Love Life At School (Chapter Thirty Seven)

From the classroom’s back door, Jiro watched Selina’s every movement. He looked at her beautiful face and longed to be with her. He could not bear just looking at her from a distance, not able to make a single sound or gesture towards her, although that was exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted to go right up to her and hold her hands. He wanted to hug her. He wanted... he wanted... He wanted many things.

He was angry with Arron. How could he just shout out that he, Jiro, a man of his words, had snogged another girl. How could he? After being friends for so long, didn’t Arron know him better than anyone else? The way he acted had been like they’d only known each other for a few days, whereas they had actually been best friends for years. Their bond should not have been so weak.

From afar, Jiro could see Selina’s face. She looked sad and her eyes looked like they were going to pop out. He could see her eyes watering a little. She wiped them with her hands and continued keeping her things. All of a sudden, her books fell onto the floor but she did not bother picking them up. Instead, she just stood still, her head bent. Jiro could see droplets of water dropping onto the desk and her body slightly shaking.

Without further ado, Jiro went up to her and hugged her. He felt her body stop moving. She started pushing him away from her, pulling herself away from him. But he would not let her. He hugged her all the more tighter, as if not wanting to let her go. The more she struggled, the tighter Jiro held on. He would never let her go, he would protect her, he would be there for her, he would love her till the end of time.

Selina continued to struggle although she knew her energy was failing her and she would not succeed in breaking free. She felt her strength dying, not wanting to help her as she tried to prise herself away from the arms of Jiro, though even with the strength, to no avail. “Let me.. g..go.” He could hear her say, but he did not obey. He never ever wanted to let her go anymore. He loved her so, but because of what his best friend, or he thought was his best friend, said, he had to split with Selina. But to him, it was okay if only he was hurt. Unfortunately, he was not the only one, Selina was too.

After long last, Selina stopped struggling and just stood, limp, against Jiro. She no longer had the strength to fight him. She was devastated. She couldn’t help it. Sure, she had liked Arron at first. But her feelings for Jiro was stronger and was getting more so each day. She could not bear parting with him. She couldn’t imagine the day when she would no longer feel the warmth of his body. She loved him more than anything. She was willing to give up everything for him if said the word. But despite her overwhelming feelings, what did she get in return? Him cheating on her.
She sobbed into his uniform, making it wet. But he didn’t care. All he cared about was getting her back. He would not lose her ever again. “Selina, listen to me.”

“Why should I?”

“Selina, I did not cheat on you. Believe me. I really didn’t.”

“Oh yeah? Then why did Arron say what he did? He’s your best friend. If he said it, it has to be true.”

“But its not. Honest. Selina, I love you, and only you. I swear, cross my heart, I won’t cheat on you. Not in the past, not now, not ever.”

“Why should I trust you? You could be lying to me now. And you might continue lying to me in the future. You say you’re not cheating on me? Prove it.”

“You want proof? Ok. I’ll give you the proof. Follow me.”

Jiro took Selina’s hand and ran out of the classroom to the shop where Arron had seen him. He pulled her inside and called out.

“Genie! Genie? Where are you?”

“Yes?”

Jiro and Selina turned. There stood a pretty girl, smiling.

“May I help you? Jiro, is this the girl you said you want to give the flowers and necklace to? Aww.. She’s so cute.”

“Where are they? The flowers and necklace.”

Genie entered a room for a moment. Jiro and Selina stood still, Jiro still holding her hand. After a while, Genie came back with a huge bouquet of flowers, wrapped with white, light pink and darker shade of pink, with the words ‘I LOVE YOU’ written all over it. As Jiro extended his hands to take it, Genie held it out from his reach and shook her head and muttered, “Wait.” She placed it on the counter and started counting the flower stalks, which she then rearranged them and made sure the papers weren’t crumpled or ruffled in any way.

Then from under the counter, she took out a small box and placed it neatly inside the bouquet. Once more she made sure it was in good condition before she held it out for Jiro to take it. After he did, he looked at Selina. “Selina, this is for you.”

“Miss Selina is it not? There are 250 flowers in that bouquet you’re holding. If you look closely, you’ll see many small flowers below the bigger ones above. And placed on those small flowers is a present from Jiro to you,” Genie smiled at Selina.

Selina, surprised and touched, started weeping. She put a delicate hand in between the flowers and took out the small box that Genie had just placed in. She opened it and she saw a beautiful necklace and a heart shaped locket. She opened the locket and there were the pictures of her and Jiro smiling together with the words ‘J & S FOREVER’ across them. Selina could not believe her eyes. She looked inside the bouquet once more and saw a heart shaped card which she took out too.

She opened it and saw that Jiro had drawn cute pictures of both of them sitting together under the moonlight, both of them holding hands, both of them posing funnily, both of them hugging and lastly, both of them kissing with a huge heart surrounding them. Selina smiled through her tears. Jiro, feeling slightly assured, spoke, “Selina, this was I was preparing. I really did not do anything bad or wrong towards you. I honestly...”

Before he could finish what he wanted to say, Selina kissed him on the lips. In response, Jiro hugged her. They stayed in the position for a long while and when they finally broke off, Genie asked both of them for their phones. They passed theirs to her and she busied herself with something. When she was done, she passed them back the phones. They looked at them and blushed.

Apparently, Genie had secretly took a picture of them kissing and had Bluetooth the picture to them. They look at each other and smiled.

“You forgive me?” Jiro asked.

Selina nodded, still with the smile. She turned to Genie and thanked her. Genie smiled in return and said it was her pleasure bringing back a lovely couple. Jiro took Selina’s hands and when out of the shop after saying thanks and goodbye to Genie. They headed back to their classroom. As they were packing their bags, Selina realized a paper sticking out from under her books. It looked foreign. She took it out and read it. She turned to Jiro, “Jiro? Did you get a letter?”

Jiro was reading one when she asked him. “You received it too huh? Weird. Nevermind. Let’s get ready for the party and show everyone that you’re the most beautiful girl they’ve every seen. I wonder if the others received it. Hmm...”

“I wonder who is ‘your friend’,” Selina replied in return.

“Don’t bother that. Bother what you’ll wear, what make up, what shoes, what hairstyle...”

“You know, you’re more of a woman than me.”

“Do NOT mention that in front of anyone. You’ll just see me melting on the floor if you do.”

Selina giggled. “I’ll pick you up at 7.30pm? Ok?” Jiro asked.

She nodded and took her back as both of them got ready to leave the school together, hand in hand.

-brenda, co-written with ratana-