"How the hell would a girl be taller and bigger than me?" he thought internally.
Jerrod was like the leader of the boys in his class, which usually received challenges and fights from the boys of the other class, but he had never received a challenge from a girl before, not until today.
Out of the blue, he was called to the back alley near the school basketball court.
The alley was silent and the wind passing through the walls was making the tension between them higher.
It was just him and the huge girl alone, facing each other with different thoughts in mind.
Prepared for any attack from his challenger, Jerrod stood confidently in front of her despite getting intimidated by being smaller than the girl.
"I like you."
"What?"
Jerrod blinks his eyes several times, surprised by the sudden confession rather than a provocation for a fight.
He was waiting for a physical fight from the intimidating girl and didn't expect her to act shy and flustered.
Many girls had already confessed to him before, and it was the first time someone intimidating asked him out that he thought he was being called for a fight. Still skeptical about the confession, he looked around to see who was trying to prank him or thought it was a strategy to let his guard down for him to be attacked easily.
"I..I said I like you!" the girl repeated with her eyes closed.
"You? But you look like a guy" Jerrod says without a second thought. He just said whatever comes into his mind, as the confession hasn't sunk in to his mind yet.
Larissa was obviously flustered at what Jerrod said and immediately apologized by bowing.
"I-I am sorry for wasting your time! I just want to confess before we graduate. You don't need to answer!"
Larissa yelled everything she wanted, then ran away afterwards.
"The fuck with that?"
"The fuck with that?"
Jerrod repeated the same words he spoke in his dream as he unzipped his sleeping bag.
"Why do I have to dream about that again?"
It's been a week since he realized that Larissa was the same huge girl who confessed to him a long time ago. He managed to avoid the ghosts in the cabinet hunting him, but now he needs to deal with the recurring dream about the confession that happened more than a decade ago.
"This is torture. Real torture!" He grumbled.
Every day, Jerrod went to work exhausted and sleep deprived.
Avoiding dreams was something he couldn't do, which entirely affected his daily life.
Even so, he pushed himself to go to work to distract himself. At least at work, he didn't have to worry about the ghost and his dream because of his work load.
"Wow. Even with that scowling face, he still looked dazzling." a clerk commented as soon as Jerrod passed by.
"You're right. Those dark circles under his eyes won't even make him less handsome."
"True. Do you think I would be handsome too if I had dark circles under my eyes too?"
There is no way Jerrod would not hear their loud voices and shrieking, but still he acted unaffected and went straight to the pantry while holding onto his bunny-designed mug.
"Sir, you're sick again. Do you think you need a vacation leave?"
His assistant suggested for him to rest or take a day off, but he just shrugged it off.
"You've been weird lately, sir. Is there something bothering you?" His assistant asked. He offered Jerrod coffee, and they sat in the pantry, enjoying their break with small talk.
Jerrod stared at his mug for a second before responding. "In high school, I said some harsh things to someone. After meeting her again a few days ago, she keeps appearing in my dreams, waking me up in the middle of the night, then I can't sleep again."
It's unusual for him to share personal things with his co-workers, but the stress and exhaustion are piling up and he needs someone to tell it off, but of course he could only tell the dream but not the ghost.
"Highschool?"
Everyone looked at him with wide eyes.
Their gazes made him uncomfortable as he spoke to himself internally, "Haha, yeah right. Who would be troubled by high school memories that happened decades ago? Yeah, yeah, look at me strangely."
Jerrod rubbed the back of his neck as he waited for his officemates to speak. He knew what he said was strange and his officemates' reactions were normal, but he still felt uncomfortable with the way they looked at him.
"Y-yes. Strange right?"
"Haha, no sir, it's not strange."
"Yes, we were just shocked that you were quite despicable in your high school days for saying harsh words to your schoolmate."
Jerrod felt relieved that their conversation hadn't turned strange and then decided to ask for their advice since he had already opened it up.
"So, what do you think?"
"Well, Sir, you might have been reminded of the harsh thing you did to her, which caused you to have a dream of her."
For the first time, Jerrod listens intently to his assistant, who usually speaks nonsense.
"Do you think that was the case? Then how can I stop dreaming of it?"
"Isn't it simple, sir? You just have to make up for what you did to her." his officemate replied confidently.
"Make up with her?"