"The challenges in managing information technology infrastructure..." Y/N mumbled the words on the textbook page. Her head was in her hand, a pencil tucked behind her ear and a pair of reading glasses in her hair. Her concentration made it seem like she'd had everything under control when in reality, she was struggling so hard.
The poor girl had been sitting in the library and studying for four hours now, yet she was still completely lost. The exam was coming close and Y/N hated to admit that she wasn't as smart as she thought she was. She might have her strengths, but Business Informatics wasn't one, and if she failed this course she would have to retake the exam next semester. So she'd rather die while trying to pass than spend a couple more months with that boring professor.
"Hey, is everything okay?"
Y/N fell back to reality when she heard that unfamiliar voice and looked up to find a pretty girl smiling at her. No one had ever come to her in public and start a conversation before so she was a bit taken aback when receiving the friendly smile from this beautiful stranger. The girl with exotic blue-dyed hair sat down on the other side of the library desk, facing a very confused Y/N.
"Ugh. Sorry, did I make too much noise? I had to read the words out in order to remember them," Y/N explained as she looked around to make sure she hadn't bothered anyone else, but that might not be the reason otherwise the blue-haired stranger wouldn't have come sit next to her.
She told Y/N her name was Mia, she had just come back from a gap year and Business Informatics was actually the first class she took of that semester. It was only then that Y/N remembered why she'd had a feeling that they'd met before. Mia was sitting right behind her in that class and was the one who knew the answer to every single question the professor had asked them.
"I just noticed that you'd been struggling with the revision," she told Y/N with a bright smile, showing her pearly white teeth. "Do you need any help? I can totally help you study for the exam. I mean...if you want."
"I do! I definitely want that!" Y/N exclaimed a bit too loud and got scolded by the librarian but she didn't care, she was too elated to care.
She didn't have any close friends in university, and even though she enjoyed the solitude from being the most introverted person she knew in this entire world, Y/N guessed it was necessary to have at least one friend you could turn to at times like this. So what could be better than her passing this exam and gaining a good friend like Mia? She'd just killed two birds with one stone!
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They began their study session right in the afternoon. At first, Y/N suggested going to Mia's place because she didn't want her new friend to meet her annoying flatmate. However, Mia said she lived at the dorm and had to share a room with a rock addict who blasted loud music 24/7, which left them both no choice but to go back to Y/N's flat. And poor Y/N could only hope that Harry wouldn't come back too soon.
"Don't worry, my flatmate is at a party," Y/N reassured the new girl as she noticed the way her friend was looking around the living room as if searching for somebody. "He'll be back very late...if at all."
"He?"
"Yeah. He. But we're not exactly friends," Y/N said, shaking her head as soon as she saw the look on Mia's face and decided that it was best not to confuse the poor girl. "I'll tell you about it some other time. Now we should get started."
"Oh okay," Mia agreed, shifting to get comfortable on the couch as she opened her textbook.
However, the girls had only been studying for an hour and a half when her flatmate came back unannounced. Y/N's head immediately shot to the door as she heard the sound of it unlocked and all of a sudden burst in a frantic Harry.
"Y/N, have you seen my phone?"
"Why are you asking me? It's your phone!"
Harry placed both hands on his hips and blew up his cheeks, yet the frown he was wearing soon disappeared once he noticed the pretty girl sitting on the couch. His intense stare turned Mia into stone, taking her a second or two to calm down and smile back at him. Y/N shifted her eyes between them both and she swore she'd never felt so redundant before. It wasn't surprising actually. Her attractive flatmate meeting her equally attractive new friend, she'd already seen this coming.
"Aren't you gonna introduce me to your friend?" Harry asked, pointing at Mia, and Y/N swore she wanted nothing more than to slap that smirk off his face. She rose from the couch and couldn't seem less thrilled as she introduced the two of them to each other, and just like that left the room, telling Harry to wait.
"Did Y/N say something bad about me, Mia?" She heard him say to her new friend, but before the new girl could answer that question, she reappeared from the kitchen and marched straight towards him to shove the phone into his hand.
"As if I would say anything about you at all." She rolled her eyes, ignoring the elation on his face when he asked her how she'd found his phone.
"That's how things go in this flat," Y/N told her friend who giggled in response but couldn't take her eyes off the attractive guy right there. If Harry stayed for any longer, Mia would probably lose all of her senses and then no one could help Y/N study for the exam anymore. She couldn't allow it.
"Please just go now."
"Well, I'll miss you too, Y/N."
Y/N rolled her eyes at his sarcasm as she returned to her previous spot on the sofa without saying anything else to him. She knew it wasn't who he was, but sometimes she did wish he meant the words he said to her.
Harry walked out quickly, seemingly in a rush, but didn't forget to send Mia a wink as he reached the front door. Once he was gone and the door was closed again, the new girl released a heavy sigh as if she'd been holding her breath the entire time Harry had been there.
She turned to Y/N, eyes widened, mouth agape. "Your flatmate is so hot. What the hell?"
"Yeah. I mean...maybe."
Y/N looked back at the front door and quickly shook off the thought forming in her head. She told Mia that they should go back to studying because it was getting late. However, it was she who couldn't pay attention this time. All that she could think about now was whether Harry also felt the same way about Mia or not.
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The next following days, Mia came over very often. Y/N didn't have to set a date, Mia always took the initiative. Y/N must admit that was fun to hang out with Mia because they had so much in common, and Mia had helped her a lot with the exam preparation. But after a week, she began to feel like the girl only came over so she could see Harry.
He was rarely in the flat, but whenever he was, Mia always got distracted. She would make excuses to go use the bathroom or to the kitchen just so she could flirt with him. Y/N knew she couldn't get mad at Harry because being a flirt was his nature, and she didn't even have a right to react that way since she wasn't his girlfriend. But Mia was supposed to be her friend, and now Y/N felt like she was being used.
"Where's Mia?" It was the first thing that Harry asked her as soon as he entered the living room. Y/N was lying on the sofa with a book in her hands and she didn't even flinch once nor turn around when she heard him come in.
"She just left." Her short answer made Harry amused quite a bit.
"Ooh, little Y/N is grumpy today, eh?"
"I'm not. What are you talking about?" She furrowed her eyebrows and slammed the book down on the coffee table by her side. The reaction made Harry chuckle as he came to sit down next to her.
"Is there something you're not telling me?"
"Nothing." She replied with her arms crossed, trying not to make eye contact with him. Harry, on the other hand, was persistent. He leaned forward so as to come face to face with his grumpy flatmate who pushed him away, telling him how annoying he was. But what annoyed her was actually entertaining to him.
"Liar! You're angry because I brought up Mia."
"Why would I be angry about Mia?"
"Because you're jealous."
Y/N's eyes grew wide. She would've just gone straight ahead and denied it, if he hadn't just spoken the truth.
"I...I just had a bad day, that's all. It has nothing to do with you or Mia!"
"So you're fine with me fucking her then."
Those words worked like a charm as they were all it took for Y/N to turn to him and look into his eyes at last. She was absolutely mad and he couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"You stay away from my friend."
"She gave me her phone number, Y/N. She's the one who's been all over me."
Y/N knew she had no right to be so upset about this. Harry brought girls into their flat all the time and she'd even walked in on him having sex on the couch, twice; but she'd always been fine with it, so there was no reason for her to be mad now. She knew it wasn't just because Mia was her friend. Y/N didn't personally know any of the girls Harry'd hooked up with, so she assumed they were all like him. But Mia was different, she had so much in common with Y/N. And it was annoying to think Harry could still be interested in a girl who was so much like her, but not her.
"Do you-" Y/N lowered her voice and she was blushing so hard right now "-do you want to have sex with her?"
Harry was actually taken aback by that question. He didn't expect this reaction from his flatmate, not at all. His first intention was to annoy her a bit, but now she looked genuinely sad, it made him feel guilty.
"No. I was just messing with you." He chuckled nervously and for that Y/N smacked him right on the arm.
"Ouch! What was that for?!"
"For wasting my time. Just leave already. I need to study."
The girl reached out for her laptop and brought it to her lap as she felt Harry stand up from the couch. She could only imagine that smug look on his face now that he'd won. But since when has this become a competition to see who cares less than the other?
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Two days before the exam, Y/N was at her utter worst. It was almost three in the morning now and Harry still couldn't sleep because of his flatmate's voice in the living room as she was reading something aloud. Even though he'd tried to squeeze his eyes shut and start counting sheep in his head, he couldn't get himself to drift off, so he ended up leaving his bed to see what she was up to.
"Do you know what time it is?" He poked his head out of the door, one hand covering his squinty eyes so as to adjust to the bright lights in the living room.
"Sorry. I'll go to bed once I've finished studying," with that one reply Harry could make out the exhaustion in the sound of her voice. He didn't even need to notice her tangled hair and the way she was trying to keep her eyes opened and her reading glasses from sliding down the bridge of her nose while she was reading the slides on her laptop screen with hooded red eyes. She'd never looked this bad since the day she got sick and that couldn't be a good thing.
Exhaling a sigh, Harry marched towards the couch and flopped down by her side.
"Why are you struggling so much I thought Mia was helping you?" he asked, staring at her screen. She was working on some coding but she couldn't get it to run and she had no idea what she'd got wrong.
"She bailed on me at the last minute but never mind. I'll figure this out on my own. Jesus, why aren't this working?!"
"Woman, calm down!" Harry laughed and yanked the laptop away from Y/N when she started slamming on the keyboard like a crazy woman. Calmly he straightened his back and edited the few errors she'd made. Once finished, he handed the laptop back to her and this time the code ran perfectly.
Y/N looked at him in awe. Her eyes nearly popped out of their own sockets as she asked him how he knew all that considering him never showing up at any of the lectures.
Harry replied her with a smirk and a proud shrug as he said, "I'm actually very good at this subject. That's why you never see me studying."
"Wait, what? Why didn't you tell me? I would've got rid of Mia and asked for your help!"
"Because you never asked!" He laughed at the look on her face. "And I don't know. You were so thrilled about finding a new friend. I didn't want to ruin it for you."
"That's very sweet Harry." Y/N couldn't stop beaming at her flatmate, and just like that he instantly forgot it was now 3 AM and he was supposed to go back to bed.
"Now why don't you start again?" He suggested, pointing to the textbook. "Try this. If you don't understand anything, just ask."
For a short-lived moment, Y/N thought her heart might've skipped a beat for him.
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Mia hadn't answered Y/N's phone calls and texts in two days. She didn't come over or attend the lectures anymore and Y/N was very worried, she'd even assumed something bad had happened to her friend. So the next day when she saw the girl on campus, she just had to ask her why she'd suddenly disappeared.
"Stop pretending, Miss Sunshine. I know all about it."
That wasn't what Y/N had expected at all. She dropped her jaw when receiving those harsh words, eyes squinting at the girl who was supposed to be her 'good friend'.
"I don't know what y-"
"You told Harry to stay away from me, right?"
"No! I mean, yes, but I didn't mean it like that! Did Harry tell you so?"
"He told me he couldn't go out with me, quote, 'because you're her friend'. You must have said something to him!"
"I-I'm sorry." Y/N didn't know why she was apologizing. She could tell Harry whatever she wanted but it was he who made his own decisions. He probably said no because he wasn't interested. It wasn't even Y/N's fault.
"You're intimidated by me. You're in love with Harry and just want him for yourself."
"I think you're a bit overreacting now, Mia," Y/N scoffed, but there was no point trying to explain to someone who obviously didn't want to understand.
"You know what, Y/N?" The blue-haired girl took a step forward and Y/N instantly took one back. "The only reason I even offered you my help was because you're Harry's flatmate. The only way for me to get close to Harry was through you. I never liked you."
"Maybe Harry said no to the right person after all," Y/N responded calmly. She might be sweet and tolerant, but she wasn't bulliable. She would stand up for herself when she was pushed to the limits.
"Can't say I'm not impressed. Sweet Y/N is talking back," Mia said between giggles. And the next thing she said left Y/N thinking for the rest of the day."Guys like Harry don't want a girl like you, Virgin Mary. The sooner you know that the better."
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"Y/N!"
"Huh? What?" The girl blinked fast to get back to reality and the first thing she saw was her flatmate raising an eyebrow at her as he asked her if she was okay.
"What were you thinking about?"
"N-nothing," she lied, faking a grin.
"I checked your multiple choice exercise. You got a few wrongs but it's okay," he said, handing her back the textbook. "Told ya you got this!"
Honestly, Y/N didn't know how to react. She was just...speechless. That was the first time he'd ever looked so proud of her and the fact that he was helping her like this instead of going back to sleep warmed her heart beyond doubt. In spite of all that, Mia's words from that afternoon kept running round and round in her head. She knew it was foolish to be this upset about the words someone said to hurt you, but it wasn't Mia who had initiated that thought in her head, it'd always been there, it wasn't until then that she started thinking a lot more about it.
Maybe it was true. Someone like Harry wouldn't want girls like her.
"Harry, can I ask you a question?"
"Yeah, sure. What is it?" Her flatmate knitted his hands together and put them on his knee, sitting with one leg on top of the other. He waited patiently for her to speak, but she didn't know where to begin.
"Well...I just want to know..." Her eyes immediately shifted to the floor, clearly struggling to find the right words.
"Hurry up, Y/N. It's already 5:43 in the morning!"
"I just want to know if you can be my new tutor," she blurted without thinking twice. The words she wanted to say to him had been entirely different in her head, but maybe she wasn't ready to say them just yet.
Harry looked at her funny as if he didn't understand why she was struggling so hard just to ask him for that little favor. Smiling, he said, "fine. But you'll owe me this time."
"I'll do anything." She nodded fast. "But only if I pass! If I fail, you'll owe me a favor!"
It was almost easy for him to make a decision. Without a second thought, he grabbed her hand and gave it a firm shake, giving her a cheeky smirk as he declared it was a deal. The smug look on his face let her know that he would benefit more from this agreement if she passed than she would if she failed. But since he was her only hope left, Y/N didn't really have a choice.
Eventually, she passed the exam, with flying colors.