"Twenty freaking missed calls, Arina!" Seo screamed at the top of his lungs. "Twenty!!"

"Oh, isn't it sad that cherry blossom season is already ended?" Arina heaved a deep sigh, chin propped on her hand as she gazed dreamily out of the classroom's window.

"ARE YOU HEARING ME!?"

Seo's scream startled the 2-A students as they tilted their heads toward the dude displaying an irritated look. Asano Gakushuu had to take a break off from his work to scold Seo for disturbing the peace.

The enraged gaze Seo shot at Arina straight away after being scolded demonstrated how he was submerging in anger but gritted his teeth as a way to ease down his temper. Teppei quickly got up and went over to his friend's side.

"Cherry blossom comes in two colors, right? Which is your favorite then? Me first. I absolutely adore the beauty of the white cherry blossom. Even though I grew bored of the plain color white of winter in my hometown, it somehow just gave me some sort of nostalgia. Have you ever experienced such things?" said Arina dreamily, appearing to be oblivious and having her eyes fixed on the vast cerulean sky above her, ignoring the drama Seo caused all along.

"I had!" Teppei immediately respond to her as a way to carry on the conversation so Seo couldn't possibly add fuel to the flame, a sweat rolled on his cheek while he caught a glimpse of the veins that popped on Seo's face.

"Well now, at least I'm not mourning over how the season ended because I always look at the big picture -- cherry blossom will come back next year, unlike someone who always overlooked the long-term relationship and headed in for some trivial matters," said Arina in a surprisingly soft voice tone, although sounded somewhat sarcastic, while still gazing at the sky through the window and imagining all sort of things.

Fuming, Seo quickly reminded himself that Asano was still there behind him and gritted his teeth so hard it produced a 'crack' sound, Teppei -- who was standing by his side was startled by it.

"You want to go for a walk before class starts?"

Before Seo could even open his mouth to answer, Teppei had already pulled him out to the hallway and slid the door behind them. The 2-A students went back to their usual business.

"How's your math homework, Arina? Need any help?" interrogated Asano while putting on a fake smile. His inner self was screaming at how much time had she wasted by always gazing out of the window for no reason. It was highly unproductive and he couldn't stand it.

"Oh, homework this and homework that," sighed Arina. "The guy that invented homework, are you a big fan of him? Because I think you ARE."

"I just want to say that," said Asano, standing up from his seat and walking over to Arina's side. A hand on his hip as he observed the sky with her, "all of what you've been doing is extremely inefficient. What's the point of admiring what I'm seeing here?"

"Oh, Asano-kun," the girl said with a spark of curiosity in her set of eyes, "why is the sky blue?"

Asano widened his eyes at Arina's sudden question. He instantly came up with an answer, "Because sunlight reaches the earth's atmosphere and is scattered in all directions by all the gases and particles in the air. Blue light is scattered more than the other colors because it travels as shorter, smaller waves. This is why we see a blue sky all the time."

"Now that I'm so happy for obtaining new knowledge today," said Arina gladly. "To be able to live and discover the truth of this world that we are living in. There is nothing comparable to that, don't you think?"

The clouds gradually shifted away from their current position and reveal a ray of sunlight as Arina's green eyes bathed in it, and shined through her iris; thus making it shift the hue to a bright amber. Asano squinted his eyes while staring unconsciously at her.

"...you seem to have some makeup on."

"Heh?"

Their gaze met as Arina secretly panicked, contemplating how he was so observant.

"Ah, well, I feel like prettying up today..." she said awkwardly, hoping the coverage was enough to hide all yesterday's bruises.

"Then it failed for me to spot any differences in your appearance, if not for the sunlight," said Asano in a much more assertive voice tone, as Arina sighed in relief. "Plus the rule is the rule, you aren't allowed to wear any makeup at school (Arina immediately switched from being relieved to anxious) Go take it off, now."

"Oh, Asano-kun, please forgive me," gasped Arina frantically, her hands clasped before her. "Oh, you wouldn't know how grateful I will be when you agree to come with me outside and listen to my reason behind this. Oh, Asano-kun, please!"

Asano kept a blank face as he spoke, "Sure, but hurry up."

He marched out of the class with Arina trailed after. Crossing his arms, Asano was about to listen to whatever she wanted him to hear.

"So um...It was a normal day, or so I thought. I was walking home when suddenly! I heard a scream! A scream for help! Then I--"

"Go straight to the point."

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't be fascinating enough for you to hook on, isn't it?"

"Efficiency," declared Asano, his brows slightly furrowed.

"Anyway, just listen. So out of curiosity, I ran in the scream's direction and found a--"

"Can you just tell me the purpose of this meaningless conversation?"

"I found a bear! Asano-kun! A BEAR!" exclaimed Arina out of excitement whilst Asano winced in disbelief. "It was attacking a mother and a child! I quickly threw myself in the middle of danger, shoving a cupcake into its mouth! (Asano sighed and walked away) As a result, I bought time for us to escape-- Hey! Stop there! I haven't finished!"

"Unfortunately, you're wasting my time," he coldly replied with his back facing her.

"That was how I got the bruises, Asano-kun! That's why I need to cover it!"

"Just stop making up nonsense stories, I'm getting enough of it. Your head is always up in the clouds."

"I didn't! That bear escaped from a zoo nearby!" said Arina in determination. At this point, she was so good at lying that she even forgot she was doing so. "They later caught the bear and sent it back to the zoo."

"Then how so that it doesn't appear in the news?" questioned Asano, approaching Arina with his arm crossed. The girl broke into realization and panicked. "I caught up with the news every day, you couldn't lie to me. Tell me the truth."

A moment of silence approached. Arina avoided Asano's eye contact and pursed her lips without knowing, "Well, I accidentally bumped into a utility pole,"

"It doesn't make sense to me that you have to make up a whole story to back up for this. Tell me, did anyone hit you? Is he from our school?"

"Oh, Asano-kun! I suppose no one is bold enough to hit a little girl and let her roam free after that," said Arina, trying to calm down her dramatic voice tone. "I really DID bump into a utility pole. You must believe me. Wouldn't you find it embarrassing to let people know that you're THAT clumsy? I know you would, Asano-kun. I AM, too!" she cried.

"Very well then," said Asano firmly. "Our class is about to start, let's get back."

'It definitely had struck him as feeling relatable' Arina told herself, wiping sweat on her forehead.

They entered the class at the same time as Seo and Teppei as well as their math teacher to start their first period with the subject being mathematics. Arina sighed in boredom and got back to her seat. Math and science were undoubtedly her weakest subjects as she had once daydreamed about swapping brains with Asano and becoming a prestigious student with perfect scores at all times.

"Avenira?"

"Y-yes!?"

She was snapped back to what was in front of her considering all she cared about was daydreaming or waving brightly at the students passing their classroom who were either on their way to the bathroom or back to their class. As a result, she failed to answer that same math question for the fifth time in the week.

"How pathetic," murmured Nagasawa Juria sardonically, hand covering her mouth as she tilted her head around mocking Arina.

"Ughh! I'm starting to get impatient! Asano-kun, make sure to tutor Avenira okay!? Her stupidity is getting out of hand!"

'Stupidity!?' thought Arina fumingly, hot anger surged up into her heart.

"I'll do my best to help my classmate," said Asano with a smile, reassuring his teacher.

"I can't believe he called me stupid!" whined Arina passionately to Seo and Teppei after school. "If he keeps on calling me that, I'm going to call him out for being ugly, rude, and having the look that reminds me of a zombie! It's understandable how he's still celibate! No one wants him!"

"Why'd you throw shade at him when he's simply stating the truth? You are stupid," said Seo with a wide sneer. Teppei nudged him, but he didn't budge at all, as if he was so used to it.

"And be careful of Asano-kun. He abhors stupidity and inefficiency. You seem to possess both!"

"I — AM — NOT!"

"What's going on here~?"

Ren approached along with a flip of his hair. The girls waved goodbye to him as if he was a superstar. Arina, Teppei, and Seo to this day still couldn't figure out why he was so popular with the opposite sex.

"Whatever you guys are arguing about, wanna have a party at my house tonight~?"

"Okay!" Seo replied almost immediately.

"Absolutely!" cheered Arina in excitement, completely forgetting about the bicker in mere seconds.

"Oh? I don't think so."

Asano appeared out of nowhere. Arina had a sense that freedom had been stripped away from her as soon as he appear. She distanced herself away from him accordingly.

"You stay after school and study, Arina. Period."

"Oh, Asano-kun! But I really — really have to visit my friends today," whined Arina childishly. By 'friends', she meant class 3-E senpais and especially Itachi Ito, who had been injured badly yesterday. "Please~?" she intertwined her hands and purposedly delivered a puppy gaze at Asano.

But what she received was a disdainful look from him.

'It didn't work!?" thought Arina frantically. Seo tried his best to hold back his laugh.

"You should be grateful that I have some spare time for you today. I don't want to hear another word from you. As long as you're still my classmate, I'm going to push you harder," said Asano firmly.

"Alright! Have fun studying Arina! We're going to party right now!" Seo said, his tongue sticking out jeeringly. Teppei said goodbye, as well as Ren, and together they left the class.

"Take out your math textbook. I will return by minutes," demanded Asano as she struggled to hold back her tear.

"Oh, Asano-kun," gasped Arina.

But Asano had gone out and shut the door.

"So basically just apply position vector formula into this question, understood?"

Noticed how her gaze was nowhere to be found fixing on him and the work, but rather at the dusk outside the window. Asano slammed the desk to gather her attention, as the girl jolted in shock.

"I'm sorry!" said Arina abruptly. "Well, it's really hard to stay focused on the work when this period of partial darkness between day and night just came into the view. It's breathtakingly beautiful, don't you think? And what is this period called in Japanese by the way?"

"The dusk! Now stay focused and apply the position vector formula here. Don't tell me that you forget again."

"Oh, Asano-kun," breathed Arina guiltily, shaking her head, "I couldn't help it, you know. I keep on spacing out while you're talking."

Even though he was often noted as an even-tempered person by others, Asano couldn't help but felt like exploding. This was the fourth time he had repeated the same formula for her.

"I haven't once in my life associated with anyone that is more airheaded than you. There must be a mistake, your ability is far from the standard of class A. It's much worse. Class C at max makes more sense to me," Asano said bluntly.

His words struck Arina dumb. She was left with this feeling of hatred toward him and the constant denial of the words that just blabbed out of his mouth.

"You are so mean to me!" Arina exclaimed passionately. She flashed one indignant glance at Asano.

"And you are just a narcissist that excels in underestimating others' abilities! I might not be good at IQ subjects but at least I'm good at various other things! That doesn't make me an airhead for goodness' sake? And if you were a good leader and a tutor, wouldn't you encourage me instead of making me feel bad about myself?"

"First of all, you have to gain more self-awareness and be aware of where your limit stands. What you're capable of? Don't you think there's a difference in ability between you and our classmates? And second, a leader will choose who he wants to lead. Often they're the ones he sees the potential in."   

"You mean I have no potential whatsoever?" ejaculated Arina. "And you think I've no sense of self-awareness!? That's so so wrong!"

"You have potential, yes. But it doesn't quite fit with the setting I must say. Someone like you should lean more toward athletics than academics.; thus getting into class A isn't necessary. I'll speak to the chairman on this matter to see if he had made any mistake."

"Why are you being so skeptical?" cried Arina. "Let's just wait until the midterm exam to clear things out!"

"I always have a vision for how things will turn out," returned Asano coldly. "You are not suitable for this class."

It has been a while since Arina had felt this much amount of rage consuming her. Although part of her wanted to argue back and protect her self-worth, the other part also wanted to lighten up the mood. Swallowing a hateful lump down her throat, with quenched angry tears almost escaping her eyes, she finally decided to choose the latter to soothe things over.

"Um...do you want some snacks? I've got some vanilla caramels I made--"

"Concentrate on your work."

His serious character again struck Arina dumb. Anger had again gone hot in her heart that she wasn't tearing up this time. With resentful eyes and passion-red cheeks, she confronted him:

"I thought you no longer see me as someone you'd help?"

"Doesn't mean you should give up on yourself. Keep up with the study."

"But once in a while, it's good to have a break, don't you think?"

"It's not good timing. I only have two hours to sit with you. Don't waste my time."

Hearing so, her vengeful expression had transformed itself into a sympathetic one. She immediately tried to imagine herself in his shoes.

"Oh, Asano-kun, how kind-hearted you are," declared Arina out of nowhere, having both her eyes shut whilst Asano was looking at her with the most confused face ever.

"Thank you very — very much! For bearing with a dreadfully wicked, unproductive, and ungrateful girl like me! You taught me a lot, and I shall always feel that you are a benefactor," she said with a sorrowful look on her face, "Now, although I really want to tell the truth that even though you're the most boring person to be with, but OH, ASANO-KUN!"

Suddenly she collapsed her head into the desk and rose up again, clasping her hands together, "Your character traits are what I need in myself, and therefore I shall obey you more from now on."

'So dramatic', was the main thought that flashed through his mind, resulting in a look of disgust from him. However, nothing in those sentences stood out more than the term 'the most boring person to be with' How dare she called him boring!?

"What do you mean by the most boring person?" Asano retorted absent-mindedly.

"Oh, I am so extremely sorry," said Arina with a quiver in her voice. "It is very wicked of me to confess the truth, although it IS the truth, I shouldn't have said it. Please — pleasee forgive me for being such a blunt person. I learned my lesson now, whatever I dislike about you, I'd hold my tongue and I shall never EVER reveal them to you!"

Even though she had apologized, Asano was still displeased at the fact that she thought he was boring, hence why he declared:

"I am not a boring person. Not only do I study a lot, but I also have an understanding of martial arts. I've got a wide network of friends, and I've got the charisma to win over people. It's important for you to learn the definition of boring."

"Yes — YES! You're so perfect and that automatically turned you into a fun person to be with. I must agree too, honestly. I shall remember that you have turned my boring life into such an interesting one! You know, comes to think of it, I wouldn't have a chance to live such a meaningful life without the guiding light of you, Asano-kun! You inspire and lead me to hope! And hope is the way of seeing the future. Well, when it comes to seeing the future, sometimes you couldn't help but imagine all sorts of things, haven't you? I once imagine that I would be able to live in a bright world with sunshine and laughs from the common folk and guess what happened after I imagine it, it turned into reality — my hope turned into reality! So now what if I'm going to imagine that my na—"

Seeing how Arina had slowly lost track of her endless thoughts and what she was saying, Asano angrily snapped her back to the main focus.

"My goodness hold your tongue! And move on to the next question!" said Asano in a serious manner, writing down the formula for Arina and flipping to the next page.

Thereupon Arina held her tongue and stayed focused so obediently and thoroughly that it would make him slightly nervous at first, but quickly sneered at such achievements.

Though, her attempts were gradually loosened throughout time.

"Yay! Two hours passed!"

"We still got five minutes to be exact. Do one more question and we're done for the day."

Those five minutes felt like an eternity to her. She kept checking the clock while trying the solve the problem whilst Asano noticed and slammed his hand on the desk constantly reminding her to stay focused.

"Alright, time's up. Make sure to review what I've tutored you on once you're home. Do you hear me?"

"Aye, sir!" saluted Arina with a bright beam, while sprang to her feet.

Before leaving the class, she didn't forget to leave him a bundle of vanilla caramels as a way to thank him for today's lesson. How on earth would a girl change her attitude so quickly and easily?

On her way home, while traveling on the public train, Arina gazed out of the window at the moon, somehow imagining it was staring back at her with a kind set of eyes.

"I now solemnly swear to myself, that I'll try harder in my weak subjects! For the sake of myself and for the attempts people have tried to help me. All those attempts wouldn't be wasted!"

Strangers on the train turned their gazes at the foreign girl not for her beauty this time, but for the odd behavior that she just displayed staring through the train's window at the moon, speeching about something in a foreign language. She was so absorbed and expressive in the vow that even the old man sitting farthest from her could hear it.

"Look at how weird that foreign girl is..." a girlfriend whispered to her boyfriend.

When she was finally at home, Arina immediately took out her textbooks and started reviewing what she had learned today.

'Sometimes, having no passion for certain things isn't a rightful pretext to not strive for it' was what she concluded while tearing up at how she couldn't solve a math equation alone without guidance.