The Boy I Forgot to Hate

The Paper Balls

Part 8: The Paper Balls

For three consecutive days, Valeria Montes returned from campus in a horrible mood. She didn't even realize she was gritting her teeth as she walked.

She stopped in the lobby of Dormitory B—Julian’s dorm—glancing at her Rolex watches with exasperation, then stared at her phone screen, which refused to flash with a reply.

It was already midnight.

Losing her patience, Valeria finally called the owner of the number that was ruining her mood.

"Julian, where on earth are you? Are we going to the club or not? Everyone is waiting for you," Valeria said the moment the call connected.

From the other end of the line came Julian’s deep voice. Somehow, Valeria already knew his next answer—lately, the man had been using rejections as a template, yet Valeria remained in total denial.

"I’m skipping tonight, Val. I have an extra lab assignment from Prof. Hardi that needs to be submitted tomorrow morning," Julian answered, his voice slightly distorted.

Valeria guessed he was speaking with the phone left flat on the desk.

"Always that lab assignments! Yesterday I asked you to accompany me to go shopping at the mall, your excuse was football practice. Two days ago, I asked you to come to the salon, your excuse was being tired. What is wrong with you lately? It feels like you're avoiding me."

"No, Val. I’m just busy. I’ll try my best next week, okay? I have to go now; I need to get back to studying."

"Wait—"

Before Valeria could persuade him any further, the line went dead.

Valeria stomped her feet on the ground in pure frustration, staring at her phone screen in disbelief. Something was strange.

She noticed the changing behavior of Julian, who was usually cool and rarely showed expression, but lately had been caught daydreaming with a faint, suspicious smile on his face.

'Ah, shoot, I need to find out for myself,' Valeria decided, heading toward the stairs to the third floor.

Meanwhile, in the third-floor corridor, the doors to Room 304 and Room 305 stood wide open, facing each other. At their respective thresholds, two thin floor mattresses were laid out on the carpet.

Elena was lying on her stomach, propping her chin up with one hand while her right hand was busy flipping through a thick chemistry textbook. Across the corridor, Julian was in the exact same position. His massive frame made the doorway of his own room look like a miniature playhouse.

A paper ball the size of a fist rolled out from Room 305, stopping right in front of Elena's fingertips. Elena let out a soft snort, picked up the crumpled paper ball, and unfolded it.

‘Empirical formula of a compound containing 40% carbon, 6.7% hydrogen, and 53.3% oxygen? Answer quickly, Castillo!’

Elena smiled, grabbed her pen, enthusiastically jotted down a few brief calculations underneath the question, and crumpled it back into a ball. With a gentle flick, the ball glided smoothly back into Room 305.

Julian caught it deftly. He read Elena's neat handwriting.

". Way too easy, Vega. Why don't you give me a question with actual substance?" Elena mocked him from across the corridor.

Julian chuckled when he saw the girl stick the tip of her tongue out at him.

The guy took a fresh piece of paper, wrote something down that took a bit longer, thought for a moment, and once he was sure, threw it across again.

This time, Elena furrowed her brows as she unfolded the paper. It was no longer about their studies.

“Why do you always blast classical music when you sleep now? Back in Solverde, you couldn't sleep if there was even the slightest sound.”

Elena froze for a moment reading the line. She looked up, finding Julian staring at her from across the hall with a warm glint in his eyes—the exact same gaze from ten years ago. The corner of Elena's lip twitched, holding back a smile that almost escaped.

'He remembers even a detail that minor? I didn't even realize it myself,' Elena thought, bewildered. 'How sweet of you, Ju—wait, stahp it Elena, don’t wander off, keep your head straight,' Elena firmly commanded herself.

Elena wrote her reply. “This campus is too quiet; I guess I miss the sound of crickets in Solverde; I didn't realize it had become my white noise until I couldn't hear it anymore. By the way, your room gets pretty loud too when those girls come over.”

The paper ball flew back to Room 305. Julian read it, chuckled briefly, then wrote a reply quickly without wasting time.

“I never invite them in, seriously, El. They just barge in as they please. Oh, and I'd much rather hear your nag than listen to that old-people music. It's creepy.”

Elena read the words and snorted. Sensing the right atmosphere, Elena tore a page from the back of her notebook.

There was a lingering question that had been swirling in her head since yesterday, and she desperately wanted to ask Julian directly.

“Speaking of secrets, were you the one who left the turkey smoked sandwich and a bottle of mineral water on the library table when I fell asleep yesterday? There was a yellow sticky note too, saying it was from a "Secret Admirer".”

The paper ball was thrown across the corridor.

Julian caught it casually. However, the moment his eyes read the words Elena had written, his expression turned chaotic. The relaxed smile that had been on his face completely vanished.

His emotions spiked as fast as a Shinkansen train. He was incredibly jealous!

'Secret admirer?' Julian thought, displeased. 'Who is the bastard daring to approach Elena in the library so sneakily like that?'

Julian immediately grabbed his pen with rushed movements, his breathing turning ragged. He jotted down a barrage of new questions on the same paper. He needed certainty. He had to know who it was.

“It wasn't me, El. Do you still keep that yellow sticky note? Can I see the handwriting? Don't eat food given by strangers, Castillo! It's dangerous. Good grief...” he scolded her without realizing it.

Julian crumpled the paper impatiently. He threw it back toward Elena with a bit too much force due to his untamed emotions.

However, as the paper ball rolled across the corridor floor, a shoe tip stopped it.

Pluk.

The paper ball bumped against the shiny leather surface of someone's bright red high-heeled shoe. Both Elena and Julian looked at the owner of the shoe, tracing from the bottom up to reveal a girl in tight designer clothes with glistening blonde hair.

Elena gasped. It was Valeria Montes.

Valeria’s beautiful face flushed red as her gaze shifted from the paper ball beneath her shoe to the wide-open corridor, where Julian and Elena were lounging on the carpets in front of their respective doors in a very relaxed pose.

"Julian?" Valeria's voice trembled, a combination of sheer shock and the anger beginning to crawl up her head. "So... the extra lab assignment you meant... is this?"

Valeria snapped; she refused to be ignored, and all because of ELENA CASTILLO!

Putting Valeria Montes and Elena Castillo in the same paragraph was an insult in itself.

Being ignored for her? The man preferred Elena Castillo over her? It was beyond insult. It’s like smearing dirt on her face.

Valeria Montes completely froze, not knowing what to say.

Elena, realizing the situation, instantly scrambled up from her stomach. Instead of feeling dismissive like back in hing school, she felt intensely embarrassed to be caught in such a ridiculous situation with Julian.

Screech.

With a swift motion, Elena pulled the edge of her bed cover into her room and closed the door to Room 304. Practically in Valeria's face, followed by the sound of her giggling from behind the wooden door.

Seeing Elena panic and close her door, Julian did the exact same thing, leaving Valeria all alone in the middle of the third-floor corridor, still in shock.

Valeria's blood boiled.

She had been thoroughly humiliated. Her hands balled into tight fists, holding back a surge of emotion ready to explode. Her brain replayed the sound of Elena Castillo's laughter from inside the room, combined with the fact that Julian Vega had deliberately lied to her just to spend time with that poor girl, causing her to lose all rationality.

Valeria lost all interest in staying.

She turned around and corrected her posture, gathering the dignity that had just been scattered.

A sharp, firm stomp echoed with every step she took down the stairs. With fingers trembling from suppressed rage, she immediately searched for a single name in her contacts list: the Captain of the San Aurelio Football Team.

The moment the call connected, Valeria hissed, "I think Julian's position as the starting quarterback on your team has been a bit too comfortable lately, to the point where he forgets who he owes that comfort to. Make sure he learns what it feels like to sit on the bench for the rest of this season."