"You're already here," Aria said as she walked closer to where Ace was sitting at one of the library tables.
"Yeah," Ace said, raising his head to look at his girl with lovely eyes. "I was waiting for you, but you made me wait for a long time. I was bored here, left alone without you." Ace said, pouting, which surprised Aria, making her eyes widen.
Seeing how she looked at him with wide eyes, Ace tried hard not to laugh and quickly composed himself. Aria witnessed the biggest surprise of her life: Ace pouting. He was so cute. A handsome young man like Ace could be adorable when he pouted.
"You're pouting," Aria stuttered in disbelief, looking at Ace with round eyes and her mouth agape.
"Oh, me?" Ace asked, pointing his index finger at himself, pretending he didn't know what he was doing. He had tried hard not to laugh when he saw her expression.
"Is there someone here with me if not you, dear?" Aria asked, looking at Ace with her hazel eyes. Ace's eyes immediately widened at what she was doing.
God, what's with her eyes now? Ace thought, looking at Aria like a complete fool in love. Seeing him, Aria knew she had successfully teased him. Earlier, when he pouted, she caught a quick glimpse of a small smile, but he quickly changed it back to his pouting lips.
Ace was at a loss for words, looking at her, but quickly said, "Let's study." He switched to study mode, just like a machine.
"Hmm, let's read," Aria hummed and nodded without bringing up another topic, choosing to let it be.
"So, look, I've written all the questions you need to study and know, so please take a look," Ace said as Aria dragged her chair forward.
"Okay, thanks," Aria said, looking through the questions as she held her pencil and started working on them.
"You're solving it with a pencil," Ace said, looking at her in disbelief as he saw her going through the set of questions with a pencil.
"Yes, so I can erase it with an eraser if I write something wrong," Aria said.
"Oh, please continue," Ace said with a small smile.
Looking through the questions, Aria kept scrambling things and erasing them when she wrote something wrong as she wrote down the solutions to the questions. She could feel Ace's eyes on her all the time, but she tried not to get distracted. Suddenly, she felt someone tuck the hair that had fallen on the side of her face behind her ear.
"What are you doing, Ace?" Aria asked, who had kept looking at her work without taking her eyes off, as she turned around to find him looking at her with a smile on his lips and warm eyes.
"Nothing, just continue," Ace said, keeping his eyes on her.
"I don't think I can continue with you looking at me," Aria said, turning to look at the notebook in front of her. "I can feel the pressure of your eyes on me, Ace. Try to study; it will help."
Aria advised, trying to focus on her work.
"Okay, since you say you don't like it, I'll try not to look at you," Ace said, turning and opening his notebook. He knew it was sometimes uncomfortable to be looked at like that, but for his selfish reasons, he kept looking. He found peace in her company.
Now that Ace wasn't looking at her, Aria felt at ease as she wrote down the solutions. After a few minutes, she turned around and said, "I'm done."
Hearing her say that, Ace turned his face toward her and collected the notebook to take a look at what she wrote.
"Hmm, good. The solutions are all right. You got it all," Ace said with a smile.
"Hmm, I know I learn things easily," Aria said with a smile.
"Let's see what time it is," Aria said, looking at her hand watch. "It's 4:30. Let's read till five before leaving."
"So, what do you want to study for the next thirty minutes?" Ace asked, looking at her.
"Let's read 'Study and Life,'" Aria said.
"Okay, let's read bio," Ace said, taking the biology textbook and placing it between them.
"Which one is giving you a hard time?" Ace asked.
"Circulatory system," Aria said, pointing at the topic.
"Okay, let's read," Ace said, ready to start explaining everything, but Aria quickly said, "Wait."
"What is it?" Ace asked calmly.
"Ehm, I want to ask you a question," Aria said.
"Okay, go on," Ace said, giving her the go-ahead.
"You're the school bad boy, and you're always at the top. How? And here you are, teaching me. How did you manage to learn all those things?" Aria asked.
"Hm, you asked this because normally school bad boys are the ones having bad grades in the class or school, right?" Ace said, smiling and leaning his back on the chair, thinking about what he was going to tell her.
"By top, you mean first in class and the school," Ace asked to be assured of what she meant.
"Yeah," Aria said, answering both his questions at the same time, bobbing her head up and down, which made Ace's smile widen into a grin.
"I enjoy breaking people's bones, Aria, not that I do, but I would enjoy doing that. And I spend my time mostly in my bedroom, so I study when I have nothing to do," Ace answered her question calmly, looking at her and smiling.
He liked it when she didn't deny that he was a bad boy. He saw the hesitation on her face when she was saying "bad boy," but he was glad she didn't change it.
"Oh, you're an introvert," Aria said, and he looked at her before nodding his head slowly. He wondered if this was the day of learning things about him.
"Hm," Aria hummed, nodding her head up and down as Ace looked at her.
"Is there something else you want to know?" Ace asked.
"No, I... this is enough," Aria said, wanting to ask him something but thinking he might feel uncomfortable if she kept asking, so she shook her head with a small smile on her lips.
"Let's continue with our study?" Ace asked, and Aria quickly bobbed her head up and down.
"Okay, here we go," Ace said, starting to explain the circulatory system to her.