I knew that I shouldn’t get my hopes up and that it was more likely an empty gesture than anything, but I couldn’t help but feel some excitement over it. By every respect, I should still be feeling as miserable as ever, but I felt compelled to cling onto that one positive thought.

I’m only human too.

With an awkward face, I pretended to tidy up my bangs but all I did was twist them and ruffle them up even more.

“Are you going on about that again?” Dora chimed in, licking her fingers having finished all of her bread. “Didn’t that happen last month? You’re not going to go on and on about it again, are you? Don’t you think you’re making a big deal out of absolutely nothing?”

“You’re relentless, you know that?” I said with a depressed face as I took a bite out of the cream-filled bread. I drew a magic circle in the air and spaced out.

In just moments, the magic circle began to glow and cream bread started falling from the ceiling like rain. I drew the magic circle spontaneously, so they probably didn’t all come out correctly.

“Whoa!”

Bread crumbs flew all over the room, but I didn’t care. While Dora was running around, gobbling up all of the bread that was raining down, I just sat there, biting my lower lip. I bit down so hard that I tore the skin, but I didn’t feel any pain.

Are you going on about that again?

Dora’s words echoed in my head. I was angry.

I was angry that I couldn’t give him up. I was also angry because Noah had no idea how I felt.

I wondered if I should hate him for that.

I buried my face into my hands and let out an exhausted sigh. I felt a surge of both bitterness and shame.

“… I’m so pathetic.”

“Hey, would you like one? They’re really tasty,” Dora said in a muffled voice through all the bread crammed in her mouth. She threw a piece of cream bread over to me.

“Hey, are you crying?”

I grabbed the bread she threw over to me and fiercely flung it back at her.

The bread flew through the air and struck Dora right in the middle of her face. It fell to the floor with a dull plop.

***

I realized something.

This whole situation I was in was not going to clear up if I just kept dancing around my emotions like this. I would just keep falling deeper and deeper for him without it leading to anything.

Oh, he’s so charming.

No, just stop thinking about it!

The pen I was using to write with exploded in my hand and began leaking ink, but I didn’t notice it. I was too deep in thought, repeatedly biting my lip.

“Katelin.”

“…”

“Katelin?”

“Oh, yes, what is it?”

I raised my head to see the upset face of my teacher.

Ah, right. I was still in class.

The teacher made the noise of clearing his throat several times while pointing at the blackboard.

“Katelin? Could you explain what is wrong with this magic circle of teleportation?”

I frantically scanned the magic circle drawn on the blackboard for any errors. Luckily, the problem was easy enough to spot that I was able to answer quickly.

“Uhm… The runes are not written side-by-side.”

“That’s right. Good to know you were paying attention.”

The teacher nodded his head and took his attention off me.

Whew. That was a close one.

“What the …?”

My face contorted as I shook my ink-stained hand in surprise.

That only made it worse as the ink ran down my arm and seeped into my shirt. Not even magic could get this out of my clothes.

I became even more depressed as I looked at my ink-stained pen.

“Ugh.”

Fortunately, I was able to get the ink off of me, but a few letters got smeared in my notebook.

I told myself to stop thinking about him. What am I doing?

I let out a sigh.

Eventually, I had to wash the ink out of the shirt of my school uniform.

Jeez, I just washed it not too long ago too. I had better borrow another one for the time being.

“Ughhh.”

What’s with my luck today? I feel so worthless.

I carried my books in one hand as I trudged my way down the hallway.

“Katelin!”

What’s my next period class again? Oh, I really hate studying.

“Katelin, Katelin!”

“Huh?”

Trapped in my thoughts, I moved along with heavy steps. I turned my head as I heard a voice calling my name from somewhere.

A girl with bright pink hair flowing behind her came running up to me. She was breathing heavily and gasped for air as she called out my name.

“Oh, Flora…”

I scratched the back of my head while I let out an awkward laugh.

It had been a long while since I last saw her face to face like this, so I felt a bit awkward encountering her in this way. This was all because of that damn book.