Jealous girlfriend

The classes had come to a long rest as the clock struck one in the afternoon. Cynthia felt someone tapping her back. She tried to resist, her hands moving awkwardly to remove the one who was interrupting her nap.

Just as her hand came in contact with the other person, her mind reeled back to the events that took place in the morning. "Wait, someone's tapping me from behind, but now Tian is sitting behind me. Does that mean...?"

Her thoughts came to an abrupt stop just as she jerked her head up, turning her head back in the process with wide eyes.

Cynthia, feeling a bit self-conscious, was quite certain that her expression must have been comical, given the way Nia and Ryan burst out laughing upon looking at her. Nia had taken Tian's spot, and Ryan had positioned himself just beside her.

With a furrowed brow, Cynthia looked perplexed, and as if sensing her confusion, Nia let out a snort and gestured towards the classroom door. It was there that Tian paced back and forth while engaged in a phone call.

"There's your dream boy, sleepyhead," Nia playfully remarked, teasing Cynthia about her apparent distraction.

Cynthia gazed at him, as Nia rose and walked over to join her. "Come back to reality and join us in the cafeteria," Ryan said, taking Nia's hand and leading her out of the classroom.

The girl nodded, her eyes refusing to part with the brown-eyed boy as the couple exited the classroom.

Cynthia took a deep breath, feeling a growing curiosity about the person with whom he was speaking, given the smile on his face.

She stood up, swiftly gathered her things, and placed them in her bag. As she walked towards the door, her steps unconsciously slowed down a little as she tried to focus on the boy's voice.

Tian, noticing her approach while absorbed in her phone, quickly said goodbye to the person he was talking to, "Alright, I'll catch up with you later. Bye."

He kept his phone in his pocket and waited for Cynthia to approach. As she got closer, he greeted her with a smile, "Good morning, Cynthia."

The boy chuckled as soon as he saw the redness creeping up on the girl's face. She playfully glared at him and rolled her eyes as she walked out of the classroom with Tian hot on her tail.

"Have you eaten anything?" Cynthia asked, gazing up from the floor into his eyes. "The break started just five minutes back so that would be a no," Tian answered, his eyes breaking away from hers to look at the hallway.

Cynthia nodded, her eyes following his as she spoke, "Fair enough."

The cafeteria bustled with the usual crowd. Cynthia allowed Tian to join the line to grab lunch boxes first, while she went the other way to buy juice for herself.

After grabbing the juice, she made her way back to the line, and Tian, being a gentleman, let her join the line in between.

Cynthia stepped back, allowing him to grab his box first. Tian chuckled softly and went ahead to grab his food before leaving the line.

Cynthia was next and quickly grabbed her box before scanning the large space.

No sign of Tian. 'Where did he go?', she wondered.

She held back her sigh of disappointment when she saw Nia's hand motioning for her to join them. As she took a few steps forward, someone grabbed her wrist from the side.

Tian stared back at her, his other hand holding a water bottle as he pointed towards a two-seater table with a lunch box placed on it, "Would you like to sit here,..", he drawled and his voice dropped a bit before he continued, "..with me?"

 Five seconds later, the two-seater table was occupied with both of them sitting on either end, their lunch boxes placed in front of them as they started to dig in.

 Tian smiled, seeing how Cynthia ate while keeping her head low and occasionally glancing at others and him. "Do you like the food here?", He asked, picking up a piece of lettuce wrap and bringing it up to his lips.

 "It's manageable. Sometimes the food tastes wonderful but it can taste quite, uhh I don't know if I should say this, but it does taste awful sometimes.", Cynthia answered, looking up at him. He nodded and was about to say something, but his phone buzzed, indicating the arrival of a message.

Tian picked up his phone and promptly replied to the message before placing it back on the table. He looked up with an apologetic smile, but it faltered as soon as his phone started buzzing rapidly once again.

Tian sighed as Cynthia eyed his phone with a curious gaze before looking back at her food. "This girl is just so annoying sometimes.", she heard Tian whispering to himself as he typed away on his phone unaware of how the girl sitting in front of him stilled.

The wheels of Cynthia's mind turned, her mind swarming with thousands of possibilities to figure out who the girl could be. Nevertheless, she shook her head and resumed eating, and soon, Tian joined her after putting his phone on do not disturb mode.

"Sorry about that.", Tian muttered, his eyes looking into her intently. Cynthia shook her head with a small smile, "It's totally fine but I think you should finish your food first as there's not much time left till the break ends. I think you didn't realize how much time passed because you were engrossed with someone."

Cynthia cursed under her breath. 'Why are you speaking like a jealous girlfriend, idiot? Now, he will seriously think of me as a weirdo.' and sure enough, the slightly stoic expression on Tian's face didn't disappoint.

She tilted her head, thinking of a way to divert the conversation, "I mean I don't like wasting food and if you won't finish it soon enough, you might have to leave it here, yeah", she chuckled nervously, placing her full attention on the leftover food without waiting for his response.

Tian continued to look at her for a few more seconds, his expressions deep in thought and soon, the corner of his lips lifted, his eyes filling with mirth as he finished his food quietly.

Soon both of them stood up and discarded their boxes before they were back on the hallways, moving towards the class. 

Cynthia calmly sipped on her juice and Tian kept his eyes trained at the front while looking at Cynthia's quiet self in between.

"It was my little sister.", the comfortable silence between them broke as Tian spoke. Cynthia looked at him with a slightly stunned gaze, prompting Tian to speak further, "The one messaging me earlier. She just likes to bug me whenever her favorite character doesn't do what she thinks is right.", a fond smile graced his lips while talking about her.

Leaning a bit toward her, he continued, "And even though I don't admit it in front of her, I actually agree with her."

Cynthia nodded with a chuckle at his words, her memory reeling back to the time she saw his sister once from her window.

'Wait'

"But I didn't ask?", Cynthia questioned, breaking from the eye contact, because she knew that even though she didn't ask, she had wanted to. Her brows jutted slightly as he didn't answer her for a long time as she looked at him.

Tian smiled, looking at her, his hand raising to brush away the strands of hair that had fallen on his forehead because of bending his head forward, "I told you because I thought you wanted to know."

"I didn't.", Cynthia denied almost instantly, not wanting to dwell how attractive he looked while touching his hair in that matter.

Tian chuckled with a hum, "Hm. Then I guess, I was wrong.". He raised his arm, guiding her towards the classroom so that they could attend the remaining classes. He couldn't help but want the remaining classes to end soon. After all, she had agreed to walk back home with him later.