It's You

Have We Met Before? (reprise)

*This is a very special chapter inspired by one of you beautiful Ling Ling wannabes, miez13, and hence it is dedicated to her.*

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"But why do I have to go? And why are you just telling me this now?" Brett whined, packing his bag anyway.

"Because if I told you earlier, you would've said no. Now, you don't have a choice." Brett's older brother said, moving closer to make sure Brett was packing the right books. "Besides, mum wants you to go so that you won't fail in school. If you don't want to disappoint her, just tough it out. I know you don't need tutoring, especially for Math, but just do it for mum, alright?"

Brett let out an exasperated sigh, finally zipping up his backpack, "Alright. Are you taking me?"

Brett's older brother shook his head, "I'm sorry," he hands Brett a piece of paper, "here's the address. You can take my bike, it's not that far. I'd take you but I have to get back to school."

Brett took the piece of paper and mentally noted the address written on it, "Alright. Seems I'll be passing by that bakery you like, you want me to bring you home something?"

Brett's older brother shook his head, "I will probably have to stay over Eric's house, we have a project we need to finish." He hands Brett a bill, "But maybe you'd want to get something for yourself. Just don't let mum catch you or we'll both be in trouble."

Brett beams as he takes the bill, "Great, thanks. It'll be my treat for going to this stupid tutoring thing." He turns to leave, slinging his backpack onto his shoulder, "I'll see you when I see you."

Taking his brother's offer to use a bike, Brett decided to take the long route. He didn't want to go to tutoring, so getting there early will be pointless. What was he supposed to do? Pretend to be stupid? Pretend he was interested in learning something?

His brother did say that the set-up was more like a class instead of traditional one-on-one tutoring. Maybe that will make it easier for him to just blend in and just lie low in general.

I'm definitely sitting way at the back. Brett thought to himself as he reached into his pocket to double check the address of his destination. Just a couple more blocks. I should get there right on time.

He picked up his pace and cycled faster, deciding being late would only draw unwanted attention. But because he took his time getting there, he had to quickly run to his assigned classroom as soon as he securely parked his brother's bike.

Room 203, Room 203. There it is! Looks like the tutor's just about to go in. Perfect.

Brett squeezed past the tutor, who looked just as unwilling to be there as Brett. Because of the cycling and running, Brett's hair was a mess, but he couldn't be bothered to even run his hand through it.

Right. Back seat. Brett thought to himself as he hung his head and quickly made his way to the back row. He wanted to take the corner back seat but someone had already beaten him to it.

Brett looked up and felt his whole world stop when he saw the kid sitting on the seat he wanted. Suddenly, his heart started pounding and his head went completely blank.

The boy sitting on the corner back seat shifted, turning his head to look at Brett. When their eyes met, it felt like a jolt of lightning struck Brett's entire body. As he stood frozen, he watched the boy's mouth open, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't.

What the hell is this feeling? Brett thought, still unable to pry his eyes away nor move from where he stood.

"Please settle down." The grumpy tutor said to the small group of students he didn't seem very eager to attend to.