After observing Carolina for 1 week, I finally got to know her character a little.
Carolina seems to have a lonely nature, whenever someone wants to chat with her, she always answers with a simple answer and is busy playing with her cell phone.
She also rarely hangs out in the campus cafeteria, she always returns to her boarding house when a class has ended. She only stays on campus when the next class ranges from only 30 minutes to 1 hour. More than that, she will definitely return to her boarding house.
I only often stare at her from afar because of her cold nature and always ignore me.
Until one day, an opportunity came to me.
Lecturers give assignments that must be done in groups.
Carolina, who had decided to become a student who immediately goes back to her boarding house from the start, was having a hard time with it. I immediately took advantage of this and approached her.
"Hey, we are a group, okay!" I said shamelessly.
Carolina stared at me for a moment, before finally nodding.
"That means we just have to find one more person," I said while looking around the class.
"Do you still need people? Can I join?" suddenly a woman approached us. She has short hair and olive skin, a stark contrast to Carolina's long hair and fair skin.
"Okay, you Vera, right?" I asked, forgetting to remember her name.
"Yes, you Andrew, right?" she replied with a smile.
I nodded, continuing to turn my attention again to Carolina.
"Are you free on Saturday? How about we do the assignment on Saturday at Mekdi?" I suggested.
"I can't do it on Saturday," said Carolina. Could it be that she has a boyfriend, huh?
"You want a date, right?" asked Vera who represented my question.
"No, I just have something to do. How about tomorrow?" asked her back.
No to what? Don't have a date or don't have a boyfriend?
I felt like I wanted to ask that but I managed to hold it in. Well, she will think I'm aggressive. I should be slowly
"I can do it," said Vera. Now they are both staring at me.
"Okay tomorrow. Please give me your numbers, so that our communication will be good," I said looking for an excuse. Carolina and Vera gave their numbers right away.
Smooth Andrew, smooth
After that incident, Carolina and I got closer, even though the response was still cold as usual.
The two of us also got closer to Vera.
Whenever there is a group assignment, the three of us must be in a group. If the group needs 4 people, we just have to choose randomly between our peers or seniors who repeat the class.
"Ve," I said when Vera and I were hanging out together to do group assignments.
Carolina, who likes to be alone, preferred to divide her work, do her share alone, and send it to me to collect.
"You and Carol seem close, doesn't she have a boyfriend?" I asked then drink the Hazelnut Latte I ordered. I occasionally glanced at Vera to wait for her answer.
Vera was silent for a moment, as if thinking about something, "I don't know, why?" asked Vera.
I put down the drink and continued typing my assignment on the laptop, "No, because every time she is asked to do an outside assignment, she will always refuse. She only took part in the first semester."
"I don't know either, maybe because she doesn't have money? You know she came here because of a scholarship. If you hang out here you can run out of 25 thousand for the price of the drink alone," said Vera, who then drank the Vanilla Latte she ordered.
"Hmm ... yeah yeah, maybe that's the reason for her good grades and being the highest GPA student in our class," for three consecutive semesters, Carolina still holds her position as the highest GPA winner.
"You like girls who are smart, ndre?" Vera asked suddenly, but she just stared at her laptop screen and her hands were busy typing something on the keyboard.
"Not really, but if she's smart there is an added value of its own. How about you? Every Saturday night you always do the assignments with me, don't you have a boyfriend?" I asked about trying to change the subject.
It could be bad if Vera finds out I have a crush on Carolina!
"If I have a boyfriend, it is impossible every saturday night I am with you, ndre, you make fun of me!" said Vera while hitting my arm lightly.
"Hahaha, yes cheers! For fellow singles," I said, raising my glass which immediately sounded "clang" when Vera knocked her glass against mine.
Time passed, even though Carolina still seemed cold, but my feelings for her were getting bigger.
What's more when it's my birthday and she chooses to say it directly with a smile. Her sweetly raised lips and her voice that melt my heart said, "Happy birthday, Andrew."
Only those three words, three words that make me always happy in a year, also three words that I look forward to every year.
I don't know if this is just love or obsession, but I feel an unpleasant feeling when I see her chatting and smiling at other men. What's more for Dion, who joined our group in semester 4.
In semester 4 there are courses that require us to be in groups of six people. These courses are courses that are prerequisites for courses in semester 5, after that courses in semester 5 are prerequisites for courses in semester 6, and it continues until Job Training and Final Projects
Because the three courses in semester 4, 5 and 6 are related and held by the same lecturer, the group will remain in the following semester. So if one person fails the previous course, all members of the group will fail.
Maybe this is what is meant by "togetherness" which is always emphasized by the senior when we are in student orientation in semester 1.
In semester 4, our group almost failed. Because we, who are newbies, who are still level 1 and have basic skill, have to fight a level 20 boss dungeon. But Carolina, who is the leader of the group, managed to bring us a group of friends to defeat the boss.
Of the 10 existing groups, only 5 groups passed the course. 2 groups of which are groups from the senior
Maybe this is also what people say that the difficult period during college starts from semester 3 and 4. If you can get through that semester, the next journey will be smooth and you only have to face the Final Project as the last stage in the lecture period.
Having to be in one group for 3 semesters made us finally close to our group friends, Dion, Clara and Riko.
Luckily Riko doesn't seem interested in Carolina, but it seems different with Dion. It really makes me dislike seeing them together and sometimes Carolina laughs with jokes that I think are really bad.
But I can't do anything. Carolina is not my girlfriend, and I dare not ask her to be my girlfriend.
My confidence as Andrew Bagas just seems to collapse.
Usually the women who are cold to me will change when they find out my identity, but not Carolina.
After knowing my identity, she still treated me the same as before she knew my identity. It made me fall in love with her even more.
But I'm afraid.
I was afraid that she would reject me and that our situation would become too awkward so we couldn't be together anymore even as a group mate.
I have known Carolina since I was 18 years old, at first I thought I was afraid to express my feelings because I was young at that time.
But after turning 19, I still didn't dare to express my feelings. Feelings of love for her.
I am more and more convinced of my feelings when Dion is among us, I don't like seeing Carolina with Dion!
I'm jealous!
I am now twenty years old. But I still don't have the courage to say it.
Time flies until it doesn't feel like there are only 2 semesters left. We will graduate. That means only one more year we will be together.
I finally made up my mind to express my feelings.
Maybe on the beach watching the sun set?
Because Carolina would absolutely refuse to ask her out at night for a romantic dinner, and it would be very strange to ask her to the beach together without any other reason.
I decided to do it right on my birthday.
Even though it was very difficult to ask the old man's permission when I said I wanted to make my birthday in Bali with my college friends. Well, at least I decided to invite the others. After all, they were friends with my struggles from the fourth semester.
Finally i turned 21 years old. It's been almost 3 years I don't dare to express my feelings.
Now is the time for me to be brave and tough enough to face everything. Even though that something is an unpleasant situation, right?