crown shyness
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chapter one
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"What's so special about this boy anyway?"
.
.
.
"Nothing." Elsa answers. Her pale hands wrapped around her warm mug of tea. The blonde's sat around the dining table after a long, hard day of lectures and seminar discussions and independent studying. University life is hard.
"Sugar, this isn't how you're supposed to pick a man." Lottie says.
The Southern belle's remarks earns a look from Tiana. The expression on the hard-working girl's face says 'be kind'. Tiana's the more patient one out of the two (though she has her limits too).
"No, I understand, it's annoying." Elsa replies, leaning into her chair.
On some level, the blonde agrees with her friends; her own shenanigans is foolishness. But, Elsa's the shy, socially awkward one in the group. Tiana and Lottie are the opposite. While Elsa doesn't mind keeping things to herself; Tiana believes it's best to not beat around the bush, she likes to get work done, and, Lottie doesn't like wasting time dilly-dallying, the Southern belle is a straight-forward kind of girl.
This guy Elsa's talking about – this redhead guy – is all Elsa's been talking about for the past month. Elsa knows it's getting a little ridiculous at this point because she insists that he seems familiar. She's seen him somewhere, met him once upon a time. She knows him, but she can't put a finger where. And she won't take the first step to talk to him.
On one hand, Elsa's convinced that whatever this is between them is probably nothing. Most times these things don't really mean anything. The world just likes playing tricks. But, on the other hand, Elsa feels like she's sucked into this phenomenon. She's sure everyone has experienced it at some point in their lives, the one where you see a person once then suddenly you see them everywhere.
She just so happen to catch his eye one day at the Law Clinic she started working at, then, BAM, suddenly he's everywhere she turns. Honestly, Elsa's lost count of the number of times she's caught the redhead somewhere she is. Not just during her shift. She's seen him standing outside the library, chain-smoking with his two brunette friends. They both look like trouble (but then again, so does he).
"You say you've seen his face somewhere but are you sure it's not because you've seen him in one of your classes?" Tiana asks, hands folded on the table.
"Yeah, we're all third years. We've been hangin' around for forever." Lottie adds.
At this, Elsa only shakes her head. "No, I've never noticed him in class. Strange since all the first years started with all the same modules. So I'm guessing he must have started a year before me and then took a year abroad during third year. It would explain things since second and third years get to pick their modules and often collide with each other."
"That's a lot of assumptions for someone you haven't talk to." Lottie points out.
This earns Elsa's ears to turn red. As embarrassing as it sounds, it's true, Elsa has done a lot of thinking about this matter.
Waving the issue off, Tiana suggests another possibility. "Okay, maybe you've seen him durin' your volunteerin' work? You do bucket collection, right? You stand out in the open once a week, you meet dozens of people."
Elsa shakes her head again. "No, I would recognise him if that was the case. I swear I see Mulan every time I'm volunteering. I think she's sick of seeing my face whenever I ask if she has any spare change."
"That's because you make her feel guilty for not helpin' charity." Tiana answers back.
"Untrue, she's donated before." Elsa answers. Her memory isn't that bad. There have been several occasions where she was able to recall things from the past so it's really bothering her that she can't remember where she's seen this redhead guy.
"Oh. Then …" Tiana trails off.
Lottie speaks up, "Are you sure it's not a subconscious thing? Maybe the fella's been in the background all along and it's only recently that he stood out to you?"
"He has bright, flaming red hair, Lottie, he's impossible to miss." Elsa answers.
"Okay then," Lottie sighs. "Can you just stop dancin' around the issue and talk to the guy already?" Lottie asks. But it sounded more like a demand. "You can't keep starin' at him from afar. It's getting' weird, darlin', and creepy."
"No, shut up. You can't make me." Elsa says stubbornly. She's irritated too at her own dilemma but Elsa's really set that she's ruined her chances in talking to him from all the staring. He's caught her multiple times and she never looks away. She just … continues to stare. Which makes it worse. She's so awkward, and shy.
"Baby steps won't cut it anymore, sweet girl." Lottie continues, gesturing to Tiana who suggested slow progress is better than no progress. "You're just goin' around in an endless circle. Nothing's happenin'. Has anythin' even changed since the last time you saw him?"
Even Tiana nods at this passive aggressive method which makes Elsa chew on the bottom of her lip.
Elsa fumbles with her words. "Well, um, I went to the Law Clinic early this week. At my lunch and … he happened to pass by. He … willingly looked at me first."
"And?" Tiana prods. "Did you smile like we said you should?"
"Um … no." Elsa answers, her voice now meek. "I – I looked back and then looked down at my sandwich."
Lottie can only sigh again while Tiana throws her hands up in frustration. "Elsa, we talked about this!"
"I know but –" Elsa trails off, making incoherent mumbling sounds.
"Hon, this is becomin' a problem." Lottie cuts her friend off. She won't listen to any more excuses. "You refuse to talk to him –" Lottie ticks a finger. "– and you won't even throw him a smile –" Another tick. "– so you can't expect him to make the first move and talk to you. Especially, after all that starin',"
"You are the one who's curious about him, not the other way around." Tiana adds, pouring more guilt onto Elsa. "He probably doesn't even know you. You're goin' to drive him into a corner if you keep this up. You need to talk to him. Next week, if possible; before, during or after your shift."
"N – Next week?" Elsa stutters. Does anyone even realise what next week is? Oh God, she never should have put herself out there. She just wanted to improve her social skills and polish her CV with work experience, not this bullshit. "I can't –!"
But Tiana only holds her hand up. "I'm not sayin' you have to march up to him and interrogate him about his origins. I'm just sayin'; smile and say 'hi' to him."
"Umm,"
"Elsa." Tiana's face morphs into a serious expression. Lottie's making a similar face. It's hard for Elsa to say 'no' when the duo are backing each other up.
"Say somethin', doll." Lottie pleads.
"… I'll try?" Elsa offers, but no promises.
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"This whole situation is so dumb! What have I gotten myself into?" Elsa rants to her sister, Anna, the same night. She's sitting cross-legged on her bed in her pyjamas. It's another one of their weekly video calls.
"Can't you just ignore him?" Anna asks.
From the view on the screen, Elsa can see that Anna's eating peanut butter out of the jar but she can't find the strength to tell Anna not to do that.
"After eyeballing him like a weirdo? No. That'll just make things worse." Elsa runs her hands through her hair. She's making such a big deal out of something so small. She knows. But she can't help it. She's not confident. "I can't … I can't run away because reception work lasts for the whole semester. I'll look so irresponsible if I quit now so I'm stuck seeing him around." Elsa replies, pouting at her misfortune.
"Okay, then …" Anna digs into her peanut butter jar for a moment while thinking, "… maybe just suck it up and talk to him?"
"I can't!" Her whole face burns as she exclaims this.
"Why not? It's not like he doesn't know that you can speak."
"I – I know, which is what makes things even more frustrating." Elsa says, wanting to bury her face in her pillow and groan. "I'm the receptionist, for goodness sake, it's my job to be social. He's seen me answer the phone and talk to the staff and type out e-mails. He knows I can talk to him but instead I choose not to. I'm not just coming off as weird, I'm also rude."
At all this nervous nonsense, Anna blows a loud raspberry. "It's okay, just talk to him next time."
"That's what Tia and Lottie said." Elsa answers. "But …" Her blue eyes grow as wide as saucers at this. "… I can't talk to him 'next time',"
"Why not? You know you can't keep looking at him, right?"
"I know, it's just ..." Elsa shakes her head. "It's just ..." If the Math in her head is correct then ... "My next shift is on Thursday and it'll be very awkward if I were to talk to him that day because it would be –"
"– Valentine's Day!" Anna finishes her sister's sentence for her. Then her freckled face lit up. "Ooohh, that would be hilarious! I want to hear the drama! Do it. Do it, do it, do it!" Anna chants.
"A – Anna, no!" Elsa squeaks, feeling the need to hide again.
"Can you just try?" Anna says, waving her spoon at her laptop camera.
"I'd rather die than talk to him on Valentine's Day."
"A little dramatic, don't you think?"
Elsa only grumbles in response.
"Do it." Anna repeats, glee still twinkling behind her teal eyes.
"No."
"You're no fun."
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Notes1: Oh hey, look, another University AU, how 'original', lmao!
Notes 2: Hello, Valentine's Day is approaching fast and I'm in the mood to fall in love (or get discount chocolates after the special day has passed, woo-hoo!). I thought I'd attempt some 'healthy' Helsa so, like, awkward!Elsa and 'nice'!Hans, but who knows how long that'll last? I either write tragic angst romance or I write humour, there is no in-between. Well, I do also love writing about friendship. Okay, I write like three things in rotation.
But, anyway, just like most of my fics tagged under 'fics based on my real life', these kinda stories are mostly humour-based (because my life is a joke) and will not go beyond 10 chapters. This fic will NOT be completed. I'm just saying it right now, I will abandon this bitch after I've reached the point I wanna reach and ultimately forget this it. I'm sorry, I didn't think this disease would spread to the Helsa fandom … but it did. See, I should really stick to one-shots but even those I'm procrastinating … so … :/
Enjoy this while it lasts (which is like three chapters from what I can see)?
– 10 February 2019