1. Loving my Frenemy

(7 Years Ago - June 2017 - Middle school first year)

"What does he think of himself?? Mayor or Mafia?? He needs to know that he is none of them!! He frustrates me!!", I said to Juleka irritatingly. She agreed, "Yeah, he really thinks of himself as if he is Mr. Perfecto! Someone, who knows how to do everything perfectly, huh? He pissed me off, girl!"

It was our Sports class and our instructor made us battle girls vs. boys. Like seriously? Who freaking does that any more? Firstly, there were just 17 of us and the boys were 21. Second, Boys cheated by distracting us. Those cheaters!!! Third, it was raining and many people were slipping. And sir let it go without any explanation. This isn't the reason we were angry. There was this ultimately annoying guy, Lucas, who wouldn't let it pass. He held onto the moment when I fell on my knees and Juleka slipped over me falling on her face, perfectly perpendicular to me. He teased us over our failure to help our team win and the funny scene of us falling on the ground miserably. He kept bragging about how they won because of us, as we fell like a legend on the ground. This was why we were frustrated.

Unfortunately, he lived near us, so our routes were the same. So, we would have to face him on the bus too. Jesus, Save us!

"Hey! What's your name?", Lucas asked Juleka with his left eyebrow raised, gaining our attention with a damn shitty expression of what he called 'COOL-O-ATTITUDE'. Ewwk. She replied in confusion, "Why should I even tell you, huh?? Plus, come on dude, we are classmates. You don't know our names? But we do know yours"

"Who cares? Just tell me your name. And, I do know her name, it is Jennie", he replied pointing at me with an evil smile. "Fine! I'm Juleka. Now let me pass over to my seat."

"Nah no! I won't let you go that easily. I know you are lying. What's your true name? Stop playing around and tell me!"

"Woah!! Why would anyone lie about their own name? My name is Juleka!!"

"Come on, you think I'm a fool or what?", he said as if this was funny and turned towards me saying, "Hey...Jennie, what's her real name? Tell me."

I replied with irritation, "She is telling you the truth. She is Juleka. What else do you want to know? Why don't you just trust us?"

He turned back to Juleka and replied surprisingly, "Really? So, you're really Juleka? I thought why would you answer me straightforwardly, so I didn't believe it. What is your full name then?"

"Juleka Adams"

"Really? Adams??"

"No!! It's Assman!! Okay???", she said sarcastically, getting frustrated by his foolish questions.

She pushed past him with a disgusted look and a slight smile on the corner of her lip appeared. Our eyes met and her smile passed to me as if it was contagious. We started laughing like maniacs sitting down on the empty seat of the bus. He was still confused, staring at us standing beside the second seat. Poor boy didn't get a seat. Ha-ha. Then our Laughter slowly faded after 15-20 minutes. He kept glancing at us in between, and we did the same. There were moments when we had eye contact and we suddenly looked away in awkwardness. This is the point where the story starts to take a turn.

This was the very point where I started crushing on this guy. I didn't even understand it for a long time but gradually I understood, that this is what people say when they like someone.

Days went on with him teasing us with some or other stupid things and we said something to him in return. Juleka and I also teased him sometimes.

One day, in the canteen, we had no other option but to sit at the table next to him. So, we sat there with our plate. "Why in the world?? Isn't there any other place left for us to sit?", I said irritatingly, but inside my heart I really wanted to sit with him.

"What's your problem? Did I say anything to you?", he said casually while picking up the broccoli from his plate and tossing it into his mouth without even once looking at us.

"Nevermind! Let's eat quickly and leave from here, Jewel", I said. I liked calling Juleka 'Jewel', she was with me all the time and we were best friends. Though this was the first year of our never-ending friendship.

"Yeah, sure", said Jewel.

We started eating lunch quietly. I used to peek at him in between which made my heart flutter. That was a feeling of immense joy when I used to be close to him. I suddenly got this funny thought and whispered to Juleka, "Hey, I just thought this. Don't you think we should do something even funnier to him so that he won't talk down to us? Something really embarrassing?"

"Idea isn't that bad!! I like it!", she whispered back with a devilish smile.

"What about a bully song?", I said jokingly.

"Really good idea!!! Let's do that!!! Do you know that famous meme of a group of guys teasing a little girl with some rhyming song? We can make such a rhyming song, especially for this guy! What do you say?", said Juleka.

"Not bad! Let's do it!!", I said with enthusiasm.

It was unbelievable how perfectly the rhyming song came out that we made for him. The lyrics we added to him were so funny that we used to laugh our asses off beforehand. It was really quick, we created the whole poem in just one recess break. We made it while eating our lunch in the canteen. When we first sang the song in front of Lucas, there were only a few people in the class. Our classmates really liked the style of our friendly funny bullying that they joined us in singing that song. We used to sing it on repeat and he used to feel embarrassed in front of the whole class who used to enjoy the song and see him getting roasted. At one point, a few people also started to sing with us and even got to know the lyrics because we sang it so many times. He was really embarrassed and that look on his face was visible. His sweet red blushing face was so cute that made me fall for him more. All this teasing and stuff was the only way we used to talk to him, and maybe that's why I used to like teasing him because it was quality time for me with him. We never actually sat and talked. Just teasing, roasting, irritating and all the mischievous kinds of stuff. 

Days went like this and my feelings for him became stronger and stronger. Each time I used to look at the night sky and see shooting stars I used to wish for a miracle to happen so that one day he would be mine. I wanted him to be mine!! Like this, holding my strong deep feelings inside my heart, one academic year went by.

On the last day of final examinations when I saw him, he waved at me with a warm smirk-smile. That moment my heart fluttered and it was the first time I wished for vacations to end soon and school to start immediately. "My first Crush, Lucas. I will miss you, be it just for two months", I said in my mind.

~QUEEN SE YEON

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*This is my first novel so please support and recommend it to your friends and people you know. I need your support to flourish this Novel*

*The next Chapter will be uploaded soon! Thank you for reading and stay connected!!*

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*Credits*

Writer - Queen Se Yeon

Images Editing - Queen Se Yeon

Co-editor (Adviser) - Queen Ra Yeon

Editor - Miss Incomplete

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