“No, I can’t. I’m sorry”, Yabu’s eyes twitched after hearing the voice of his own girlfriend declining his invitation for a date the second time. Yes – the second time. He looked at the girl’s weary face while carrying some of her books towards her lecture theatre. She hurriedly scuffled both her feet towards the hall after leaving a soft peck on her boyfriend’s cheek.

“B-But…”

“I promise I’ll make it up to you after my exam!”, Hannah bowed once and like a ninja, disappeared into the corridor.

--

Being a ‘cool boyfriend’ is the best way to describe Yabu Kota – NOT! Just a few weeks ago, he was left to believe that acting ‘cold’ and ‘distant’ to girls will make them cling to you even more. He now thinks that this is a STUPID idea and whoever thought of it should just choke on a donut! He learnt this the hard way after learning that the girl he loves has no time for him despite his ‘cool’ demeanour. To make matters worse, he feels like he is coming down with a bad cold.

“I tried to ignore Fai-chan for a few days and she actually said she missed me! We went all lovey-dovey after that”, Yuya’s voice tingled inside his ears and felt defeated having nothing else to do on his day off.

“Achoooo!”, Yabu sneezed and cursed his luck. He was acting like a ‘cold boyfriend’ towards Hannah these past few days and now, he actually has a COLD! Oh, the irony! “This is all that idiot’s fault!”, he grunted and buried his face on his arms, folded on the table.

--

“Did someone die or what?”, his so-called ‘idiotic’ friend joined him, making the sulking boy look up to the source. Yabu watched as Yuya sat across the table while Fai joined the latter.

“Guess what, I took your stupid advice and tried to avoid Hannah-chan for a few days… and it DIDN’T WORK! She doesn’t even have time for me! She’s so busy with her upcoming final exam!”, Yabu moaned like a little kid. For the first time ever, he acted immature in front of his friends.

“Hannah was asking you for a date a few weeks ago since she knew she’ll be busy with revision, but you declined. And now that she's actually busy, you’re that she doesn’t have time for you? Boys are crazy”, Fai said in a ‘matter-of-fact’ tone. This was before she heard another sneeze coming from Yabu, “Are you getting sick?”

Yabu completely ignored Fai’s question and just focused on the problem at hand, “The only reason I declined her invitation is because Yuya told me that if I ignore her for a couple of days, she’ll cling to me like there’s no tomorrow!”

“You take relationship advice from Yuya?”, Fai snorted in derision, “Both of you are idiots”, she said without any tint of mercy, enough to take Yabu down to his miseries.

The older one looked at Yuya and shot him stabbing looks, which in reply made the latter bite his lower lip and give off a “sorry-dude” facial expression. “Tsk”, Yabu stood up, annoyed at the fact that he’s missing his girl too much. He pulled his jacket and placed it over his shoulder.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m gonna ask Hannah for a date again”, he turned his back from the two before attempting to leave, “… and this time, I won’t take ‘No’ for an answer”

--

Yabu looked around the library hunting for one particular maiden he’s dying to be with. He scouted around in between the book shelves and felt a smile form on his face as soon as his eyes eyes landed on Hannah’s figure peacefully scanning through the pages of her psychology book.

Yabu tiptoed himself towards his girlfriend’s figure when suddenly, two unfamiliar men beat him to it. He saw two guys leaning near Hannah, showin