Chapter 5 Take Back Your Love Letter

"Yana,

why do you look at me from time to time? Is there something on my face?" Alina asked with a puzzled look on her face.

Yana's eyes were wide with shock. Even though she had been seatmates with Alaina for nearly half the semester, they weren't exactly friendly with one another. They always addressed each other by their full names, which indicated that they weren't close.

"No, no! It's not that," Yana stuttered. She couldn't decide if she should confirm that there was nothing on Alina's face, or deny that she had been staring at her.

Yana's eyes were bright and clear, and she didn't have that haughty look to them like the other students had. Alina could tell that Yana was a simple girl.

"Why is everyone looking at me like I'm weird?" Alina moved closer to Yana and whispered to her.

Everyone she had met so far had gaped at her. Although she didn't mind the attention, she would want to know if there was something they were keeping from her. She didn't want to look like a fool.

Yana flinched at her proximity and inched farther away from Alina. She snorted, "Don't you know?"

Alina stared at her and shook her head.

Thankfully, the morning bell rang, so Yana didn't have to answer her question. There was a twenty-minute morning reading period before their first class started. The class would begin soon after.

Two tall and lean boys staggered into the classroom with their hands in their pockets.

These boys seemed overly confident with themselves. Alina glanced at them but quickly averted her eyes.

She didn't know if she was imagining it or not, but she was certain that one of the boys was staring at her.

'I must be seeing things. Maybe this boy's seat is near mine.'

Alina quickly scanned the room for empty seats and found two vacant seats in the seventh and eighth rows of the third group.

She scolded herself for jumping to conclusions.

Alina opened the book closest to her and pretended to be busy reading. The articles were simple for her to understand since she had already graduated from university. However, she always had a hard time studying. After graduation, she avoided studying like the plague.

She decided that she would try her hardest this time around and pick up the lessons she had already forgotten.

Alina took out a fresh notebook and began to take down notes when she suddenly felt a presence behind her.

Her fingers stilled, and Alina slowly turned around. Wasn't this the boy who just arrived?

The boy in front of her was handsome. He had long hair with a few unruly strands that draped over one eyebrow, and he had a silver stud in one ear. He shoved one of his hands in his pocket and gave Alina a malicious smile.

The boy attracted everyone's attention. They were all excited to see how things would unfold.

Alina looked up at the boy and asked in a calm voice, "What do you want?"

Perhaps her voice was too calm and her expression too cold. The boy was stunned for a moment but quickly regained his composure. He took out a light blue envelope from his pocket and threw it on her desk. In a disgusted voice, he said, "Take your love letter back!"

The boy's voice wasn't too loud, but it was enough for everyone to hear. A commotion broke out in the classroom. Yana's gaze flitted from the letter to her seatmate, her eyes wide with shock.

For a moment, Alina was at a loss for words. Although she had done nothing wrong, she reminded herself that she was living Alaina's life now. In everyone's eyes, she wrote the letter.

"Okay. Thank you." Alina forced a small smile and muttered a curse at him inside her head.

She had no choice. This was the best she could do in this scenario. It would be worse if she burst into tears or hid her face in shame.

The boy had played out the scene of him returning this love letter thousands of times in his head, but he never imagined it would play out like this.

He carefully scanned the girl's face and found only calmness and indifference in her features. There was no hint of embarrassment, humiliation, sadness, or even irritation on her face. He was ashamed to admit to himself that he was slightly disappointed by her reaction.

He scoffed at her, then turned to leave.

Everyone thought Alina would be ashamed and even run out of the classroom sobbing. No one expected this reaction from her.

For a few moments, the classroom was eerily quiet. Soon enough, the students began to whisper amongst themselves.

The bell suddenly rang, interrupting their gossiping. This was the second bell for morning reading. Whoever entered the classroom after this bell would be considered late.

Alina paid no attention to the gossiping and opened the light blue envelope. She quickly unfolded the letter and was about to read it when someone whispered, "The teacher is here."

Alina placed the letter back inside the envelope and looked up towards the door.

A young man who looked like he was in his mid-twenties with short hair walked towards the platform. As he stood to take in his surroundings, he smiled and looked around the classroom. After clearing his throat, he greeted, "Good morning, boys and girls. There's a little more than a week left before the monthly exams. I hope you will take the time to study and do better than you did the last time. Everyone, open your book!"

The teacher's name was Jason Su and he was a fresh graduate, and a new member of the faculty. Class 126 was the first class he was in charge of.

The students didn't take his words seriously.

Some even dared to complain about the exams in front of him.

However, the students seated near the front of the classroom continued to read their books attentively.

Similar to other high schools, it was customary for MH High School to rank their students according to their grades. The students were seated according to their academic performance, which meant that the students with low grades usually sat in the back of the classroom.

Alina wasn't aware of this fact. As far as she knew, seats had always been arranged according to height.

When she heard that there was only one week before the exams, Alina concentrated on reading the book in front of her.

Yana continued to stare at Alina with her doe eyes. She wanted to say something but stopped herself on second thought. Yana could tell that Alina wasn't interested in making a conversation, so she bit her lip and began to read her book.

Time flew by when you were focused. Alina was fully invested in her book and barely noticed the bell that signaled that it was the end of the period.

It was Thursday, which meant that their first class would be Math.

Mr. Su was their Math teacher. He was a man in his fifties man who wore glasses, had a bald head, and a thin frame.

Mr. Su's lesson wasn't anything extraordinary, but he managed to explain the concepts in great detail.

Although Alina couldn't recall most of the formulas anymore, she remembered at once when Mr. Su went through them.

After the key point was explained, the students had to do exercises on the blackboard.

Mr. Su prepared three questions on the blackboard, then asked, "Any volunteers?" The class was silent. "If there are no volunteers, I'll call at random." Mr. Su glanced around the classroom, and wrinkled his nose to push his glasses up.

The students all lowered their heads and avoided eye contact. They prayed desperately they wouldn't be called to volunteer.

The three questions were about what they had learned today. Alina wrote them down and tried to solve them on a piece of paper.

"Jenny, Steve, and Yana." Mr. Su glanced at the class list and called out their names.

When Yana heard her name called, a look of dread passed over her face. She took a deep breath and stood up reluctantly.

Yana's seat was against the wall, so Alina had to move to make way for her.

As Yana stood up, Alina immediately inched her chair forward so she could pass through.

When Yana passed by her desk, she saw a glimpse of Alina's paper and found the three questions written on it. Alina had solved two of the problems already. She stopped to look at them before quickly running to the platform.

Yana chose to solve the question on the left first. She wrote out the steps and the final answer according to what she saw on Alina's paper.

Another girl chose to answer the question in the middle. After pondering it over for a few moments, she was able to solve it.

The boy, on the other hand, looked helpless. He had no idea how to solve the problem.

When he saw that the other two had already solved their questions, Mr. Su glanced at the boy through his glasses and said, "Alright, you can go."

The boy was visibly relieved and quickly tossed the chalk aside and ran from the platform as fast as he could.

"Well, everyone, let's see how the students did. Do you think they answered it correctly?" Mr. Su knocked on the blackboard and looked back at the students.

Yana took a peek at Alina, and guilt overwhelmed her. She didn't know whether the answer was right since she only copied it from her.

"The answer to the first question is correct. You did a good job, Yana, but there were some steps skipped. I'm afraid some won't understand, so make sure you write the entire process next time."

After hearing that her answer was correct, some gaped at Yana with astonished expressions.

Yana pursed her lips and peeped at Alina to see how she would react. Alina responded with a congratulatory smile and raised her thumb at her.

"For the second question, the first few steps were correct, but there was a mistake made in the last step, so the answer was wrong."

"For the third question..."

After a while, the bell rang.

"Alright. The class is over!"

"Goodbye, sir!" There would be a ten-minute break before the second class.

Some went out to use the bathroom while some stepped out to get some fresh air. Alina didn't move from her seat. She was busy learning her missed Math lessons.

Yana wanted to get out of the room to get some fresh air, but she hesitated to leave when she saw the determined look on Alina's face.

She noticed that something was different about Alina. They used to get the same grades in school. Yana didn't understand much of the lesson, but Alina was able to solve the problems correctly. Something was off about her!

Even when Leo Tang gave her love letter back, she was so composed, as if the love letter wasn't even hers.

Moreover, in the past, Alina always addressed her by her full name. Sometimes, she even made a long face when she had to scoot over so Yana could pass. Now, not only did she call her Yana, but she was also kinder towards her. Yana wondered if another person replaced her.

Alina felt Yana's gaze beside her. She stopped writing, then turned her head to look at Yana. She smiled and said, "Yana, if you keep looking at me like this, I'll think you have a crush on me!"

Yana's face turned tomato-red at her words. "Don't play like that!" she protested.

The girl was so shy that she couldn't handle the slightest bit of teasing. Alina raised a brow at her and continued to read her book.

The students in the class gathered together to discuss what happened during morning reading. They whispered amongst themselves about Alina and the school hunk in Class 125.

They spoke in hushed tones, so Alina wouldn't notice that they were gossiping about her.

"Why are you still sitting there? Class is over, Yana! Come out! I have something to tell you!" A friend of Yana's asked her to come outside.

Alina moved her chair to let her pass while she continued to write her notes.

Yana scoffed and managed to squeeze past her.

In the corridor outside, the girls got together to chat in front while the boys played in the back.

Mandy Li held her arm out to Yana and asked in an amused voice, "When Leo gave Alaina's love letter back, was she heartbroken? I wish I saw the look on her face!"

Yana wanted to tell them what really happened, but she didn't want to spoil Mandy's good mood, so she merely nodded in agreement.

"I never liked her. She bribed her way into this school like us, yet she looks down on us. Who does she think she is? It's funny to watch her make a fool out of herself! Yana, were you satisfied when you saw what happened to her?"

After hesitating for a few moments, Yana asked, "Mandy, do you notice something different about Alaina today?"

"What do you mean? By the way, she didn't go into Class 125 to find Lily today. There must be something wrong with her. She's too ashamed to show her face to Class 125!"

"I'm not sure if that's true or not. Don't talk nonsense!"

"Nonsense? Everyone's talking about it! Why would everyone talk about it if it was a lie?"

Several boys crowded around Leo. One of them joked, "Leo, you're too mean! You returned her love letter in front of everyone! Only you would do something like that!"

"All good girls fall for bad boys at some point! Many girls dream about Leo! A lot of girls have written him love letters!"

"Leo, what did Alaina's love letter say? Did you get a chance to read it? Tell us what it said!"

With his back leaned against the wall of the corridor and the sun gently passing over him, Leo replied in a smug voice, "I don't remember. I already forgot about it."

"You're no fun! Did it say 'Dear Leo, I fell for you the first time I saw you'?"

"Ha-ha." The group of boys burst into laughter.