My stomach was writhing giving me a weird feeling as I stare at the doll keychain that looks like Nate. I searched at the internet how does a first kiss feel and I read it was, "b.u.t.terflies". So is this what they call, "b.u.t.terfly after the kiss"?

He put a b.u.t.terfly in my mouth?

I"m corny, so irritating.

 "What are you looking there?" I ask the doll keychain. He was just looking and acting cute.

I lie down on bed and indulge in my woolgathering.

We kissed...Kissed.

School is about to start yet I still can"t get over from the events. I woke up instantly feeling anxious because I don"t know how to face Nate. When I went downstairs, I was greeted by my Kuya"s [1] face making me further stress out as my mood worsens.

"What"s with that face?" He asks.

"Stop messing around, I"m getting stressed at your face."  I rolled my eyes at him before I went to the dining area to sit.

"You"re right, my handsomeness is stressful."

"Eos, Ianne, it"s still so early in the morning and you two are fooling around already."

"Ma!" Kuya [2] reacted.

 Mama and I laughed as he continues to complain. Mama put a hand at his shoulder as if to comfort him.

"The truth will set you free, Eos."

That made me laugh hard. Well at least, my anxious somewhat disappeared. I mean! Is this really the after-effect of first kiss? And take note, I"m even ignoring Nate"s texts and call.

When I was finally in school, I feel like I"ll explode any moment once I see Nate. Okay, I"m OA [Over Acting] but I don"t know why I"m feeling this way. It"s just a kiss. It"s just natural for any relationship but... hay, just kill me now.

"Oh my, you"re so cute Ianne. You look so young with that short hair," A cla.s.smate of mine greeted, "ha, new look after semester break."

I just smile; of course, I already know I"m cute, eh.

My body stiffen when someone rest his arm in my shoulder, "Is my cute girlfriend running away from me?"

I was so nervous that I back away. When I look at him, he was smiling at me.

"Aha. Aha. Why would I run away?" Yes of course, Ianne, what you said is so convincing. To dodge any unwanted discussion, I change the topic using of what I notice from him.

"You"re wearing an earring?"

I was about to grab his ear when he stop me, "Oh, don"t yet touch it, this is still painful, eh." It was even getting red.

"Why did you do it?"

"Is it not cool? I just wanted to be cool in your eyes." He smilingly said.

I raised an eyebrow at him and I just realized that my anxious has already disappeared. I couldn"t help but smile... Okay, fine, game. I"m ready for this relation.

But I"m still not ready to study again.

***

Even if it"s painful for me deep inside, cla.s.s still started. It was also preparation for the exam before Christmas break. I swear that every time I open a book, I always get drowsy immediately. It"s a good thing that with Nate around, time is fast.

When it was dismissal already, I was excited to leave but he told me to stay and sit at the chair next to his.

"Why?" I asked confused.

He smiled and put his face close to mine, "Let"s leave later" he softly said.

We waited for our other cla.s.smates to leave. When all of them left and it was getting dark already, Nate took my hand and kissed it.

"I miss you." 

When our eyes lock in each other gazes, I gulp as our face was getting closer and closer.

POINK! POINK! POINK!

I was so surprise and nervous that I accidentally push Nate and stand up. There was suddenly a loud noise of a thing falling down. When I look at the door, there was a person peaking it was... Emotionless Guy?

The three of us remained silent. He didn"t say anything and only close the door. 

"Wasted." Nate said absent-mindedly, "Nuisance."

I told Nate that I need to go the restroom and to also relax myself. I saw that Emotionless Guy was going down already. Before I could get in the restroom, I heard a female"s voice calling.

"-my cellphone just had to fall. If Art just didn"t come, it would have been a nice scandal."

As soon as I entered, the two girls suddenly look at me. It seems like they"re fourth year students. The other girl was just smirking while the other one was fixing her cellphone that seems to have fall.

Nate was outside holding our bag once I go back, "What took you so long? Did you have a prayer meeting there?"

I smiled at what he said, "No, it"s because I had a ma.s.sage."

"You"re corny."

"I got it from you, Kuya [3]."

 We teased each other while going out of school as if nothing happened. Before I could enter the jeep [4]

He was staring at my direction that"s why I shifted my gazed back.

Every time I see Emotionless Guy, the word, "weird" always comes at my mind.

 ***

How many weeks have pa.s.sed when I noticed something from Nate. Sometimes he"s so quiet and he"s even absent sometimes. Like now, he"s been absent for two days. Every time I text, he won"t reply. Is he trying to make me miss him? Cla.s.s is boring.

Ma"am Carillo was still discussing even though I can"t understand them. I might have been so lax that I started stretching my arms and accidentally getting her attention as she calls me.

"Santos?"

All of my cla.s.smates where looking at me. Why? What is it?

"Since you volunteer, then you should join so that you can also make up for all the late and absences you have."

"Huh?"

I didn"t fully understand what Ma"am Carillo was saying but there were two things that I heard clearly: "excused in cla.s.s" and "go to Library". Because I"m stupid, useless, naive, crazy, lazy, not listening clearly and really unlucky, once I got inside the library, I was greeted by a news that ruined my life.

"C-compet.i.tion?"

"Yes, Ms. Santos, compet.i.tion." Sir Lasam said.

Then suddenly everything began to sink in. I was already inside the library but I wanted to leave even thou the air-conditioning felt nice.

"Go, come here," Mr. Lasam called to the person behind him.

My eyes widened when I saw Emotionless Guy. His messy hair was so long that it was already covering his ear. He"s so pale, slime and tall. Like a walking stick.

We exchange glances for a bit and he look really bored in life.

"Ianne, this is Art," Sir Lasam introduced, "your study partner."

My eyes widened, "study partner?"

Sir Lasam smiled and nodded while Emotionless Guy continued staring at me.

STUDY PARTNER?

***

We started our review and for most of the day we were in the library to study. The compet.i.tion I"m entering is actually regional. Unfortunately, Emotionless Guy is my partner and his not noticing me.

Actually, he is ignoring all of us. After all, his always sleeping.

But I notice something from him: he has a mole on the right side of his forehead that I saw when he wipe away his sweat and it"s not like  I was intentionally looking at it but he also has a big mole in the left side of his chest. I"m not staring at him, okay? It was just that by chance that I was looking at his direction when he bends his neck.

Anyway, my curious grew for Emotionless Guy along with his silence. I remembered my question to Ellaine, the secretary of our cla.s.s, if why Emotionless Guy is weird. She gave me a bad look as she said that he wasn"t weird but was actually just gifted.

Okay, gifted. 

I thought that I can"t get any interesting information about him anymore but then she said something that made me raise an eyebrow. She said that Emotionless Guy has a photographic memory. Take note; I"m not interested with Emotionless Guy. I"m just curious of what he have.

Abnormal manner? That Emotionless Guy? Abnormal? I"m just gonna laugh. But this is cool, ah?

I"m not really into researching because it"s hard to understand and make one nosebleed but this is interesting. Because of this, that guy suddenly turned mysterious for me. What does it feels like to remember everything?

I tried to search, "The Emotionless Guy of (insert name of our school)". And it made me utter a wow as I saw a legit post about him. There were news about him being a boy wonder because he always won every compet.i.tion he entered and there was another blog of a female who"s probably has a crush on him.

I know that I wasn"t wrong because there was even a stolen shot of Emotionless Guy in one of the blog post.

Amazing she"s really into it.

Thanks to her blog I learned something about that Emotionless Guy who"s always in a poker face.

NAME: Art Felix Go

Why is he so mysterious?

Art Felix Go, just who are you?