Ever since Yatou's surprise party, his mind was preoccupied, quite reluctantly, with thoughts of a particular person every now and then. Thoughts that focused on a particular girl — a girl whose name sounded exactly as his own, but also had the personality and IQ exactly opposite of his. Her naive smile played constantly in his mind like some sort of a broken record, looping endlessly. To be perfectly honest, her breathtakingly beautiful appearance at the party had him completely taken aback. He had wondered if she had been the same country bumpkin that he knew from school. He was even more surprised that this stupid girl could have such a bizarre effect on him. 

Unconsciously, he straightened himself when she walked in through the door. She seemed to have kept her luscious wavy hair down ever since the party. He was mesmerized by her until her clumsiness kicked in again. 

“Ouch!” She landed flat on her face.

Almost immediately, he got up from his chair. However, before he could make it to her, another guy already helped her up. It came to his attention that at around the time she decided to let her hair down, random guys had been buzzing around her like bees more frequently than necessary. He stood there helplessly as three other guys hovered over her to see what was wrong. He started to get frustrated. This dumb girl shouldn't be able to have such an effect on him.

“Are you okay, Xiaojie?” The guy pushed up his glasses in a nerdy fashion and asked her.

“Yea, I think so...thanks.” She forced a smile at the guy before wincing out a cry of pain. 

Without any more second thoughts, he pushed the nerdy guy aside and held onto her arm. Anger overtook him. “You're not okay,” he stated flatly, trying to keep his cool. “I'll bring you to the nurse's office.”

She was surprised by his actions. Never in her dreams would she imagine him throwing a second glance at her, especially when they sat so far apart in class. However, deep in her heart, she knew he was kind and that was why she fell in love with him. She felt herself heating up at their closeness, even though he was just holding her arm. 

“Can you walk?” He  noticed her stiffness. He rolled his eyes at her lack of response. He knew liking someone with low IQ would be troubling, but never in a million years had he thought he would be that guy. “Nevermind,” with that said, he lifted her up and walked out of the classroom. At that moment, he didn’t even seem to notice the existence of the rest of his classmates, let alone their shocked expressions.

Thump, thump, thump...

That sound was the beating of her heart. She really hoped he didn’t notice it.

He felt nervous and his hands started to sweat upon realizing he was carrying her in a bridal style while walking down the hall to the nurse’s office. He really hoped she didn’t notice it. He still needed to maintain the cool image in front of her. After her love confession to him, he thought protecting his image was even more important so that he would always appear perfect in front of her.

After the nurse took care of the bruise on her kneecap, she told her to rest in the office for a while before heading back to class.

“Okay, I’m going to head out to have an early lunch, so just rest up.” The nurse then turned to the teenage boy who was standing by the door. “Shouldn’t you go back to your classroom?”

He hesitated, “um...is she okay?”

“Yeah, it was just a little bruise, no big deal. You better head back to your class before you get yourself into trouble,” the nurse warned sternly before taking her coat and heading out.

Obviously, he didn’t heed her advice. He walked up to the bed where she was sitting, looking at her bruised kneecap. “Why are you so clumsy all the time?” he asked, semi-rhetorically.

Startled by the voice, she looked up. “Why are you still here? You would get into trouble if the teacher noticed that you’re still not in class.”

He thought she was adorable, still worrying about him when she should be worrying more about herself. He smiled and sat down right beside her. “You should worry about yourself more.”

“I know I’m clumsy, but I’ll try...I’ll try to be more graceful and elegant, so that you don’t need to worry about me.” She beamed innocently at him.

Defensively, he retorted, “who said I was worrying about you?” Then, he noticed her face sadden. “Hey, hey, hey, what’s with the face?”

“I know that you don’t like me, and you’re just being kind.” What she said somehow made his heart sunk. She tried to sound more positive again, “but I am determined to become more graceful, more elegant, more intelligent, more pretty—”

“No!” He suddenly stood up and blurted out.  He knew even more guys would surround her if that was to happen.

“Huh?”  She was confused.  Did he mean that no matter what she does, he would never look at her?  She felt her stomach sick.

“Who gave you the idea that you should be all of that?”

She had never seen him this way. She was a bit scared. “But I thought—”

“Isn’t that twisting your own personality?  Or is it because you want to garner more guys’ attention to yourself?”

She shook her head. 

“Then don’t change anything about yourself.” Suddenly he felt bad for scaring her like that, upon realizing how he behaved just a moment ago. Finally, he sighed.  He sat down again and used his hands to guide her face to look at him. She looked so innocent.  “I don’t want you to change yourself.  I don’t need you to be elegant or graceful...you can be as clumsy as you want because...because...”  His heartbeat quickened. It was now or never.  In one breath, he completed his sentences, “because I’ll always be near you, so that if you fall, I’ll be there to catch you in time from now on.  I especially don’t need you to pretty up because it would make it harder for me to get to you.”

Thump, thump, thump...

His words overwhelmed her. She needed clarity and so she gathered up her courage and asked, “Xiaojie, was that a love confession?”

He just wanted to drop dead now.  After all the effort of him mustering up his courage, she asked him that?  Loving someone with low IQ was troubling.

Suddenly, her lips widened into a big grin.  “If you don’t say anything in three seconds, then I’ll take it that it was love confession!  One, two, three!”

She counted so quickly that he didn’t even have time to response. He thought she was pretty smart this time. He tried to hide his smile.

She meekly linked arm with his.  “So that means I’m your girlfriend now.  You can’t back down, okay?”

Without warning, he held her hand tight, pulled her body forward to his, and planted a kiss onto her soft lips.  He had been meaning to do that ever since she started to consume all of his thoughts.  He pulled away from the kiss. “Open your eyes and look at me.”

She opened her eyes, but was too shy to look at him after what happened.

“Look at me, Xiaojie,” he demanded her.

Getting up her courage a bit, she did.  As she expected, her heart beat even more wildly when she looked at him.

“I’ll never back down on being your boyfriend as long as you promise to only look at me always and no other guys.  You understand?”

She happily nodded.

Just then, the nurse came back.  “Hey, didn’t I already tell you to go back to your classroom?”

---------------------------

End of Story No. 1.