When he had just parked his motorcycle in the school parking lot, Novan accidentally saw Uti, who was walking alone. The girl seemed to have just arrived at school and was about to go to her class. Remembering Uti, Novan couldn't help but think about Uti's rejection yesterday. It hurt a little, but it was okay, Novan could try again later. Besides, there was no way Novan could force Uti. Not only would the girl get angry and hate him, but Novan was also afraid that Uti would become even more unapproachable.
Removing his helmet in a hurried motion, Novan quickened his pace, intending to catch up with Uti, who was not too far away. Running just a little, Novan could already keep up with the footsteps of the girl he had a crush on.
"Hey." Novan greeted Uti with a wide grin as his hand waved.
Uti shook her head slowly, a little surprised by Novan's sudden presence beside her. Uti did not reply to the light greeting of the boy, who was still wearing a black hoodie. Uti also wondered why Novan didn't let go.
"Uti, I'm greeting you. Didn't hear me say anything?" Novan waved his hand.
Uti gave a long snort. "I heard you talking."
"I thought I didn't hear you." Novan chuckled softly.
"I still have my ears, and they're both functioning normally," Uti replied, her accent sounding gruff and not at all friendly.
"Oh okay, is there any assignment that needs to be submitted today?" asked Novan, making small talk of course to avoid a silence that would make things awkward. Novan needed to establish a topic of conversation.
Uti gave Novan a quick glance, before she shook her head quickly. "I don't recall any assignments."
"That's good, I was afraid I'd forget something. I don't want to be punished."
"All students don't want to be punished, not just you."
"Yeah, too." Novan laughed softly, while Uti still had a flat face. In fact, Uti's gaze was more interested in looking at the street in front of him, in stark contrast to Novan, who had been stealing glances at Uti.
There was silence after that, lasting about ten seconds. And Novan felt a little uneasy, for some reason, he was afraid of disturbing Uti.
"Ti, I want to ask you a question."
"Ask what?"
"Well, does it bother you when I walk next to you like this?" Novan just wanted to make sure, just in case Uti felt uncomfortable, and if that was the case, Novan would of course be self-conscious and choose to step back and stay away.
He didn't take his eyes off Uti's face, waiting for a response, of course.
Without looking at Novan's face, Uti chuckled softly while moving her shoulders. "It's normal, I'm not bothered."
An answer that completely made Novan's smile instantly expand perfectly. He felt at once relieved and happy. "Well, I just wanted to make sure, I thought you'd be bothered."
"Why did you think that?"
"I don't know, it just suddenly popped into my head," Novan answered honestly.
And after that, Uti was silent, not responding anymore. Novan also pressed his lips together. The two of them were still walking side by side, with Novan pocketing his hands in the pockets of the hoodie he was wearing. Until, without realizing it, the two of them finally arrived at class.
Without saying anything to Novan, Uti headed to her own seat. Novan actually wanted to say something, but when his intention was suddenly swallowed whole, he chose to go to his seat. It was still quite early, so the class was still quiet. There were a handful of students in the class, including Novan and Uti, of course. In fact, they could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Novan also didn't know why it was so unusual for him to leave early like this. It was very rare. And even then, Marcell and Erza hadn't shown up yet. Regarding Erza, Novan actually didn't know whether his classmate would show up or not after yesterday's unexplained absence.
Uti, who was sitting on her bench, glanced back at Novan's bench. She doesn't know why she wanted to check on Novan, there was no particular reason. Novan was also looking at Uti's face, and as a result, the eyes of the two collided in the air, making Uti a little embarrassed, Uti hurriedly looked forward again with cheeks that were already as red as ripe tomatoes. She was very embarrassed about being caught, of course.
Novan smiled and felt happy when Uti looked at him. Uti seemed to be curious about him. Novan doesn't know where he got the idea, but he wanted to get closer to Uti's bench. The boy had already taken off his big hoodie, and put it on the back of his chair. Novan then sat in front of Uti's bench, facing her, much to Uti's surprise. Uti immediately gasped in excitement and squeezed her eyes shut, stopping the flow of oxygen into her lungs.
Novan masked his chin, the smile yet to recede from his face. His naturally red lips continued to curl, causing Uti to suddenly transform into a statue. And strangely, why was her heart beating so fast? This was so strange and embarrassing!
Just by looking at the smile of this boy sitting in front of her, Uti's heart was holding an impromptu concert inside. What the heck? This was ridiculous!
"What are you doing sitting here?" asked Uti, a little nervously, her voice shaky and soft. She couldn't keep her eyes off Novan's face.
"You were looking at me earlier, right, Ti?"
"Who saw you? No need to be so proud!" Uti immediately spewed her anger. She quickly showed her fangs.
"Really?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Then I was wrong, wasn't I?" Novan pointed at himself. Uti didn't say anything back, instead she rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"I don't know what you're talking about, and you'd better get out of my way. Move to your own seat, I'm busy."
"You just sit there feeling busy, what do you mean, Ti?"
"I want to do some work."
"Do you have an assignment?"
Uti clicked her tongue vigorously. "Do I have to do problems when there's an assignment?"
"Yes, I think it's better that way."
"And that's your opinion, not mine. Anyway, don't talk too much, hurry up and leave, I don't want to be bothered by you." A second after saying that, Uti took out her worksheet book from her bag, opened the sheet, and searched for the page.
"You're diligent, Ti."
"Novan, did you hear what I said earlier?"
"I did, you told me to go back to my own seat. That's it, right?"
"Well then, why are you still here."
"Because I want to see your face for a long time," Novan replied softly, making Uti almost choke on his own saliva.
Uti suddenly couldn't move, the charming smile of the boy in front of her had successfully hypnotized her. A few seconds later, Uti realized and immediately turned her face away. What kind of ridiculous action did she take earlier? This is so embarrassing and annoying.
"You just have to do the questions, I want to see them too."
"If you're around, I can't concentrate, you're bothering me," Uti said sternly.
"I just keep quiet."
"But it still makes me feel disturbed, even if you're just silent like a statue. It makes no difference at all."
"If you have good intentions and mean it, there shouldn't be any problems, including me still sitting here."
Intention? Uti didn't really want to do those damn math problems, she didn't like formulas that would make her head full of wisps of smoke. It was just her alibi. She wanted to keep herself busy because Novan was in front of her. So, she did not intend or really want to struggle with the problems in the book.
"Okay." Uti pounded the table with both hands, her eyes now sharp and razor-sharp, cutting Novan down to size. "If you don't want to go, let me get out of here."
"Are you angry with me?"
"According to you? It's not obvious, is it?"
"Hm, okay. It's better for you to stay here. Let me go back to my own seat, even though I'm not satisfied with wanting to talk to you. But it's okay, there's still time, right?"
Uti closed her eyes, unconcerned with Novan's words. She also didn't reply to him until he had disappeared from her sight. The boy, of course, had gone back to his own seat in the back row.
A few moments later, Erza appeared and surprised Novan. Making Novan immediately grin.
"Geez, I thought you were dying, are you leaving too?" Novan punched the arm of Erza, who was now sitting next to him.
"I'm in good health, you're talking so much, Van, isn't there anything better?" Erza quipped half-annoyedly, but Novan only responded with a quiet chuckle.
Marcell, who had just appeared, then joined in. "Why didn't you go yesterday, Za?"
"Yeah, why didn't I go to school yesterday?" Erza scratched his head in thought.
Novan and Marcell looked at each other. Before Novan finally slapped Erza's head with a fairly hard and rough movement.
"Here, boy, no need to pretend to forget!" roared Marcell, annoyed.
Novan continued, also pointing. "You know, Marcell and I really asked. Why didn't you leave yesterday?"
Erza grinned widely, showing his row of white, neatly arranged teeth. "I overslept, I woke up at half past nine in the morning, how am I going to go to school? It's too late."
"Why don't you give an explanation? At least tell me, or Novan?" asked Marcell as he took off the bag that he was still carrying and put it behind his body, on the chair.
"Well yes, that's true."
Erza answered casually. "I intended to do that, but my phone was low, so I charged it, and I forgot."
"Didn't your parents get angry when you skipped school yesterday?" Curious about this, Novan asked a question.
"Not angry? Don't you see my ear?" Erza pointed to her right ear, which was bluish-red and visibly bruised, making Novan grimace momentarily with pain, while Marcell himself hissed when he saw the terrible sight experienced by his friend.
Erza exhaled heavily, before she finally continued. "It hurts, even now it's still tingling," she said, complaining with her lips turned forward.
"No wonder, it's what you deserve," Marcell said.
"When did your mom and dad give you your ear, Za?" Novan asked another question.
"It's only my mom who does it, my dad doesn't participate. You both know that my parents work together in a factory, so of course when I woke up that late, they had already left for work. So it was only in the afternoon that I was caught and immediately executed, severely scolded."
"That's bad." Novan shook his head. "Your parents are working hard to fulfill your many needs, but you're just slacking off at school. It's only natural that they're angry and resentful of you. So, you should get that ear scratch."
"Or maybe you should get more than that."
Novan and Marcell laughed softly together.
Marcell asked again. "Don't you set the alarm?"
"No, I never do."
"Now learn from experience, set an alarm just in case. No wonder you woke up late, what time did you sleep?" said Novan.
"I went to bed at four in the morning, hehe."
"Damn, you know you have to go to school."
"Well, I was busy watching a movie anyway. Besides, the movie was really exciting, and I didn't finish it because I overslept."
"Wow, that's a really long movie, isn't it?"
"It's not a movie, it's a series. There are more than ten episodes." Erza shrugged his shoulders. "Alright, let's not talk about this, I'm lazy."
Novan then remembered Marcell and Weeby. For some reason, he wanted that topic to be discussed. "Uh Za, did you know that Weeby was angry with Marcell yesterday?"
"I'm not really surprised, it's normal, right? What's it about this time?" Erza asked, looking at Novan and Marcell in turn.
Novan explained the problem: Marcel was speeding on his motorcycle, which made Weeby angry.
"So what?"
"Then I and Weeby are fine now," Marcell continued. "It's not too serious a problem, so it can be solved easily."
"Don't forget, I had a hand in it too." Novan patted Marcell's arm. "You made up with Weeby, that's because of me too."
Remembering the events of last night, Marcell let out a very long and heavy sigh. "You're lying, where are the movie tickets. They were concert tickets. I almost wanted to smash your face with a broomstick."
"It's the same ticket, isn't that the point?" Novan defended himself. "There's no need to protest too much, it's free too. You should be happy."
"Yes, I thank you again. Fortunately, Weeby was happy and didn't complain about anything." While saying that, Marcell's gaze looked at the small back of Weeby, who was currently on Uti's bench, the two girls were caught chatting and laughing with each other.
"Well, Marcell was just given a free ticket, why didn't I Van? Wow, you're cheating, you're showing favoritism to your best friend."
"You want tickets too?" Novan smiled wryly at Erza, who had just made a protest.
"I do!" Erza exclaimed excitedly.
"Sure, but you have to give me a 25-minute shoulder massage first, and it's valid for a whole month. How about it?" Novan giggled, while Marcell was already laughing.
"Shucks, I really don't want to do that! I'd rather massage my father that way."