An Innocent Crush ✓

16 | The heart emoji.

Kiara had been staring at her book for the last hour, but nothing seemed to sink in. A yawn escaped her, leading to an inadvertent bang of her head on the study table, causing her to hiss in pain as the impact was harder than expected.

"I'm stupid, I'm dumb, I... I just can't seem to understand anything! Why is this so hard for me?" Kiara sighed in frustration, rubbing her head as she closed her book.

Slumping back in her chair, she gazed at her book with a mixture of frustration and exhaustion. "Ugh, I'm seriously clueless. Why does this have to be so extra hard?" she muttered to herself, running her fingers through her hair in exasperation.

Letting out a sigh that sounded more like a deflating balloon, she closed her book, deciding a break was absolutely necessary.

Taking a deep breath, she reached for her phone and opened Instagram. Scrolling through cat videos and memes, she felt a little more relaxed. "Aah, much better. If only studying were this entertaining," she mused with a wistful smile.

After a moment's thought and a glance at the time—11:25 pm—she decided to ask Dhruv for help. "Hey, Mr. Akkdu! Please save your damsel in academic distress," she typed, adding a wink emoji for good measure.

Waiting for his response, Kiara absentmindedly twirled her hair, already feeling a bit better just by initiating the conversation. She glanced at her notes, then back at her phone, then back at her notes again.

Just as she started to fidget nervously, her phone buzzed, and she eagerly unlocked it to see Dhruv's reply.

"Why are you still awake? What kind of help?" he responded.

Kiara grinned at his response and quickly typed, "I can't understand something… please, help me out ;)”

Within seconds, Dhruv replied, "Aish! Let me sleep, Kiara. I'll explain tomorrow…"

"No, no! You'll take the test tomorrow..."

"Okay, fine, what don't you understand?"

Kiara quickly snapped a photo of the most confusing part of her notes and sent it along with a message.

"This one…"

Dhruv's reply came swiftly, “it's so easy! Don't worry, this won't come in the test… let me sleep now.”

Kiara's helplessness turned into frustration as she received Dhruv's response. "Ugh, why is he being so annoyingly chill about this?" she muttered to herself.

“I’ll block you, if you don't help me!” She typed the reply with a smirk on her face. Kiara sat there, her smirk slowly fading as she awaited Dhruv's response to her playful threat. Her phone remained ominously silent for a few moments, and just as she was about to worry, the message bubble popped up.

"Block me, as if I care," Dhruv replied, adding a wink emoji at the end.

Kiara rolled her eyes at his response. After a brief pause, she decided to try a different tactic, she texted back, "Come on, sir! Be the hero I need right now. Pretty please?" Adding a cute puppy-eyed emoji, she hoped her attempt at persuasion would work this time.

Minutes ticked by, and Kiara drummed her fingers on the table impatiently. Just when she was about to give up hope, her phone screen lit up with a new message from Dhruv.

"Okay, okay! This emoji got me. I'll explain quickly," Dhruv conceded.

Dhruv's explanations were surprisingly clear and concise, and soon, Kiara found herself understanding the topic better than she had before.

"Aah, why couldn't the textbook say it like you do? You're a lifesaver!" she praised.

“Now let me sleep and you too, go to bed!”

“K… k”

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight!”

Suddenly a thought crossed her mind. With a mischievous grin, she sent Dhruv a meme of a superhero, captioned, "You, tonight!" With a heart emoji and waited for his response, eager to see his reaction.

“Sleep! I'm blocking you!”

After sending the reply Dhruv lay on his stomach, fixated on the emoji Kiara had sent him. His legs were up in the air, and he bit his lower lip, attempting to stifle a smile. However, his lips betrayed him, forming a wide grin that revealed his dimples.

He squirmed around, the sight of that emoji had unleashed a wave of joy within him. With a chuckle escaping his lips, he hugged his pillow tightly, squeezing it in his embrace. His laughter echoed through the room as he buried his face deeper into the soft pile of pillows.

“She's cute… Kiara is cute.” he muttered under his breath with a small smile on his handsome face.

Kiara furrowed her brows upon seeing his reply, "Grumpy, I was just praising him, why the need to block? He didn't really block, right?" She glanced at her phone again before setting it back on her study table.

"If he wants to block me, he can block away for all I care," she pouted, then resumed revising the topic once again.

Kiara was able to understand the topic and eventually finished her study session. As she finally climbed into bed, she couldn't help but smile at the memory of him holding her wrist today. Kiara snuggled into her blankets, still thinking about Dhruv.

"He's like one of those grumpy teddy bears you can't help but love, right? But cute? Nah, that doesn't fit his vibe," she mused to herself, trying to rationalize her thoughts.

"But then again, he did help me out, even though he was half-asleep. Maybe he has a 'secretly nice' side for me, lol I'm so delulu," she whispered.

With a chuckle, she buried her face in her pillow, trying to stifle her laughter. Shaking her head, Kiara decided to end her mental gymnastics for the night.