Note [IMPORTANT]: I originally wanted to insert in here several photos of the tweets but sadly I cannot as a notification will pop up that the body exceeds the supposed number of characters. So, I’ll be putting links that redirect to my twitter account instead. Sorry for the little inconvenience. Make sure to check out for those though in order to understand the story. Happy reading! 

 

_________

She hates her guts. 

 

Karina thought while choking the person she is pertaining to mentally. 

 

Kim freaking Winter just had the audacity to continuously question her line of thinking as she presented her report in front of the class a while ago. 

 

"Hey, take it easy." Giselle consoled on her side. 

 

"I can't just take it easy, Gi! She freaking embarrassed me in front of everyone." she reasoned out grumpily, taking a bite on her sandwich. 

 

"For the record, she didn't embarrass you. You perfectly answered all her questions. I'm pretty sure that Ms. Kim probably gave you a higher score than what it should have been before her questioning." 

 

"But still, you know damn well that I hate it when someone is blatantly pushing her ideas to me. Especially if we have a contradicting stand on a particular matter." Karina fired back.  It even went to a point that she was huffing by the kind of pace she had uttered those words. 

 

"I know that, Rina. But how many times has this happened already? At this point, it is not even a new occurrence to any of us. And every time, it is you who gets worked up…" Giselle replied, trying to put some sense into her friend. 

 

"Winter is probably just chilling under a huge tree at the quadrangle right now. While you…" she continued while pointing at Karina's current state. 

 

"I honestly know where you are coming from because she always tries to annoy you. But don't you think it's time to not give her any attention? You'll just get stressed while she's having fun teasing you." Giselle finished and soon proceeded on arranging her things as any minute now, their afternoon classes will start. 

 

 

When the bell rang, students started to enter the room. Coincidentally, Karina's eyes met a pair whose holder is the one she loathes the most. The girl immediately let out a smirk at Karina. If this happened before Giselle talked to her, Karina would have glared at her. This time, she maintained her stoic expression. Trying her best to not give the other girl the satisfaction that Giselle pointed out. 

 

Karina then absentmindedly rummaged through her bag after that eye contact even though her things were all neatly placed atop her desk. 

 

Winter on the other hand, sported an unreadable expression on her features at Karina's unusual response to her teasing. 

 

___________ 

 

"How was ignoring your nemesis?" Giselle queried nonchalantly while munching on a bunch of chips. Keeping their eyes on the movie playing, Karina groaned almost instantly. For the whole week of her new approach to try to cut off Winter from her daily life, God knows how much she had to restrain herself from strangling the girl - physically this time. 

 

Even though it had somehow lessened the instances of the latter's annoying teasings. Karina is currently losing her mind because all she wants to do is to fire back an insult or even glare at her. But she's trying to be the bigger person this time.

 

Just this time. 

 

She swears that when she cannot take it anymore, Karina will make sure that Winter will not be able to handle what she's going to utter as a rebuttal. 

 

"I don't want to even think about it." she started with a sigh. Giselle just patted her shoulder. 

 

"You're doing quite well though. Just take it all in, she'll probably find a new prey after she realized that it's getting boring with you." At her remark, Karina abruptly turned towards Giselle with an offended look. 

 

"Excuse me? Me? Getting someone bored? That will never happen, Ms. Uchinaga." 

 

 

 

"Uhhh… okay, wrong choice of words." Giselle surrendered and tried her best to rephrase that line but no matter how she wracked her brain, it all still points to that thought. It was actually the reason why she suggested for the latter to just ignore Winter. 

 

Giselle just opted to divert both their attention on the movie again. She might get worked up to be the middle woman between the two. 

 

_________

 

Yuji.K tweeted. 

 

A notification popped up on her phone. She immediately opened the app to see the girl's newest tweet. 

 

[PHOTO # 1]: https://twitter.com/JaeMJae01/status/1680254587570102275?s=20

 

The person behind the camera gawked at what was displayed. After recovering from her admiration, she immediately typed her reply. Still, a private quote retweet. Hell will break loose if Karina will catch a whiff that it was her all along. They haven’t even had a proper interaction yet.  

 

[PHOTO #2]: https://twitter.com/JaeMJae01/status/1680254590912978947?s=20

 

"Gigi! That person qrted my tweet again!" Karina shouted from the bathroom as she brushed her teeth. 

 

"What?!" with her gargling voice, it's no wonder that Giselle cannot understand her. She hastily finished her task at hand before plopping on her bed, beside the Japanese girl. 

 

"I said that person private qrted again." she repeated, clearly wondering who was behind the private qrts on her every tweet. Karina even thought of moving to a new twitter account but then the memories she had with this account ever since she was in junior high is hard to let go. Giselle suggested for her to go private to what she did, but then it didn't stop. So, the one behind must have been her follower for a long time already. 

 

Karina doesn't have enough patience and even the luxury of time to check her 5,101 followers one by one to know who was the most suspicious. Hence, she just let whoever was behind it. She's just hoping that that person is not cursing her or saying weird or creepy things about her. 

 

"I really wonder who that person could be." Giselle uttered, even putting her right hand on her chin to think. 

 

"It could only mean two things…" 

 

"That person likes you very much or loathes you the most." 

 

"I think so too." Karina agreed. 

 

But who could it be? I just hope it's not the latter. 

 

_________

 

"Get the hell away from me, Kim." she warned, her gaze still fixated on the book she's reading. 

 

"I am not even doing anything." the latter replied sheepishly while still maintaining their close distance by sitting beside her. 

 

Karina is keen on heeding to Giselle's advice, with all her might she ignores the girl. Even though she can feel the latter's eyes boring into her for a few minutes now. 

 

 

 

"What if I pluck your eyes out?" she grumpily uttered after a while of suppressing her annoyance at the girl's staring. 

 

 

With the usual response from the girl, Winter cannot help but to smile wildly. 

 

 

This. This is what she's wanting to see. 

 

Karina's grumpy self explicitly being displayed because of her. 

 

"Who would stare at you if that's the case?" Winter replied back with a smirk. 

 

"Just so you know, I have many admirers." she stated as a matter of fact. Karina hates to brag but Winter really unleashes this side of her. 

 

"Oh really? Bunch of nerds I suppose." she gritted her teeth at the latter's reply. But soon composes herself, thinking of a good clapback. 

 

"At least they're not annoying like you." 

 

"Ouch." Winter fakes her hurt with a dramatic expression, even putting both her hands on her chest. 

 

Soon, it morphed into a smirk as she replied, "They're not as smart as me though." 

 

Well, that… 

 

 

Karina cannot argue back. 

 

Indeed, even if she's annoying the hell out of her and sleeps most of the time in class. Winter managed to gain the third spot on the honor roll. After her and Giselle. So basically, those nerds that she's pertaining to are truly no match with her. 

 

"I am smarter than you though." Winter cannot and will not win this time. Karina won't let her. Not now that she has contradicted what Giselle advised despite successfully suppressing her annoyance for two weeks already. 

 

That particular remark caught Winter off guard. For how many months of teasing Karina, never did the latter resort to bragging about her own achievements or what not. So, this was really new to her. 

 

Having recovered from her slight surprise, she leaned sideward towards the older. Her face inching closer when Karina glances to her side, at the obvious closer proximity. 

 

Looking straight into Karina's eyes, "You haven't yet seen me give my hundred percent in academics, Yu." she mumbled with all seriousness, trying her best to taunt the girl. 

 

Her little stunt caus