❤︎

"Well, has it ever occurred to you that he's doing all that for you to notice him?"

Upon hearing Michael's words, I wanted to argue by saying Kongpob couldn't possibly be looking for attention from me, when everyone, and I really meant everyone, knew who he was, gave him the attention and wanted to be with him. But I stopped myself, not wanting to start an argument with him. "You seem to know Kongpob well." I said instead.

He took that as a compliment and smiled proudly again. "Cool handsome guys know each other well."

Okay, so that would've sounded conceited on other guys like Kongpob, but from Michael, it sounded pretty cute. And I was about to tell him just that, when Daniel suddenly walked out of the cafeteria and called us as he caught sight of us. "Michael! Arthit!"

Michael and I, both surprised to see him so soon, looked at each other questioningly. "What are you doing here? Where's May?" Michael asked Daniel.

Daniel smiled innocently before answering. "Well, it turns out she knows more about Calculus than I do, so I got out of there before I could humiliate myself even further."

"Wait, are you saying you left May alone?" Michael remarked surprised, not pleased at all.

"She said it was okay for me to leave, since I couldn't help her anyway." Daniel replied defensively, surprised that Michael was somewhat accusing him. "I even invited her to go find you guys together, but she refused, saying she was going to try to figure out her calculus by herself."

Michael jumped up and rushed towards the cafeteria without any words said. Of course, it was obvious that he was concerned about May, but Daniel was too naive to see that. "What's wrong with him?" he asked me with a frown.

I smiled at his oblivious innocence. "He's just worried about May since you left her alone. You know how much he likes her." I answered him. "Too bad she likes someone else."

"Really? Who can be better than Michael?" Daniel remarked curiously, totally clueless about being involved in a failed set-up just a few minutes ago.

But then again, I shouldn't be the one to reveal May's feeling for him. After all, she and Michael probably planned another date set-up and me telling him would ruin that. And so, I just gave him a secretive smile and said, "It's a secret."

And like what he said before about not being nosy, Daniel didn't ask about it again for the rest of the day. In fact, I would've forgotten about it if he didn't suddenly stop me from leaving after the dismissal bell rang, saying he had something to ask me. When he did, the only thing that crept into my mind was that he was still curious about the guy May liked.

But I was wrong because he didn't ask about that. Instead, he said, "Okay, so I was being very dramatic earlier about you and I having a chance to talk only at school, but, is it okay for me to ask for your number?"

"...That's it?" I asked, laughing into my palm. "And here I thought you were going to say that you're going into the church to become a monk or you need my help burying a dead body. Hahahaha Here you go." I took out a piece of paper from my notebook (I tend to insert a lot of papers in my notebook) and handed it to him after writing down my number.

He grinned and said thanks before he left the room with a wave.

I decided to look for Nam and try to patch things up with her.

As I walked along the hallway, I noticed people putting up pink posters on the walls. That was when it hit me.

Tomorrow was Valentine 's Day, and based on my experience, it was one of the most celebrated events in our school. It was always exciting to see what the guys would do for the girls they liked and it was no problem with the teachers, because during that day, they would allow disruptions in class, as long as it was for the name of L-O-V-E.

However, being alone was quite miserable during Valentine's day...

Oh well...

I shrugged those depressing thoughts away as I neared Nam's locker.

"Hey." I greeted as she closed her locker door.

Even though she still hadn't seen me, she already knew the voice belonged to me. "Hey." She greeted back as she turned to face me.

"Look, I'm sorry for not believing you when you said you weren't siding with Jessica. I guess I was just too frustrated with all those backfiring plans I had." I told her in my most sincere tone. "Anyway, I hope you can forgive me."

Nam smiled. "Of course I forgive you, but can you forgive me too? I know I should've tried to convince you more about Jessica. But you know me, I get mad easily." She admitted sheepishly. "And I should've told you about Kongpob too, but... I was afraid that if I did that, you would start liking him too..."

I smiled back at her. "Are you crazy? Why would I start liking my best friend's ex-boyfriend? Especially when he only dated you because you liked him. He's a total jerk in my eyes and that wouldn't change even if I found out he liked me." I responded honestly. "So, are we back to being best friends or what?"

"What?" She replied jokingly. "Seriously, we've never stopped being best friends so don't bother waiting for an answer. But I do have a request to you though." She remarked, pausing to see whether I'd accept it. I gave a nod to gesture her to go on. "Well, now that I've told you about Kongpob, can we stop talking about him and never bring him up again? At least not unless you start liking him back."

I sighed. "I told you, didn't I? I'm never going to like that jerk. Besides, I thought you didn't want me to like him?" I asked her, feeling a little confused.

She shook her head. "You're right, I didn't and still don't want you to like him. But if that's whom he wants, I guess I can accept the cold reality." She answered honestly.

"Fine, I'll accept your request." I replied to end the matter. I was also extremely tired of talking about Kongpob.

❤︎

After me and Nam had made up, things were normal between us again and the rest of the school day went by in a flash.

"So, I see you're getting a bit too close with Daniel, huh?" She asked me teasingly as we walked out of school premises. "What do you think, will he do something for you tomorrow?"

I blushed a little as I heard that. I hadn't even thought of him like that. He did ask for my number, but..Would Daniel really do something for me?

But we were just friends so I shouldn't expect anything. "No, it's not like that. Daniel is just a good friend. What about you, are you and Joss starting to go out?" I asked, nudging her lightly.

Now it was her turn to feel embarrassed. "Hey, what, Joss? He is not interested in me for sure. Besides, I just want to stay single for now." She responded in a serious tone.

I nodded and by that time we had reached the pathway were our roads went apart. "I'll see you tomorrow." I said as we were about to go our own ways.

"Okay, see you!" Nam chirped in reply. Then we waved at each other and started walking away.

Everything felt so good now, having my best friend back and gaining a new guy friend. And what added more to my high spirits would probably be my excitement for tomorrow.

Despite having no boyfriend since birth, I was just like any person who felt giddy inside whenever he saw a person doing a sweet thing for his loved one. And I was actually anticipating something like that to happen to me tomorrow, since it had never happened to me before.

Who knew...maybe I I would be getting a rose, or a love letter?

Gosh, could it really happen?

When I got home, I received a message from Daniel, making me smile. "Hey, this is Daniel. I forgot to give you my number so I just sent you a message to let you know."

I replied to him, saying, "That's the only reason why you sent me a message?"

It only took a minute for him to reply to my message. "Actually, no. I wanted to ask you, is a pink rose inappropriate to give to a person I like, but who doesn't know me?"

When I read the part about a pink rose for a person he liked, I actually thought that it was me he was talking about. But then I read that the person doesn't know him, which definitely showed that it wasn't me.

And so, I opted to be curious and ask who it was. However, I didn't want to sound too nosy so I changed my mind and just replied, "If she or he doesn't even know you, why don't you just give them a yellow rose instead?!"

(In fact, yellow roses are one of the only roses that have no romantic meaning behind them, often symbolizing jealousy and infidelity.)

"Are you mad at me?" he asked me suddenly.

Did I sound mad in my message? But I wasn't really angry. I was just being...why was I being a bit angry about it?

After all, I knew very well what yellow roses meant and the negative feeling they brought. It was just a joke. "No, why would I be mad about such small things? It's just a rose."

"Oh, okay then. Thanks for your help. See tomorrow then." He replied, a few minutes after.

One thing was for sure though, it wasn't me who would be receiving Daniel's rose.

So much for getting a dreamy Valentine this year...

❤︎