Pras’ brain cells needed several seconds to determine if the one sitting next to him was not an apparition. Once the process was done, he was completely aghast and reflexively backed off to the walls. There was no telling how frantic the pacemaker cells on his heart had become. He was completely shaken from flesh to soul.

The angel of love was often depicted wielding bows. However, for Pras’ case, it seems that the god of love had descended and switched weapons to Barrett XM109 rifle complete with explosive armour piercing rounds to shatter the last defences of Pras' weakened heart.

“I-im...possible…” Pras squaked.

Mana’s blue eyes widened. She calmly gave a quick gaze towards the windows facing the corridors. She mumbled as if she had understood the situation before asking Pras with flat intonation, “You saw them?”

“W-who?”

“The unseen ones.”

Pras shivered, that guess had replaced his astonishment with a sudden chill. “N-no way I can see them.”

“Hmm, true, not everyone had such a gift,” Mana mumbled again, then shrugged and started to listen to Miss Dian’s explanation.

Chills suddenly changed to silence and confusion. Mana’s question made it seem like she had such an ability, yet Pras suspected that she might just be curious. Nevertheless, he needed to calm himself down from all the fiasco of feelings he currently hosted before finally being able to try to listen to the lesson.

It was definitely a failure as his heart kept pounding very hard. His eyes wandered from time to time just to glance at his new deskmate since this is the second time he could see her in such a short distance for a longer length of time. The other occasion was when they accidentally had to sit together during French language class during 10th grade.

On this day, Mana was wearing a crystal flower shaped hairpin to lock the left side of hair that framed her face. The asymmetrical look between her hair’s left and right part had made it appear much cuter in Pras' eyes.

And also those eyes… it was a soft dark blue only to glow slightly when exposed to bright enough light. Pras never knew descendants of people from Asian continent could have such eyes. Pras once heard and saw about the Buton tribe which has beautiful blue eyes, but their eyes are more on the brighter shade, not beautifully subtle like Mana’s.

Pras was so enraptured by her beauty that he didn’t realise Mana was also glancing at him. “Anything?” She curiously asked, yet still in a rather flat and bored tone.

“That’s such a beautiful dark blue colour,” Pras’ tongue just said the compliment without being supervised by his already dumbfounded brain.

“The soft lens is quite expensive,” Mana answered lightly.

“It suits you very well.”

“Owh….”

Pras got startled a few seconds after Mana returned to listen to Miss Dian. It seemed that the surprises today had caused him so much energy that he forgot he just talked smoothly with Mana. He even unconsciously had the audacity to flirt within the first few minutes they sat together!

Not to mention, he didn’t realise that Mana’s eye colour was the effect of a soft lens. Of course it should be a soft lens as there were no eye colours like that yet. Pras realised his foolishness was born from his already disappearing sanity.

“F-forget what I’ve just said.”

Pras hastily tried to undo what he had done. At least the shock of realising what he had done helped him to focus a bit about the lesson, though it was only half working.

Another unexpected thing happened right after maths was done and they were still waiting for their biology teacher. Mana managed to cause another haywire in Pras’ sinoatrial node by suddenly pulling out a plastic bag full of heart shaped packages.

While putting it right in the middle of their desk, Mana asked, “Is this yours?”

Pras didn’t answer. He just alternatively gazed in confusion towards Mana and the packages.

With the help of what looked like sign language, Mana asked again, “Is this yours?”

“What’s that?”

“Mysterious gifts,” Eggi hissed from behind Pras. “Those chocolates were always in her drawer since the second day of the semester. Guess who’s being suspected?”

“Who?” Pras frowned. “Erlangga your friend in basketball extracurricular or Gilang the senior?”

“Are you really that dense, man?”

“Oh my.” Mana chuckled with a calm yet murderous tone. She glanced at Eggi, exerting a very intimidating aura. “This is a domestic matter of this desk and I, as a citizen of this desk, did not in any mean ask the opinion of a neighbouring desk’s citizen. For he had no say in this matter.”

Pras backed off to the walls once again due to the sheer pressure emanating from Mana. Eggi was the same, he even stuttered when he mumbles, “D-don’t, don’t throw me off the car.”

“And… deskmate, there are things I should make clear.” Mana held the plastic bag afloat the table and shook it a bit. “I do not mind such a gift, though it will not have any meaning, but do not do it secretly like a coward. And who did you mention just now?”

“Erlangga?”

“A coward, show off, and definitely too much of a fool to even guess where my desk was.”

“G-gilang?”

“Who?” Mana frowned.

“I-I don’t know, he’s a senior, I heard some gossip.”

“Gilang is not an anagram of your name, is it? Because you are often the first to reach the classroom.”

Pras shook his head. His desire to deflect a false accusation was more overwhelming than his usual helplessness before Mana. Thus, he slowly gained confidence in the defence.

“There’s only one G in my full name. And I just spent a lot of money to buy Zurefgar, there is no way I can afford those chocolates without going into starvation mode everyday.”

Pras might have hallucinated again, but he swore he had seen some sparkle in Mana’s eyes at the mention of Zurefgar. Though mostly her visage still shows the bored and proud expression.

“I can attest to that,” Ega leaned backwards. “I know how stingy my bro is. And yeah, he just bought Zurefgar so we all can play together.”

“I admit, this new evidence and confessions are rather convincing.” Mana nodded. “This morning you straight up went for archery and the chocolate was still in my drawer. But Ega was already in class.”

“What the hell?” Ega protested. “Sorry, but I’m not going to steal someone’s girl, why would I buy so many chocolates for you?”

“Yeah, you’d eat it like a boar instead.” Alvin snickered.

“I swear that just cost you healing when you needed it the most, you freaky shaman.”

“Forget it,” Mana sighed, she quickly hid the chocolates since their biology teacher had arrived.

Curiosity got the best of Pras, he instead asked Mana half whispering, “Y-you don’t want to try to find out?”

“What for?”

“Well, it’s free, but since you said it meant nothing, I guess it is better to tell the person to stop.”

Mana mumbled to herself, took one chocolate from the bag, then put the rest to Pras’ drawer.

“Please take it as an apology for accusing you.”

Pras chuckled awkwardly, “It’s okay, my face is suspicious anyway. And thanks for the chocolates.”

Mana glanced at Pras for a moment. Then as she started focusing on the lesson, she complimented with a such proud and bored tone, “At least you are not a coward.”

The words hit Pras hard right on the spot. What Mana had said couldn’t be further from the truth. He mumbled to himself, “But, I am a coward.”

The first break was filled with another card battle, this time Pras had Mana still sitting on her chair. She was busy with her cellphone and tablet- which she also used as a medium to take notes. Pras wondered if she was busy replying to messages due to her popularity.

While playing, Pras shared his blueberry toast with Ega. Since Ega was surprisingly self aware this time and only took one slice, Pras still had a couple left. Perhaps a bit too many. Luckily, there was another person he could offer the thing to which also might help him improve his relationship with her.

Thus, with such a great leap of faith he offered to Mana, “T-thanks for the chocolates, so.. uh.. I have some toast, you want one?”

“It is okay, do not trouble yourself,” Mana refused. She waved her left hands elegantly. Her eyes and other hand were still busy with her devices.

“Okay.”

Pras continued his duel with Ega, however it didn’t go well since he couldn't concentrate due to Ega’s constant know-it-all smile. He could ignore Ega’s annoying act, but he couldn’t ignore the faint sniffing noise from his right.

Pras asked again, “Is something the matter?”

“Blueberry jam?” Mana counterasked.

“Yeah, with slices of banana.”

“Oh, my, sounds wonderful,” Mana acknowledged. Then, she's back with whatever her business was. This time, she glanced once in a while towards Pras’ lunch box.

Ega shrugged as he and Pras exchanged confused looks. They continued playing while chatting. However, Pras slowly pushed the lunch box towards Mana. Without words, the two boys realised that Mana might feel it was not polite to just ask directly like that, especially because she just moved to this desk.

“Boyz, Zurefgar tonite~?” said Fathan, who returned to the class with Pitoy and Eggi. “Levelling alone feelz boring.”

Putting his card on the field, Ega complained, “Well, sorry bros, too much homework and school stuff lately, and also I can’t afford to play at the time you play.”

“Ahwlibwi.” Pitoy swooped in to the conversation despite his mouth was full of snacks. “Whhuen canh weh goth tho eieieghty liekh thuis?”

It was definitely unintelligible for most people, but Pras just could decipher the whole sentence in his brain.

“Ega being Ega, fickle minded as always,” Eggi sneered, clearly annoyed. He sat on Ega’s deck and raised his right foot to stomp on Ega’s desk.

“Damnit’, bro, you can sit but get your foot off.”

“I don’t care! So what? Your father made this desk?!”

Pitoy swallowed his snacks. With a confused frown, he asked, “How did we go from playing together to Ega’s father made the desk?”

With a heavy sigh, Pras defused the situation, “8 PM at Camp Wok’giri in Grand Savannah.”

“It’s too late in the evening,” Pitoy protested, “let’s go at half to eight.”

The proposal triggered the others, they quickly fumed at Pitoy, “Just don’t be late!”

“Ahahahaha….”

Despite knowing Pitoy would be late, they just agreed to his proposal. While waiting for the break to end, they continued to talk about Zurefgar.

Pras was a bit worried that his new deskmate would feel estranged with the topic of the conversation. But luckily she calmly ate Pras’ toast - which seemed like she ate very slowly since haven’t finished her slice of toast. She didn’t say anything until the bell rang.

“Thank you, the toasts are a bit soggy, but delicious, I like it,” said Mana when she returned Pras’ lunch box. There was a faint smile on her face.

For Pras that was equivalent to medusa’s gaze that petrified him. Even after one and a half years, those kinds of smiles always imprisoned his heart to Mana’s grasp.

But, the whole infatuation was not enough to delete Pras’ disappointment when he opened his lunch box. Mana had eaten all the remaining slices of bread.

Pras could only sigh without protesting. He thought it was his fault since Mana could have misunderstood the word ‘one’ as one box instead of one slice. At least, Mana had given him a whole bunch of free chocolates anyway.

When they finally reached lunch hour, Pras had the intention to ask Mana to join them all but she disappeared among other students right when the bells rang.

Unfortunately, Pras didn’t have time to spare to look for her as he and the others had to rush down to the cafeteria at the southern building’s ground floor.

Eggi and Fathan were tasked to move swiftly and target a table to sit on. After that, Pitoy and Pras - the two tallest and scariest among the group - sat down then emitted a threatening aura around them. Purposely talking about some military history also gave more effect to deter people from coming.

The cafeteria was actually quite big and connected to the school garden south of the main building. There was a big glass wall separating the area on the garden’s terrace and the air conditioned area. There were long tables and circular tables scattered on both sides.

The cafeteria also had some stalls thus the students were not flocking only to one side to get food.

Among the heated discussion of Pras and Pitoy as well as the noisiness of the cafeteria, there was a bored and proud voice that greeted Pras.

“Hello there, decent deskmate, may I share a table with you?”

“W-whut? I-i m..ean s-sure…”

“Please have a seat,” Pitoy welcomed Mana with ease to cover for the stuttering Pras. “It’s a rare occasion you’d join us.”

“Thank you.” Mana nodded and sat next to Pras. “I apologise, for other desks are relatively full or booked. Dealing with the mysterious chocolate sender took more time than expected. At least, less headache for now.”

“That’s cold,” Pitoy crackled. He took some time glancing at both Mana and Pras before clearing his throat. “Ahem, I’ll get some food, you two guard the place, alright.”

“No problem.” Mana nodded. She turned to Pras and said, “You were right, decent deskmate, it was Gilang the senior.”

“Oh, real…”

Pras stopped. He felt dozens of jealous stares were stabbing him from every side. He quickly convinced Mana, “By the way, don’t you want to get your lunch first?”

Mana tilted her head in confusion, “Would you be alright alone?”

“No problem, I’m good at defending. I bet you’re hungry, don’t worry about the seats.”

Mana smiled again, “Thank you, you really are a decent deskmate.”

Pras let out a relieved sight as Mana left to order her lunch. The sinister pressure he felt when sitting with Mana had faded. At this point he didn’t know if the seat shuffling was actually a good thing or not since he might get problems later from others who longed to hold Mana’s hands. On the other hand, at least Pras had levelled up from classmate to deskmate and now decent deskmate.

“That’s some progress, I guess.”