Lu Han walked inside the classroom, thinking of what Sera had up her sleeves this time. For a month now, Sera has been keeping him awake and thus, successfully avoiding Dr. Jensen’s graded recitation. She permanently took over the seat in his row, three spaces away from her target, him.

At first, he badly wanted to tell her off. No one should come before him and his sleep. It annoyed him to have been woken up different ways, from little paper balls that could sting once hit to the furry cat’s tail she attached on the end of the meter stick. Sera is creative, he would give her that.

And whenever he would fix her with his glare, he would always end up looking at her side profile, for her eyes were glued to the front. How could she pretend that nothing happened? But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he would just shake his head mentally. Wearing the neutral mask is her expertise, he concluded.

He would have been mad at her if he wasn’t aware of her intention. She might be doing it for herself, but the rest benefited as well, including him. How she manages to pay attention to the lecture and keep an eye on him at the same time was beyond his thinking capacity.

To others, she always comes off as someone who is apathetic and grade-obsessed but obviously, they are wrong; he was wrong.

Sera was the classmate who dragged him to a gadgets store to buy earphones that he would wear at night and although he refused, she even paid for half of it.

“I don’t need that.”

“Yes, you do. And you will plug them in your ears.”

She was the classmate, who took him to a drugstore for his vitamin supplements;

“I don’t need that.”

“Yes, you do. Vitamin C will help build your stamina.”

who gave him a list of foods to eat during breakfast;

“Do I have to? It’s such a drag,” he drawled.

“These foods will give you loads of energy in the morning. You have to eat them.”

and who always bought water for him to drink during class.

“Again?”

“Do you want my meter stick then?”

Sera could have continued with her direct physical assaults in class and keep him awake, but obviously, she didn’t stop there. And eventually, his body felt stronger and healthier as the weeks passed. Lu Han had never received such treatment from another person except for his family.

If asked about the nicest thing a stranger did to him, he would have one answer in mind: keep me awake in class.

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