That's My Spotlight | ✔

xix. smitten

Then, everything at their table was silent. The lunchroom itself was still significantly loud as hundreds of voices competed to become the loudest, but still, it was silent at Jayden and Alexander's quaint table.

The Korean boy frowned as he thought everything over. He had to admit — Inez was pretty. Everything about her was, especially her angelic singing voice. Frankly, that's what he thought all these years. Maybe that's what stirred competition and rivalry between them. But now, that was far from what he was thinking of. Inez Archer was gorgeous in all ways possible.

But all these years, he let his pride get in the way of thinking about it.

Love has always been a confusing concept. The definition alone could cause one to think so many things. What was love? And how would Alexander know if he was slowly falling into it?

"Hey," Inez Archer exclaimed to Alexander Choi as they filed out the doors of the choir room. Wrapped around her arms were the boy's jacket. "Here's your jacket."

The last period of the day was over and done with, and finally, it was time to go home. Alexander spent the remainder of his day contemplating life decisions but walking to the student parking lot was a good distraction, especially as Inez walked with him somehow. When she handed him his jacket, he couldn't help but smell the light, yet heavenly fruity aroma of both laundry detergent and fabric softener all combined into one. The relieving fragrance stung his nose, but it smelled really good — in better condition than his jacket was before he loaned it out to Inez.

"This smells good," the boy remarked with acknowledgement. "Really, really good."

"I thought I'd put it in the wash before giving it back to you," Inez mused before the pair rounded a corner.

Alexander began to chuckle. "You didn't have to do that, Nezzie."

"Don't call me Nezzie," the girl retorted as her head spun to directly face him. "And I thought it would be nice to wash it for you, so I did. Case closed."

"You win then, since that's what you want," the Korean boy smiled before he raked a hand through his brunette hair.

"But jokes aside, thanks for everything. You don't know how much you saved me yesterday," Inez sighed in relief. "Which is why I hugged you yesterday. I was just so . . . relieved, you know?"

"It's no problem at all," Alexander nodded his head curtly. That's when the girl's words began to sink into his brain.

Inez was relieved. That's why she hugged him. Maybe he over-scrutinized the whole situation earlier, but it all began to make sense. The path ahead of him began to appear much clearer to him.

The girl, however, was quick to reverse the conversation. "Do you remember the time where we went to the hospital a few weeks ago?"

"Yeah, I remember," the brunette-haired boy nodded as the memory flashed in his head. "What about it?"