I didn't bother to follow them. I went back to my seat and rested.

Meanwhile, Nathan is walking with Professor Plump on the hallway.

"So have you reached an answer, Ms. Zairre?" Professor Plump asked me.

"Uh. Ibuprofen?" I answered. After the class, he approached me and whispered that I should have my leg be checked by the school nurse. I do not know how he knew that my leg is injured.

Adrian left me at home. I did not take my breakfast because he did not eat with me. I hurriedly went upstairs to grab my school stuffs. I slung my backpack over my shoulder, ran downstairs and almost tripped. I already felt a slight pain sensation on my left foot. "Auntie, where's Nathan?" I asked while grabbing a bread loaf.

"He already left. Maybe he's waiting in the car outside," she replied. "Do you want to bring some bread with you? I'll pack it. Wait for a second," she added.

"How sweet. Sure. Add more slices. I'll give some to Nathan later for his snack." I said excitedly. "I know he'll like it. Can you have some strawberry and blueberry spread?" Preparing the sandwiches did not last for more than five minutes. But when I went outside, Uncle Johnny has just driven out the car with Adrian in it.

I yelled out loud calling for them but they might have not heard me. I looked for my phone and dialed Adrian, but it was not ringing. I presumed he forgot to charge his cellphone again; and he used to not use his phone a lot. Then I decided I to just walk to school, because of several reasons. One, the Alcala family is rich and they have several cars, but there is only one driver, Mr. Johnny. Adrian does not want to hire more drivers because he won't be needing them a lot and he is not too good to deal with new faces.

Second reason is I do not know how to drive, I don't drive, or maybe I do not want to learn how to drive because of a bad experience. Adrian can drive, but does not want to because he would prefer using the time during transport to rest. Third, there is no public transport roaming around this subdivision, so I have to walk going to the main highway. Although there is a problem: Alcala's house is located at the farthest part of the subdivision area, to the point that even if they already own a quarter of the property, it is located at the back most area from the gate.

It has been more than 20 minutes since I left home and still walking. There are no public transport or taxis around. The next bus will come after three hours due to traffic problems. I can now feel the pain on my left foot after walking for exaggerated miles already. I sat on a near bench looked at my watch, and its already almost time for the second period. I missed the first period already. I just hope that no examination was given which would affect my grades. And I almost forgot that Adrian will be presenting his case in the second period. I really wanted to see him present his work. He worked for it for almost a week.

After the thought of wanting to see him present, I speed up going to school.

After a couple of more minutes of racing to school, I finally reached the school entrance. I can really feel that my foot already swell and my legs are starting to cramp that it pains like shit. I was sweating really hard and walked with my leg and feet strained. As I reached our classroom, I was breathing deep and hard, trying to relax myself. I opened the door and walked straight in. In my peripheral vision, there was Adrian presenting his topic. He had a pause for a second as I walked straight to my seat. I tried so hard to ignore the pain that made me sweat more. I sat down and relaxed as I listened to him continue his presentation.

"You should also apply hot compress on the parts which are swollen," I heard Professor Plump say something, but I ignored it. "Hey, are you listening?" He hit me with the sheets of paper he's holding.

"Huh? Yes. Yes. I know. I'll have it checked by the school nurse." I just replied. "Thank you, Professor Plump."

He stopped walking, "No worries. I must commend you for being able to answer all those questions with your physical state. Catch your breath." He walked out to the Staff Room. I proceeded straight to the clinic and have my leg and foot examined.

The afternoon periods ended so swiftly that I was not sure if I learned any, and if I had lunch. The class is preparing to leave. I'm trying to locate where Adrian is. I saw him talking to his seatmate, Pia.

"Adrian!" I called. He looked back and said something to Pia. I grabbed my bag and went to him. "Let's go," I invited. Pia smiled at me and just said, "See you there," she smiled, leaving us in an awkward silence.

We walked front the campus where Uncle Johnny is waiting to drive us to an after-class cram school. My mom insisted me to go to a cram school which can help me get higher grades on the university entrance examination. Having high entrance exam scores can earn me university scholarships. Then I just must maintain it. Eventually, I decided to enroll on a cram school.

I told this to Adrian. Without having second thoughts like I had, he said, "Let me join you." So, we both ended up in after-class cram school which is scheduled every other day, and on Saturdays.

Silence still lingers around on our way to the cram school. "Aah~" I wanted to start a conversation. Never mind. I think nothing's going to work. Adrian looks grouchy.

*Growl* Something is growling. *Growl* It repeated. I looked at Adrian. He slightly blushed. His ears are getting pinkish. Something's wrong with him. *Growl* It's his stomach. I thought.

I grabbed my bag and remembered that I asked Aunt Emily to prepare sandwiches for Adrian and I. I pulled it out of my bag and offered to Adrian, "There's blueberry spread there. Leave the strawberry to me."

He grabbed one and directly ate it. "You haven't had any lunch, didn't you?" He nodded his head. "Me too." I smiled. "I was waiting for you to call me to grab some lunch."

"But you just left me in the classroom," he mumbled. I felt a bit of sadness in his expression of not wanting to eat alone. I knew that eating alone is never his 'me' time. He never speaks much when eating, but he wanted someone to eat with him. I thought he has abandonement issues that his parents are not around when he was growing up. But it was more than that. He cherishes the moments of having someone to eat with; someone who sits across the dining table telling stories while enjoying whatever food is served to him. It sounds like a childish desire to resist hunger than eating alone. But for Adrian, it is something of a huge deal.  It is those simple things I learned about him that makes me want to be with him. He's afraid of getting used to eating alone again, because he never wanted to go back to those years when he had warm meals on cold and lonesome feasts.

"I did not." I defensively responded. "You were the one who left me this morning so I had to run and ..." I almost yelled at him. I believe I can get angry because it was all his fault. I was glowering at him for a few seconds; then he looked at me worried.

"Where did you and Professor Plump go after his class?" he blurted.

"Nothing important," I answered with no intention of speaking too much.

"Answer me," he insisted, but I did not respond. "I just want to know," holding his stare on me, "Just let me know."

I continued munching the sandwich and smiled at him. I told him everything that happened this morning until lunch. "I did not have my lunch either," I said to end my narration.

"After the cram school, let's grab some real meal," he said. "It's decided."

I twinkled looking at him, then it turned out to be a big smile.

"What?" he asked, who suddenly scowled at me. "Why are you smiling?"

I moved nearer to him while still smiling. "Hey!" he yelled trying to push me back. I grabbed his arm, hugged it, and rested my head on his shoulders. "I'm tired. Please let me rest for a while," I said calmly.

"Sorry for today," I heard him whisper. I hugged his arm tighter, but very gently.