Aesthetic

He keeps ripping apart pages off his one subject notebook, dragging a sigh in frustration. It wasn’t coming out. He couldn’t find the words. With dictionaries and Roget’s international thesaurus spread open before him, he was nearly convinced that there was not enough words in the English language to express himself. To express how he felt about her without sounding like a cheesy romantic.

Was this the result of writing so many generic love letters? That now when he truly meant it, when he truly felt it—those same words sound empty and false?

And so, while he sat there in the small table in the library, his face buried in his hands, Levi an old friend since middle school, arrived as he usually did. He yanked out a chair opposite from him whirling it around and sat facing the backside, his hands clinging on.

“You stuck?” Levi asked, “You don’t have to do it, you know. Nile hasn’t paid you yet anyways.”

Erwin lifted his hands from his face, and reached for a tiny sealed envelope underneath one of the dictionaries.

“It’s right here. I’m working on something else,” he said simply.

“Oh?” Levi’s eyes glinted with curiosity.

“It’s not a big deal, it’s just another letter,” Erwin said trying to dismiss his friend’s interest.

“For who to whom? You usually pull those letters outta your ass,” he propped his chin on the chair’s back rest.

“Shouldn’t you be worrying instead about finishing that lab assignment?” Erwin countered raising a brow.

“Four-eyes is working on it,” came the casual reply.

Erwin closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose, “Levi… you can’t have her always do all the work.”

“She insists,” he said with a shrug, “And I’m not about to argue to get homework.”

“Fine. But if you don’t do the work, you’ll flunk the tests,” Erwin pressed.

“Are you sure this is about me getting good grades?” Levi eyed him.

“Ah there you are!”

“Speak of the fuckin—,”

“Hange, hello!” Erwin said a little too nervously.

The tall brunette was dressed in a button blouse, jeans and sneakers, glasses nearly slipping off the bridge of her nose; her hair looked a bit messy and fly away as she carried a small stack of books in her hands. The large side bag that slung over her shoulders looked heavy.

“Hello Smith.”

Her voice carried that mellow deepness Erwin found so attractive in a woman.

“Let me help you,” he said, quickly standing to remove the side bag from her shoulder. He was surprised by the weight the bag’s strap tugged upon his hands when he took it.

“This can’t be good for your back,” Erwin said slowly.

Hange dropped the books on the table’s surface, and leaned against the edge of the table with a sigh, “I get a ride home, so it’s not that bad,” she replied. Hange then looked over to Levi who sat there unwrapping Erwin’s crumbled papers of discarded attempts.

“How’s my angry gnome doing?” she called, pushing up her glasses.

“Fine until you came along,” Levi mumbled.

She looked over to Erwin, “You have to teach me your secret.”

“Secret?” Erwin asked catching the mischievous glint in her eyes.