𝗺𝗼𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 彡 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧

14 | luster

CHAPTER 14
luster
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It's the day of the test.

You sigh as you bite your nails in nervousness. Chris is grading your last paper, the pen going over the phrases, words, and connections you made. It really comes down to this moment.

When he's done, he places the pen down on the table. His eyes meet yours, and you lower your fingers to let your half-eaten nails rest a little. The poor things are having a hard time with how nervous you're being now.

"And?" you ask, your voice shaking. "Did I do well? Will I pass the test?" you ask, trying to take a look at the paper, but Chan is holding it close and you can't see anything of it.

He lets out a sigh, and to you that's a sign you did bad. You will fail this test, won't you? It's going to go bad and you have to stay behind a year, even though you're excellent at everything else you do regarding your studies. You're on top of your class, always handing in the best work. But when it comes to English, you might be the worst student they have ever had.

"Um," he says, then turning the paper around. There's still a bunch of red marks, but it's not as much as before. "You got nineteen of forty right," he says, giving you the paper. "It's not as good as you did before, with your twenty-two right out of forty, but I believe in you. Don't worry, it's just a moment. You'll do great on the actual test, I'm sure."

"Oh no," you mumble, looking at the red lines. Maybe you blanked? But what if you have the same during your test? What if your mind will go blank once you're sitting there in two hours?

"I'll fail this test and stay behind a year," you mumble, your eyes watering at the thought. You really don't want to. You want to go on and get your degree. But with these marks, you'll have to stay behind and take another year of your studies. What will your mother think? She might think you're a failure. And if she does, what will your dad think? You're sure he watching you from above, will he be shaking his head at you? Will he think you failed?

"You'll do great," Chris assures you, smiling. "These were hard questions, and you still got half right! The test will be just fine, I believe you can do it."

He places his hand on your hand that's holding the paper, a soft smile around his lips and his eyes showing he means what he's saying. The words that your friends said to you race through your mind, and you widen your eyes slightly. No, it can't be. He doesn't like you. Not at all.

"You're just saying that because you want to skip English," you scoff. His hand leaves yours, and he shrugs. "Well, of course. That's why I'm doing all this, after all."

You scoff at your friends in your head. See? You were right. He doesn't like you, not one bit. He's doing all this just because he wants to skip his English classes. And you get it, you'd want to skip classes so bad too. It's only fair he helps you. It benefits him, why wouldn't he?

But on the other side, Chris is fighting the urge to tell you many other things. Of course he's not doing this for him. It might have started as something that he wanted because he could spend those two hours on writing, producing, and arranging songs for 3RACHA. But in the end, he saw how much you wanted to pass, and he started to help you because that's what you want. And not because it would benefit him, but rather so he could help you out. He wants to see you happy, and in order for you to be happy, you have to pass this test so you can continue your studies.

Only he can't say those things, because you're not into him. Not one bit. He knows how much you hate him, so to protect himself he'll just act like he doesn't care about you. Which he doesn't, of course. He has to remind himself of that every minute he spends with you.