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The silence felt in the whole classroom and the attention turned to them. Melanie grabbed Gayle and dragged him to the emergency stairs.

"Do I like Ben? Seriously?" Melanie asked after they stared at each other for a while. She even chuckled as she thought that it was the most absurd thing she had ever heard.

"You two look very close"

"I'm close to you too"

"No, it's not the same. You tend to choose Ben over me just like yesterday. I know that it was so you could get home fast but still I wished you had stay with me... "

Gayle continued to vent his frustration but Sei stopped listening as she was processing what she was seeing. It was jealousy. Gayle was jealous. She couldn't hold the corner of mouth going up as she knew which primary feeling had lead to his jealous.

"... and very unlikely of you to forget things so it's weird that you didn't text me back yesterday..."

"Gayle" Sei cut him by putting both her hands on his cheeks, making him stared in her eyes. He stopped talking as Melanie approached her lips to his. He froze when their lips touched.

—Sei, what are you doing?! This is against Melanie's behavior! —

Sei retreated after that small kiss and dropped her arms but to her surprise, Gayle put his arm around her waist and pulled her in a deeper kiss.

—Ting! Gayle's Lovemeter increases by 2—

By instinct, Melanie had put her hands on Gayle's chest so she wouldn't loose balance as he had abruptly pulled her. However she put them around his neck as their tongue came in contact. Melanie was shy as she had never been kissed like this before , on other hand, it was like something had went off in Gayle's mind as it was like he wanted to fuse with Melanie. He put her second arm around her and press her body against his as much as he could.

The kiss could have last 3 seconds or 3 min, it would have still left them breathless as they parted. Their foreheads were still connected as they were calming their crazy heart and catching their breath.

"So the next step is we dating?" Gayle said while smiling.

"You mean, the previous step. We did jump quite a bit"

"Maybe...but you don't like Ben, right? "

—What an insecure man. Didn't I just kiss him? —

—No, you almost failed this world—

—But I didn't. She let it slide since Gayle kiss back—

Melanie sighed and answered him.

"Ben have a boyfriend"

"... He can still try to seduce other people"

"Gayle.." Melanie had a scolding tone.

"Okay, okay. Let's head back to the class."

Gayle took her hand and tried to take Melanie with us.

"You want everyone to know now?"

It was obvious that if they saw us holding hands they would know that there was something between them.

"We should sort things by ourselves before making it public." Melanie stated and Gayle nodded. He still followed up behind her as they returned to the class.

They didn't stay long in the emergency stairs but it was enough for rumors to spread across the neighboring classes. People were whispering while looking at Melanie as she was walking with Gayle.

"Is there something wrong?" She whispered to Gayle when everyone felt silence as soon as they entered the class and went to sit. Instead of answering her, Gayle said to the whole.

"No, she doesn't like Ben. I can't believe you all spread those rumors without proof and such a short time." said the very one who was believing the same minutes ago.

Nobody said anything as they were avoiding his gaze. There was still one who was bold enough to look at him while smiling. It was actually Mark, one of Gayle's close friends.

"Well I would have laughed it off too if they wasn't so close those days..." Mark said while looking suspiciously at Melanie. Gayle was also turning toward Melanie with a look saying "I told you" but he immediately glared at Mark as the later said the following.

"... but if it was me I would have bet that Ben was the one who like her"

"What?! "

Both Gayle and Melanie asked with surprise. One frowned at this new point of view while the other started laughing. It was a loud laugh, very unlikely of Melanie.

"Nonsense" Melanie said before ignoring them. She still ignored them during the lunch break because the rumors spread to the whole. It wasn't hard since she was focus on working on her project.

She then heard the screeching sound of chair being pushed, next to her. She turned her head and she saw Ben sitting next to her with his food tray.

—Look like Ben likes creating drama as much as you, Sei—

—Hehehe, this is the kind of person that makes life interesting—

He had a mischievous smile on his face, showing that he definitely heard people talking.

"Since yesterday, you always put yourself in trouble when I left you. So, you like me now?"

"If I have to choose, I'll choose Mike"

"Come one, you only know him for less than an hour and most importantly he's already taken" Ben felt knowingly in the trap by being possessive, even if it's obvious that Melanie had no interest in Mike. Melanie chuckled at his dedication towards him.

"Anyway, I also heard that it was Gayle who started this whole thing but I can't understand why my name was brought all of sudden. I didn't do anything big...yet"

"Were you planning on?"

Melanie and Ben turned their heads towards the newcomer. Gayle, who was watching from a far since the moment Ben sat with Melanie, couldn't help but notice the closeness between them just like the rest of the cafeteria. Everyone was wondering if those rumors were really true. Some were doubting while some were already saying that they were quite a sweet couple. The later weren't to Gayle liking and he finally decided to go to clarifie the things with Ben.

"Maybe?" Ben answered Gayle with a mischievous smile.

"Well you can't do that anymore because me and Melanie are dating now. Also you have a boyfriend so stop flirting around" Gayle said while glaring at him after sitting next to Melanie. She looked at him with big eyes for announcing it casually like this. However the bomb came from Ben who basically screamed with a shocked tone.

"You're are dating?!"