(Juwan's POV.)
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I stood in front of the mirror.
"Mhmm, it doesn't look that bad since Sonaia treated it yesterday."
I punched myself in the cheek. There you go, it looks worse than how it actually is.
I put a patch and a band aid on my cut.
Time check, 5:00am.
I put on my uniform and jacket, grabbed the lunchbox I made and put it in my bag before leaving the house.
.
.
"Next stop: Helliefon High School."
I stood near the bus door. As soon as I reached my stop, I practically jumped off the bus.
I stretched my back, yawning as my eyes tear up a little. I entered the building, changing to my indoor shoes before walking up the set of stairs.
The cold breeze from the open window hits my face when I reach the 3rd floor. I walked down the hallway until I reached my room.
"Morning." I said as soon as I entered the room.
Ofcourse, Lovely is already here. She looked up at me as she suddenly stood up, her hand slamming on her desk. Her eyes are focused on the patches on my face.
"Juwan?!"
She ran towards me, her eyes filled with worry as she looks at me. I smiled as gentle as I can, her hand touched my face.
She's shaking.
Tears are starting to build up in her eyes. Just one look at her face and I already know what she's thinking.
Ah man, she's blaming herself. I stopped myself from smiling as I pat her hair.
"I'm fine." I said, gently rustling her hair.
"How is that fine!? You're face is filled with bruises!" She said as she basically dragged me to back, getting a chair as her pink eyes angrily looks at me.
"Why did you get so hurt..." She uttered beneath her breath.
I smiled, leaning in on her touch as she touches my face. Based on her expression, she's overthinking again. Seriously, this girl is so cute.
"I'm okay. Besides, I won." I told her, making a peace sign with my hands.
She looked at me, her eyes widening before giggling as she covers her mouth with her hand.
"You--! Don't make me laugh you dumdum! Do you know how worried I was when Sonaia told me that she saw you badly beaten up?" She said, giggling while scolding me.
"My bad, my bad, I just wanted to stop you from overthinking." I said as I gently pat her hair.
So Sonaia told her, nice assist shorty. Lovely pouted, she removed my hand on her head, holding it and gripping it as if she's annoyed.
"You mind reader." She said while pouting. What the heck that's so cute--!
"But seriously, why did you get so hurt?" She asked me, her grip on my hand getting gentler.
I tried my best not to smile but God its so hard when she's acting like this.
"It's because they hurt you. I was so angry that they did that to you so things got out of hand." I told her as her gaze went from my hand to my face.
"S-Seriously, why are you going that far for me?" She said but her smile is so obvious.
"Cuz you're important to me." I told her as her eyes widened.
She froze, her face red as she looks at me as if I'm crazy. She gently punched my chest, not even noticing the smile on her face.
"Thank you... for getting mad for my sake." She said, hiding her face on my chest as I pat her.
"No problem." I told her as her shoulders started to relax.
We spent a few seconds with her just relaxed on my chest as I pat her.
"W-well, I kinda want to pay you back since you got this hurt because of me." She said as she pushed herself away from my chest.
"Hmm?" I asked.
"Tell me if there's anything you want okay? I'll do anything I can! If you want me to treat you or do your homework or stuffs!" She confidently said as she puffs her chest with confidence.
I stared at her, baffled by what her mind just thought of.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I laughed as her face turned red.
"D-Don't laugh!" She said as she pouts.
"Haaa! My bad!" I said as I wipe the tears off my eyes.
She pouted, gently smacking my arm as she makes a "hmpf" sound.
"But seriously, you'll do anything?" I asked her as she looked up.
"Yep, anything!" She said as she has a smug smile.
"Really?"
"Really!"
"Then..." I uttered as she tilted her head.
"Hmm?"
"Let's hangout on sunday, just the two of us." I said, smiling at her.
She stayed silent, her head tilted more as she looked confuse. She then realized what I meant as her face started to slowly turn red.
"...Yes, a date."
"Stop reading my mind!" She said as she covers her head with her hands as if to cover whatever thought she has in her mind.
She looked at me, her hands moving frantically as she panics. Yep, her mind started short circuiting.
"A date?! B-but I-- you are--! Awawawawawa--!" Yeah no she actually short circuited.
"Calm down." I told her as I pat her head.
She started calming down, her eyes looking at me as she asks me.
"But why a date!?"
"Cuz I want to hangout with you."
"Why me?!" She asked, her hand panicking again.
So I rustled her hair, calming her down as she exhales.
"S-Sorry.... It's just that... it's the first time that someone asked me out on a d-date a-and--!" She said, her eyes aren't focused at all as she moves her hand frantically.
"A-and well! It's just that I d-don't understand why you'd like to go with someone like me! S-Since I-I'm ugly and all!" She continued as she giggles, trying to hide her nervousness.
"You--." I uttered, grabbing her face gently so that she focus on me.
Her eyes locked onto mine as her frantic hands started to relax.
"I'm pretty sure I keep telling you that you're cute though." I said as her face as she gently hold my arms, wanting to push it away but there's no force at all.
"I- I don't know... what if you're just telling me that because I'm your friend? What if you're just saying it out of pi--"
"You're cute, Lovely." I said as her eyes tries to avoid mine but a smile started forming on her lips.
"D-Dumb! You're dumb!" Ah-- her brain short circuited again
"So...? What's your answer?" I asked her as she calms down.
She stayed silent for a bit, contemplating on what to say. Her face red as she look at me.
"O-Okay! S-Since it's my way of paying you back after all!" She said as she tries to smile confidently.
"Paying him back?" Suddenly, Sonaia stepped inside the classroom.
"HYAA!--" Lovely jumped like a cat from Sonaia showing up to our room.
She looked at the both of us before walking towards us. Lovely was frantically shaking her hands as I was basically frozen in place. I noticed that Sonaia was looking at me.
"Seriously... Did you scold this idiot as well, Vely?" She asked Lovely as crossed her arm.
Lovely tilted her head as she looked at me.
"Ah! Y-Yeah! Cuz he got so many bruises and stuffs!" Lovely suddenly said as she remembered my 'recklessness'.
Suddenly, Sonaia sat down beside me, pulling out some patches on her bag.
"Here." She said, giving them to me.
"Thanks." I said as I take it.
"Well, that's what I came here for. I'll be going back to my classroom Vely." Sonaia said as she stood up from the chair.
"Ah-- sure suree!" Lovely said as she waves goodbye to her.
Sonaia looked at me, I looked back at her tilting my head. Suddenly, she puts her hand on my head as she starts rustling my hair, confusing the shit out of me.
She then left the room. Leaving Lovely and me alone again.
"What was that for?" I said as I chuckle.
I looked at Lovely, expecting a response to her but she was silent. Her eyes fixed on me but they were... blank?
Suddenly, she also patted me, rustling my hair roughly.
"L-Lovely?" I asked her as she realized what she was doing.
"O-oh! I-- I uhh just wondered what your hair feels like.... Sorry." She said, removing her hands off my hair.
I snickered.
"You do know that you can freely do that to me, right?" I told her.
"Eh?"
"Yeah, I always do that to you so you can do that to me as well. You don't have to apologize." I told her as her eyes lit up.
"T-then--! Excuse me..!" She said, both her hands rustling my hair as I lower my head for her to have a better access.
She kept patting and rustling my hair until a classmate of ours arrived.
.
.
Time flies by fast and before I knew it, the bell already rang.
"What the heck are we supposed to do with this assignment man?" Cedric said as he grumbles beside me.
I looked at him as I stretched, putting my book inside my bag. It's already lunch break so we both stood up.
"I'll send you my answers later." I told him as pull out the lunchbox from my bag.
"Damn, you answered that too?" He asked me as he grabbed his wallet.
"Yeah, I told you already, I answer every activities in our textbooks last month."
"Which is still weird. Who the heck in their right mind would even do that?" He asked as we walked towards the back of the class.
"It's more convenient for me since I work after school, I swear I told you this before." I told him as we continue to walk.
"I don't remember shit. I have the memory of a goldfish." He said so proudly.
"That's not a flex dumbass." I said while chuckling from his antics.
"Heh, you just jealous your brain don't forget easily, right Vely?" He said as we reached Lovely's desk.
Lovely looked up to us, her face confused as she just nodded out of pure instinct.
"He's flexing his goldfish brain Lovely." I told her.
"You're reading my mind again!" Lovely said, covering her forehead with her hand.
"Eh? What's up with mind reading?" Cedric asked as he leans down beside Lovely.
"O-Oh it's nothing!" Lovely replied to him with a smile.
I watched as they converse for a bit as they started getting lost in their own world again. Cedric's been talking about random stuffs while Lovely laughs along.
The me before would've been fine seeing her having fun while talking with Ced, hell I'll probably say that it's none of my business.
But right now, it pisses me off.
"...And then, he was like 'yeah my girlfriend and I did that as well' so I--."
"Right, by the way. I made some extra lunch again." I cut in their conversation, cutting off Cedric's sentence.
I placed the lunchbox infront of Lovely as she looked at me, tilting her head as she looks at the lunchbox before looking back at me again.
"Y-You didn't have to--"
"Nope, not that." I told her as I patted her head.
"Eh?"
"That's not what I wanted to hear." I said as I rustled her hair.
"Hey Juwan, I don't think Vely's comfortable with--"
"I want a thank you." I told Lovely, cutting off Cedric again.
Lovely's eyes widened as she fails to stifle a laugh. She rolled her eyes as she gently grab my hand and removing it from her head so that she could look up to me properly.
"Thanks for the food, Juwan." She told me as she smiles brightly.
"That's a good girl." I told her, patting her again and rustling her hair.
I don't care anymore if Cedric's here, I'll lose anyways so might as well go steal some of her attention away from him.
I looked at Cedric as I saw how confused he is by what just happened. He decided to just smile and continue sharing stuffs with Lovely.
"Hope you enjoy it." I told her as I leave the both of them, walking out of the classroom.
"Eh--?" I heard Lovely uttered as I take a turn outside the classroom.
I went and walked around for a bit, wanting to wake my body up after hours of lectures... this is partially true.
The truth is I just walked around for a bit to stop myself from feeling jealous like a dumbass. If it works, it works. I went down to the 3rd floor, walking back to my classroom.
"Ah, Juwan!"
As soon as I reached the classroom, someone suddenly talked to me. I looked around and realized that it's a classmate of mine.
"Woah, what happened to your face?" She asked as she saw my face filled with patches and bruises.
"Nothing, just an accident." I told her.
"I see, anyways can you give me the answers for the assignment?" She asked as she acts all cutesy.
"No." I told her as I enter the room.
"Awww don't be like that, pleasee?" She said as she grabbed me by the jacket.
I almost glared at her but I remembered that we're inside the classroom.
"Can you please let go--?"
Eh?
Suddenly, someone dragged me by my other arm. The girl infront of me accidentally lets go of me. I looked back to see who pulled me away.
"I-I haven't thanked you properly earlier so it's good that you came back early!"
Her pink hair flows along the wind as she smiles while dragging me away from our classmate.
"Lovely?" I uttered as she tilts her head.
"Hmm?"
"Ah! W-were you talking about something? I'm sorry if I disturbed you--!" She said, shaking her free hand frantically.
"Yeah, you did. I was talking to Juw--."
"You didn't." I responded to her, cutting off our classmate as I walked beside her.
I didn't really listened to what the girl said after since all of my attention all went to Lovely as she drags me to her desk.
God she's cute.
"So? What's up?" I asked her as she pouted.
"I dunno." She said, her voice muffled since her face is burried on my jacket.
"Pftt--"
"N-no! It's just--!"
"Just?" I asked her as I grabbed a chair, sitting beside her.
"I dunno... I saw you talking to them and it made me feel slightly angry." She said, still pouting.
Is this girl-- jealous?
Do I have a chance?
"...and that's the reason why you dragged me away?" I asked her as she just nodded. Seriously, why is she so cute--?
"D-did I do something wrong? If I did then I'm so--"
"Actually, you saved me from a headache. Thanks Lovely." I told her, patting her head as she relaxed.
"Hehe, yay." She replied.
I looked around, wondering where Cedric is.
"Hey so, where did Ced go?" I asked as she looked up at me. Her face looked like something happened.
"O-oh, he went out to hangout with his friends... wait shouldn't you be with them as well?" She asked me, her pink eyes looking at me.
"It's fine, I'm not really close with his other friends." I told her as I stopped patting her.
She tilted her head, wondering why I stopped. She looked at me again, her eyes inspecting my face as she started to feel sad again.
"I'm sorry again.."
"Hmm? Don't worry about it. Besides, we talked about how you can pay me back right?" I told her as she nods.
"Still..."
"Aish this girl." I said, gently squishing her cheek.
"?!!?!"
"You're so pretty you know that?" I told her as I gently squish her cheeks.
"What do you mean by--!?"
I keep squishing her face, laughing from her cute reaction.
I know that I'm not a love interest, I already know that I'm gonna lose in the end.
"Seriously you--!" She uttered, her hands going to my head and rustling them as if retaliating with me squishing her cheeks as we both giggle.
Still, I think that I have a chance... even if it's small.
Unlike Cedric's slow burn romance, I don't have the time to spend since I need to get stronger in order to survive. With Xavier, thankfully he still hasn't realized his feelings towards Lovely... but he'll be a problem in the future.
So for an extra like me who's not even supposed to be a love interest, the only way I can gain win against those guys is to confess first.