable with the type of personality she has.
"What are you doing here?" I ask because it doesn't happen very often that he "visits" me during break time. We live together, so that's completely unnecessary.
"We have a music project, and I need a partner to perform." He says this while flashing his adorable smile, with tiny little dimples peeking through the sides of his lips and his eyes almost forming a straight line.
"And?" I adjust my specs and look at him with a questionable face. Why do I have a feeling that he's going to say something stupid?
"Will you be my pair?"
Right. That's exactly what I meant by "something stupid."
"And what am I supposed to do in your performance? I don't have a talent, Lance. Why don't you ask for your friend's help? After all, they are a bunch of talented people, and you'd probably get an A for that."
Lance is a member of the dance club and also belongs to a group called All In, or AI. They are well-known not only within our school but even outside the university because they frequently compete against schools from other universities.
His huge smile has now turned into a pout as he lightly shakes his head, but that doesn't make him less cute; it actually makes him more. "We're not allowed to do so. And besides, all music classes under Miss Jeanne will have the same project. You're in her class, right? So I'm pretty sure you will participate too."
"Yeah, but we're exempted, though. We have a club, and the project is only for those who didn't sign up for any club."
I say, feeling at ease because I don't have to think of any excuse to dismay my beloved cousin. For a moment, I felt really good about not being able to help him when I knew I truly couldn't.
That is until Ice turns to me with a very confused face. "What project?"
I gasped when I realized I hadn't told her about the project yet. It totally slipped my mind.
She wasn't there when Miss Jeanne announced the project because she got sick and was excused from attending school.
Knowing how much she values things like this makes me internally panic for a while. It didn't help at all to see her bewildered and concerned expression.
Well, not until Red says something while simultaneously pointing to Lance and Ice. "Why don't you two become partners?"
When I expected to see the relief on Ice's face, she got even tenser. "I'm not partnering with anyone; what are you talking about?"
"If Ice is not comfortable with it, it's fine." I'll just-" Lance hesitantly says.
"No, she's doing the project with you. She can't perform alone since the project is in pairs. You don't want to fail, right, Ice? This is easier since you already know him." I say, trying to reassure her.
Ice sighs, loud enough for us to know she's not into this, but eventually, she agrees. She doesn't have much of a choice, anyway.
"Fine," she says, almost coming off as a whisper.
"Well, I guess that settles it. I'll see you after class," Lance says before walking away with a wide smile on his face.
"You know Lance is really cute, Bella. Why doesn't he have a girlfriend yet?" Ace asks, which makes me just shrug my shoulders.
"He said he liked someone, but he's too shy to approach her."
It is kind of hard to believe though, considering Lance is popular and very confident, but he doesn't share this information very often with me. He keeps her as a precious secret. That is if she truly exists.
...
𝒯𝑜 𝐵𝑒 𝒞𝑜𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓃𝓊𝑒𝒹
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