Chapter 2 – The Whisper of a Secret

Days slipped into one another like pages turning in a quiet book. Tuition was never meant to be exciting — an extra two hours after school, full of equations, grammar rules, and problem sets that stretched endlessly across notebooks. For Irisa, it was routine. She came in, took her seat, focused on the teacher, and left with hardly a pause in between.

And yet, without her realizing it, her presence had become a small orbit in someone else’s world.

Ren had noticed her from the first day, but now, as classes went on, his glances grew longer, more frequent. He watched the way her hair caught the light from the window, how she tilted her head slightly when she didn’t understand something, or how she pressed her lips together when she was determined to solve a problem. He never spoke to her, not directly. But he found himself memorizing little details, as if those quiet observations stitched her closer into his thoughts.

Irisa remained unaware. Her notebook filled with notes in neat, careful handwriting, margins decorated with the occasional absent-minded doodle. To her, tuition was still only about studies.

But others began to notice what Ren tried so hard to keep subtle.

One afternoon, during the short break between lessons, Irisa sat with two of her classmates, girls she’d gotten a little closer to over the past week. They chatted idly about homework and the teacher’s quirks, laughter soft under the steady whir of the ceiling fan.

Then, one of them leaned closer, her voice dropping mischievously.

“Do you know… someone here likes you.”

The words were simple, but they carried a weight that made Irisa’s pen pause mid-scribble.

She blinked, looking from one friend to the other. “What do you mean?”

The girls exchanged knowing smiles, clearly delighted with the secret they held.

“We can’t tell you who. Not yet. But trust me, he’s here. And he notices you more than you think.”

Irisa’s heart skipped, just once. The idea that someone — anyone — might be looking at her differently was both strange and… unexpectedly pleasant. She felt heat rise to her cheeks, and quickly bent her head down, pretending to re-read her notes.

“Stop it,” she murmured, though the corners of her lips fought against a smile. “You’re just teasing me.”

But the girls only giggled and exchanged glances, leaving her with a flutter in her chest she couldn’t quite name.

That night, as she sat at her desk at home, revising the day’s lessons, the thought returned unbidden. Someone likes you. She shook her head, scolding herself. It didn’t matter. This tuition was for studies, nothing else. She had promised herself she wouldn’t be distracted.

And yet, when she closed her eyes, the classroom returned to her — the scent of chalk, the sound of pages turning, the quiet hum of the fan. And somewhere in that picture, though she tried not to admit it, was the boy who always sat a few rows back.

The next day, her eyes wandered without meaning to. Just once. Just to see. And there he was, looking at his notebook, tapping his pen lightly against the desk. When he looked up suddenly, her heart stumbled, and she quickly turned away, burying herself in her notes.

Ren, from his side, noticed the smallest change — how she shifted in her seat, how her friends giggled softly when he walked by. He didn’t know if she knew. He didn’t know if she even cared. But something told him that the distance between them was slowly, invisibly, beginning to shrink.

Neither spoke. Not yet. But the air between them felt different now, charged with an awareness that hadn’t been there before.

It was still only the beginning — two students sitting in the same classroom, their names not yet exchanged. But sometimes, beginnings don’t arrive with fireworks. They arrive quietly, like a whisper between friends, like a secret carried in laughter.

Irisa still told herself her focus was on studies. And Ren still told himself that silence was enough. But deep down, both of them had started to feel the same thing — that something was waiting, just ahead, to change everything.

To be continued.....

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