"You are…"
"Ah, I'm Liu."
"…student of class A-1."
"Yeah!"
"What are you here for?"
"Nothing much," Liu smiled and gave Cupid a lollipop: "I came here to get the documents, my class president is busy, so I'll go get them for him."
"Oh, do you need me to call the class president out?"
"No, no need, he saw me, he's just preparing the documents to hand out, see?" Liu said and pointed at Riley, who was fumbling with the pile of documents on the teacher's desk.
"Oh…"
The two stood in silence for a while, until Cupid was about to enter the classroom when Liu whispered, "By the way…"
"Huh?"
"You know Hoes, right?"
"Uh…?" Cupid frowned, confused about what Liu was thinking. Liu had seen him with Heos a few times already, right? How could Cupid not know who Hoes is? Well, he wished he didn't know, but now that he did, Liu had also seen the two of them together, so how could Cupid shake his head and say no to that?
"Sorry…this question is so sudden, isn't it…"
"Uh…" Cupid blinked: "What? Is there something wrong with him?" Is Cupid causing him so much trouble that he's about to be sent to the hospital?
"No, there's nothing wrong, not at all." Liu smiled, leaned down, and whispered to Cupid: "I just saw him running over to play with you these days, so I was just asking~."
Cupid slowly turned his head, looked straight into Liu's eyes: "If you want, then lock him up, I don't want him," and then walked straight into the classroom.
"Uh?" Liu stood there for a while: "Huh?"
"What's wrong?" Riley walked out with a stack of documents in his hand: "Did you just talk to Cupid? Are you seriously injured anywhere? You sure didn't hit his bad side, right?"
"Uh…it's a bit surprising…" Liu then whispered, "So it seems Cupid doesn't like Hoes…"
"Hahahahaha."
"What's with the fierce laughter…"
"If you weren't an acquaintance, Cupid would bristle like a cat whose food was taken away…" Riley still remembered the first time when the entire A-2 class was sitting under the stage; at that time, no one knew each other's faces, it was just the first day of school. Cupid looked very fierce, as if he was emitting an air current that said, "If you don't stay five feet away from me, you'll die!"
But Riley later learn that that was just how his face looked. Cupid said that it was early in the morning, so he was a bit sleepy, and he had to try to keep his eyes open to listen to the principal's speech.
A senior once told Riley that Cupid was a bit strange. He saw Cupid talking with the snail in the school garden that day, but Riley said, as long as you don't put that in mind, he's not the type of person who will try to hurt anyone…Riley thinks…
To be honest… Cupid had caused some minor trouble in the past, but they were all minor, and no one had ever gotten hurt, so Riley just turned a blind eye.
Class A-1 and A-2 were both good classes, even if Cupid's math scores were a bit shabby, his literature scores were okay, and his chemistry scores were… average. But he was energetic! Riley liked that, at least the class garden was being tended to by someone, at least whenever there were extracurricular activities, Cupid would be there to replace those who shirked cleaning the school.
"But, let me ask you something, Riley…"
"Uh?"
"Does Cupid have… a lover yet?"
"Huh…?!"
-o-
Nova was standing bewildered in front of the classroom door. It was afternoon, and at this exact time, Cupid should have been sitting here waiting for him…but now he couldn't find him anywhere…
He tried running to the school gate, but looked around and saw no one…
Hmm…where could he have gone to?
Nova knew for sure that he wouldn't leave him and go home, so it could only be…he was still somewhere in the school!
Nova picked up his bag and walked down the hallway of block A, down to block B, where he bumped into a familiar girl.
"Ah…Yunne…"
"Uh? Ah! N…Nova…hello."
"Hi! Oh, uh, Yunne, have you seen Cupid anywhere?" Nova had already guessed where Cupid was, but he still asked Yunne just to be sure.
"Cupid…uhm…" Yunne looked at him with a worried expression: "No, only I saw him walking somewhere in the back yard this morning, but that's all…I'm sorry…"
"No, there's nothing to apologize for." Nova smiled gently: "He usually is there to check on the flower in the morning…so I'm sure he won't go back there…for now…"
"Do you need me to go look for Cupid with you?"
"It's okay, I think I know where he is, but if you want to come along, that's fine too. If it doesn't bother you…"
"Not at all!" Yunne suddenly raised her voice: "Not at all…I…I was planning to, I was planning to meet you to ask about the pudding you ate the other day…" What was that?! Yunne suddenly panicked; she shouldn't be talking about that topic right now. The first priority was to find Cupid!
"Uhm, it was delicious! Thank you for giving it to me."
"N…no problem…" Yunne quickly lowered her face to the floor, so Nova wouldn't see her embarrassed expression, uh, Yunne! What with this! Why did you start talking about the pudding out of nowhere…gods…
While Nova was leading Yunne to where they thought Cupid was, Nova asked, "So, why are you still here, Yunne?"
"Uh?"
"I mean, everyone's gone home already…are you doing some club activities or something?"
"Oh no, I…I stayed to wait for a friend." Yunne gestured, explaining that the club activities were finished: "She's also come home around this time, so I usually wait here for her to come over and we walk back home together."
"How nice!"
"I should text her to tell her I'll be leaving."
"Oh…" sounds a bit like him and Cupid, doesn't it? "You and that friend must be very close, right?"
"Yeah!" Yunne smiled: "Back then, because our houses were close together, we used to play together. Now, even though our houses are a bit far apart, she still comes over to play when she's free."
"Wow…that sounds so sweet."
"Uhm! She's super cute…" Yunne nodded in agreement, rarely having the chance to talk to Nova because of how busy he is. She was more excited than normal: "And you?"
"Me? Me and Cupid? Uhm…where should I begin? We've known each other since we were little, at school, not near each other's houses. Well, back then, Cupid was even scarier than he is now…hahaha."
"Scary…scary? What do you mean?" Yunne did find Cupid a little scary to approach at first, but once she got to know him…he was actually very kind, helpful, and sometimes mischievous. Yunne still hadn't forgotten the moment Cupid wore that cute pink apron when Yunne said it looked adorable on him. Yunne chuckled to herself as she recalled that day.
"Back then, when I was being bullied, Cupid was sitting in the corner of the room reading a book…when the kid who was bullying me was about to raise his hand to hit me, Cupid hit the whole book onto his head."
"Uh!?" Yunne was shocked, covering her mouth to suppress a laugh: "I…I didn't think that was scary! Cupid was very brave!"
"You think so too! Haha."
"Uhm!"
Ah…Nova's laughing…Yunne secretly thanked Cupid for his disappearance, because that's why Yunne could talk to Nova like this.
As they approached the door, looking up, there was a small sign on the wall that read "Art Club."
Both of them can hear the sound of students talking inside the art room.
"I guess…Cupid forgot to tell me again," Nova whispered.
"Did he forget to tell you he was coming here?" Yunne wondered if this had happened many times before.
"Yes." Nova nodded, smiling wryly, "He's so forgetful… that one time in second grade, I told him to go home first because I had an extra literature class, but he forgot and waited for me until the end of the afternoon class…"
"Oh…"
"It's best we don't disturb Cupid…"
"Uhm." Yunne nodded her head, agreed.
"He only goes around playing once in a while instead of going straight home like usual, so let's just leave him alone for now."
"I'll wait at the school gate too, Nova. Can I go with you?" Yunne took a deep breath, gathering her courage to ask.
"Sure!" Nova replied cheerfully.
As Nova and Yunne walked away from the door, one of the room's occupants rushed out: "Wait!… Oh, they're gone…"
The person meant to say that Cupid, the one they were looking for, wasn't in the art room at all...