10: Is it a fault to be intimidating?

[Raia's POV]

The class ended so fast after that announcement. As usual, we need to talk to our partner about what we need to do. I slowly looked at the guy at the back. He's still as intimidating as ever.

Geez, how could I ever talk to him like that?

I sighed, then continued arranging my things inside my bag. I was about to stand up when I heard Mr. Rayven, who's now standing beside me.

"Mr. Raia,"

"Y-yes, sir," I said.

I was actually shocked at first and didn't know how to reply. I'm not a social type of person. I could not even make friends since middle school, and it's pretty obvious that I had never talked to a teacher in this way. That's why it's awkward for me to talk to him personally.

"Are you okay? I hope you're okay after what happened last time," he said to me while smiling.

Last night? Did something happen last night?

I looked at him confused. But just like him, he seems confused too.

"Ahh, I think you forgot... I saw you yesterday at the library, right? What I mean is, if you had done what you needed to do last night, "he clears out my confusion by saying that. 

When I remembered it, my mouth formed a big "oh," though I can't clearly remember what happened after that.

He smiled before he walked away again. Is it just me... or was something strange about how his smile? 

Oh well... doesn't matter. I just shrugged those thoughts off my mind and started packing my things. I was about to go in Osamu's direction, but I saw him standing in front of me.

"You're Raia, aren't you?" he asked me, using his intimidating voice.

"Ah...ye-yeah..." I answered. I couldn't look at him directly until he smiled at me.

"Great, how about 3 in the afternoon later... how's that?" He asked me. Maybe he meant to say when we're going to talk about it.

"Y-yes, sure..." I had no choice but to answer him like that. Besides, I don't think I can do it right away by myself if I don't agree.

He just smiled at me and then walked away again while I was looking at his back, slowly disappearing from my sight.

Geez... I didn't expect him to talk to me first. I went to the cafeteria first before going back to my room. I also did some chores first, and since the university has its own laundry room, I went there after to wash my clothes. It took me half an hour to finish, then I went back again to my room.

At exactly 3 a.m. I was already in front of the library, waiting for Osamu.

"There you are," I heard someone speak behind me. I was startled by Osamu, who was now looking at me.

"H-hey..." I called him. I didn't know he was already behind me! I didn't even notice his presence at all.

We walked together to the last row of tables. There are some students inside the library, but most of them are just chatting. Well, I see there is no librarian at the front desk. Maybe that's fine.

I looked at Osamu and just realized how tall he was. I think he's like 6 feet, much taller than I thought. He has this muscular body which makes his shirt look like it was made just for him.

"Are you okay?" I heard him ask while looking at me.

"Ah...yeah, yeah. I'm good, "I answered, and continued walking. Oh shit. He must have noticed that I was looking at him.

Please don't think I'm interested in you. For Pete's sake, I just can't help myself but feel envious of his body.

Anyway, we start doing our task. It's not that simple, to be honest. Mr. Rayven told us that the questions are not that hard but also not that simple. It's kind of tricky, so I don't know where to start. I just expect that it has something to do with our psychology, which has been our lesson since last Friday.

I'm also thinking if it's about critical thinking. You know, some kind of logic or something like that. But knowing it's an activity with a partner, I'm thinking that it has something to do with tricks. I may be ashamed of myself if I admit that I used to play BloodyCookie with my cousins before and I usually lost against them.

Well, I hope I won't this time. Anyway, after an hour of studying and talking about the possible questions, I could still feel the awkwardness between me and Osamu.

He's an introverted type...just like me. But he's very timid. He rarely initiates the conversation and only answers my questions once. Well, it fits him anyway.

"Thanks for the day, Raia. Good luck to us tomorrow," he said while packing his things in his bag.

"Ah yeah, you too," I replied. Then someone from the same class walked beside Osamu when I accidentally heard them talking.

"Damn man, shut up," the first guy exclaimed while secretly looking at Osamu.

"Haha, why? It's just boring, man. Just look at him. He's so timid and boring," the other guy said quietly, trying not to be heard. Oh well, he might be trying hard, but I could easily hear it.

I felt sorry for Osamu, so I looked at him. But it looks like he heard it too but decided to ignore it.

"Ahh...Osamu-" I tried to call him, but he just walked away after putting the bag on his shoulders.

I think he's not really okay with that, doesn't he?

I also packed my things in my bag after that and went to the cafeteria. I even saw June and co. chilling there, maybe because they had just finished eating their dinner. I simply ordered my preferred meal and paid for it.

While walking towards the dormitory, eating my burger, I heard a rustling sound at the back of the building. My eyebrows narrowed while I was slightly looking at it. The back of the building is so dark that I couldn't even see anything from there.

It seems creepy, I might say, but there's a part of me that wants me to look at it because of my curiosity. Seconds later, I give in.

I put my burger and other food inside my bag and went directly in the direction where I could hear the rustling sound.

What would it be?

I thought it would be like some kind of monster that we usually see in horror movies, but to my shock, it was just Osamu.

"Osamu?" I called him.

He looked at me, shocked, while his mouth was full. I looked at him, suspicious. What would someone do from here?

"What are you doing here?" I asked him and walked closer to him.

He first continued eating the food in his mouth before he faced me.

"I'm eating my dinner," he said while looking down.

"Dinner? But why would you eat your dinner here? " I asked him. But instead of answering, he just looked at me. I could read those stares.

I sighed and walked toward him before I sat beside him.

I suggested, "Let me accompany you," then took out my food in my bag. He seemed shocked by that, but I ignored him.

After a while, he started talking to me. At first, I wasn't surprised, knowing that he was trying to hide from everyone. I rarely see him with someone, despite his title as a prodigy.

Honestly, when I heard that he was someone like a prodigy, I expected that he would be popular, especially with girls, but no. In fact, everyone avoids him. Well, I won't blame them; he's too intimidating after all.

But he wasn't proud of being intimidating. Honestly, he wanted to be friends with everyone and wanted to be more approachable, but his intimidating aura kept everyone away from him.

I don't know how to console him after hearing that. After all, it's not his fault that he has such a commanding presence.

I sighed when we finished eating. I didn't expect that we could talk about random things. Though I'm not in the place to talk about being friendly, but at least he could avoid being too much depressed. 

We started walking towards the room together while simply chatting and joking around. Honestly, he's approachable, but it's kind of weird to hear those childish jokes from someone who has a more muscular body than mine. Nah, just joking. Haha

Anyway, it only took a few minutes before we arrived on the third floor. My room is actually beside his, so it's good to know that.

"Thank you, Raia. Really, I appreciate you talking to me, " Osamu sincerely gives his thanks to me. I smiled and patted his back a bit.

"Come on, no worries. We're not girls to make it a big deal," I told him. He chuckled, then opened his door and went inside. After that, I also do the same and lay down on my bed.

Sheesh, why do I feel like it's been a while since I began to have this light-free day? I feel that I got stressed and anxious for a few days for some reason, but I don't really remember why.

Strange, right? Anyway, I got to go to bed, so I ignored those thoughts and slept.