"Economics," Luka bluntly said.
"Second year?"
"Yes."
"Really?" Yana tilted her head.
"What?" Luka could feel the headache coming.
On the other side, Yana was surprised. If they were studying the same thing in the same year then-
"How come I've never seen you in any classes?"
"Lucky you," Luka growled and pushed his bangs away, "I see you all the time."
"Really?" Yana still didn't believe him. She'd remember if she saw him in their class.
"Again, yes. I sit at the back, we also have only a few classes together."
"Mhm," Yana pulled out a snack and started nibbling on it while her glassy eyes conveyed her disbelief. Pissed was an understatement for Luka.
But it did make sense or else the professor would've never suggested Luka.
"Wait, the prof's giving you special treatment? Lika special classes?"
"I'm not taking them voluntarily."
"Ehh," once again Yana's glassy eyes erupted a volcano inside Luka.
She watched his big hands go through the documents. The dark blue shirt he wore perfectly complimented his black hair and blue eyes. The sleeves were rolled up so the veins on his strong forearms were seen.
Yana was pretty sure that she would remember someone like Luka in her class but then again there were about 50 students. Still less than the more than 100 students in the politics classes.
"What's this topic? Tax policy on-"
"Good, isn't it?" Yana looked at Luka with bright eyes.
"Stupid. You think you can achieve anything groundbreaking with this? In the first place, it's impossible," Luka sighed.
"In any case, we just need to get a sponsor and then we can dump this on someone else."
"Seriously?"
Yana could feel how with each word she spoke, Luka's impression of her lowered. It wasn't that she was clueless about economics, she just didn't care enough.
True it was a bad thing to say but Yana just needed to get a job that could keep the life she had right now and she was fine, and on the other side, there was something else she wanted to find out and go after. Something more pressing and potentially dangerous.
"Will you revise it? I put in a lot of effort," Yana pouted a bit but Luka didn't even spare her a glance.
"You mean just googling something, putting random texts together without even having a thesis, a research question to lead the project is what your hard efforts produced?"
A stab, another stab, dozen vicious knives rained down on Yana.
"Just forget what I said."
"Thought so," the corner of Luka's lips slightly raised. Oh, how Yana wished she could wipe it away and flush it down the toilet.
"So what do we do?" Yana eagerly churned out ideas for Luka because she didn't want him to change his mind last minute.
"The question is what do I get out of it?" Luka watched her again as fast as her spit reaching the desk, a "Me!" was fired.
"What can you hope for more than spending time with moi?"
"No, thank you," like a repellent Luka's words instantly sprayed Yana away.
"I-"
"No," Luka immediately rejected anything Yana said, "I'll do something about this mess, so leave. I'll get back to you later."
Yana pursed her lips but against his nature, she couldn't do anything so she decided to oblige for now.
"You'll send me a message?" Yana's hopeful eyes made him sigh.
"No."
Yana dropped her smile and pulled out her phone. Then with a grin, she pressed a button.
A second later, Luka's phone started to ring. He didn't bother to look at it, instead narrowed his eyes at Yana, "How?"
"I got my way, save my number, I'll see you later," with a mischievous grin Yana left Luka behind.
She felt really good. For the rest of the lesson until lunch, Yana was in a good mood.
The people around her felt it and one of them asked, "Yana, karaoke evening this time? You can't reject."
Yana thought for a second, "I won't but I might bring someone."
"Mia?"
"Nope, it's a surprise."
The girl was stunned but then smiled knowingly, "Got it. Got it. Same time, same place. See ya."
On her way to the cafeteria, Mia joined Yana. Yana eyed the VIP menu and it felt like her lungs were ripped out. It was too heartbreaking to see her lunch and the beautiful food she could've gotten.
The cafeteria was packed.
"Wanna head outside?" Mia didn't want to crowd herself in one of those tables, this time absolutely nothing was free.
"Nope, let's join-" Yana found her target, "him."
"Him?" Mia followed Yana's line of sight and her face turned blank.
"You mistook-"
"Nope," Yana was already on her way to Luka but the moment she sat down on his table, gossip flew around.
Along the lines, "Did Yana make the same mistake again?"
"She's sitting with the outcast?"
Yana smiled and greeted Luka loudly, "Hi Luka!"
The gasps intensified. As if no one could believe they've heard right.
Annoyed, Luka stood up to leave but under the table, Yana kicked his leg and he bent over in pain. His head was inches away from Yana's who rested on the back of her hands and smiled evilly.
"Don't you care about your project?"
"I'm only helping you, as a return," Yana whispered back.
Luka's eye twitched. Mia who watched the whole exchange wordlessly finally submitted to her fate and sat next to Yana. Eyeing Luka she took a bite of her food.
Luka also sat down not breaking eye contact with Yana, "Your fate rests in my hands."
"I'll be in your care," Yana was unfazed. If Luka dared to drop the project, not even hell could stop her from annoying him. This was too amusing.
Too much fun.
Luka shoved his food onto his spoon and with big bites slung his food down before standing up, not forgetting to give Yana the stink eye and left.
Once he was out of their sight, Mia turned to Yana and blankly asked, "So, you gon tell me what that's about?"
"I'm making friends!"
"I doubt he wants to be your friend."
"You think so?"
"No, I'm a bloody sure, you moron. He's the least person you wanna get associated with. Your reputation is gonna flush down faster than pissing down a toilet."
"I'm eating," Yana was long used to Mia's occasional vulgar and crude comparisons.
"I don't care enough."
"Maybe you guys could date," Yana turned to Mia who was about to end her life.
"What's in your head? Cotton? You ever listen to me? Looks aren't important it's-"
"Wealth, fame and power that counts!"
"Wrong, love," Mia suddenly had a gentle expression. Yana almost forgot that Mia was a romantic despite her personality.
"Disgu-" Yana quickly stopped herself as Mia glared at her, "Really lovely I mean."
Yana couldn't wait for uni to be over so she could drag Luka to karaoke with her. Just imagining his pissed face made her chuckle.
Sooner or later, Luka will be subservient to her and she'd help him to shed the image of an outcast and gain friends.
What a good person she was. She couldn't be prouder to how far she came as a human being, as weird as it sounded.