Everything Goes Back to You

i | Pride and Prejudice

"She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men."

The first time Harumi occupied his thoughts was in the back of their fourth-grade classroom one spring day.

Scrambling to complete his multiplication tables, he prided himself in being one of the fastest finishers in his grade. His teachers had often complained about his careless mistakes that could've been prevented had he valued the lesson, "slow and steady wins the race".

He always hated that saying. Life was fleeting, and Arlo had to race to keep up with it.

It wasn't until he was done with three pages that his pencil whipped out his hand and landed with a thud on the wooden floor. Swiftly he leaned down and moved his hand wildly about to find it, while keeping an eye on the next row of equations to memorize their answers.

But while his fingers found and curled around their hexagonal surface, his hand brushed against someone else's. Startled, he drew his hand back, and brought his attention to the young girl sitting in front of him.

He watched as she picked up his pencil and met her narrow brown eyes with his own, while displaying a faint smile that had never been directed towards him before.

"You should slow down, you might break your arm or something."

In the many years to come, Arlo would frequently deny the warmth of his face after watching her eyes crinkle and her mouth tease as she said the first words between them.

Maybe if he wasn't smitten by then, he could've came up with a better response.

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Harumi had always been very popular in school, albeit not for all the right reasons.

She had transferred during the November of Arlo's second grade year and caused quite a ruckus with what her classmates thought out to be, "looks out of this world". Her black hair clashed with the seas of browns and blondes, and her paleness received stares of fascination from both the students and staff.

She was like Snow White, except more exotic.

Her regal exterior would have made her unapproachable, however, if it hadn't been for her eyes.

Her eyes had a way of communicating her emotions, and were captivating enough to make those spoken to believe that they were the most important person in the world. She naturally made those around her feel as special as her; it was part of her charm.

Maybe that was why Arlo preferred to be resentful of her existence while the others flocked around her. He couldn't understand the intentions behind her sweet demeanor and innocence. To him, Harumi was simply too good to be true.

She could be an alien programmed to manipulate the town into destruction. She could be a Japanese spy tasked with the mission of uncovering everyone's darkest secrets. She could be vampire who used friendship to lure children into her lair for feasting.

His imagination ran wild with all the possibilities for her unusual behavior.

So he made a resolution.

He would be different, he would prove that he was immune to falling in love with all her beauty and innocence, and that he would be the one to remain unscathed once she revealed her true nature.

True to his word, it did end up working for a long two years.

They barely acknowledged each other, and Arlo hardly thought about who she was.

But a two year effort would prove to be futile, anyways.

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Arlo stared at her. He never had a chance like this. To actually look at her and observe all the features of her face his classmates had come to love. The slight bump in her nose, her round cheeks, the way her bangs stopped just short of her thin eyebrows.

The way her eyes looked at him like he was the most important person in the world.

He immediately grabbed the pencil out of her hand and returned back to scribbling on his paper. After all his years of ignoring, he never prepared himself for the day when he actually had to talk to her. When he actually had to understand that she was right in front of him, and the only sensible thing to do was to make eye contact with her.

But the time was now, and his mind fumbled over what to do.

Without looking up, he carelessly remarked about a prominent facial feature that gained his own second glance all those years ago.

He didn't know what else to say, really. In the time span of her words till now, all he had been doing was studying her.

"You know, you have a lot of moles in your face. I bet you could make a lot of different shapes if you connected them."

Once he spoke, his thoughts raced of either apologizing or remaining silent. She was obviously taken aback, and Arlo was conscious of the seconds that passed by. Did he go too far? He didn't really mean it like that, he thought moles gave individuality to a person. Should he explain what he meant? Would that change anything?

But then Harumi laughed a single assertive laugh and replied in a way to assure Arlo that she was amused, "Right? And not just on my face, my arms have a ton of them. See?" She rolled up her sleeves, and he looked up in surprise. "If you connect these dots," she traced her fingers around the shoulder area, "it makes a heart!"

Arlo peered over and affirmed that she was indeed right. "That's pretty sick."

She grinned and pulled her sleeves down. "But it's nothing special. Where my family comes from, beauty marks are huge," she paused briefly, "I don't think I've seen anyone with your eyes though."

"Really?" Suddenly self-conscious, he frowned and gazed at them through the metal part of his pencil. He could already list a couple others in the room whose eyes matched his. Kristen, Rebecca, Rowan...

"I'm serious. Sure, plenty of others can have blue eyes. But yours are just electrifying."

There was definitely no one who commented that before.

As she turned back around, he found himself watching the movements of her black pigtail braids. He rested his chin on his hand in amazement. The way she carried herself during the conversation was that of a lifelong friend, not of someone who was wary of meeting someone new.

Arlo couldn't recall anyone who so readily talked to him the way she did.

It was at this moment when Arlo instantaneously realized that Harumi was just someone he couldn't ignore his whole life.

There was just something infectious about her.

Maybe displaying the heart on her arm was a warning.

Maybe it was the universe's way of warning Arlo that no matter how much he retracted and ignored, no matter how much he denied and suppressed, he would always end up loving her.

He could go his whole life living in another continent, in another country, in another town, but somehow, everything would always go back to her.