"Sir, I have to ask you to stop doing that." A female staff told Bu Fan when she noticed the male tipping the claw machine to win one of its prizes.

Bu Fan's posture tensed as he slowly turned around in horror as he believed his friends were on look-out after retrieving the stuffed toy. "I wasn't doing anything. I was just checking to see if there was anything behind the machine."

"I've just watched you now, sir." She stated. "If you do it again, then I'll have to ban you from Lucky's for six months."

"Six months?!" Bu Fan's jaw dropped. "That's too much. Just for tipping the machine? You can't do that."

"Yes I can." She pointed to the notice on the bottom left corner of the glass of the claw machine. "It's stated right here."

Bu Fan squatted and squinted at the small fine print and couldn't believe that it was right there this whole time.

The worker looked at him sternly once more. "I repeat. If you do it again or if you have any of your friends do it for you, then all of you will be ban from Lucky's for six months."

Bu Fan watched her walk away with a disbelief expression before glaring at all of his friends when they re-appeared after the woman had gone away.

"I thought I told you guys to watch my back!" He scolded.

"She looked so scary I had to run away." Lu Dinghao admitted with a scared look. "She has such a mean face."

Bei Honglin smiled as he held up an armful of plush dolls he had just won a while ago. "Oh, I was over there winning these."

"After losing to the game several times I had to use the bathroom." Lin Yanjun frowned. "It's seriously rigged."

"Not all of them are." Cai Xukun reasoned before making an air motion of shaking the stick. "You just have to use certain methods."

"Well, I was trying to get more coins from one of the workers, but he wouldn't give me any." Fan Chengcheng rolled his eyes as he made a face at the male worker he tried to get coins from a while ago.

Xiao Gui nudged him while pointing a thumb over his shoulder at another staff member with an annoyed face. "Better than that guy who tried to give me two coins instead of eight."

"I was trying to get a key from one of the staff." Justin said with an innocent look, but frown afterwards. "But they wouldn't give it me since the last time it got one of them fire and they didn't want to risk it again."

Bu Fan frowned. "It's whatever." He then sighed. "I can't tip the machine anymore or I'll get banned for six months."

The boys let out gasps of surprised.

Bu Fan nodded. "Yeah, so you guys can't help me either or we're all banned for six months."

The rest let out mutters of displeasure.

"Well, let's just go." Yanjun suggested. "Before one of y'all get us thrown out soon."

"That'll be Bu Fan!" Xiao Gui pointed at the taller male as Bu Fan glared at him. "No it won't."

Dinghao and Xukun intervened along with the others to separate the two before they got them banned for life from Lucky's. On their way out their attention were drawn to a group of female friends who were cheering on one of their friends who just successfully nabbed a Totoro doll.

"Why are girls always so cheerful whenever they get something cute?" Justin asked as it reminded him of his younger sister. "They act like my sister whenever my parents bring her home a present."

"Aren't you also the same way though?" Xukun chuckled as Justin cast him a sheepish look, but didn't respond back.

The group of girls cheered again when the same friend got another doll from the same machine.

"No way she's that good. That's gotta be rigged." Yanjun voiced out with a slight scowl.

"Maybe she's lucky." Honglin suggested. "She could just be like me."

"You're a different story." Bu Fan countered as Honglin just laughed.

The boys continue to watch as the girl won more prizes at another machine filled with even more dolls. They noticed that she shook the stick like Xukun would do before pressing the button to lower the claw and was successful in grabbing a prize.

Chengcheng nudged Xukun. "She does the same thing that you do, KunKun."

Xukun smiled feeling impressed. "That's the best method."

"I do the same thing and it doesn't work." Xiao Gui remarked as Xukun chuckled. "Maybe it's just you."

They continued to watch her win more prizes for her friends as well as getting the ones that they requested for.

"I feel like I know her." Honglin muttered. "She reminds me of someone."

"Well, whoever she is, she's definitely good." Dinghao commented with an eager face. "I really want her to win me one."

"I can do that for you." Honglin offered as Dinghao countered. "But she gets them all the time. She hasn't missed one since we've been watching."

"You don't need any more toys." Yanjun remarked and then cast him a judging look. "And you make it sound like we're stalkers or something by saying we've been watching them."

"It's true." Dinghao rolled his eyes, but pouted. "But they have so many they can at least spare one or two to us."

"Oh, BeiBei! Hi!" A female voice interrupted their conversation as they all turned to see the female quartet now standing with them as the girls were also on their way out of the arcade.

"NiNi! Hi!" Honglin hugged Melanie and recognized the other three with two of them accepting his hugs. "XiaoXiao! QiongQiong!" Then went in for a hug with Serena who was the one that was winning prizes as she tried to dodged, but was unsuccessful. "NaNa! Wow, I didn't know you were good at the claw machine."

"I'm not." Serena denied as the two girls besides her nudged her playfully.

"She's lying. She played us for years." Cheng Xiao stated with a shocked voice as Jieqiong agreed. "Yeah! She could have won me that big Squirtle plush for me a month ago, but she didn't."

"There's a difference between claw machines and milk bottles, Jieqiong." Serena rolled her eyes with a smile before remembering the rest of Honglin's friends. "Um, but anyways, we'll let you go so you can hang out with your bud-"

"Could you win me one of those." Dinghao suddenly asked her while pointing at the machine filled with various sizes and color of emoji characters, but it was low in stock.

The other boys voiced out on what he was trying to do as Dinghao admitted that they've been watching for a good five minutes and grew envious of wanting any kind of prize from the claw machines. Then they had a little quarrel amongst them while Cheng Xiao and Jieqiong excused themselves. Meanie stayed behind to chat with Honglin and Serena went to the machine that Dinghao had pointed at to retrieve a prize for him.

The other seven were still arguing when Serena tapped Dinghao's shoulder and he turned around while letting out a surprise gasp upon seeing the orange carrot looking doll and an Umbreon plush toy.

"Hope these are okay." Serena smiled as she handed the toys to him.

Dinghao nodded vigorously with an excited look and took the dolls after thanking her several times.

"OMG, can you get me one, too?" Chengcheng asked a second later with Justin asking for one too while surrounding Serena.

"Um, sure." Serena smile although she shot them weird looks after the duo instantly pulled her towards one of the machines.

Honglin frowned. "They could've asked me."

"It's because she's a girl and you're their friend, so it's different. Totally different." Melanie chuckled before speaking again. "Anyways, BeiBei, tell Serena we're at Cafe Xinfan. Qiong and Xiao can't resist the raspberry tart that they served there."

"Sounds delicious. Can I join?"

"Sorry, girls' night out. Maybe next time."

"Haha, alright and will do. Bye."

"Bye, seeya tomorrow."

"Seeya."

Melanie and Honglin hugged once more before she waved at the other boys out of politeness and left. A few minutes later Justin and Chengcheng came back to the rest of the group with a few toys in hands with cheerful expressions.

"And you said girls get excited over cute things." Xukun stated while shooting Justin an amused look as Justin grinned widely. "Cute is cute."

"NaNa is so cool." Chengcheng commented as he held a few plush toys in his hold while Serena smiled sheepishly with a shake of her head. "I'm not."

"Is that a Huba doll that you're holding?" Bu Fan asked upon spying the cute character from Monster Hunt.

"Oh yeah it is." Serena held up the doll with a smile. "I got this for Melanie because she's been calling our friend Huba lately although he kinda hates the new nickname."

"Is your friend's name Zhu Xingjie?" Xiao Gui asked as Serena nodded. "Yeah, why?"

Xiao busted out laughing. "Because I'm the one that gave him that nickname."

"Haha, really? Wow,what a small world."

"Hey, do you think you can teach us how to win the claw machines?" Yanjun asked a moment later as Serena nodded. "I guess."

The boys leaned closer to hear as she gave them a few tips. "From my experience just go for the ones that are fully stock as it gives you a better chance. Not the ones that are low unless you know how to play around it. Oh and jiggling the stick before you grab helps also."

After finishing she noticed that her friends were gone and Honglin caught her expression. "They're at Cafe Xinfan."

"Oh, okay, thanks, BeiBei. Seeya." She waved at him as Honglin called after her. "See you in English tomorrow."

"Nah, I'ma ditched class since you said that." She replied back with a laugh before waving at the other boys out of friendliness and leaving after.

Justin nudged Honglin. "Wait, they go to the same school as us?"

"Yeah." Honglin replied with a smile. "You didn't know?"

"No, why would we?" Chengcheng said in slight disbelief.

Honglin cast his eyes onto Yanjun. "You and Melan-"

Yanjun interrupted him. "I know who she is. We have history and gym. I just didn't recognize her without the school's uniform."

"Okay." Honglin then looked at Xukun. "Well the other girl, Serena, she's-"

"Yeah, I know her, too. We have art together along with gym, too." Xukun interrupted with a nod. "I just never talked to her."

Honglin shrugged. "Well, okay. I thought you guys would know since they're friends with our other friends, too."

"Forget about school and who knows who. Let's go grab something to eat." Bu Fan suggested and pointed at Justin. "You're paying since you lost that bet a week ago."

When Yanjun and Xukun entered their first hour the next day they forgot about what Honglin had said yesterday until they spotted Melanie and Serena, respectively for history and art, in their class and remembered his words.

Yanjun coolly walked by Melanie's desk who was chatting with two of her seatmates to the front and side of her and didn't even notice Yanjun walking by as her back was facing him. Yanjun frowned and wanted to do or say something, but didn't and continued to his assigned seat in the back and stared in her direction without actually meaning to do so.

Meanwhile, Xukun on impulse made his way to the back where Serena was located in the corner seat by the windows and took the empty chair next to her as the class didn't have assigned seating. He was about to wave at her when he saw her head moved, but she didn't turn to face him as she just wanted to move her hair out of the way and he instantly put his hand down and turned away in slight embarrassment.

"I bought this large bag of hard candies and hid it, but my mom found the stash and now she's holding it hostage until I bring up my grades at the end of the semester." Ling Chao told them about his usual stories of candies and his mother's distaste for them.

While Melanie was listening to another story of his she felt someone staring at her and so turned her head and saw that Yanjun was staring at her. She shot him an awkward, but friendly smile with a small wave before turning back a second later to talking with Ling Chao and Ding Zeren after rolling her eyes upon seeing Yanjun shooting her a flirtatious wink.

Yanjun made a face after he impulsively sent Melanie the wink and turned his head away a second later with his eyes closed thinking why did he even do that in the first place.

His friend and seatmate to the left, Jiang Jingzuo, knocked on his desktop with a curious expression. "What's wrong with you?"

Their other seatmate to the front of Yanjun, Qiu Zhixie, smiled while knocking on Yanjun's desk, too. "It's because he got caught staring at Melanie."

"Since when were you interested in Melanie?" Their other seatmate, Li Ruotian, asked with a playful look. "Did something happen over the weekend between the two of you and that's why you're interested now?"

Yanjun brushed them off. "I'm not interested and nothing happened."

"You've been staring at her since you entered the classroom, Yanjun." Zhixie stated with a laugh as Yanjun shushed him and tried to deny the fact that he indeed donethat. "I was not."

"You have to be since I saw you sent her that signature wink of yours a while ago." Jingzuo chuckled as Yanjun covered his face in embarrassment.

Ruotian patted Yanjun's shoulder with a teasing smile. "Don't worry, Yanjun, just be yourself or well less of yourself. Melanie's not like the other girls."

"What did I say? It's not like that." Yanjun groaned and shooting his friend a glare, but Ruotian chuckled in response.

Before the trio could tease Yanjun some more the teacher walked in. Mr. Duan talked about a new assignment that would be due by the end of the semester and that he would be assigning partners for it.

"I hope I'm with one of you two." Melanie said to her friends. "I hate working with someone I don't know."

"What else is new?" Ling Chao turned around briefly to respond before turning forward again.

Melanie slightly smacked his shoulder and Ling Chao rubbed the sore spot, but focused his attention before him.

"You need to learn how to be nice to others." Zeren smiled as he turned his head to the right as Melanie stuck her tongue out at him. "I am nice."

"You hate all the girls in our class. That's not called being nice." Zeren stated in a whisper as Melanie shot him a knowing look with a slight glare. " It's because the girls in here like to gossip instead of actually doing their work like the ones in my chem class."

"I'm pretty sure it's because there's like six not including you in that class."

"Exactly, but the guys are just as bad as the girls when gossiping."

"No we're not." Zeren reasoned as Melanie disagreed. "Yeah, you are. You guys are more rowdy and hella annoying."

"Wow and I thought we were friends."

"I never said that we were in the first place. You just assumed we were."

"Now I hope you don't end up with me or Ling Chao and with someone you don't know or know well enough."

"You take that back, Ding Zeren!" Melanie whispered harshly as she smacked Zeren's arm who just silently chuckled at her reaction.

Their conversation was interrupted when Mr. Duan began assigning partners along with the topics they were in charge of doing. Once everyone was paired up Melanie patted Ling Chao on the shoulder as Zeren had ran off to find his partner.

"What's up?" Ling Chao asked with a lollipop in his mouth upon turning around as Melanie looked about the class. "Which one is Lin Yanjun again?"

"Him." Ling Chao pointed as Melanie followed his finger and made a face. "Him?"

"Yup." He smiled and shot her a look. "What's with the face? He isn't that bad of a guy."

"It's not that. Don't worry about it." She dismissed.

"Right." Ling Chao then gave her a pout. "I heard what you said about us guys being more rowdy and gossiping a lot. Rude."

"You know what I meant." Melanie rolled her eyes. "Seriously, you guys are so dramatic, too."

"Hmm, because of that I'm not going to share this strawberry-flavored lollipop with you." Ling Chao said as he held up a round and red lollipop.

"It's okay. I have my own." Melanie pulled out a blueberry-flavored lollipop from her backpack instead and stuck it in . "I don't need yours."

"Whatever. Anyways, have fun with your new partner." Ling Chao chuckled before patting the back of her hand. "Don't forget to be nice, okay?"

"I am nice." Melanie stuck her tongue out at him as he chuckled while gathering his things and leaving to be with his partner as well.

Melanie made a face while thinking to herself as she went on auto-pilot of gathering her things and putting them into her backpack since she wasn't sure if her partner wanted to stay in the classroom and discuss things or head over to the library to do research.

A moment later Melanie heard a soft cough and a low 'hey' snapping out her out of her thoughts. She turned her head and looked up to see Yanjun standing there with his own things and a dimple smile on his face.

"Hi there, partner." Yanjun greeted her with his charming smile. "How about we go to the library?"

"So that we can be alone and get to know one another better?" Melanie replied in a sarcastic way, but a sweet and teasing smile gracing her face while she stood and adjusted her backpack on her back as she used one of her hand to maneuvered the lollipop to the other side of .

"Yeah, exactly." Yanjun agreed happily, but then realized what Melanie had said and tried to correct himself. "I mean not that part about us being alone or anything like that although we will be and-"

"Sure, pal." Melanie interrupted him with a laugh as she motioned with her head towards the door while also making her way towards it. "Let's get a head start and an excuse to leave the classroom."

"Uh, yeah, let's go." Yanjun agreed a bit awkwardly as he followed after Melanie not aware that she was silently laughing at his reaction.

Serena was too absorbed with the book she was currently reading that she didn't pay attention to her two seatmates. She wasn't one for socializing or well she was less likely to talk to anyone unless she had to. Serena usually talked to the people besides her as she knew them over the course of the year as no one really switched seats and sits in the same spot most of the time, but she didn't feel like talking today.

There was a knock on her desk and she looked up to see Lou Zibo smiling at her from the seat in front of her. "What?" She asked him.

"Did you finish your negative space assignment?" Zibo asked with a pleading expression.

"Yeah. I finished it the day she assigned it to us." Serena then scoffed with a laugh. "You haven't started it have you?"

"Haha, no." Zibo answered while pulling out his sketchpad before looking at her. "Do you have something I can use for a bit?"

Serena let out a huff, but she pulled up her backpack and began to go through it while bringing out potential stuff that her friend could use.

"Why do you have pokeballs in your backpack?" Zibo ask seeing Serena bring out at least four of them.

Serena didn't bother answering as he grabbed one of the pokeballs and opened it to reveal a pokemon. "Can I have one."

"No."

"You have like a hundreds of these."

"Gotta catch 'em all."

"Wow."

Serena smiled as she brought out a few bags of snacks next.

"Why do you have so many snacks?"

"Because I can, Zibo."

"Can I-"

"No." Serena smacked his hand away while bringing out several mini rabbit plush dolls of various colors and interrupted him when she knew Zibo was going to ask something about them. "I won these yesterday at Lucky's and forgot to take them out."

"Mmhmm." Zibo shot her a look while picking one up to play with it. "Can I have this one?"

"No."

"Stingy as ever even when you have a lot of them."

"Mmhmm." Serena hummed as she began bringing out more random things.

"Why do you have so much stuff in your backpack?"

"Why do you care about it?"

"Because it's shocking to see all of this inside there."

"Uh huh, anyways, better find something useful."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll figure something out since none of your stuff seems useful right now." Zibo replied while turning back around to start on his negative space work before the teacher arrived.

Serena slightly giggled as she threw the ball that her friend was messing with earlier into his bag along with one of the snacks while also attaching the pink and white bunny he picked up earlier to his backpack afterwards. She turned to her right and was surprised to see Xukun sitting next to her. Usually Hu Zhibang sat there, but she figured he must've been running late or something.

Nevertheless she shot Xukun a small smile while placing a random pokeball and a mint green and white polka-dotted bunny onto his desk. "Here you go." She then reached for one of the snacks and placed it onto his desk as well. "Enjoy."

Xukun quickly smiled at her while letting out a small 'thank you' as he put the toys away and opened the bag of chips to eat as he watched Serena returned all of her stuff back into her backpack before leaving one pokeball, a yellow and tan rabbit, and a snack bag to give to Zhibang who sat in front of Xukun a moment later.

"Ah, I made it on time." Zhibang let out a relieved breath as he turned around to look at Xukun with a curious gaze. "Why are you suddenly sitting here when you normally sit on the other side of the classroom with Yanchen and Zhenghao?"

"Just felt like it." Xukun answered still eating the chips Serena gave him.

"Here you go, BangBang." Serena handed him the items with a smile. "Did you oversleep again?"

"Haha, yeah." Zhibang answered with a laugh as Zibo turned to face the other male. "Did you finished your negative space work?"

Zhibang's eyes widened as he let out a groaned. "Ugh, I completely forgot it at home. It's not due today, is it?"

"No, you still have next week to complete it." Xukun answered as Zibo looked at him with a blank look. "Wait, it's due next week and not today?"

"Yeah."

Serena chuckled as Zibo turned to glare at her. "And you didn't even tell me?"

Serena smirked. "You didn't ask me when it was due. Just if I had anything to help you with."

"You think by now you would have caught on on how Serena is, Zibo." Zhibang stated with a laugh while putting away the gifts Serena gave him.

Zibo was about to respond back, but didn't since the teacher walked into the classroom at that moment. Ms. Cui greeted her students before recapping their last session a few days ago before returning the conversation about today's lesson.

She informed the class that they were going to go outside and sketch the scenery around them before incorporating it into a mural project she was putting together for their final project. Ms. Cui also told them that they should bring their belongings as they wouldn't return once class ended and they could go to their next hour quickly afterwards.

Zhibang knocked on Serena's desk to get her attention. "Hey, NaNa."

"What, BangBang?" She asked after having packed everything so that she didn't have to carry her art stuff until after she found her perfect spot.

"You're not gonna ditch us again to run off somewhere else to do your sketches, are you?" Zhibang asked in a serious tone as Serena shot him an aloof expression although her tone suggested otherwise. "I don't know what you mean, BangBang. I did no such thing last time."

"Yeah you do, Serena." Zibo stated turning to face her while eating the snack that Serena had put in his bag a moment later. "You did it like five times and the last four times weren't even an outside project."

"I'm pretty sure you have me confused with someone else." Serena denied with a smirk as she and everyone else stood to leave the classroom.

Serena was about to move on ahead of them, but she felt someone grabbed both ends straps of her backpack and saw that Zibo had took a hold of it.

"I'm making sure you don't run off like you usually do." Zibo said with a smile as Serena rolled her eyes, but didn't do anything as she let him tug her along instead while walking besides Xukun and Zhibang.

Yanjun glanced to his left to see what Melanie was doing and saw that she was really looking up information on their class assignment. He also noticed that she was left-handed as she wrote down several things. Now it made sense why she wanted him to sit on her right instead of her left.

"Stop staring at me." Melanie said snapping Yanjun from his thoughts.

"I'm not staring at you." He denied as he returned back to doing his part.

"Right. So, how far have you gotten on the subject then?" She asked not taking her eyes away from the computer screen while continuing to scroll through several articles.

"Far enough." He answered vaguely.

"Mmhmm."

Yanjun discreetly looked over to see if Melanie's attention was still on the monitor and saw that she was still scrolling through several different pages, before his eyes were once again staring at her unintentionally.

"Stop." Melanie said as she turned her attention onto Yanjun who snapped out of his litle moment. "Stop what?"

"Stop staring at me." She clarified as Yanjun scoffed. "I wasn't staring at you."

"Yeah you were and I'm not gonna fall for your little games so that you can make me do all of the work and you still get credit for the assignment while doing nothing to earn the grade."

"Little games? What are you talking about?"

Melanie rolled her eyes as she went back to her research before speaking again in an indifferent tone. "All the girls and some of the boys talk about you so I've picked up some things here and there."

"But that's just gossip. You don't even know the real me." Yanjun reasoned as Melanie turned her gaze onto him. "Earlier in class you winked at me when I noticed you staring at me when our eyes met."

Yanjun let out an embarrassed laugh while trying to explain himself. "I didn't mean to. It just happened."

Melanie continued to cast him a blank expression as Yanjun really tried to explained his actions.

"No, seriously, Melanie, I didn't mean it. I didn't mean for that to happen at all." He grew flustered as he started to ramble. "BeiBei mentioned you and I didn't recognize you without our school uniform and-"

"It's fine." Melanie assured him with a small laugh while returning her attention back to the computer screen before her. "The cool and cold Lin Yanjun is really a fumbling mess one on one when he's not surrounded by other people and being all suave lik."

Yanjun recovered and looked at Melanie seriously. "Wait, do you actually know a lot about me?"

"Um, not really." Melanie admitted with a sheepish laugh. "BeiBei talks about all of y'all all the time  and even though I'm great with remembering faces than names, I don't really care if it doesn't concern me." She then faced him with an amused look. "Dissapointed?"

"Kinda?" Yanjun laughed questioningly, but then eyed her nervously. "What does BeiBei say about us?"

"Um, well, honestly about that I have no clue. He just rants and says this and that about almost everything and anything. I partially listen to what he has to say whenever we hang out unless it's about some other topic that isn't his friends."

"That guy." Yanjun muttered under his breath.

Melanie silently laughed as she went back to her research as Yanjun turned his attention back onto her and abandoned his research altogether.

"You're doing it again." Melanie commented with a neutral tone while still taking notes here and there.

Yanjun smirked as he propped his right elbow onto the table and rest his right cheek upon his right fist. "I'm not doing anything."

"Mmhmm."

Silence fell between them.

"Hey." He called out to her a minute later, but Melanie ignored him.

"Melanie."

Still no response. He repeated her name another minute later and still received the same response.

"Really? You're giving me the silent treatment now."

Melanie smiled, but didn't answer or even glance at him. Yanjun's gazed turned intense, but still Melanie continued to do her work.

"Do your work, Yanjun." Melanie ordered after feeling his intense stare upon her and grew a bit uncomfortable by it after a few minutes had passed.

"I'm working on something else." Yanjun replied without actually thinking about what he had just said and Melanie rolled her eyes, but didn't bother to comment on what he could mean by that and continued her research.

Another moment of silent fell between them and Yanjun grew restless with the lack of attention and response that Melanie was giving him. A slow and playful grinned appeared on his face while he reached over and tapped Melanie's right shoulder with his left hand.

Melanie let out a sigh and turned to face him only to have Yanjun's index finger poked her right cheek soon afterwards. Yanjun shot her a charming dimple smile as Melanie rolled her eyes to hide the fact that the little action made her heart skip a beat.

"You're so dumb." She commented with an aloof and calm manner while casting him a judging look, but averted her gaze a second later becoming shy.

Yanjun chuckled at her response as he noticed her facial expression seemed less amused than before and more shy now. "Did that make you shy?"

"Go back to your work and stop bothering me." Melanie answered instead and returned her focus elsewhere but the male beside her.

"Oh, but why, Melanie? I thought we were getting along fine just now." Yanjun said in a casual voice as he scooted his chair closer to hers causing Melanie to shy away from him due to their proximity, especially when he placed an arm casually on the back of her chair and his fingertips lightly brushed against her left shoulder.

Melanie rolled her eyes as she moved her shoulders to ease her posture and leaned forward so that Yanjun's fingertips weren't touching her shoulder. Shy tried to focus all of her attention onto her research, but Yanjun's continuous stare and the awareness of how close he was to her made her uncomfortable with each and every passing second.

"Stop your ." Melanie suddenly said in a loud whisper for only Yanjun to hear so that those around them couldn't.

Yanjun's smiling face turned into one of confusion upon hearing those words leave . "What'd you mean?"

Melanie sighed deeply and closed the browser before gathering her things into her backpack.

Yanjun frowned when she didn't give him an answer and instead packed up her things. "Wait, what are you doing? We still have like less than half an hour left before second period starts."

"I know." She answered dryly as she stood and pushed in her chair. "I'm just gonna go over there and read some books instead." She pointed towards the aisles of books. "You can continue to use the computer while staying here."

Melanie shot him a forced smile before it went stoic and walked away towards the book section where she could do research another way to be as far from Yanjun as possible.

Yanjun watched her walk away and disappeared between the aisles before letting out a regretful sigh at what he had just done or possibly had done. He still wasn't quite sure on what he had exactly done to make Melanie react the way she just did, but he could take a guess on the gist of it.

He rubbed his face wondering what was wrong with him all of a sudden and why was he behaving this way when it was normal with others. He figured it may be because Melanie's reaction was different compare to others. Yanjun sighed again and refrained himself from bothering his classmate again.

Serena had successfully made her escape from her friends after they had gotten outside and she was now venturing to the rooftop of the C building. It was one of her favorite spots to visits due to its view of overseeing everything on campus in one spot. A perfect place to chill and get things done.

Once settled, Serena began a rough sketch of the land laboratory that was way across the C building before moving on to work on a perso