When You Sat Beside Me

Chapter 1: The Empty Seat The first thing I noticed about Class 3A was that it was loud. Too loud. I stood at the door with my transfer slip in my sweaty hand, wishing the floor would eat me up. A few students glanced at me. Most didn’t bother. I was just another new face in a school where everyone already had their group, their stories, their inside jokes. “Emily Tran, right?” said the teacher. “You’ll sit... there.” She pointed to the back corner, next to a window and — thankfully — an empty desk. I exhaled. That seat looked peaceful. Quiet. Safe. Until he sat down beside me. Kai Tan. Tan skin, messy hair, sharp eyes. The name everyone seemed to whisper, like a song stuck in their heads. He was the guy people stared at when he walked by. The one with perfect test scores, captain of the basketball team, and apparently zero interest in dating anyone. I didn’t expect him to sit next to me. He could sit anywhere. He didn’t say anything. Just slid into the seat with a soft thump, opened his sketchbook, and began to draw. Wait. Draw? Not notes. Not homework. Not random doodles. He was sketching... me. I turned slightly to peek. On his page was the outline of a girl — ponytail, thin frame, hunched shoulders — clutching a piece of paper with nervous fingers. It was me. Right there. And he was capturing every detail with perfect strokes. “You draw strangers now?” I whispered, not sure why I even spoke. He didn’t look up. “You looked like you needed to be seen.” I blinked. That was the moment my heart tripped over itself. Chapter 2: Doodles and Dogs By the second week, it became a thing. He would draw. I would pretend not to care. And between periods, we’d exchange little doodles torn from notebook corners. He sketched a cat once. I drew a stick-figure dragon breathing hearts. He smiled. It was the first time I saw him smile at anything other than a basketball. One day, he slid me a page. It wasn’t a doodle. It was a message. "Come to the park after school. Bring snacks. And no, I’m not a murderer." I stared at it. Then at him. He raised an eyebrow. The corners of his lips curved slightly. After school, I found him sitting on a bench under the oldest tree in town. Beside him was a dog. No leash. Just a huge golden retriever lying across his sneakers like he owned the world. “This is Miso,” he said. “He thinks he’s a person.” Miso barked once, wagged his tail, then trotted over and sat in front of me expectantly. “He’s also my emotional support animal,” Kai added. “And now yours too.” I sat. Opened the bag of snacks. Miso placed a paw on my knee like he approved. We talked. About nothing. About everything. About how silence sometimes feels like safety, and how art is a better language than words. Kai didn’t ask about my past. He didn’t ask why I transferred. He just let me exist, without explanation. I liked that. A lot. Chapter 3: Rain and Regret It rained the next day. Heavy, endless sheets of gray that blurred windows and soaked shoes. I forgot my umbrella. Of course. So when school ended, I stayed behind in the art room, pretending to finish a sketch. Really, I was just waiting for the rain to stop. Footsteps. “You planning to live here now?” I looked up. Kai stood in the doorway, holding a massive blue umbrella. “No,” I muttered. “Just don’t want to swim home.” He chuckled and offered the umbrella. “Let’s go.” We walked in silence for a while. The umbrella was small. Our shoulders kept bumping. “I used to be the new kid too,” he said suddenly. “Didn’t speak for a month. People thought I was mute.” I smiled. “They think I’m invisible.” He glanced at me. “You’re not.” The next day, someone pinned a sketch to my locker. It was a girl under a shared umbrella, smiling up at the boy beside her. In the corner, tiny letters spelled: "You matter." My heart exploded. Chapter 4: The Confession We weren’t dating. But everyone assumed we were. I didn’t mind. Not really. One afternoon, Miso started barking like crazy as soon as I arrived at the park. Kai was already there, pacing. He looked up, walked straight to me, and said, “I think I like you.” Just like that. No flowers. No music. Just rain-stained sneakers and a pounding heart. “I think I like you too,” I whispered. He grinned. Pulled out a folded paper. It was another drawing. This one showed two figures sitting on a park bench. Her head on his shoulder. A dog asleep at their feet. Underneath, the words: "When you sat beside me... everything changed." Chapter 5: Kai's Secret Page That night, Kai opened his sketchbook to a blank page. He hesitated, then wrote in small cursive at the top corner: "For my eyes only." And then: "I think I've always been a little different. Not broken, not confused. Just... quiet about it. I've liked girls. I've liked boys. But I never knew which one made me feel more real. Until her. Until Emily. And now... I don't care about the label. I just know how my heart beats when she laughs." He closed the book and set it beside Miso, who wagged his tail in his sleep. Outside, the rain had finally stopped. But something new had begun.