Sudden Decisions

"I'm Noru, a friend of Toma."

"Oh…" so this was the guy who helped Toma with Cami. "I believe we met before. I always saw you with him when we were freshmen."

"Ah yeah, I'm a friend of Toma and as well as a childhood friend." I told him.

He smirks as he pass by, "It doesn't seem like it anymore."

…jerk.

After that, I left the restro0m and continued my day without a hassle. Though it quite bothered my mind about the guy from the restroom and Xia confessing to me. I'm getting mixed emotions by thinking about it.

The next day wasn't so easy, when I saw Xia. It was awkward like I expected. "Uhm, hey." I kind of… greeted.

"Y-Yeah." She couldn't even make eye-contact with me.

I attempted to find another seat but everything in the room was taken, so I had no other choice but to sit next to her. When I take a glance at her, I noticed how stiff she is.

She's definitely uncomfortable with me because I know she likes me now.

This will be a problem if it keeps up, interaction with her isn't necessary that much but she's my research partner. And we haven't even done half of the research yet. So I devised a plan for Xia that I can execute when lunch time comes.

"Xia, do you have a moment?" I was the first to approach, I hope she doesn't avoid me like those romantic clichès.

"S-Sure."

"Cool, can we have lunch together? I think we should talk about the matter yesterday… and about our research papers."

She nods while looking flustered and focused her eyes on the ground, "Okay."

"Let's meet up later then, see ya."

As I was done with ordering my food, I found Xia waiting for me at my usual spot in the cafeteria. "Hey." She smiles sweetly.

"…thanks for sparing time for me."

"It's no biggie. So… what do you want to talk about?" It was written all over her face of how anxious she was, and I admire her for being so brave to face things like this on her own.

"Firstly, I'm done with my part of the research so here's the data." I handed her the flash drive, and as soon as she got it, I got straight to the point with my second objective in this conversation. "So, about yesterday… your confession."

Despite knowing this might happened, she's still quite shaken about me confronting her about it. "Yeah. It was a ridiculous confession! I suggest we both just forget about it." Her eyes says otherwise. I could see a little hope glittering in her eyes.

"But Xia--"

"Aaaah please! I know I'm gonna get rejected, but please spare my feelings and just forget about it. It's also very embarassing for me." Ah, so she have got to a conclusion that I'll reject her.

"Xia."

"I know, I know. Though you don't have to worry about the research papers, I'll do my part until the very end and after that I won't bother y--"

"Xia!"

"I promise not to ever bother you again, ever!"

"Xia, I'm not rejecting you!" I yelled out loud.

"--Really, I won't ever bother you, huh? What did you just say now?" She asked, looking unsure about what she just heard.

"I said, I'm not rejecting you, rather…" Looking at her face that looked at me with curiosity made me feel a bit awkward. "Would you go out with me?"

Her curious face evolved into a shade of red with her mouth gaping.