Mastermind

Chapter 1

This might not be the best time to go scrolling through the boy-you-need-to-attract's i********: account, considering how there was still a pile of assignments that needed to be done, but (surprise surprise) Nara was doing it anyway. Her eyes raked over the search bar while Jasmine was peering from her shoulder curiously. They were on the ground floor of the faculty's main building, a twelve-level fancy construction that was so proudly mentioned as the result of the collaboration of architectural and civil departments.

The two best friends appeared to be abandoning their current work and focusing on Nara's lit phone screen instead. They threw short remarks at each other whenever they found a new fact about the boy they were stalking now.

"Wait. He doesn't have anyone right now, right?" Nara said suddenly, remembering something.

Jasmine tilted her head a bit and said, "Not that I'm aware of? He jumped around different circles of friends, and in literal meaning. Guess he isn't currently attached to someone."

Nara nodded thrice, feigning a believing look when in fact, she wasn't sure whether to trust her best friend's crude observation or not. She continued tapping through different parts of Keza's i********: feed until Jasmine's sent a question to her, "Even if he does have someone right now, will you step back?"

Nara stared at Jasmine, surprised at how ridiculous the question sounded in her ears, "I am trying to make my grade better, not seizing someone's lover for the good of myself."

"Does that mean you're not going to approach him romantically, then? If he does have someone in mind."

Amid the roaring of conversations happening in this place, Nara sighed tiredly before facing her friend, "If that is the case, I'm not going to approach him at all. Stop asking me questions."

Jasmine rolled her eyes theatrically, "Boo. Quite a pessimistic thought, no? If I were you—"

"Glad I am not you. Cut that out, Jasmine. I'm trying to make use of this i********: account of his."

The two girls were back on track again, now trailing one after another username in the following list. Nara shifted a bit in her seat, her brows furrowing deeply, "Actually. How do you attract a boy?"

Jasmine blinked at her in disbelief, "You seriously have zero experience in this, haven't you?"

Nara only shrugged nonchalantly, didn't get the point of her friend's question. A second later, Jasmine found her way to a notebook inside Nara's bag and took it out to the table. Nara frowned in pure confusion before she said, "What are you doing—hey!" she yelled spontaneously once Jasmine threw open her physics notebook, landing on the latest note she has taken.

"This is our first act and you are going to follow my lead," Jasmine whispered, suddenly sounding so deep in secret. Nara's lips parted and closed, not knowing what to add to the saying. Jasmine took a pen from her tote and leaned into Nara and her opened book, acting as if she was just asking Nara for something that is written inside the book.

"Oh my God, you're insane for this."

"Calm down, he's right there."

Nara gasped audibly and gave Jasmine an accusing glare, "I didn't even realize that he is here."

Jasmine feigned a disinterested cough and said, "Better be aware of your surroundings from now on, then."

They stayed in that position for god-knows-how-long because Nara could already feel her right hand numbing as she tried to flip her pen between her fingers over and over again. She countered, "You know what, this is pointless. There's no reason why he would suddenly approach us, getting interested in our activity out of nowhere."

Nara could hear her friend sighed dramatically before Jasmine sipped her daily cup of coffee fiercely. God, this woman is so devoted to my mission that she thinks a mere girl studying physics would attract a boy.

Opening a new page of her notebook, Nara opted to truly study physics now that Jasmine was deep in her phone again. The various physics formulas greeted her mockingly, and Nara was back into her serious mode once again, taking each of the physics problems into her working brain.

Five minutes passed until an unfamiliar hand placed at Nara and Jasmine's current table so suddenly that Nara looked up, wondering who the person is and what is their matter.

Until her eyes caught Keza's on the opposite side of the table.

Jasmine was tidying her things abruptly right when Keza's voice entered her ear.

"Hey, is anyone sitting here? I need to use the electrical plug for my laptop. Um ... I have to finish some work."

Nara didn't know whether to be confused about his sudden interference or his elaborate explanation of why he needed the seat.

There was no way to say no to Keza, now that the situation they were facing were (1) she and Jasmine has been sitting only on one side of the table, abandoning the other bench in front of them, and (2) it is common knowledge for every engineering student that there is, apparently, only one electrical socket that works in this working space on the ground floor.

And the third reason would be Jasmine, getting ready to leave the table for Nara and Keza (if she said yes, by the way) alone now that she already slung her bag on her shoulder and tried to look very busy with her phone while saying, "Yeah, you absolutely can make use of that electrical socket. Gotta go now, friend. My boyfriend is calling."

The thing is, Nara knew too well that Jasmine didn't have a boyfriend at that point. Not even a lover, mind you.

She believed it was only her best friend's instinct that acted when she looked up at the now-standing Jasmine and said, "But you don't have a—"

Jasmine shot a death glare to her friend while trying to save her almost-exposed fake story, "I'll call you when I'm finished. See you!"

And by that, she left Nara alone. Or not alone, because she now perceived a constant movement from her front, which appeared to be Keza, focusing on unknotting his laptop cable. Nara was in a stagnant state that her mind seemed to be not working. Blinking once, twice, she was suddenly so aware of how close she was with the boy in front of her.

Well, not close close, but still, closer than they had ever been.

It took her a full minute to recover from the shock of what happened before she realized the mission she needed to start. With a smile she tried to hide, she thanked Jasmine secretly for whatever she has done and thought, let the game begin, shall we?

Nara was so deep in her strategy planning she didn't realize the presence that moved from her front to her left. She looked to her side and found out that Keza has already moved his laptop alongside her opened physics notebook.

"Sorry, the electrical socket is appeared to be on this side of the table? If you don't mind," Keza pointed his stare at the electrical socket right on the side of the table Nara was occupying. Quickly, she nodded and sidestepped her leg to let Keza's hand move to plug the cable. Nara could hear his mumbled thank-you so faint she didn't even sure what to retort besides another quick nod.

My God, I'm actually bad at this.

Her mind was circling over a hundred possible conversations she could start with this boy while her body could feel the closeness of their bodies, side by side, on one side of the table. The scattered book and papers and highlighters, combined with the soft and steady hum sound of Keza's laptop. Nara felt so pathetic right now.

She couldn't keep her mind sane being this close to Keza, not to mention how people were staring at them weirdly. Right, who in the hell sat side by side when there are two benches on each table?

Nara would honestly let those thoughts invade people's minds, just for the sake of securing her possible role of being Keza's lover so no outsider would try to ruin her real mission. But now that she hadn't prepared anything, she preferred to keep a little distance until she figured out how to deal with this boy.

Thus, the sentence that came from her mouth next sounded like i'm-just-going-to-move-to-the-other-side-then, and with that, she grasped her stuff and placed her bag on the other side of the table.

Shit. It doesn't get better now that I have a full scope of his concentrated face.

Nara believed her paper and little trinkets rustlings were the ones that blurred Keza's focus as he looked up from his laptop and tilted his head, probably to get a better view of the source of the sounds. He lifted a brow, sensing the familiar writing of numbers and formulas on the paper.

Nara waited and waited for Keza to leave a remark about the paper before continuing her work since he was known as someone who enjoy giving quick saying of everything, based on Jasmine's so-called-credible source so he ought to have something in—

"That's electrochemistry, isn't it?"

Gotcha.

Nara answered in a controlled voice, feigning nonchalant as she said, "Yeah."

A word she regretted, because there is no reason why he would continue the flitting conversation. Nara's mind rotated around every interesting sentence she could add before Keza lost interest and continued his work, but apparently, she was fortunate that day as Keza now raised her deep brown eyes toward her face. His lips twitched a bit when the realization hit, "You're in the 1st semester, no?"

Lifting her lips upward, just a bit, she replied, "That's right. And you're Kak Keza, if I'm not mistaken?" she tried lilting her voice so it sounded firm, but still contained the amusement tone she could easily fake, because I now know how to play this game.

She caught another small movement in Keza's eyes, probably surprised as she mentioned his name preceded by a common honorific used here. Nara tried her best to conceal a satisfied smile.

"That's true. I recognized you from the previous tutorials, actually. What's your name?"

"Nara," she replied shortly before continuing, "I came to every tutorial and I am glad those helped me on my midterm physics exam, thanks to you."

It's a lie, actually.

Keza didn't even try to hide his amusement anymore now. He continued scanning her scattered paper and pointed his finger toward one of the problems, "You missed one more step in here. Before you could determine the resistance, you need to count for the electrostatic charge first."

As for that, Nara had prepared zero counter. He was in her game now, she needed to step carefully toward every possible retort. And as for the background, that written answer was Jasmine's, not hers. Secondly, she already understood that part of the problem, and she hated faking her incomprehension just to let this boy keep talking to her. Then again, she knew how men enjoy mansplaining to women.

She wasn't going to lie that this was one of the hardest decisions. Should she go shedding her pride just for the gleaming opportunity in front of her? Or should she send her i-already-know card flying to this smart-ass?

A full minute of weighing choices, and Keza probably thought she was taking her time to understand what he had said. Nara wouldn't allow him to think that it was hard for her to fathom physics stuff, because she is not, thus she let her choice fall in the middle.

"Actually, I was thinking about that, too. So that is why I couldn't get the real answer," she pulled her notebook from beneath the pile of scattered paper and said, "I'm just going to do some kinematics problems right now since I still feel it's hard to understand."

Now, the last sentence was true.

At the mention of kinematics (and probably, the hard-to-understand part), Keza's eyes casted their stare on Nara's notebook and mutter a thinking sound down his throat. Nara might be focused on her notebook, but deep inside she prayed for him to take her bait.

"What part do you not understand?" Keza asked curiously, peering from his laptop that Nara believed is now in its sleeping mode.

"The forces and its direction. Not sure how exactly those things work." she looked up and caught Keza's eyes, brows frowning in deep thought.

The wind picked up Nara's loose hair and sway them forcefully that it took her will to smoothen them out before it obscured her sight. She could feel Keza's eyes bore into her, and she swore he lifted one side of his lips upward for a second.

The boy in front of her shrugged before clicking some keys on his keyboard and said, "I can explain to you on that."

It's Nara's turn to tilt her head to one side, challenging him to continue his open-ended sentence.

"Although not now since I have a report due tonight." Keza looked up from his laptop screen and smile openly at her. Nara returned it with a winning smile she hadn't even tried to hold back this time.

Two can play the game, although only one can win.