The bell rings, prompting the teacher to stop their class yet not forgetting to give homework before leaving the class. The class erupted into sounds of chair screeching and student chatters. Some were asking if the teacher gave a home work, some other were asking if their friend would like to go karaoke, some discussed about the school festival coming later this month.

Someone dropped their pencil case but who cares since the sound of the class is way louder. Only after a good few minutes, the class died down. Some kids is still sitting in their chair talking about a meta build on their favorite MMO but their conversation was cut short by a student on cleaning duty.

"Thank you guys," thanked a student on the cleaning duty when the small group left the class --leaving only one person left who was sitting in the furthest back chair of the class. The student wasn't too keen on asking him to move. 

However, as if he read his mind, he stood up and picked his bag up before leaving the class. The quietness of the class turns into sound of rowdy people doing all kind of things from extracurricular activities on the field in the middle of the school to just some student passing time in school area like canteen as he stepped out. He looked at the sky thinking what he should do next. I can waste a bit of time in the library I guess? he thought. Although, she's probably gonna disturb me as usual.

He look at the school library's window right across the field to see the girl he was thinking staring right at him. 

"How's your day, Aden?" asked the girl sitting across the table.

"Nothing unusual."

"Aw, you are always so dark, listless, and gloomy."

"When I have to deal with you and the other all day? yea, I'm tired." He kept his eyes on the book he picked up from the shelves.

"Hey! at least don't include me."

"Shh, I'm reading."

The girl pouted, "I'm older than you, y'know!"

Aden didn't really read the book or paying attention to her. He was paying attention on a group of girls not far from him, the one with brown bob hairstyle in particular. He ignored the girl in front of him for a good thirty minute before she finally realized he wasn't listening to her.

She was gasping, jaw wide open and eyes wide open, "Did you just?"

"What?"

She turned her face to the girl he was paying attention to. She glared with full murderous intent in it. The room turned cold that even the group felt the cold. However it was stopped when Aden told her to stop. "Can you not attract the attention to here?"

"You are ignoring me for her!" she turned her face quickly towards him. The cold dissipate rather quickly.

"She will notice me."

"You are a creep."

"I am not."

"Stalker."

"Probably."

"You didn't even deny it!"

"At least I didn't take photo or followed her to her house."

"That doesn't make it okay!"

Right at the banter, the girl he was paying attention to stood up and seems to say goodbye to her friends. They asked her if she would love to go to their party but she refuses and waved her hands before leaving. She turned around and start walking away.

His brown eyes and her pale blue eyes met for a second as she walk past him. At the split second he really could see her facial features. Straight thin eye brows and short eyelashes. Pale white skin. For what supposed to be a second or maybe even a split second, it felt like it stretched to eternity. His face redden, his body became stiff. The girl in front of him noticed it and smile mischievously. "She noticed you."

He just sat there silently for a good minute. His mind went blank.

"A girl just looked at you right in the eyes and you already blushing hard. What a nerd."

"The girl I like just looked at me right in the eyes!"

"Listen," her mischievous smile fade, "if you like her, go for it. At the very least, tell her how you feel. If she rejects you, she is not the only girl in this world. Like me for example."

"You know I can't be with you, Rita?"

"I know."

***

The day is getting late. The student are told to leave the school area and the extracurricular activities are told to stop. He stood at the front gate. Not far from there, a stall selling newspaper and magazine is wrapping up. He took notice at the headlines about a murder of a baby by his own mother. It reminds him of what Rita said before he left the library.

"Aden, the negativity in this city keeps getting stronger and denser. Be careful."

He wonder, was it because human keep doing bad things like murder that the negativity keeps getting stronger or was it the other way around? That somehow, the negativity getting stronger and denser is what push people into doing bad things. He sighed as there was no definitive answer for the time being. One fact is that this city is getting dangerous. He proceeded to head home.

Yet, he ended up in front of an old, dilapidated house.

It feels as if the wind would be able to collapse the building. Nobody knows its history and dares to come close. People would start walking in a faster pace when they are walking in front of the gate. He can see why.

The negative aura this house gives is super dense and intense it might as well be able to manifest itself either as a vengeful spirit or worse... a curse. Both can be a problem. In a book he used to read as a kid, vengeful spirit would go on a rampage terrorizing people around the area or a specific person who wronged them in life.

And then there is curse. It doesn't come attacking people. It would entice you, beg you to come. Like moths drawn to the lights of flame, hypnotize you and when you caught it, it will stick with you, follows you, and it will hurt you, delivering you torments. It can go from subtle psychological attack until a terror that would drove people mad and commit grave sin like killing or even suicide. 

And here he is, standing in front of the door. His hand wouldn't obey his command to stop, it slowly rise and before it was able to touch the doorknob, someone tapped him on his shoulder. He startled to see he was standing in the front gate. 

"Are you okay?" said the girl who tapped his shoulder standing beside him. "You were spacing out in front of this house."

He turned to see a girl in a school uniform the same as him, white top and grey bottom. Her pale blue eyes looking at him concerned. He froze a bit as he surprised about two things, him almost entranced by the curse and the very girl he likes being in front of him. 

"Hello? Are you there?" she waved her hands in front of him.

"Uh, sure yeah. I'm here. Thanks! I spaced out for a bit there."

"Are you really okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Thank you."

"It's nothing. On your way home?"

"Yeah. What about you? I never see you around here."

"I'm on my way to my aunt."

"I guess we are on the same way?"

"Yeah, wanna go together?"

"Why not."

The went together. The rest of the walk was accompanied by silence. Not many car or motorcycle pass by. Occasionally, cats would meow but most of the walk you could hear a pin drop. However, his mind is busy at thinking what topic should he brought up. It was noisy and distracting for him. He ended up didn't talk about anything until they separated at a crossroad.

One side of his mind breathed a sigh of relief because they can finally stop thinking about what to talk but the other side of his mind were regretting that he couldn't say a thing except, "well, since we are separated here, be careful!"

He arrived at home. After greeting his parents, he went right to his bedroom. He threw his bag on his bed and quickly changed his clothes. He sat wondering about whatever things he should've talked with her. His train of thought was interrupted by a meowing echoed in the room. In front of him a cat was licking his paw.

"Oh, there you are kitty." Aden rubbed the head of the cat. The cat without the half of its body purred. He play a bit before finally went to the shower. 

The water showering his body. He still thought of the moment when she walked alongside him. "I guess I'm indeed hopeless."