His face blushed a deep crimson red as he bashfully looked downwards at the black tabletop littered with papers.

"Tell us, who do you like?" We urged him. An expression full of eager anticipation appeared on my face as I stared at him. He had always been fairly average to the common passerby, but I found his anecdotes fascinating and his dedication admirable. I knew from experience that forcing someone to tell others who he likes could potentially turn out badly, but my heart slightly fluttered, and I couldn't control myself anymore. I leaned forwards, ignoring the unconscious reaction I had just experienced, and attempted to paste a casual and unconcerned smile on my face.

His head had slightly risen as he tried to concentrate on the teacher, and thus effectively ignore us, but when he turned his head to glance at his paper, he could not hide the even deeper blush that covered his cheeks. Again, he ducked his head as if he was trying to avoid us. Softly, almost to the point where I couldn't hear him, he murmured, "She... she goes to this school."

The girl next to me rolled her eyes. "Of course she does, half the people in this town goes to our school. Stop trying to avoid the question."

"Her classes are in this section of the school." He finally relented and gave us some details. For a moment, my spirits seemed to have raised. I shook my head slightly to clear the hazy feeling that had appeared when I had stared into his eyes.

"Is she in any of my classes?"

The teacher droned on as he tapped on the complex diagrams on the whiteboard with a ruler. I cast an annoyed glance at him before turning back to my notes. Quickly scribbling something down, I waited for an answer from him.

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After a long period of deliberation, he replied with a "No." It felt as if the bubble keeping me afloat had burst the moment I heard that one word. My eyes slightly closed in an intangible pain that appeared as abruptly as it left.

I blinked a few times to relieve myself of the lingering feeling of the pain, and his innocent, embarrassed face drifted into my vision.

"Emma?" I whispered her name in a barely audible voice.

"What? What did you say?" Confused, he looked at me, asking me to repeat her name.

"Emma." My voice wavered slightly, but this time I spoke in a louder voice. Without a doubt, I knew that she was the one he liked, but my heart twinged in pain for a moment. I closed my eyes, pretending there was dust in my eyes, and wondered, 'Why do I feel like this? Why do I feel so... anguished... when he mentions that he likes her?'

"Emma... X?" The girl asked a meaningless question. Of course it's Emma X. Was there even a need to ask?

In an attempt to distract myself, I blankly stared at the whiteboard. The teacher was lecturing about galaxies, and he was drawing diagrams for each type of galaxy. One of the largest pictures was a diagram of our galaxy, and our location in it was marked with a bright red thumbtack that stood out like a swan amidst pigs.

"Yes... I-" It felt like a bucket of ice cold water had been dumped on my head when I heard this confirmation. My countenance turned stiff and cold. I pretended to concentrate on the lesson, but none of them knew of my inner turmoil.

'We... are so insignificant in this universe. Our galaxy is merely one among a myriad, and our solar system is minuscule compared to many others. Yet, we are still so self absorbed in our own lives, uncaring of the feelings of others. I wonder how we can be so self absorbed despite our numerous faults and failures...'

All of a sudden, I was jolted back to reality.

"But now, I like someone else."