Irani frowned in disappointment. “Cashmere! You're avoiding him, right? You shouldn't have come with your birthday."

“I know.” She bit her lower lip. “I'm at fault. I've been hard-headed last night...”

Her best friend crossed her arms over her chest. “So what now? Is the mission already halted?" 

Cashmere shook her head. "No. I am still adamant about getting rid of my feelings for him. Last night… was just a moment of weakness."

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes. Promise. I will avoid him no matter what.”

Irani nodded. "So, what happened last night?" 

Cashmere sighed. "Well, Kass was also there with Grey… so I just stuck with my brother the whole night."

"Oh, you shouldn't have come with your brother in the first place."

Cashmere let out a small smile. "It's okay, Irani. I had fun watching Grey's and Red's dance performance."

Irani frowned. "Red had a dance performance last night?" 

Cashmere grinned. "Yup. I even took a video of Red. You want to see it?" 

Irani made a disgusting face. "What? Of course not. Why would I be interested in that asshole?" 

"Really?" 

Irani cleared her throat. "Anyway, it's already three. I have to go to the drama guild's office, Cashmere. Let's just continue this tomorrow?" 

"Sure. Thanks again, Irani." 

Cashmere was left alone in the library. Instead of gathering her things, she tried to solve another equation. 

“Hmm, what is it that's wrong this time?" Cashmere asked herself after seeing that her answer didn't match the one in the answer sheet. 

"Damn. I really hate Math." 

“Cash...”

Cashmere cocked her head to the familiar voice that came in front of her. She found Nico in front of her, holding a book. 

“Hey...Nico.” Cashmere smiled at him. 

"You're reviewing for the midterm exams?" he asked. 

Cashmere nodded. “Yup. I was with Irani earlier but she left a while ago...”

Nico smiled at Cashmere as his gaze went to her things on the table. 

“What are you reviewing at the moment? Looks like you're having a hard time?”

Cashmere pursed her lips.

"Algebra. Unfortunately, I sucked at numbers and equations so I'm having a hard time solving these problems."

“May I see it?”

"Uh, sure.” Even if Cashmere felt shy, she let Nico sit beside her and checked her paper. 

"You sign here is wrong, Cashmere," Nico said after he carefully examined her paper. He pointed at a particular equation. "This should be negative instead of positive." 

 Cashmere while examining her paper. "Yeah. You're right. I didn't notice it."

Nico turned to her and smiled. "If you don't want to get confused with this long equation, I can teach you a shortcut on how to solve this problem." 

“Really?” Her eyes lit up in interest. 

"Yup. Here it is. Just follow me."

Nico took the ballpen from her and answered the equation with the shortcut solution he was talking about. 

He finished solving the problem in less than a minute.

“Oh, wow. That was fast, Nico. Did you know that it took me twenty minutes to answer that? While it only took you twenty seconds. I didn't know you're good at Math!" Cashmere looked at him in awe. 

Nico chuckled, as he placed his hand on the back of his neck. "Nah. I just finished it faster because of the short formula I used."

Cashmere compared her solution to Nico's. It was obvious that Nico's solution was shorter and much easier to understand. 

Nico handed her back her ballpen. "Here. Try it, Cashmere. Try to solve this one equation using this formula I used earlier."

“Hmm, sure...” 

Cashmere answered the equation Nico pointed at her. She smiled when she managed to answer it correctly in less than five minutes. “Oh my shiz, I got it right, Nico!” I exclaimed at him. “Come on, double-check it!”

Nico gave her a thumbs up after checking her answer. “Yup. This is right, Cashmere. The solution I told you was easier, right?”

Cashmere nodded. “Yeah. Thank you so much, Nico. This means a lot to me." She smiled while looking at him. "You're not just good at Philosophy. You're also good at numbers!" Cashmere pouted. "Now, I feel so stupid."

"You're not stupid, Cashmere," Nico said, frowning. "Some people just don't have any interest in Math and that's okay." 

Nico smiled. "But anyway, I still like you even though you sucked at Math, you have nothing to worry about."

Cashmere's smile faded with what Nico just said. 

"But I'm just kidding, Cashmere…" Nico said, smiling at her. “Don't worry, I already accepted that you don't like me… for now. "

"For now?" Cashmere's eyebrows raised. "

Nico smiled sheepishly. "For now, I accept that you don't have feelings for me. But I'm still hoping that someday, your mind will change. You don't like me for now, but maybe next month, or next year, you will. Who knows right? We're still young, anyway."

"Nico…" 

Cashmere's lips parted. She liked his positive demeanor. He was really a nice guy.

Nico looked at her and smiled. “I'm willing to wait, Cashmere...”

“To whom are these cupcakes for, Cashmere?" Blue asked Cashmere while he was eating the extra blueberry cupcake that she baked for Nico. 

“This is for my classmate, Blue...”

Cashmere decided to give Nico some cupcakes tomorrow. It was her way of thanking him for helping her at the library earlier. 

Her brother frowned. "And whose classmates it is?" 

"His name's Nico. He's my classmate in Philosophy."

"And why do you have to give him cupcakes?" 

Cashmere eyed her brother. "Stop it, Blue. I just want to give him cupcakes because he helped me at the library earlier. He helped me with my subject. Apparently, he's good at Math." 

Her eyes widened when her brother took another cupcake. "Stop it, Blue. I only said one right?" 

"Come on, Cash. This is my last one." 

Cashmere shook her head and sighed. "Fine. Anyway, why did you ask Manang Prising to cook chicken adobo for dinner?" 

"Grey requested, Cashmere. They'll be eating dinner here with us."