Chapter 4

"There's something odd about him, don't you think?"

My friend Jiyung suddenly spoke up. We were in the midst of our meal, and none of us had spoken to each other in a while.

I quickly swallowed my food. "By who do you mean??" I asked, though I already had an idea who he might be talking about.

"You know. Xam." He handed me a can of coke as he finished his noodles.

I shrugged thoughtfully as I popped open the can. "I can't say for sure," I remarked before taking a refreshing sip of coke.

"There's something about his aura that just can't stop bothering me."

"Do you mean you 6dislike him?"

Jiyung shook his head. "No, it's not like that. I just feel something weird about him, that's all. I mean, that was literally the first time I've heard him actually talk to someone in the past 4 months he's been at class."

That was undeniably true. Xam was a recent transferee from who knows where and started school here 3 months late.

"You got a point. But what exactly are you getting at??"

"I feel sorry for him, but also suspicious. It feels like everything we need to know about him is hidden—to hidden!"

"Well, that won't be for long. I'm sure we'll be able to know atleast a bit about him while we're working on the presentation."

"That's true…"

He resumed eating his ramen. But I knew we were still sharing the same thoughts even after we became silent

as we ate.

My curiosity was suddenly aroused the moment I spoke to him earlier, but I didn't pay much attention about his mysterious demeanor until now.

I knew I wasn't in the right place to judge, but I couldn't deny that there was something suspicious about him.

And that suspicion remained even until I got home that evening.

There I was, leaning on my desk with my phone in my hands, deep in thought as to how I should text Xam in a professional yet casual way so that he might gain a good impression on me.

This is what I settled on texting him:

Hi, it's me Xiyan! I already added you to our group chat. Let's start discussing our plans from there.

To my surprise, he replied quite quickly. He must've been expecting either me or Jiyung to message him.

Ye, I already saw it. Thanks.

—was his reply.

Staring at the message, my mind flew back to earlier when Mr Dae announced the project. For sure, I knew Jiyung would be in my team. But when I noticed that almost everyone were already in threes, I started to panick. Who knew such a minor thing would be able to trigger my anxiety. Luckily, I caught Xam staring at me for some reason and realized he was alone. Instantly, all my worries vanished and were replaced with a joyous feeling. That was when I approached him and Jiyung joined us.

I actually thought that he'd refuse to be join me. But he wasn't at all that hard to convince than he looked. And that was literally the first time I spoke to him, despite the fact that he was my long time seatmate who highly favored the back seat.

Indeed, I never spoke to him before but that doesn't mean I havent noticed him. All he ever did when he was at school was either sleeping, or not attend at all. That was why it freatly surprised me that he actually agreed to do the project, since he never usually participated in things like this. Not gonna lie, I never actually paid attention in class my self, but I usually study when there's a quizz or when the exams are coming up, so that wasnt much of a problem.

But him??! I kinda feel honored that he didnt refuse my offer.

Well, I've heard a few rumors about him, since a lot of girls I knew gossip about him because of his good looks, and from what I heard—well there's not much to hear 'cause even they dont have much to talk about him since they dont know first thing about Xam, aside from the fact that he's a transferee and that was about it.

That was enough reason for us to raise our suspicions. It was just a matter of curiousity.