Xavier realizes a particular pale-skinned boy is once again lost in his thoughts.
He fought the urge to laugh at the boy being unconsciously cute. However, the small smile lingering on his lips did not go unnoticed by Enya, who realized her friend was looking at her sworn enemy. The smile on the girl's face from Jest's recent corny joke slowly turned into a frown.
"What's suddenly so interesting about him, Xavi?"
Her sudden question also caught Jest's attention, who looked at Xavier with both curiosity and playfulness in his eyes. "Yeah, Xavi. What's with the sudden interest in Enya's sworn enemy of the state?"
His remark made Enya hit him with her notebook. He yelps, but Xavier is sure it didn't hurt as much his friend is just being overdramatic as he massages his shoulder.
"Nothing," Xavier said, not wanting to explain but his eyes still lingered at the other boy a little bit too long to not be noticed by Enya's scrutinizing stare.
"You say nothing but you literally just looked at him!"
Xavier turns to her with a look that implied that the topic is over. "Drop it," His use of words made Enya pout. "Look, our teacher's here."
The look on Enya's eyes obviously showed her discontentment at her friend's response. However, true to what Xavier said, their teacher did enter the room.
He ran his fingers through his hair, attempting to fix its messy state. He felt someone's eyes on him and immediately noticed Rei. The boy looked adorable trying to hide the fact that he recently stole a glance.
The dark blue-eyed boy's lips couldn't help but produce a grin.
"Mr. Ortega, is there anything amusing about this equation on the board?"
Xavier grimaced and quickly looked at the equation on the board. The feeling of anxiety was immediately gone when he realized how he knew and remembered how to solve the equation. Fortunately, it was among the lessons both him and Enya were studying the night before.
"Should I answer it, ma'am?" He asked, already on his way to where the board was.
The look of annoyance on their professor's face turned into approval. She nodded and handed the boy the marker she was holding as soon as he arrived in front. Xavier solved the problem with ease and handed the marker back to his professor who looked surprised at how quickly her student answered the equation she had just written.
Despite it being obviously correct, she still checked it for a while and nodded, albeit a bit obvious that she was disappointed that the boy she decided to call and probably humiliate had written the correct answer. "Correct. However, I expect no more silly grinning when I am discussing in front. What could possibly be more important than Calculus?"
Xavier turned to Rei who was already copying the equation and the process of solving it on his notebook. Adorable.
The boy nodded at the middle-aged woman and walked back to his chair. Enya smiled at him and Jest gave him a thumbs up.
Sooner or later, the class ended with yet another assignment. Xavier mentally groaned at all the assignments piling up. Looks like he won't be able to come with Jest to check out a new restaurant that recently opened near their subdivision.
His eyes once again drifted to Rei, who had his head buried in his notebook. The boy looked more tired and stressed than usual. He also noticed how the latter's skin appeared even more pale than usual.
He suddenly had the impulse to make sure that Rei was alright.
".. Xavi, hey! Xavi?"
Enya's voice stopped the boy's train of thought altogether. He turned to her, hiding his displeasure but it still seemed to appear. "What?"
The girl did not bother hiding the surprise on her face at how her friend answered but composed herself immediately by clearing her throat. However, before she can utter a single word, Jest already slung his arms on their shoulders and brought the three of them together. "Let's skip the next class?"
Xavier shook his head and removed his friend's arm. "Nah,"
"But why?" Jest yells out exasperatedly. "Are you seriously looking forward to the hag's class? All she does is talk about stuff that happened years ago!"
"I mean, her subject is History." Enya deadpanned.
Jest glared at her sarcasm. "My point is, we can find those stuff on the Internet. Why the need to listen to her the entire period? Her voice is so monotonous. I'll probably fall asleep as fast as I fell in love with Gracie."
"But you broke up with her last week," said Xavier.
"Not the point," He rolled his eyes. "I don't want to listen to her voice. Can't we just skip? Enya?"
Enya shook her head. "Definitely not. I can't let the dork get an A on that class--"
"Oh God, not the ranting again," Jest covered his ears with his hands and ran away.
"Asshole!" Enya yelled, but it proved to be useless as Jest was already too far away to hear her. Regardless, the girl decided to chase the boy, and Xavier took it as an opportunity to approach Rei who was still in his chair but was now looking outside the window.
The taller boy sat on the chair beside the latter, afraid of interrupting his solace. It took a few minutes before Rei turned to him with a frown on his lips. "What?"
"Nothing," He shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. "Can't I sit here?"
Rei looked around the classroom and rolled his eyes. "There are literally thirty other chairs you can sit on."
"I want this chair."
The shorter of the two rolled his eyes again and stood up from his seat. He was about to grab his bag and walk towards the door but Xavier grabbed it first and pulled it away from the boy's reach.
"What the fuck, give it back asshole!"
Since Xavier was very tall compared to Rei, it wasn't hard to keep the bag out of the pale-skinned boy's reach. The taller of the two grinned at Rei who was continuously trying to reach it by making short jumps. Adorable, he thinks.
"Give it back," Rei jumped again in an attempt to pull it from the taller boy but he was adamant in keeping it out of the shorter boy's reach. "Asshat!"
"Not until you tell me why you won't let me buy you a snack earlier," Xavier evaded yet another one of the pale-skinned boy's attempts by running to the other corner in their classroom.
Rei's brown eyes widened as he stopped his attempts of getting his bag back. He frowned and remained silent for a while. His sudden actions made Xavier slap himself mentally and wonder which of his words was wrong.
"I just don't want your pity money. Now give me back my bag, I have to go to the next class." Rei said, his voice firm this time.
However, Xavier can't help but be enchanted by how Rei's eyebrows furrowed when he's infuriated. The boy still looked adorable no matter what he did. Xavier, who was shocked himself with his lack of respect for somebody's personal space, reached out to touch the other boy's brows which made Rei gasp in surprise, and it only seemed to make Xavier even more intrigued.
"W-What the hell," The boy stammered but made no action to pull back. Xavier continued touching Rei's brows and soon his hand reached the latter's soft hair, gently brushing it aside to show the boy's forehead. Even his forehead looked cute, Xavier noted.
"What are you doing,"
Xavier ignored the other boy and started rubbing his forehead to erase a stain probably from his note-taking from earlier. Rei unexpectedly gasped again when the taller boy rubbed too hard.
How can someone's gasp be.. erotic?
Xavier shook his indecent thoughts away and continued rubbing the shorter boy's forehead to remove the stain. Fortunately, he was able to do it quite easier than he expected. Xavier retracted his hand away when he determined that the stain was no longer there, and Rei looked at him with confusion in his brown eyes.
"Why did you--"
"You had a ballpen stain on your forehead."
The pale-skinned boy's eyes widened and he checked his forehead using his phone. Not that it would help prove Xavier's statement. The stain was already gone.
"You're lying," Rei's words made Xavier frown and he took advantage of the taller boy's temporary state of being unable to say nothing as an opportunity to snatch his bag back. Xavier wanted to take it back again to stop the pale-skinned boy from leaving but he had already ran away before Xavier could do anything.
He shook his head. Cute, but too distrustful.
"Xavi?"
Xavier turned towards the door. Enya was there, a frown on her pretty face. Xavier silently hoped that Enya was not by the door the entire time he and Rei were together.
"Enya," The boy made his way to her.
She had a weird expression on her face, but Xavier ignored it in hopes of her not bringing up what just happened if she did manage to see it.
"Let's go home?" He asked, reaching out for her bag which she immediately gave me. It looked like she wanted to say something but stopped at the last minute before she could utter a single word.
Xavier wondered if it's about her council duties again or about something else.