The cold guy I met at school…

I stood at the school’s gate waiting for my friend. It was our first day to school in senior year. Summer

just passed and it was the onset of monsoon. It had been drizzling since a few

days. I deliberately forgot to bring my umbrella to enjoy the rain. As I stood

there waiting, it started to rain. I ran to the bus shelter to not wet myself

in the rain. Of course, I love rain but there's no fun in dancing alone, right?

I stood there kicking the ground in frustration that he didn't arrive on time.

I was going to be late for school on the first day. How worse can it get than

this? I sighed. My mobile phone blinked, and it was his message that he's not

going to make it that day. "I will not let you go so easily. Humph" I

growled at the phone and looked outside. It was still raining. I walked through

the bus shelter and reached the gate. ‘Qingbao School- Country A’—the brown,

rusted board was well hung at the top of the gate. The main building is at

least two hundred meters away from the gate. Without a second thought, I ran

towards the school. The main building was built when I was not even born. It

had cracks all over it which they tried to cover with the lowest possible

quality cement. Numerous trees were planted in and around the campus. I ran

under the trees to protect my new uniform and reached the building. When I went

inside, they were still assembled for the commencement of the semester. I

directly went to the class and scanned the class with my eyes for a perfect spot

to sit for the rest of the semester. I found the seat near the window and

declared it to be mine by putting my bag on the seat. I went to the restroom to

clean myself up. I heard the footsteps approaching and realized that the

assembly dispersed. It's time I went to class. I looked at myself in the mirror

for one last time and reached the handle to open the door. It creaked and made

loud noises that the whole school knew someone was in the restroom during the

assembly. I went to the class only to find my bag on the floor and someone in

my "chosen" place. 'What an unlucky day' I thought to myself and

went to the last bench. No one occupied the seat next to me. So, I put my bag

there. Teacher Lin came and started teaching without a formal

"hello". I'm not bothered either. I didn't notice when the rain

stopped. The sun came out of the clouds giving me a warm feeling. I looked at

the blackboard and started copying literally everything on it. Suddenly the

whole class went silent when we heard someone's voice. "May I come in

sir?" ...a guy.

I looked at the entrance

wondering who was so unlucky to be scolded on their first day. Then I saw him.

He looked like a Greek God in the vibrant rays of light from the sun in the

early morning. He was at least 6'2" with a perfect figure. Not too

muscular, not too skinny. I measured him with my eyes. He didn't wear his

school uniform. 'Looks like, he's new here' I thought to myself. He

was in his plain, yet decent looking T-shirt paired with blue jeans pants and

white sneakers which were in trend at that time. He looked through the class

while he repeated to ask for permission. The teacher allowed him in and to my

surprise, he didn't scold this guy for being late. Instead shook hands with him

and welcomed him into the classroom. The teacher asked him to introduce

himself.

"Hello everyone, I am Zhao Jiang.

I transferred here from blah blah blah.... " He talked for a whole of

three minutes on his first day as a transferred student. When I was supposed to

introduce myself, I tripped twice on my way to the front and took 30 sec just

to say my name. I looked at him all the while he was speaking. The teacher also

spoke highly of him for having "so many" or may be, I can say too

many achievements for his age. Oh wait! How old is he? Who knows! I just want

to see him more. That moment, all I can think about was that I want to see him

every day. What a pretty face! He finished his long speech and turned to the

teacher to bow and bowed to the class too, saying thank you. The class clapped

and welcomed him.

The teacher showed him the seat

next to me to sit. He seemed reluctant. My heart ached a little seeing a

reluctant look in his eyes. Or maybe I am imagining things. Why would he be

reluctant? Maybe it’s the same cold look that he wore when he entered the class.

Am I overreacting? Every girl in the class turned to look at me. What did I do

wrong? Is something there on my face? Am I looking weird? So many questions

popped in my mind. A turbulence of thoughts crossed my mind, but I composed

myself and looked at him as he walked towards the desk. His walk was as elegant

as of those ancient warriors. Slowly, as he approached the desk, my heart began

to race as if it’s going to jump out of my chest. I could clearly hear my heart

beating so fast. I don’t know what I was afraid of, but I turned my face away

towards the window on my left and looked at the garden outside. The gardener

was cutting the short bushes into different shapes. He cut the small leaves and

branches skillfully with a long pruner. I watched him immersing myself into the

art of gardening until I heard a voice which was not so similar.

“Hello” he said.

“Huh?” I looked at him having no

clue what he called for.

“I was calling you since long. Is

this bag yours? Can you please take it away?” he asked. Then I realized that my

bag still was on his seat. What would he think about me? I was distracted all

the while he called me. I smiled awkwardly. I took my bag and put it on my

desk. I dared not to say a word to him. He didn’t talk to me either. I wanted to

talk to him. I wanted to ask him many details of his, but I couldn’t pull my

gut together to open my mouth.

Anyways I jumped contently in my

imagination as he sat next to me. Then the class resumed. The teacher was

teaching something, and the rest of the class was busy doing their own

business. I couldn’t concentrate on the class with him next to me. I peeked at

him. He was noting down important points in his notebook. These notes would be

of no use to him considering his previous achievements. It would be an

understatement if I say he’s perfect. He is more than perfect. He was the only

man who caught my eye since my existence. I observed his long eye lashes. His

deep brown eyes were shining in the morning sun light. Those two eyes of his,

moving from the white board to his notebook time to time, were so pretty. His

face was flawless with a defined jaw line. His black silky hair was dancing in

the wind and disturbed his eyes while looking at the board. He gently brushed

his hair off his face and continued writing. ‘I couldn’t even resist myself

when he was still far away from me. He is 30cm away from me now. What do I do?

He is irresistible.’ He held a pen with his long fingers and was writing

furiously as if he missed that class, that would be the end of the world. The

session was completed, and I was still staring at him. Looks like he didn’t

notice me. Or he didn’t want to?

“Wang li?” the teacher called.

There was no response. “Wang li?” he called again. He’s angry now. He came to

my desk and “Xiao Wang li!!?” he shouted.

I jumped to my feet and said,

“Present sir”. Everyone in the class laughed out loud. I was embarrassed and I

hung my head down. The teacher gave me a stern glare but cooled down. Afterall,

I am his favorite student.

“Wang li, come with me to my

office along with Jiang. Help me hand his uniform to him and take him to a tour

around the campus. He’s new here and you are his classmate. You should get to

know each other” he said, and we walked out of the classroom together. We

followed him to his office, and he handed some forms that needs to be filled by

a newly admitted student. “Help him in filling this and then take him to the

storage room to get him a uniform. You can walk around the campus until lunch

break” he said handing the storage room keys to me.

“But sir, we have another class

now” I said hesitantly.

“Your class is suspended for the

next two periods. We must clean the library and the ground now. So, I don’t

mind you skipping cleaning work for today. You are the class monitor. Just

inform this in your class and leave someone to supervise the work” he said. “I

feel like you are out of mood today. Just take a break this way” he whispered

to me.

Mr. Lin cares about me. I smiled

and nodded at him. I showed Jiang the way to follow me. We first went to the

class and informed them about the work and asked them to decide amongst

themselves for whom will be supervising the work. Then we left the class. We

walked through the corridor and went downstairs. We sat down on a bench beside

the garden, under the shade of a tree. I handed him the forms to fill, and he

took them from my hands, with care to not to touch my fingers. I was surprised

by seeing his “extra” care about touching me. What was he thinking about me? I was

disappointed. But I faked a smile. He quickly filled the forms and tossed the

sheets to me. He didn’t bother to look if I have caught or dropped the papers.

I took the papers and lead him to the storage room with the keys jingling in my

hand. The storage room was a bit far from the school’s main building where all

the classes and offices are. It is next to the vast playground usually not

visited by the students. There were even rumors spread about this old,

abandoned warehouse, I mean, the storage room, that it is haunted. The thought

made me laugh. ‘Bunch of idiots’ I said to myself and laughed quietly while

Jiang was staring at me. He was probably thinking that I am mad. I can say it

from his expression. ‘Does he really have an expression on his face?’ Yeah, he

didn’t have any expression to his face. We walked and walked and walked. No

talking. I wondered if he was real when he gave that eloquent speech in the

class. Finally, amid the awkward silence, we reached the storage room. I looked

at the building which was built earlier than the main building. Cracks were

there in every corner of the wall and even at the joints of the pillars to the

ceiling as if the building is going to collapse anytime soon. We both went to

the door and opened it with the keys. The creaking sound of the door echoed in

the old construction. It was dark inside as the curtains of the windows were

never opened. There was only little amount of light coming from the door. We

entered the building. Suddenly the door closed due to the blowing wind. I felt

a cold thing touching my back. I freaked out. I thought it was really a ghost

and prepared myself to knock it out with my martial arts. Wait! Can I touch

ghosts? Well, there are theories that we can’t. I stood there petrified. But I

can’t stand there forever. Gathering my courage, hoping that it’s just a stick

or something in the building, I looked back.

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