Best Friends, Apparently

Caelan Mercado has two talents: getting away with almost anything and pretending he doesn't understand lessons he could probably solve in his sleep.

He's smart.

He just doesn't act like it.

Especially when it comes to Elian Valerio.

Elian is everything Cael isn't-or at least, everything Cael pretends not to be.

Serious. Quiet. Responsible. Always wearing his glasses, always carrying a pen, and always somewhere between studying and reminding Cael that their future depends on them actually passing Grade 12.

Elian isn't interested in relationships.

According to him, they're distracting.

And Cael?

Well, Cael agrees.

Mostly.

Because there's one tiny problem.

Cael doesn't actually need Elian's tutoring.

He asks for help because it's the easiest excuse to sit beside his best friend for another hour.

One tutoring session becomes two.
Two becomes a habit.

And somewhere between stolen snacks, ridiculous jokes, shared reviewers, after-school conversations, and the endless-

"Pre, turuan mo nga ako."

Cael begins to realize that maybe he's not just asking Elian to teach him.

Maybe he's falling for him.

The worst part?

Elian has absolutely no idea.

To Elian, Cael is just his annoying, unserious, hopelessly chaotic best friend.

To Cael, Elian is slowly becoming something he doesn't know how to name.

And as graduation gets closer, Cael has to face a problem no amount of jokes can make disappear:

What happens when your favorite person is also the person you're most afraid to lose?

Because sometimes, the hardest thing to solve isn't a STEM problem.

Sometimes, it's figuring out whether your best friend could ever see you as something more.