When Night And Day Become One

|| Three ||

So sixth grade could be pretty difficult if you were a transfer student like me. Everyone had bonded with everyone else, and you were left on your own. Oh wait, not entirely on your own.

Every day, I would find trash in my locker, doodles on my desk and scribbling at the edge of my notebooks. I would find my gym shoes soaked in water, my lunch box half empty and my textbooks scattered outside the room every after class. I would find gum on my chair, random banana peelings on the floor and my canned drink spewing on my face, only to find out later Lu Han had shaken it furiously.

Lu Han was set to make my life a living hell, and I have absolutely no idea why. Or maybe I do. It was probably because I pushed him into the lake, or because I kicked him on the first of school, or because I did everything I could to get back at him. Lu Han started it though with the moment when he stole my sandwich, and there was no way in heaven or hell that I was backing down.

"You going on a battle or what?" Chris remarked beside me when we were walking to school one day. "Your brows are so pinched together I wouldn't be surprised if they'd up forming one line."

"You're not going to help me anyway, so leave me alone," I said as I clutched the straps of my backpack tighter. Who knew what Lu Han had in store for me today. Of course, I had to be ready.

Chris chuckled, patting my head as he headed to his class. "Whatever that is, stop being so uptight about it, little sister."

I just scrunched my nose at him and headed to my class. All my defense mechanisms were alert when I entered our room, but when I got to my seat, my desk was clean, my chair was intact and the annoying person that should have been sitting beside it, smirking at me all the while, was missing. Hmmm. Suspicious. I thought as I finally settled on my seat.

Throughout the day, I kept my eyes alert, looking out for that one person who never failed to ruin my day. This could be a trick for all I knew. Better safe than sorry. But for once, my day ended peacefully. There was no Lu Han in sight!

"You seemed to be looking for him a lot," Hannah, a classmate who had caught me sweeping the crowd with my eyes, teased, and poked me on the side.

"I am most definitely not," I denied immediately.

She just snickered, and then walked off.

I couldn't stop the nagging feeling inside of me as I slowly walked towards home. The sun was slowly setting and I still hadn't seen him. I should have been relieved. This was the first time that I had finally experienced a normal school day. And yet, I was worried that this relief would later be overturned by something disastrous.

Realizing I was being paranoid, I slapped myself on both cheeks. "Geez. What is wrong with me?" I shook my head and walked faster.

A moving van passed me when I was on our street. "Oh? Guess we finally have a new neighbor," I muttered, suddenly remembering the always-empty room across mine.

I got passed our gate and was treading along the narrow brick path to our house when I suddenly noticed a shadow of a person jumped up to the shadow of the fence and started following me.

I turned around and my eyes rounded in shock. "Lu Han?!"

A lazy smirk came almost immediately on his face. "Hi, did you miss me?" He jumped off the picket fence separating our house and the next and strutted towards me.

I backed off, remembering I got in trouble the last time I heard that line.

"What are you doing here?" I couldn't help asking.

"I live here now," he shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. "I was helping my family moved our stuff if you were worried."

"I wasn't worried!" An amused smile replaced the lazy smirk on his face, which was even more annoying.

But wait... he said he... "LIVE HERE?!" I shrieked.

"Uh-huh," he chirped, clearly enjoying my reaction. "And my room is just across yours." He happily pointed out the window to the next house, the one across mine.

"WHAT?"

"Geez," he winced, covering his ears. "Stop yelling, will ya? I'm not going to disappear just because you keep shouting on my face."

"How could you be moving when you already live here?" I yelled some more.

He laughed. "I dunno. Ask my parents," he answered offhandedly.

"Ugh, go away, okay? I can't understand why you've chosen me to be your little toy, but I don't like it one bit, okay?" I let out in one breath.

He just looked at me, a mixed of contentment and sadness in his eyes.

"I don't like it, either," he muttered so low I thought it was my imagination speaking. "But it's the only way," he continued, this time loud enough for me to believe he really said it.

"Only way to what?" His voice had sounded so serious; I was beginning to believe Lu Han had reasons for his actions.

"The only way to enjoy my day!" He suddenly grinned.

Then he took something out of his pocket and flicked it towards my face.

"See ya!"

With one bound, he was at the other side of the fence.

And I stood there frozen, my mouth hanging open, my eyes focusing on the squirming cockroach now crawling its way towards the tip of my nose.

I screamed, not caring what beasts I would wake up with my shrill. "Lu Han, you jerk!"

All I heard from the other side of the fence was his thunderous laughter.

The cockroach finally got enough of my voice and decided to fly off my face. I was dashing towards the house in a heartbeat, running straight towards the sink. I washed my face thoroughly, cursing Lu Han all the while.

"I can't believe that jerk. And to think he's just right next door!" I huffed. I stomped back to my room as I roughly wiped my face with a towel.

"Nice room," an annoyingly familiar voice said.

I slowly turned around and there the jerk was, sitting by his window just 3 meters away from mine, his face on his palm, his elbow propped on his knees.

I didn't realize 3 meters was that short. "Ugh!" I flung the towel to who knows where in my irritation. "Get your annoying face out of my sight!"

"On the contrary, you'll be seeing this handsome face of mine every single day. So you better start getting used to it by now," he said with a lazy smile.

Now that I think about it, Lu Han had a pretty face. Which just made me more annoyed because talk about unfair? Where's the good attitude when the irritatingly nice smile is present?

"Hmmph!" I moved towards the window and reached up, letting the curtains fall, cutting my view of him.

"Goodnight!" he yelled from his room when I turned the lights off in my room 3 hours later. Jerk, paying attention just to irk the heck out of me.

"Yeah, whatever," I muttered as I climbed on the bed. Then I let sleep take over me.

That night, my dreams were full of cockroaches and faces of that jerk everywhere. Ugh, that night all I had were nightmares. All because of him.