[GL] I will max my intelligence

With little sleep and dark circles under her eyes, Hani makes her way into the classroom. She dragged herself to her desk without a greeting from anyone. It's still quite early, so class has not started yet, but the alarm has ruined any chances of more sleep.

Crossing her arms and laying her head on top of them, she looks out the window. 

"HANIIIII!!" 

Bewildered, she looks up. It's her best friend, Emma, who is in the class next door. Short and cute with shoulder-length curls and quite fashionable, she is the opposite of Hani. She is a massive comic fan who lives every single moment of her life dreaming about them. 

"Hani, guess what our class is doing for the school festival." She bounced with excitement, " Guess, guess!!"

Hani, still sleepy, yawns, "I don't know Emma. What are you guys doing?"

She pouts, "It's no fun if you don't guess Ha-ni!" She crosses her arms and eyes Hani, her head still on her desk. 

Sharing just a few seconds of silence, Emma can't hold it in. "Ok, let me tell you." She bleands in close to Hani's ear and whispers, " We are doing a cosplay cafe." 

Hani rolls her eyes. Emma has been trying to get a cosplay cafe for the school festival for 3 years now. " Gratz, Emma. Finally... I guess?" Hani says, sighing without an ounce of interest. 

"Why are you not more excited? Half our class will be cosplaying my favourite characters from my books! It will be amazing!!" 

"I'm too tired to be excited right now." 

"You are so mean, Hani!" Emma says as she spins herself around to walk away, accidentally bumping into Stella. Hani was so tired and distracted by Emma that she had not seen Stella come into the classroom. 

As Emma bumped into Stella, both started to fall. Quickly, Hani jumped up and caught Stella before she hit the ground. 

After catching her for the first time in her life, she was inches away from her crush's face. Hani's face started heating up, turning bright red. " Uh... um... are you ok?" Hani blubbers to Stella. 

Stella collects herself and smiles, making Hani even more shy and flushed as she retracts her arms, grabbing the end of her skirt and fiddling with it.

As Stella is about to open her mouth to say something, Emma, who had landed on the floor and had been forgotten about.

"Hani, you are so mean!" Emma, on the floor with watery eyes and puffed up cheeks, shouts angrily at Hani. 

"Oh, Emma! I am so sorry! I did not mean to, I swear I was grabbed by the person closest to me!" 

Hani holds out her hand, "Let me help you up. Are you hurt?" 

Still mad, Emma shoved her hand away and got up on her own. She brushes the dirt off herself and storms off. 

Not knowing what to do, Hani just stares at her as classmates whisper and talk quickly, forgetting the scene and returning to their own problems.

"Thank you for saving me, Hani!" Stella breaks Hani away from her confusion with Emma storming off. 

"Oh no! It's n-not that big!" Blushing again, Hani looks at Stella's face, and with not even a second of eye contact, she looks back down to the floor again. "I was just helping..." Her voice trailed off into a whisper. 

"Nonetheless, you saved me from getting hurt, so thank you!" 

Hani timidly nods before sitting back onto her own desk, looking out the window and not daring to look at Stella's face again. 

Her face was still burning.

Oh my god! I can't believe I touched Stella! She smelled so good too.... My goddess actually thanked me! I shall never wash these hands again....Ah, but what if they start to smell, and she hates me because of that? No.... It's ok, I shall cherish the memory instead.

Hani sits there letting her imagination go crazy as the teacher barges in. 

"Ok, kids, to your seats!"

Coming back to her senses, Hani sits up as the class begins. 

---

As lunchtime comes around, Stella is gone with her group of friends, which also includes Leo. 

Hani watches as they leave.

How is Stella even friends with someone like him... I guess maybe cause he is just strong. I guess the only choice I have is to be stronger!

Hani takes out her lunch from her bag. Putting on her headphones, listening to an audiobook, she did not hear Leo call her name or realise he had come back alone. 

Snip

"Did you not hear me, F-rank?" Leo had cut the wires to her headphones. "I heard what happened this morning. Don't get close to Stella, she nearly got hurt getting close to you. I hear you touched her with your filthy hands."

Shocked and raging with anger, Hani glares at him, a glare sharp enough to pierce a heart, "How can my hands be dirty if I washed them?" 

In disbelief, Leo knocks her lunchbox to the ground. "I am warning you." He turns around, kicking and smashing the door open as he walks out. 

"What a bastard," Hani whispers to herself, picking up her now wasted food, "I would never dare to dirty even a hair on Stella. My hands are super clean!"

Classmates watch Hani as she talks to herself like a crazy person, as she crouches on the floor picking up her food. No one dares to help since everyone is afraid of the class bully Leo. Stella either does not realise this or does not care cause he is strong. Hani wonders if being strong is all it takes. 

Shaking her head, she huffs. 

Well, I have to go buy lunch, I guess.

She throws away the food and makes her way to the cafeteria. 

"One chicken meal set, please." 

She grabs her tray, looking for an empty place to sit. She spots Emma.

"Emma! Hey!"

"Humph!" Emma looks away, attempting to ignore Hani.

"I guess you are still mad... I shall leave then"

Emma flustered at what she said, "I did not say you can't sit here." She mumbles at Hani, grabbing her shirt.

"Uh... What did you say?" Emma does not let go, "I guess I can sit here then?" Hani awkwardly laughs at Emma and her friends at the table. 

Emma pulls her to the seat next to her.

"Look, Emma, I am sorry about this morning! I swear I was not thinking."

"What happened?" One of Emma's friends chimes in. 

"Ah, well, ba—"

Before she could say anything, Emma clamped her hand over Hani's mouth. "It's nothing!" Emma blurts out, too shy to let her friends know why she didn't have a tantrum this morning. 

The girls look at each other and shrug. 

Hani, following whatever Emma wanted, decided to bring up another topic. "I heard you guys are doing a cosplay cafe this year? So you guys are participating in the cosplay?"

Emma's face lit up "Yes!! We are going to do a group cosplay!"

Miu, one of her classmates, joins in on the excitement, " We are going to be cosplaying as the Magical Cosmic Girls!" 

"Oh, I have seen that show before." Thankfully, Hani remembered Emma forcing her to watch this show. 

" You definitely have to come see our cosplay, Hani!" Emma says wide-eyed, finally forgetting about the commotion earlier, and is replaced with excitement again.

"Yes, of course! Haha." Laughing awkwardly, Hani promises not to miss out. She is not really into magical girls, but Emma is her best friend.

Well, as long as Emma is happy.

The group chats and eats their meals, gossiping through the whole lunch break.