"Hey! Your name is Kao right?" Ohm smiled and jumped into the seat next to Kao, the girl he had been crushing since the day he saw her in the assembly.
The university stud, Ohm was famous and confident as there wasn't a single person who would reject him for anything.
Though Ohm being decent as one can say, have been in only one relationship before which ended on a mutual note with his now good friend Aom.
Since then Ohm has been casual dating here and there so as to not reject anyone brutally but no one... Not even a single girl could match the charm that Kao held on to him. He used to observe the lean tall girl with cute smile at the science book like it contained magic while the whole class used to sigh in frustration.
Ohm's whole gang, as he calls his group of friends, knows about his hyped-up crush on his classmate since the time she joined the university mid semester. It's been two months and Ohm thought it was high time to greet her at the least.
Normally any girl in the class would have come to talk to him using one or the other excuse. Ohm kept waiting for Kao too while she did not spare him even a second glance. This for sure was intriguing for him.
"Ummm Hi?" Kao greeted or rather questioned Ohm's existence in her space.
"I saw this seat empty. Hope you don't mind." Ohm tried to play his charm. It was difficult since he never needed to try before as such.
"Ummm..."
"My name is Ohm by the way. We are from same class but never got a chance to talk." Ohm brushed off what she was going to say feeling the rejection coming in already.
"Yeah, I know you." She said with an amused smile much to Ohm's surprise.
"You... Know me?" he asked puzzled.
"Who doesn't?" she shrugged nonchalant but it made Ohm feel somewhat relaxed. So it is not like she has not noticed him already.
"Oh ok. That's nice... I guess." Ohm awkwardly answered unable to decide how to answer in response to the girl who was now smiling at him all of a sudden.
"You seem to like this subject a lot." Ohm said after a few moments of awkward silence, trying to make small talk.
Kao bit her lip scrunching her brows at Ohm once before replying. "Are you really here to ask about this?"
Ohm was taken aback. He gaped at Kao unable to answer.
Kao chuckled once showing her straight white teeth prominently. Ohm couldn't help but stare astounded.
"I am not available to date. I am already in a relationship." She said still smiling.
"Oh... Ha!" Ohm chuckled now flustered and a bit embarrassed. "It was that obvious huh?" he now asked smiling wide.
"Kind of... yes."
"Well my bad luck then. How about we turn this awkwardness to a good way to introduce each other? We can be friends at the least." Ohm offered extending his hand.
Kao smiled at him shaking his hand. "Sure, I don't see why not."
Ohm and Kao exchanged one last smile before the professor came in and begun the lecture. They both attended the entire lecture peacefully.
Ohm was feeling weird for being rejected before even trying. But at the same time he felt relieved to not have gone too far and then made a fool of himself. But he was not feeling relaxed at all. All the butterflies that he experienced in the pit of his stomach for last two months somehow subsided instantly and that was something Ohm couldn't understand.
They exchanged a few glances in between where in Kao passed a smile to him to which he responded. But that was all there was to it.
After the lecture ended Kao and Ohm walked out into the lobby together. They talked a bit about the class and other subjects till they reached the staircase where Kao turned to look at the other side of the corridor and grinned widely passing a wave along with.
That's when Ohm turned and saw him. The guy that Kao was always with. He stood there in his glasses holding a book in one hand and hanging his bag in the other. He was wearing a white lose t-shirt and a plain denim. No matter how wide Kao's grin was, he just glanced at her once and then looked at Ohm blankly before tugging his book into his bag without an ounce of change in his expression.
"Hi." Ohm greeted him.
"Oh let me introduce. Ohm this is Nanon, my best friend. And Nanon this is Ohm. He is from our class only. You must know him. He is the rugby team captain?"
"No, I don't know him." He said and adjusted his bag on both his shoulders. "Shall we go?" He turned to ask Kao now completely ignoring Ohm.
"Oh yeah, we are getting late for our study sessions, Ohm. I'll see you around?" Kao turned to Ohm who was still shocked by the way the guy who was unknown to almost everyone in the class apart from the fact that he was 'the-guy-who-is-always-with-Kao' so brutally put a huge question mark on Ohm's existence.
"Yeah... See you." Ohm said now looking at Nanon who was not even bothered looking back while walking away.
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"Do you really not know him? He is Mr. popular of our university." Kao said while walking towards the library.
"No I don't." Nanon replied and kept walking.
"You know what? He came to talk to me today on his own."
"Why do you care?" Nanon asked now turning to look at Kao and study her expressions.
"I don't care. I am just telling you." She shrugged.
"I don't need to know."
"You are behaving as if you dislike him for some reason."
"No I don't know him enough to feel anything like that."
"Who am I talking to? You don't know anyone around here. Do you?"
"I know you and professors. Anyway, did you forget to bring my notes back again?" Nanon smacked her head lightly.
"Shit sorry. I literally had set a reminder and I still forgot." She replied guiltily.
"It's ok. Just bring it tomorrow." Nanon said and walked with her to their usual study table in the library where like a daily routine, the two best friends studied till late and then left for their respective homes before dinner time.
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"Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god!!!" Kao exclaimed and jumped once after reaching her room. She looked at her flustered face in the mirror that she had contained for a long time in front of her best friend.
She couldn't believe that Ohm Pawat could actually come and talk to her. She was always ignoring him. Because she was always nervous around him. And today when she got the opportunity to see him up close, she was almost on the verge of nervous breakdown. To have an upper hand, she decided to play the 'lets-just-be-friends' card.
She never told anyone about her liking for the college stud. Not even to her best friend. Because she was scared to be heartbroken. But now she had all the reason to be happy.
She doesn't want Ohm to rebuke her like all the girls in the class who are head over heels for him. Even if that's the same case with Kao, she was still making sure not to show it. She kept looking at her image in the mirror nervously thinking what to do to make this connection stronger with him.
She definitely cannot ask Nanon as he is least interested in such topics. She is clueless and nervous all of a sudden.
Her phone chimed and she opened to see a notification that brought back the smile on her lips.
OPawat requested to follow you.
Kao danced across her room once before accepting the request. She clicked on to view his profile and was shocked to see the number of followers the guy had. But nevertheless she felt proud that Ohm sent request to her and clicked on follow-back button.
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Ohm was having his usual chill time hanging at Chimon's place with his other friends including Aom. They were all playing games and having beer while Ohm was in a corner looking at his phone with amused expressions.
Aom noticed and walked to him slowly without making much noise and hovered from behind to look into his mobile screen.
"Ohhoooo... So you finally got to be her friend?" She asked and Ohm almost jumped in his seat resulting his phone falling on the floor.
"Aom!" Ohm shook his head while picking up his phone. Aom sat beside him and patted his shoulder.
"I am so proud of you." She said and smiled.
"It's not what it looks like. We are literally just friends." Ohm said and kept looking into her profile.
"For now... Right?"
"I don't know if there is any future to this." Ohm shrugged.
"You are not the kind of a person who will go and follow someone and then dwell on their profile for this long... Wait a minute, Pawat." she snatched the phone from his hand and looked into the screen. "Why are you scrolling through her friend list?"
"Well... I am looking for a certain someone..." Ohm replied when his eyes finally fell on a photo of a guy in glasses, smiling wide showing his dimples that Ohm has never ever noticed. In that instant Ohm had this sudden urge to click on it and see more of his pictures but the warmth of Aom's hand on his shoulder made him realize that Aom is still staring into the phone with him so he instead scrolled back to Kao's profile.
This was the first time when he felt this weird thing. The guy named Nanon was whom he met for the first time. But there was this need to know more about him. To ask him why he never noticed him before. To know why he never talks to anyone. And a lot many other questions that kept popping in Ohm's head.
Why was he thinking all this? He did not know. He just knew that he did. And it was bizarre.