Never in my whole life have I thought I would be walking alone with Krisus like this. If I were to die now, I’d die as a happy fangirl.

He doesn’t say a word and I can’t even brave myself to look at anything besides my own feet. I follow him two steps behind, even with that, I’m still afraid if my crazy heartbeat could be heard by him. I keep on walking until I bump into something hard. Uh-oh. Kris’ holy back. Apparently, he stopped walking and warned me with his back. Smart move there, Kris.

Ahh, finally, his scent. He smells like lavender and lemon and orange blossom, with a woody background scent also. How is that even possible? He…smells…so…AY! It’s so masculine! I wanna swim in his scent.

He turns to me and lowers his head. I take that as an apology. Wait. Aren’t I supposed to apologize? I would, if my throat lets me speak. Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

The next thing I know, we’re already at the garden. Our school garden isn’t like any other. It’s very majestic and beautiful yet welcoming. It gives a sense of calm and belonging. At least, that’s what I feel whenever I go here. It’s mid spring. The beautiful plants and vivid flowers are surrounded by tall hedge walls with blooming flower buds peeking out from them.

Kris begins cutting some small branches with his pocket knife.

“Aren’t you gonna help me?” he asks as I was enjoying the sight of his backside. He then turns to me, “You can go pick some leaves over there.” He says flatly and points to the bush behind me.

“Oh, right.” I manage to voice. I think somehow, this garden made my heartbeat normal again, like before the Kris feels emerged. I hum a little tune while pouring all my attention to the pretty leaves. I pick the large ones, instead of the small baby ones. I forget all about Kris and begin to sing a little louder. I just adore Eternally Lost by J.Lewis so I sing it liberally. “I’m eternally lost~~~”

I hear the sound of throat clearing and my cheeks begin blazing again. Oh Gosh, I sang out loud and Kris heard it; my terrible, horrible, nasty, ferocious singing. How could I have forgotten about him?

“You actually sound pretty good.” Kris says while still gluing his eyes to the shrub. He sounded indifferent though, in contrary with me, who is about to blow up by his flattering words.

“Some people say thanks if someone says something good about them.”  He says, stands up straight and turns to me. His head is in a cocky position, held up high.

I repeat his words in my head again, trying to process what he just said as there were too many somes and after I finally made it out in a couple seconds, I feel a strong flow of blood rushing within me.

“Umm, thanks?” I squeak. Yup, I squeaked. Like a mouse.

He raises an eyebrow and goes back to cutting small branches.

What was that? He just complimented me and then sounded like he was mad, and then turns his back at me. What the? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS GUY? Is he like, having his periods or something?

I don’t say a word despite my thoughts. I knew he was this kind of person. Cold, cocky and downright snobby. I, somehow, feel that there’s another layer underneath those façade and fake appearance.

Oh, I should tell you something. I stalk him. Thus, I get to see some rare stuff that he covers from the eyes of anyone else. Such as, his smile. His beautiful, gorgeous, stunning, dazzling, shining, whatever- extravagant-adjective-you’d-like-to-enter smile. Let me tell you, whenever he smiles that beautiful eye smile of his, the whole world just turns to a better place. Children in Africa are no longer starving, wars are no longer ongoing, politicians are no longer bickering, teenage girls are no longer whining, North Korea and South Korea are no longer separated and couples no longer divorcing.

Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little.

And one more thing I discovered is that he is always laughing when he’s with his friends - especially Chen. I despise Chen. He’s a total jerk. I hate how he always struts like he owns the damn school and how he would always smile charmingly at pretty girls; he already has a freaking girlfriend (and a y one at that. Hah! He deserves it), for God’s sake. And I really hate how he would always put on his smug face. Who does he think he is? Kris? Only Kris can pull out that smug face. Although, during my research, I did find out some peculiar stuff about him and Kris. Kris’ backpack is identical to Chen’s, like a couple backpack. Everything’s the same; the brand, the color, the size, EVERYTHING except for the key chains that they put on them. Kris’ is a Patrick key chain and Chen’s is a Spongebob key chain. Weird, right? Also, Kris’ e-mail address is strangely similar as Chen’s too. Don’t even get me started on their phone numbers. Chen’s number differs from Kris’ by only 3 digits! That’s out-and-out suspicious, RIGHT? How did I find out their e-mail addresses and phone numbers? Trust me, you don’t wanna know.

All these suspicions aroused my curiosity more as to why they’re so freaking close. So, I asked around to see if they came from the same elementary school, maybe they were friends ever since. And they didn’t.  Which possibly means, they met in high school. Then why are their e-mail addresses matching?

My thoughts are interrupted by a hoarse voice. “Are you done?”

“Yeah.” I answer short. I picked some leaves enough for only 5 people. Kris had better pick more if don’t want to get in trouble. I glance at his hands, beautiful and long fingers, and see twigs with leaves. Great, that should make up for my loss.

“Okay. Let’s go.” He starts making his way to the entrance of the garden and I follow him from behind.

“I meant it earlier.” He says as we are walking.

I’m really confused now. My heart is back to its Kris-feels mode, which is thudding frantically. I can’t manage to speak any words.

“I really liked your singing. Do you sing regularly? You should” he says in a monotone with his head still not facing me.

Now tell me how am I supposed to react to that?  I don’t want to embarrass myself by squeaking a ‘thanks’ again, so what do I do? I try gathering all my courage to speak up and

“You really don’t talk much do you?” the y voice sounds again. “I thought you’re the noisy type. I was wrong.” He is still not facing me. “Or are you just shy around me?”

W-wut? ASDFGHJKL how did he know? Oh my God is my heart that loud? I quickly put my hands on my chest to cover the sound of my heartbeat.

“You think I don’t know? Do you seriously think that I don’t have a clue that you’ve been watching me?” he stops in his steps and finally turns around to me. His gaze. It’s penetrating into my poor soul and right through my weak heart.

Is he…mad? Oh no. He knew all along? Heck, how could he not? I was too obvious, even my friends were obvious.

Oh no. He’s mad. He hates me. Now what? I feel blood shooting up to my cheeks and the heat is unbearable. My eyes start to brim with tears and I feel something stuck in my throat. I can’t speak.

“So you’re just gonna be silent like this?” He asks with an annoyed tone. He waits for my answer that never came. “Fine.”

He turns and leaves me. I, on the other hand, don’t have enough courage to go back to the lab. I stand here, staring at the ground. Warm tears fall down to my cheeks. I don’t even know why I’m crying. Kris doesn’t mean anything to me. He’s just a hot guy in school. That’s it. Then why am I crying?