Jerk. How could he smile at another girl and ruffle her hair so affectionately?

She grumbled and bit the insides of her gum. She was beyond frustrated judging by how she was tugging harshly on the ends of her burnt hair tips. She hated him. First he acted like he was interested in her, often making little jokes about her height (when he himself was not much of a tall build either) and even going as far as to give her endearments and using it outright in front of the rest of the class. He would always find a way to squeeze in between her friends and slotting himself directly on the seat beside her.

When she was squealing to her friends about how cute the little puppy in that particular viral video was, he would into their conversation and cooed at her, “But I find my pet here cuter.” Like what? Did he just refer to her as his pet in front of everyone? A hue of red coloured her cheeks and she found herself stammering for the remaining half of the day.

Truthfully speaking, she was never used to receiving attention from the opposite gender and this made her quite flustered to the extent that her brain struggled to come up with the only possible conclusion that at the end of the day, she was just the of his jokes. He merely found her reactions entertaining and was only flirting with her to keep them coming. After all, he was the vice captain of the soccer team and was one of the popular heartthrobs in school. She would be a fool to believe that he was genuinely interested in her, the wallflower whose existence was forgotten by many.

Nonetheless, the heart sure works in a funny way for his annoying tactics eventually succeeded in making his way into her hear. She soon found herself blushing uncontrollably whenever he made his way directly towards her and she would subconsciously move aside just to calm her poor pounding heart. As the days go on, she found it increasingly difficult for her to put a stop to their interactions and she would be sending dumb replies (whilst cringing inwardly) just to keep the conversation going. She started missing his presence and she would initiate conversations in an awkward and clumsy fashion.

“I’m bored. Tell me a joke.”

“Give me a second.”

Though she was expecting him to dismiss her silly requests, he would always comply with it and she soon fell into a pool of expectations that she should had never harboured in the first place. She became a foolish little girl and her heart cracked a little when another girl with way better qualities entered his vision.

Seeing them behaving so affectionately towards the other party, this snapped her fuse. She had had enough of moping around, lifeless like a girl who was duped by her boyfriend. They were never a couple and they would never become one in the future. She would just cut off all contact with him and leave it to time to fill up the void within her heart.

Yeah right.

The next day when he entered the class with a runny nose and teary eyes, she could not help but to repeatedly glance over at how he was coping from time to time. He was just sitting right in front of her, with his head leaning against the table. He practically resembled a wounded little puppy and that sent her walls of defence crumbling. Just when she was about to exchange seats with him so he could survive the rest of the day without bracing the merciless air conditioner for at least two more hours, her seatmate beat her to it.

“Yah, just take my seat.”

He grumbled a yes before plopping himself onto the seat right next to her. Urghhh. Her life could not get any better than this moment. Her heart was pounding on a hysterical rhythm, almost lunging out of her chest and her head was spinning as umpteen stars danced across the ceiling and she had zero control over her hands that were visibly shaking.

“Am I making you uncomfortable?” His raspy voice hung in the air.

He gave her a side glance, an incomprehensible emotion flickering in his eyes. That shook her out of her thoughts (that he was sitting just 10 cm away) and she stared at him, speechless. She shook her head and laced her fingers into his soft black hair, urging him to sleep and to stop worrying.

He considered this for a few seconds, cocking his head in quick contemplation. She smacked the back of his head lightly and he heaved an exaggerated sigh of relief in response. With a contented grin on his face and then moved his seat closer towards her (for warmth, or at least that was what he claimed it to be.)

She sighed and took a peek at him. His hair, ruffled in the most ridiculous (and attractive) way possible and his long eyelashes fluttering slightly as a wave of drowsiness kicked in. After making sure he was sound asleep, she mumbled somewhat exasperatedly, “You jerk. Stop sending butterflies to my stomach.”