"Would you be so kind as to fall in love with me?

You see, I'm trying,

I know you know that I like you,

But that's not enough,

So if you will, please fall in love with me."

- dodie, would you be so kind?

There was a note on the front door.

It was wedged behind the lopsided door number - 25 - that had never quite sat straight, not even when Astrid had first moved in. She hadn't noticed it at first; when she'd kicked her way through the front door, weighed down by shopping bags, she'd been too focused on keeping her chin on top of the food so that it didn't slip from her grasp. As she nudged the door open, the scrap of paper fluttered onto the floor. She didn't even notice it until she came back to close the door properly and found it lying innocently on the welcome mat.

Astrid, it said in flowery script. When you smile, it brightens my whole day.

Astrid's eyebrows knotted together, and she frowned as she barged her way into the living room.

"Alright," she said, propping herself against the door, "which one of you did this?"

Her roommates were spread around the room in their usual fashion: Heather, ever the studious one, was sitting cross-legged at the coffee table, her notes gathered around her and an overly full cup of tea balancing precariously between her pencil case and the edge of the table. Rachel - or Ruffnut, as she'd demanded to be called the first day they'd all met - was in the corner, painstakingly painting her toenails. Cami, her third housemate, was on the sofa, her legs splayed across the arms, and her hands behind her head, mouth wide open, clearly in the middle of a nap.

Heather was the only one that looked up. "Did what?" she asked, while Cami rolled onto her side and shoved a pillow over her head, whining for Astrid to be quiet.

Astrid hit Cami over the head with a cushion. "This," she said, waving the note at Heather. "I know one of you did it. Own up."

Heather's eyes scanned the note, a smile spreading across her face. "I don't think this was one of us, Astrid. I definitely didn't do this."

For the first time since Astrid had entered the room, Ruffnut looked up from her toes. "What is it?"

"Astrid's got a secret admirer," Heather said, still grinning.

Cami's eyes snapped open, and she leapt from her seat, all trace of tiredness gone. "Let me see!" she said, grabbing it from Heather and reading it out loud, gleefully.

Ruffnut stood up, interest pooling in her eyes. "You're not serious?"

"She is," Heather said. "That's what it said."

A wolfish grin flashed across Cami's face. "Someone out there's got the hots for Astrid."

"Who hasn't?" Heather deadpanned.

Astrid blinked, looking between each of her roommates, a look of shock appearing on her face. "Wait, so… it wasn't one of you?"

"Wasn't me." Cami shrugged.

"Me neither," said Ruffnut.

Heather raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, Astrid, it wasn't one of us."

"Yeah, we've got better ways to screw with you," Cami said as she slunk back onto the sofa. Astrid hit her with the cushion again.

"Then, who was it?"

A wave of shrugs went around the room. Something glittered in Cami's eyes and she sat up, clapping her hands to say it.

"You know what this is, right?" she said.

Astrid scowled. "No. Don't say it."

"It's a mystery," she said.

"No, it isn't."

"A mystery that must be solved!" Ruffnut cawed from her corner, clapping her hands together.

Astrid ran a hand across her face. "Not you too."

"Come on, Astrid," Heather said from her seat on the floor, folding up her work and putting pens back in her pencil case. "You can't tell me you aren't at least a little bit curious."

Astrid sighed. "You guys, someone's pulling a practical joke on me. It's not real."

"What makes you so sure?" Heather said, arching an eyebrow.

Astrid stopped still. "Because - it's just - I don't know," she stammered, and then she scowled at the expressions on her friends' faces. "Oh, come on. Who writes notes nowadays? It's all about facebook stalking and anon messages these days."

"And dick pics," Ruffnut said.

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Y'see? There's no way this is genuine."

"Unless the guy's a genuine romantic," said Heather.

"Our first clue!" Cami said.

Astrid threw another cushion at her - "stop doing that!" Cami hissed - and folded her arms. "We do not have a first clue, because this isn't anything. It's just someone playing a trick on me. Nothing will come of out of it. You'll see."

Heather raised her eyebrows again. "If you say so…"

By the end of the week, five notes had found their way to Flat 25, all of them wedged behind the number on their front door, all addressed to Astrid in the same flowery script. Astrid didn't know what to do with them. She'd been collecting them in a heap at the end of her desk, too dismissive of them to read them properly, but not heartless enough to throw them away.

Heather found the sixth note on the way back from one of her classes. She plucked it from the door and went to find Astrid in her room.

"Are you going to keep pretending that these don't exist?" she said, wiggling the note in front of her face.

This one said: Astrid, when you're around, I can't help but smile.

Astrid scowled, took it from Heather and added it to the pile on her desk. "Whoever's doing it is persistent, I'll give them that," she grumbled.

Heather was quiet for a few moments, watching Astrid turn back to her computer. She could see the firm determination in Astrid's eyes not to flicker over towards the pile of notes just a few centimetres away from her.

"Astrid," she said, leaning against the door frame, her arms folded, "this is a little much for a prank, don't you think?"

"What are you saying?"

"I'm asking you when you're going to admit that these are actually real," Heather said, quirking a brow. She inched forward and picked one of the notes up off the desk. "I think someone likes you."

Astrid shook her head, vehemently. "No, no way. It's a prank. People don't do things like this in real life. Someone's trying to humiliate me, and I'm not going to let them."

Heather took another step into the room, reaching out and picking one of the notes on the top of the pile. Astrid, it read. Your eyes are brighter than the stars. She snorted.

"Well, whoever they are, they're taking the lines straight out of a cheesy romance novel but that doesn't mean they're not genuine," Heather said. "Is it really so hard to believe that someone out there might like you?"

"Yes. No. I don't know." Astrid watched as a grin spread across Heather's face, and she forcefully turned back to her laptop, her braid swinging out behind her. "Look, I just don't need this right now, okay? I have all this work to get done, and I just don't have time—"

"—You're playing minesweeper."

Astrid slammed the laptop lid shut and gave Heather a pointed glare. "And I just don't have time to get involved with some guy that's not even brave enough to tell me he likes me to my face."

"But aren't you curious?" Heather said, sitting down on Astrid's bed.

"No. Not at all."

"Not even a little a bit?" Heather said, a teasing smile peaking at the edge of her lips. "Not even a teeny, tiny little bit?"

Astrid let out a long groan, joining Heather on the bed with a thump. "Okay, fine. I'm a teeny, tiny little bit curious."

Heather let out a squeal of delight. "Then you've got to let me help you find out who it is!"

"You're not going to let this one go, are you?"

"Nope."

Astrid let out a sigh. "Fine. But don't tell Cami that we're doing this."

Heather nodded solemnly. "You have my word."

Heather told Cami immediately.

That evening, Astrid was dragged into the living room, where Cami had procured a huge whiteboard from somewhere and had wedged it in front of the television. At the top she'd scribbled, WHO IS ASTRID'S SECRET ADMIRER? in messy handwriting.

Cami herself was stood on the coffee table, hands behind her back military-style.

When Astrid walked in, she shot Heather the dirtiest look she could possibly muster. "I'm going to kill you for this," she muttered.

Heather beamed and pushed Astrid down on the sofa. She was enjoying this far too much.

"Housemates," Cami announced with great gusto, "we're gathered here today because someone out there is thirsting after Astrid."

Astrid gave a very long, loud sigh.

Unperturbed, Cami continued, "Our mission, is to figure out who that is. Bring forth the notes!"

While Astrid pressed her hands into her face, Ruffnut marched out of the hallway and into the living room, brandishing the pile of notes on high before settling them down on the table.

"You guys are absolute dorks, you know that, right?" Astrid said, peeking out at them from behind her fingers. "Complete nerds."

Cami flashed Astrid a glare. "Takes one to know one, Miss Highest-Score-In-Every-Video-Game," she said, before addressing the room again. "So, anyone got any ideas?"

"Well, what do we know about him?" Heather said. "He's a traditional guy, otherwise he'd be using social media. And he knows where Astrid lives, so that narrows it down to someone that Astrid knows well."

"Or that he's a creepy stalker who's been following me to find out where I live and has been doing various stalker things like stealing my hair to make a shrine." Astrid cut in, her voice dry. "Or a voodoo doll. I bet he found my old school yearbook, took out all of the photos of me and stuck them on his wall somewhere."

Heather tutted. "Do you have to be so cynical?"

"I'm just being realistic," Astrid said. "If I end up dead in a ditch because you guys couldn't handle the romanticism of some creep sending me notes, there will be hell to pay."

Heather rolled her eyes and was about to say something more when the front door opened and slammed. The four girls froze for a second, each of them staring at each other in a moment of panic.

And then—

"—What are you guys doing?"

Hiccup Haddock, Astrid's best friend since, well, birth, was standing in the doorway, staring at the four of them.

Astrid let out a relieved breath, her hand clutching her chest. "Jesus, Hiccup, knock next time. I almost had a heart attack."

"You gave me a key!"

"For when I'm not around!"

Hiccup looked like he was about to interject, but Heather grabbed him by the arm and sat him down. "Come listen to the gossip, Hiccup," Heather said, "Astrid's got herself a secret admirer and we're trying to find out who it is."

A grin broke out across Hiccup's face. "A secret admirer, you say?"

Astrid let out a groan, falling back against the arm of her sofa. "Don't bring him into this."

Ruffnut smirked, grabbing a note from the pile. "Someone's been sending Astrid love notes." She handed it to him.

"Astrid," Hiccup read aloud, clasping his chest and sending it up. "My days are always better when I get to see you. Wow. How many of these have there been?"

"One every day for the whole week," Astrid grumbled.

"That's sweet," Hiccup said, and then he saw the look on Astrid's face. "…is it not sweet?"

Astrid sighed. "It's just persistent. I mean, six love notes in six days? It's a bit much. And why can't they just say something in person?"

"Maybe they're scared," Hiccup said. "I mean, Astrid, you're kind of intimidating."

"I'm not intimidating."

Hiccup let out a laugh. "Have you looked in a mirror lately?"

"I'm not!" Astrid said, indignantly.

"You once threatened to break my fingers because I beat you in a round of Mario Kart," Hiccup said, and everyone else in the room but Astrid snickered.

"You cheated!"

"I didn't cheat!"

Everyone else in the room hid smiles behind their hands as they watched Hiccup and Astrid engage in their daily squabble. They let it go on for a few minutes, before Cami, still standing on the coffee table, decided that she'd had enough, and clapped her hands loudly.

"People, people, we were here for a reason before we were so rudely interrupted." She shot a glare at Hiccup, who actually looked a little sheepish. "Anyone have any idea who this guy is?"

"No clue," Ruffnut said.

"Don't ask me," said Hiccup.

Heather shrugged.

Astrid leaned forward, picked one note from the pile and looked at it, interest finally piqued after a week's worth of refusing to think about it.

"No idea," she said, staring at the note. "It's a mystery."