crush culture | jean kirstein

chapter eleven

"Wow. That was rough," Marco whispers.

"It was. And I don't know what to say," you reply.

You should be scared that Annie just looked down at you and stared into your soul because she is Annie Leonhardt, second in the list of people you shouldn't mess with in your high school, but you aren't. There is just something comforting in the way she repeated yours and Marco's words earlier that completely absolves your preconceived fright for her.

In addition to the winter chill, the atmosphere in the auditorium is fretful. There is a moment of silence as everyone processes what just happened, but it subsides once Marlo clears his throat and moves on with the presentation.

The meeting ends with the Student Council packing up and the students swarming out of the auditorium. The place is emptied in a heartbeat as everyone takes the route home to end the day.

But your route is different. You slither your way pass the maze of hallways into the library, shivering at the lowered temperature as you enter, as if the weather outside isn't already cool enough to freeze you to death.

You smile at the librarian and pass her to look for Jean. You're guilty that you haven't been able to spend that much time with him in real life, and since the meeting ended fairly early because of what happened earlier, you guess the both of you can spend some time together before his shift at the clinic begins.

You pass the many bookshelves and enter the reference section where you and him hung out before and childishly debated on Barbie movies. Thanks to your late night conversations, you learned that Jean enjoys going to the library to do homework alone instead of hanging out with his teammates. You find it nice that he focuses on his studies despite his hectic schedule, which makes you wonder if it's the reason why you are the person he's closest to at the moment.

You shrug. As you turn the corner, you find him seated on a square table with his head down and eyes trained on a Physics textbook. You take the seat next to him.

"Hi."

You swear he almost yelped. His eyes widen a fraction before easing back to the way it was seconds ago, closing the textbook and setting it aside. As he takes his earbuds out, his lips curl into a smile.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" he asks.

"We were dismissed early, so I came by to talk," you say. "Are you busy? I can leave if you are."

"No, stay," he replies, almost too quickly that he doesn't notice how his hand reaches out to you as if to hold it and keep you seated next to him. He retracts quickly, though. "I need an excuse to stop studying."

"And your excuse is me?"

He laughs.

"Yep. I was hoping you'd show up."

You bite back a smile.

"You were?"

"I knew you were busy, but I was."

Another thing that you learned—or rather, confirmed—during the winter break is that Jean is naturally flirty. What he said seconds ago is nothing compared to the winking emoticons and jokingly flirtatious comments he has sent and told you over the past month, and you are certain that his compliments don't have any romantic implication to them, but you realize that they never fail to fluster you.

You have already admitted that he's attractive. Good looks and good attitude make up the Jean Kirstein you have in front of you right now, so you are absolutely irked that the good-looking guy is making you more flustered than he initially should.