𝑺𝑶 𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑺 𝑰𝑺 𝑯𝑶𝑾 𝑰𝑻 𝑬𝑵𝑫𝑺 ?

PRESENT

*Sighs*

" Finally our mids are over " I said to my friend Meg as I walked towards my seat and sat down .

The fact that I had been sick to my stomach right before the exams started , probably says enough about how frustrated I was .

" Should we go and grab some snacks together? " One of my friend , Reya , chimed in from behind .

" YESS ! " I said almost immediately.

Well , who could reject snacks , right?

Suddenly , a strong but rather calm voice greeted me " Hey Ash , how was your test ? "

I turned around , only to find a boy looking down at me to match my gaze .

" It was .. Fine " I said .

This was quite surprising to me , as it was very rare for him to come up and talk to me in public . He gave me an awkward smile and disappeared before I could return the question .

I stared after him for a second .

That .. was new .

" Wait - Did Iser just come and talk to you? That's quite unusual " Meg said.

**********************************************

It all started when a boy — Iser Vale , quiet and timid , suddenly popped out of nowhere into our section , almost two years ago .

Honestly , I couldn't have cared less about him . He was just another boy in my class - someone I had no reason to talk to and even less reason to notice .

Apparently ,

I wasn't speaking for everyone .

Some of the girls had already noticed him , whispering about how charming he was .

I never really understood what they saw in him .

At least , not back then .

A year passed just like that , and by the following session , we were still strangers who knew each other's names but barely looked at each other.

Until…

One random afternoon , out of all the students in our section , the school authority decided to put him and me together for an interschool research project .

And just like that , we had gone from strangers to project partners .

We were assigned mentors , who held a meeting to discuss our work plan .

And that was when we both spoke to each other for the first time.

Of course , all we did was just talk about the work and the project . Nothing else , really .

And that was all we talked about that day, before going back to how things had always been .

As the work progressed , we gradually began speaking more than just a few words .

Mostly random things — files , charts and who would handle which parts of the project .

As the competition day drew closer , we found ourselves spending more time together — researching , analyzing and writing .

He was clearly inexperienced and new to all of this , constantly make dumb mistakes , which , honestly , for someone as hot headed as me , was very hard to tolerate .

Yeah , you could say I was a kernel of corn — just a little heat , and I'd burst into a popcorn at any moment .

And , honestly , it was pretty obvious that he was scared of me .

The messages started short , than , we started talking about how nervous we felt and whether we've finished our parts for D-day .

Not soon after , it really was the D-day for which we worked so hard .

Honestly , I was so nervous that my stomach was flipping out and over . I still regret , knowing the two - years later Ash could've done much better . But what's done is done .

Amusingly , that was the last day he and I talked .

Because , once the work was done ,

Once the presentation was over ,

Somehow ,

We went back to being strangers all over again.