Under the dark sky of the night, on the masterless red bridge; they were the witness of our encounter. The heavens above should not have let me meet him. I used to hate him, he frightened me; but somehow, the next thing I know, I fell for him.

I wish I knew why, but I have an urge to repress these feelings; it suffocated me. To be honest, he gave the impression of a contradicting personality. Despite being a delinquent, he passed most of his tests with flying colors, despite being cheerful, there was a tone of sorrow that he cannot hide. One side of him really awakened my sense of compassion towards him, yet the other side was simply despicable. At the end of the day, that messed up personality brought forth a seething resentment towards him.

The moment when we first met was still fresh in my mind. A year prior to that, I watched him from afar, but the year after, we finally came across each other.

"PHWEEE!!!"

"CUT IT OUT!"

I blew my whistle and shouted out loud, ordering the two warring factions to cease charging at each other. One of the factions originated from my high school, while the other came from a high school not very far from mine. A senior of mine once said that these two factions would never call for truce. It was a long-standing tale of vengeance between them.

I could see clearly that they have shifted their vengeful gaze to me now, dozens of delinquents ready to mercilessly swing their blades at me.

"If any of you dare to move a step further, I will call the cops!" I threatened them.

Truth be told, I felt so stupid.

I was throwing myself into the upcoming fray while the rest of the student council members were hiding behind a bush somewhere away from the ensuing commotion.

I should not have done this.

I was a complete airhead, I let myself expended on a suicide mission. When everyone has given up, they throw me into mayhem. I was a helpless and pathetic school girl.

"Who is this dumb bitch? Get lost!"

That burly school boy came to me and yelled. His flaming eyes, accentuated by his thick eyebrows, glared at me. My knees were giving up on me, I was scared. Even so, there was nothing that I could do, this was an assignment given by the school. If only they would cease fighting on their own volition.

"You are that freak from the class, right?" Those brown eyes coldly stared at me. I hate them, I hate the being to which those eyes were attached.

Why?

"I..I–"

SMACK!

"Nilam! How long are you going to sleep? Don't you know what time it is? Get off the bed and go to school immediately!"

Dream?

I felt suffocated as I opened my eyes. Why? Why did that memory from a week ago still haunt me to this day? Calling it an unpleasant experience would be an understatement. Why did I have to dream about the boy I used to hate?

Ever since the case of the attack against students of Harapan Bangsa High School was out on the news, that boy was taken into custody. It has been a week since the last time he attended the class. I was certain that Teacher Mahmud, the student counselor, expelled him from school as punishment.

I got out of my bed and took a bath. I didn't even remember when I slept because I was too busy studying for the test today. It seemed that I had nothing to do but study aside from going to school. I had to be a shopkeeper for Aunt Rosi, though.

Aunt Rosi, my late mother's younger sibling. Both of my parents have departed. They got into a traffic accident when I was an infant. Ever since their departure, my aunt took care of me. Somehow, she chose to live a single life without a husband despite being a middle aged woman.

As I combed my hair in front of the mirror, I thought about my puffy hair in this rainy season. Should I tie my hair? It appeared to be getting puffier by the minutes. It's not like it has an afro hairstyle or something, it's just slightly curly with a large volume. Classmates tended to call me a lion cub for this reason.

Should I tie my hair?

Was that even an option? Since I have never tied my hair before, that would look weird, right? What if my schoolmates mocked me for that?

Of course not

There was nothing special about me, no one would look my way. I was just a run of the mill school girl.

That's it.

@@@

"Nilam!"

I stopped reading and closed my book. Lala and Genta, the only friends that I have. They were the only people that saw me in a different light.

"Today we'll have a test on biology, right?" Lala asked, the most popular girl in this school. I had zero idea on why she would make friends with me.

"Bet you don't study, 'cause you still asked."

Genta was just as popular as Lala was, the three of us were good friends but honestly, those two would make such a lovely couple.

"Be a sweetheart and share the answers to me, would you?" Lala begged but Genta rolled his head. Both of them were not dim students; in fact, they were the sharpest tools in the shed. Despite that, Genta often let people do things their way and Lala often took that to her advantage.

"No way, you know how strict Teacher Warto is, I will not let myself be expelled from the class because of you."

"Genta, please~" Lala quipped in such an adorable manner, adding more cuteness to her already cute appearance.

"Quit it, let's head to the class before Teacher Warto got there first." I hurried them.

Teacher Warto, the biology teacher, often came into the class ten minutes before the class actually started. This semester, his subject was the first subject every saturday. This was a disaster for the lazy students, since being late would negatively affect their grades. No matter how good they score. He upheld his standard fairly well too, he often arrived at school quite early although he spent that time in the school's cafeteria.

@@@

"Nilam, you'd share the answer with me, right?"

"I can't, this is a test."

"Aw come on, you must share it with me!"

"Do I want to? You gotta study for yourself, stop relying on others!"

Although Lala often asked for answers from me, at least she sincerely befriended me, unlike any other classmates.

Salma was one of those classmates who approached me for nothing but the answers on the test. Somehow I just could not deny her request. I used to think that sharing answers like this would do no harm, but now I think differently ever since Teacher Nanang, the math teacher, found out that we had completely similar answers and he reduced my score by 10 points and therefore, Salma scored the highest grade in our class.

It was partly my fault, for being a geek.

"You sucks!" Salma went to her desk while glaring at me.

Worse, Salma was not alone, everyone stared at me, menacingly! I could feel it, they wanted to let me know my rightful place, at the bottom of the barrel.

"Nah, don't mind them. That's just how she is." I said. Lala snorted and patted my shoulder.

"You can't let her have it her way, it's your loss. You should teach her a lesson. Don't you remember what happened during that math test?" I nodded. I won't remember what happened back then.