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Brian sits with an arrogant expression on his seat as he waits for Jake to arrive. But inside, he's still so disturbed. He didn't like Jake's expression before leaving yesterday. If he could, he'd rather Jake never made that kind of expression again. And he knows he should do something after their horrible ending of conversation last day. The problem is, he doesn't know what to do.

At that time, Jake arrives with Willie. Brian frowns with annoyance. This short legs is always with him. 

Jake, meanwhile, has gone back to ignoring Brian's existence again. He sits down, carefully avoiding meeting eyes with the guy who's shamelessly staring at him, and yawns. He really appreciates Willie not letting him sleep on the floor but this kidney implanted guy moves too much for someone who's been sick most of his life. Jake slept one hour at max. 

Class starts soon. The homeroom teacher ignores Jake's eyes and starts his lectures. Jake sighs and looks down. Yeah, no section changing for him because some rich bloke stopped it. 

The rich bloke in question is watching Jake intently. He opens his notebook and starts making an outline of Jake's face. From behind, the occassional view of the side of Jake's face is so interestingly pleasant. Brian's lips pull up slightly and he scratches on the paper diligently. Suddenly, Jake puts his head down on his arms and looks up at the sky through the window. Brian blinks and follows his eyes. The sky's annoyingly bright, the sun looks uncomfortably hot. He looks back at Jake and finds his eyes closed. 

Brian bends for a closer view. Jake's hair, even head down, is so unmoving. What does he do to them to make them stay set like that? Brian wonders what it'd feel like if he moves the hair away from his forehead and run his fingers over the smooth skin. He wonders what Jake's reaction would be to that. 

Probably a big punch to the jaw. Brian grins and goes back to his sketch. The class ends with the two boys totally ignorant of its activities. The teacher looks at Brian staring at a sleeping Jake and leaves, muttering darkly under his breath. 

Willie jumps up from his seat at once and dances towards Jake's, but he stops dead when he sees Brian's raging expression. His eyes clearly say Willie will die if he comes one step nearer and so Willie changes direction and quickly walks out of the classroom. 

Brian gets up and stands in front of Jake's seat. His shadow blocks the sun on the sleeping boy's face. Brian looks at the window with a frown. Was there always no curtain here? He looks around but there's nothing. With a sigh, he takes one more glance at Jake's sleeping face and walks out of the classroom. 

Meanwhile, Jake stirs when the sun hits his eyes again. Within seconds, he's stretching. He checks the time with surprise. The first class is over and he doesn't know anything about it. He looks around. Willie's nowhere. Brian is also gone. His empty chair distracts Jake and he watches the school bag on the desk. There's a pencil in the middle of a notebook and Jake knows he shouldn't but curiosity gets the best of him. He takes the notebook to take a look inside. He's curious about Brian's handwriting. 

The drawing inside makes his curiosity vanish within a second. Jake blinks twice at the neatly done sketch and snaps the notebook shut. 

He quickly walks out to go to the washroom to splash water over his fuming face, cursing repeatedly. 

Brian comes back with a curtain on his arm, but there's no Jake. He heaves a sigh of disappointment but hangs the curtain anyway. 

The rest of the day passes without any incident. Neither of the boys meet their eyes or talk to each other. Nothing happens during the break too, partly because Jake doesn't go to the cafeteria and eats at the field with the twins. Back in the classroom, he ignores Brian successfully throughout the day. 

Brian watches helplessly as Jake leaves with Willie after the end of school. 

And not only that day, several days pass like this. Brian stares at Jake who ignores him and always leaves with the short guy who seems more like a stalker than a friend.

"Chase is so quiet these days," comments Willie one day on the way to the bakery after school.

Jake agrees silently. Wasn't Brian supposed to "take away all his friends"? What happened to always keeping Jake in front of him? Where's his not liking to "share his thing with others"? Jake has realised one thing about Brian for sure: he talks bigger than he acts. Annoyed, he walks faster. 

"Hey! Wait up! Short legs here!" Willie calls.

Winter watches silently as the boys speed away. She knows what's bothering Jake. She also knows he won't do anything about it. So she decides to help her friend.

And as decided, she watches Brian during lunch at cafeteria the next day. He occasionally looks up from his food and eyes Jake with a dark expression but doesn't stare for too long. Winter mentally rolls her eyes. She has to be their cupid here. 

Brian finishes eating first and walks out of the cafeteria. She jumps up to follow.

"What!? What happened!?" Willie snaps.

"Washroom," she says and quickly walks out. 

Coincidentally, Brian actually goes to the washroom. The problem is it's the boy's washroom, so she waits outside. When the door opens and he comes out, she stands in front of him.

He eyes her coldly. "What?"

Shit. She forgot he's intimidating. But she doesn't let herself lose one ounce of bravery. She crosses her arms over her chest and says, "I thought you wanted me to go out with you."

Brian rolls his eyes. "Don't you think you took too long to respond?"

"Was I supposed to go to you to give an answer to your confession then!?" She snaps. 

"I didn't confess anything, okay?" He shoots back. "And as for the dating, forget it. I changed my mind." 

She scoffs. "You didn't want to go out with me to begin with, did you?" 

He watches her with a bored expression as a reply. 

Her hands fist up. "I know why you did that, you know."

"And why's that, I wonder?" He mocks. 

"You wanted to make Jake jealous," she says boldly. "Because he has feelings for me."

At once, Brian looks all riled up and pulls her inside the washroom. There, he presses her hard against the wall and snarls into her face, "He does not have feelings for you, you understand? And I don't have so free time to make him jealous over some fucking girl." 

She gulps in fear. "Then did you want to make him jealous over you?" 

He releases her at that. "Shut up, Roberts, and just leave."

Her stubbornness returns instantly. "We talked about it, you know? We confirmed that neither of us have any feelings for each other." 

That interests Brian. "Flynn said that? When?" he inquires.

"That day when you asked me out."

His lips pull up involuntarily. But all he says is, "You have my condolences if that's what you want."

She sniffs. "You know, you should be more expressive if you like him and want him to go out with you. Jake's not easy."

The clears Brian's expression again. But that's it. He doesn't want to go out with Jake. Nor does he want to like him. He can't afford these things. 

Suddenly he feels angry. What's even the point of this conversation? What's the point of keeping Jake in his section, staring at him, wanting to know one thing more about him? Nothing. At the end of the day, it's all useless. Nothing's going to come out of it.

"I mean, that doesn't mean Jake's impossible. You know whatever you guys feel for each other, it's mutual," Winter adds quickly, noticing his rage. 

But that's even worse. Why did Jake clear things up between him and her? Did Brian unknowingly give him some wrong hint? He doesn't want to see that expression reoccur on Jake's face when he said he's so disappointed in Brian. 

No. Brian has to stop it. It's already getting too late. 

"Um, I think we can leave now," says Winter tentatively. "I'm done talking."

Brian suddenly looks at her with a new expression. That's right, he thinks. Winter Roberts is the best option he has to end things. "You know," he says, inching closer to her. "I'm suddenly curious if you would've said yes to my proposal."

Her eyes widen. "W-what proposal? You didn't even mean it."

"But what if I did?" He asks. "Would you go out with me?"

"I..."

He smirks. "Dating me is different though. I don't follow steps. Do you want me to show you how I date, Roberts?"

Winter gulps. 

He takes it as a yes. It's always a yes. So he leans in and kisses her.