A couple of days later, inside Felix's art room, "Hey," Oddey walked in all of a sudden and got a little addled from seeing him again since the date.

"Hey, Oddey," Felix said.

"Hey," Gage greeted as well, but Oddey did not want to acknowledge his presence.

"Felix, can I borrow your USB? I misplaced mine, I need to print out an assignment."

"Oh, mine is full for now. It's filled with my videos for film club," Felix answered.

"You can borrow mine," Gage offered.

"Uhm... thanks, but I'll... just find another way," Oddey declined then left, which made Gage feel dejected since he was trying to help, and Felix could sense the heavy tension between them.

"She's still mad at me. I thought you said that she's okay."

"That's what she told me, but I guess she's not entirely okay," Felix replied.

"Well, I don't blame her anyway." Gage shook his head and read his script again.

"She'll get over it."

"It just sucks that's all."

"Well, at least it's worth it," Felix remarked, which Gage found odd to hear.

"Uhmm... What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean, at least you and Courtney are friends, right?"

"Yeah, I guess, but I didn't mean to hurt her feelings."

------

Later, Oddey was in the classroom with Rita, and they were writing down notes of the lecture on their laptops while having a quiet conversation. "By the way, my parents loved the backdrop," Rita whispered. "They didn't even know that we're the ones that made them."

"Really?" Oddey giggled.

"Yup. Thanks again. Coffees on me."

"That'll do." Oddey's phone buzzed. It was a text, and she didn't seem to like the message she received. "Ugh... Crap."

"What?"

"I got a text from the theatre club about the schedule of the meeting. I almost forgot about that."

"So what's the...? Oh... I get it now."

"Yeah, I'm gonna see their faces again," Oddey moaned while pressing her pen down on her notebook and writing down her notes since she was still feeling the bitterness inside just thinking of those two.

"Woah... chill. Quit then?"

"I can't, It'll upset Madame Vestia. I mean the fact that she's desperate enough to ask for help from just about anyone."

"Oh..." Rita cringed.

"Can you sign up?" Oddey pleaded.

"Sweetie... I wish I could repay what you did by doing this instead, but from part-time jobs and the schoolwork, I'm not sure I can do it all if I add that to my list. Sorry."

"It's okay."

"Just... ignore them so you won't have to... you know."

"If only if it's that easy."

------

Gage was reading his script and acting out his role in an empty classroom, but he was having a hard time because this was the first time he had to play a main character.

"Hey!" Courtney came and dropped her bag at the side. "How's the practicing?"

"Uhm... okay, I guess, but I did memorize the first part already."

"Great, let's start rehearsing then," she took her script out. "But before we start, I want to say thanks for doing this."

Gage just gave her his handsome, sweet smile. "Don't mention it."

"I'm serious," she took his hand and held it. "I'm so happy that we're doing this together."

"You're my best friend, Court, I support everything you do," he assured her, Courtney couldn't help but blush. "Okay, come on, let's start, I have a lot to do later."

"Right, right, you go first. And... action!"

"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief, that thou her maid art far more fair than she: Be not her maid, since she is envious..." Gage recited his line without looking at the script, yet he was trying so hard to express the words he was saying. "Her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night. See how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek."

Courtney did not look impressed, though she decided not to point it out first and continued, "Put a little more umph in it, Gage."

"Sorry," he apologized.

"Okay, let's do this again."

"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun..."

"A bit more than that. Again."

Gage was starting to feel annoyed, but at the same time, he had to accept what he signed up for, so he took a deep breath and did it again, "Sure. But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief, that thou her maid art far more fair than she..."

"Stop."

"I can't do this," he sighed in frustration and sat down on a chair.

"No, no, you're doing fine," Courtney assured him. "You just need... more practice."

Gage knew that it should motivate him, but it did not and just put a smile on his face. "Right."

"Come on, let's do it again."

"Okay."

----

She was back in her dorm and continued reading her book while drinking her cream macha, but several minutes later, there was a knock on the door. It couldn't be Rita because she  would just walk in since it was her room, too.

Oddey stood up from her seat and went to open it. She was surprised that it was a food delivery guy, "Good evening," he greeted.

"I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong room, I didn't order anything," she told him.

"There's no mistake. There's a food delivery for room 13D for Oddey Empirio," the delivery guy took out the paper bag and gave it to her. "Don't worry, it's paid."

"Oh! okay, thanks." Oddey took the bag, and she saw that there was a folded note stapled at the side. After that, she went back inside, placed the bag on her table, pulled the note out, and then read it.

'I heard that you haven't been eating much lately, I know how hectic college life can be so I bought you some food to give you protein and greens to give that energy boost to help you focus. I will see you soon and I promise you that I'll spend a lot of time with you.'

Love, your Father.'

Oddey grinned after reading it and opened the paper bag. There was a plastic bento box, and there was karage chicken with one cup of rice and a salad side dish. There was another surprise, there was a transparent plastic rectangular box, and there was a macha crepe cake in a kawaii style.

It was heart-warming for Oddey that her father sent her these to look out for her. She put down the note and took out her phone to text her father to thank him, then began eating happily.

-----

It was the day of the meeting for the theatre club volunteers. There were a lot of them that felt like a blessing to everyone there. The regular members were also present to guide them to their seats and talk to one another before the meeting began, "Wow! look, there are a lot of them," Courtney beamed.

"Yeah, who knew people wanted to lend out their helping hand," Gage replied.

Oddey then came in, which surprised the two, "oh, she's here," Courtney scoffed in disgust and started to cross her arms.

Gage was indifferent though he noticed his best friend's attitude towards Oddey and as for him, he only felt lousiness just when he saw her. "What? She's volunteering."

Oddey never felt so alone because Rita was not there, but it did not take long for people to greet her and introduce themselves. She happened to gaze towards Gage with Courtney. She looked away to lessen the pain.

Five minutes before the discussion started, Oddey was sitting among the other volunteers and had a conversation with them, Gage stood next to her with their backs turned, he was handing out some snacks to the temporary members. He accidentally bumped her, and the two shifted their heads and saw each other face-to-face, "uhm... mini pretzels?" he stuttered.

"Sure, thanks," Oddey answered politely yet coldly.

Gage gave the snack to her while Courtney watched them from the distance, and smoke was coming out from her ears. "I..." he uttered. "That's a little thank you for helping us for the play. We appreciate it."

"Uhm... yeah, no problem. Anything to help my favorite art professor."

"Oh! right, you're one of her students."

"Yup." Oddey then began eating the pretzels and sort of wanted him to go away.

Gage could feel that tension between him and her. "About the..."

"Hey, Gage!" Courtney loudly called out to him, which made the two flinched towards her. "Can you help me out here?"

"Just a second."

"Gage! This can't wait."

Oddey was starting to feel annoyed, "yeah, Gage, go over there and help your best friend," she snided.

"Alright," Gage huffed. He gave up and walked back to Courtney while Oddey pretended not to care about what he was going to say to her.

Madame Vestia arrived, giving herself quite an entrance by twirling around in front of the students, "attention, attention, Kings, Romans, lend me your ears," she chimed. She caught everyone's attention since they had their eyes on her and kept quiet.

"Good afternoon, my temporary thespians and regular thespians, I want to first say thank you for being here, healthy, of course, after the... dengue outbreak. Most of our theatre club are in the hospital, may we wish them a speedy recovery." She then had this moment of silence and bowed her head for a few seconds, which most of the volunteers just acknowledged, and yet some found it weird, although they kept it to themselves. The regular members and some art students, especially Oddey, gotten used to her eccentric personality.

"Okay. Welcome! to our theatric domain. In case, you are not familiar with me, I am Madame Vestia, I am in the Fine arts field here at Carmela University, an Art Studies professor and the Theatre club moderator," she introduced herself.

There weren't enough seats because most of them were occupied by volunteers, so some of the regular members, especially Gage, were standing by the wall. While Madame Vestia was talking about herself and told them what they should do, he did not even realize that he was staring at Oddey as she listened and watched her little reaction to what Madame Vestia was saying to them.

Oddey couldn't help but want to glance over to him because deep inside her, she still liked him but at the same time, was mad at him and not liking the fact that he and Courtney were standing next to each other. She turned her head to him. However, Gage snapped back to reality that he looked away fast, acting like he was not ogling her. Oddey shifted her head to the other side to hide that she was blushing.