"Gosh. She really looks like a witch."
"Yeah. Look at the way she looks, as well as the strange things she wears."
I was just looking at the girl they were talking about. She was wearing a uniform and had tied her hair like other students. But why do they say she is a witch?
"She doesn't look like a witch to me." I couldn't stop speaking, making my friends look at me. "Huh? Who?" Ivan followed my eyes, looked at me again, then glanced at Reeves.
"Shin, you're too obvious," Reeves said with a smile.
"Bro, remember we have an exam today. Just review and stop looking at your crush." They laughed at what Baltazar said.
I hissed in annoyance and clenched my fist while reading my notes.
Until the end of our exam, she never once looked at me. So until I got home, I was still irritated.
"And why don't you feel like eating again?" Mom asked me a question while I was reviewing here in my room.
I didn't answer.
"Maybe because her crush didn't notice him again." When dad teased me, I was still tormented and fuming and didn't say a word.
"I didn't know you were torpe¹, son." I was stunned and looked at mom in disbelief. "Ma, I'm not torpe. And I'll eat later, I'm still reviewing!" I promised to make them stop.
"Why don't you just court that girl you're so obsessed with?" Dad was still teasing.
"We're still in high school," I exhaled.
"It's true that you're in high school, but there's still no friendship or courtship."
God, stop me.
= ❈ =
Second day of the exam, after I passed our first exam in the morning, I hung out on the stairs, right next to the CR of our classroom.
After a minute, I saw Abby, the rumored witch, come out. She was about to walk down the stairs but stopped when she saw me sitting on the last step of the stairs going to the third floor.
We stared at each other, but she immediately avoided me and continued down the stairs. I stood up from my seat and went down while looking behind her, I didn't realize that I was following her. When she stopped, we were already at the canteen and she was buying food. I bought a coffee because the weather was quite cold, it was October.
After we bought it, I followed her again while drinking coffee, but secretly. She went to the back of the campus, which is a forest. But even though I was confused, I continued to follow her, until we stopped at a treehouse. I frowned as I noticed it was familiar to me.
"Oh." The one I tried to turn into a treehouse when I escaped during an event at school. I was bored because we didn't do anything that day but watch performances, so I went behind the school and found a perfect spot to pass the time.
I also made sure that there was no earthling or any creature in the land as I placed an oration and protection so that no creature could come near or live in the treehouse and tree. I learned making protection and oration from a Babaylan.
Maybe she saw the treehouse when she was walking in the garden. The forest is right next to our garden, and the treehouse is not that far away. It would be troublesome to build a treehouse in the middle of the forest.
She went up, and just a few seconds later, I followed her. I also went up to the treehouse.
"Why are you following me?" The first thing she said to me when I entered the treehouse.
It's literally a house because it looks like a room with doors and windows. There's also some cups, plates, utensils, and even cooking pots.
"Because I like to. How did you find this treehouse?" I said while looking around the room. I just made a bed, but it already has a mattress, pillow, and blanket. The treehouse also has a lamp and many books, the lamp I bought when I slept here once, the book may have been put here by Abby like the blankets that I know are also from her.
"When I saw you enter the forest on Saturday. You were carrying a bag, that's why... I followed you. I'm sorry if I entered here and put stuff, you don't visit anymore so I thought... you abandoned it." Her voice lowered, she seemed embarrassed.
I walked to the bed and sat there. How did she lift the thick mattress all the way here?
"It's okay for you to use it, as long as only the two of us should know about this treehouse."
She nodded. "It's okay with me. I'm sorry again if I packed the treehouse without your notice. I feel safe when I'm here. Y-you know, like a comfort zone." She gave me a small but sweet smile.
The treehouse is safe... but the one you're with now is not.