✔ | At Least We Have Forever

Chapter 36 - Smile, Once Again

Kurama's eyes widened at the sight of the only student who was there in that classroom that greeted him. It was indeed surprising to see Riya in there. When he looked around, he only realized then that the class used Riya's Biology subject crisis as an excuse to have her close to him again.

Even before he and Riya became a couple, he already knew that her waterloo was Biology, that's why he was there to do the tutoring. He was her Biology tutor back then. But even though that subject was her waterloo, she had always shown interest in plants, most especially different species of flowers.

"You're... the only one here?" Kurama finally managed to say after recovering from surprise.

Riya nodded before putting down her pen and placing it on top of the papers she was writing on earlier.

"I told Ayako-chan to help me find someone who's excellent in Biology to tutor me. I never realized that you're the person she would ask to do it. I'm sorry for the trouble," she said apologetically before laughing softly, catching Kurama off-guard but he didn't show it.

He then decided to slide the door close behind him before going towards his seat just in front of Riya and removed the space from the space between her table and his table to place it aside. He lifted his table and placed it adjacently to Riya's table before taking the chair he placed aside earlier and putting it opposite to the girl. After that, he sat on his seat.

The girl just watched him do all that the whole time and she couldn't help but smile faintly. Thankfully, Kurama didn't notice that.

"So... when will we start?" Kurama asked slightly hesitating but managed to hide it from Riya.

"Umm... will it be okay if we start after I had some lunch? You see... I haven't eaten yet," Riya said sheepishly as she scratched her temple. "If you want, you could join me since I guess you haven't had lunch yet, as well."

"You could tell?" he asked.

She nodded before putting the papers underneath her desk and taking out her lunch from her bag.

"You've been like that for a week now. Of course, I could tell," Riya answered which surprised him.

He never realized that Riya was observing him for a week now. But how come he didn't notice that? His thoughts were disrupted when the girl held out a small plastic bag with slices of pound cake in it to him. He looked at it for some seconds before he faced her.

"It's a pound cake I made last night and I thought I could share some with you," she said.

Reluctantly, Kurama took it from her and Riya took out another from her bag. He was surprised when he saw her put chopsticks on his side of the desk. But before he could even ask what was it for, it would appear that she read his mind and answered.

"Share with me?" she asked with a smile as she opened her lunch box to reveal delicious food that he knew Riya made herself.

And though it came out surprising, Kurama decided to just go with the flow and take this chance to start over again. He nodded as an answer that earned him a sweet and happy smile from Riya. So the girl put the lunch box in the middle of the two joined tables and both of them started eating.

It was understandable, though, that an uncomfortable silence surrounded them for a short while. Kurama would even glance hesitantly at the unmindful girl. But soon after, he was starting to feel comfortable talking to Riya even though she was the one who was starting topics to talk about.

It was like she knew he was still a little uneasy being near her. But at the very least, he was thankful that Riya was doing something to slowly remove the barrier that had been put up between them ever since he learned the sacrifice she had done for his sake.