【Re:Freezing】 | Gray Fullbuster x OC

31. Just Keep Cool

After Gray dropped her home, she quickly went to brush her teeth and wash her face to just crash on her bed and press her face into her pillow.

She let out a muffled groan into it.

She loved Gray. She never thought she'd cross that line, but here she was getting stressed about it. Honestly, now that she was looking back and examining her feelings, it felt similar to when she used to like Lyon except that this one felt more mature for obvious reasons. It also felt stronger.

"I love Gray, huh?"

...

...

...

"And you're a pretty girl, so he might think the same!" she placed a curious hand on her cheek.

"Mira, please... you're killing me." the younger girl moaned in despair. "Why do you have to keep torturing me like this?"

"Now you're just being silly." Mirajane straightened up with a wave of her hand.

The black haired girl heaved out a sigh and crossed her legs underneath the counter. "I don't have any experience with love to understand if I have feelings for someone." Karissa casually said with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders with her hands.

...

...

...

She looked to the side, her cheek squished against the pillow, and frowned at her closet.

Damn. What didn't I realize I felt so strongly about him?!

She let out another groan.

―

The first week of November felt like a flash.

The morning after she realized her feelings for Gray, she took the easy route and decided to keep her feelings in check and act like everything was normal. Easy. She was good at hiding things anyway.

Like, what was she going to do? Confess to him? Out of the question.

It was better that way for both of them, she didn't want to risk making things awkward over something she couldn't control. Besides, she didn't even have any real experience when it came to love so she didn't know how to address her feelings and she certainly didn't want to ask for advice because it felt somehow embarrassing.

Just because she realized she had feelings for him didn't mean she was going to start avoiding him like the plague. That felt too childish and irrational. Besides, she very much enjoyed the rush when she was around him now that she was more aware of it, almost like a drug, it felt good.

However, even with the resolution to hide her feelings and not act upon them didn't mean it made it less easy to watch Juvia interact with Gray, flirting with him in front of her face. She'd often just drop by their table whenever they were talking together or just stare from afar which only served to annoy Karissa. Gray obviously noticed this since she'd often brood and look quite peeved.

To counter the sparks of jealousy in her heart, she chose to pretend like Juvia wasn't even there. Much like with the incident at the Tower of Heaven, she stopped looking at her and rarely spoke to her, not like she often spoke with her to begin with. She went back to ground zero.

Sometimes, she gets the irrational urge to just stuff Juvia's water body into a jar and just put it in the freezer whenever she would send weird aura towards her whenever she chatted with Gray.

She didn't have the right to be jealousy, he wasn't hers.

Currently, she was sipping her mango juice that Mirajane gave her, silently watching the fluid get sucked up into her straw. She was quiet and lost in thought. Even if she chose to not act on her feelings, it still plagues her mind.