{SIX}

Boys think of girls just

like books;

If the cover doesn't catch

their eyes, they won't

even bother to read

what's inside.

"You should really get out more."

Near sighed, probably for the tenth time since [Name] had found his secret corner in the school library.

Okay, it wasn't really a secret corner. More like the most secluded table from the entrance of the library that Near could find.

The him, the school library was like a sanctuary from the school's obnoxiously loud and hormonal teenagers. Although it was a huge room, it was cramped with aisle and aisle of books and the occasional table and chairs. He liked spending whatever free time he had somewhere quiet, where he could indulge himself in a book or a comic.

Yes, Near read comics. His favourite sort consisted of robot superheroes.

"Near, I'm bored." [Name] said, waving a pencil between her fingers. "Can I go home now?"

Near put down his book, pinching the bridge of his nose in an effort to remain calm and not walk out on the girl, "No, you can't. You wanted someone to tutor you, right? Well, here I am."

"That's only because L forced you to! And you're not even teaching me anything!" [Name] pouted.

"I gave you a sheet of sums!" Near sighed, again. "You haven't even started it yet."

"That's because I'm stuck."

"On which question?"

"All of them." [Name] quietly said.

Near resisted the urge to facepalm. That wasn't something he normally did, but lately, everything he did seemed to be out of his usual character.

He found himself spending more and more time with [Name] as the summer exams were right around the corner and [Name] needed help with a majority of her subjects. Thus, L forcing Near to do the job. It was awkward at first, since the two barely exchanged words with each other, but eventually, Near's guard had lessen incredibly near [Name].

He's recently noticed how carefree he was getting when only in front of her company. And honestly? It unnerved him, just a little bit.

He was always the smart, quiet kid that only talked when he needed to. He didn't mind being that sort of person, and in fact, he liked it. Near's seen what happens when you open your mouth too much. It gets you into trouble and drama. So minus the occasional taunting from students, Near enjoyed being the silent, mysterious type.

But it was weird, he thought, how [Name] was slowly and unconsciously breaking down that wall he had built around himself. Or was that just him tolerating [Name]'s being to make this whole tutoring business over and done with, and in the least awkward way possible? Yes, that was definitely the case.

Or at least he thought it was.

"It's really simple." Near said, leaning over the table to write the right equation on [Name]'s page. Once he was done explaining the concept of the sum, [Name] nodded her head, showing she understood. Finally, they were getting somewhere!

"Oh, I get it now!" [Name] said, smiling up at Near. "Thanks!"

And there it was again, that weird feeling in his chest that had recently been popping up randomly. To sum it up more accurately though, whenever [Name[ was around.

And whenever [Name[ finally left, the weird feeling did too, leaving behind another feeling. A feeling of loneliness and longing.

It annoyed and bothered Near to no extent. Whenever he watched [Name] pack up her stuff, he suddenly had an urge to join her. He suddenly wanted to spend time with her more, talk to her more, have a bigger role in her life other than being who he was now.

Near frowned. What the hell was going on with him?

That night, Near found [Name] in his kitchen, books sprawled in front of her on the huge dining table. Mello was sitting beside her, explaining and writing down notes while [Name] listened and watched closely.

"That's right." Near thought. "Mello's tutoring [Name] as well."

That day when L had basically forced Near into tutoring [Name], Mello had protested, saying why he couldn't tutor her instead. According to Mello, he would be able to do a better job at preparing [Name] for the summer exams than Near could. To Near, it all looked like Mello was trying not to 'loose' to him again. He being picked by L to tutor [Name] must've looked like to Mello that L favoured Near over him. Near inwardly rolled his eyes at this.

Near spared a glance at the two as he headed towards the fridge. [Name] looked up from her work as he entered the room, giving him a small smile before going back to paying attention to Mello. The blonde haired boy himself didn't need to look up from his work to know it was him. Near raised an eyebrow when he noticed that Mello only edged closer to [Name] upon his arrival.

His jaw unconsciously clenched. "What the hell?" Near thought, opening the fridge and taking out a drink. Since when did he feel jealous about anything?

Near? Jealous? No way. Since when did he get jealous about anything? Never, and he wasn't going to start now either. It was such a childish thing to do as well, getting jealous over such petty stuff.

Near had concluded earlier on that the weird feelings he's been experiencing were due to his lack of company. Any form of human company. [Name] spending more and more time with him opened these feelings, making him realize that maybe making friends weren't such a bad idea.

And even though the feeling of socializing with people in his school that either hated him for no apparent reason or merely outcast him didn't appeal to Near at all, the reason he's been getting all those weird feelings were definitely not because he liked [Name] in any form other than a friend.

Because that'd be just stupid.

"Hmm…" Mello paused for a moment, before adding another correct tick onto the page. "Yeah, you should be alright for French now."

[Name] quietly cheered, grinning madly as Mello handed her back her work. They've been working on her Maths and English all afternoon, French being the last subject to go over for the night.

Mello helped [Name] pack up her stuff, walking her towards the front door as soon as the last of her books were in her bag.

"You look pretty happy." Mello commented.

[Name] nodded, "I'm confident about the summer exams this year." She said. "All thanks to you and Near of course."

Mello snorted, "Near? He's actually tutoring you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I kind of thought he'd just sit there and ignore you. He's not really the sort of person to talk, yet along help anyone, right?" Mello said. "Even though he sees you almost everyday around here…"

"Well, he's helping me a lot." [Name] smiled. "He's not really that quiet and secretive once you get to know him."

"Why, have you?" Mello asked, raising an eyebrow.

[Name] thought for a moment before answering, "He…Definitely talks a lot more compared to before. But I've noticed it's only when we're alone."

She looked up to see Mello's reaction, only to see a frown on the blonde boy's face. "That's weird." He finally said.

[Name] rolled her eyes.

If anything, Mello was a very possessive boy. He remembered well in his childhood how he would write his name all over the chocolate bars in the house whenever Watari had bought any, to remind Near what was his.

Over time, his possessiveness grew.

When he first became friends with Matt, he often got jealous whenever the young video game addict hanged around other kids for too long. It was out of fear that Matt would suddenly find him boring and stop being friends with him.

He smirked whenever he remembered his younger self, frowning behind a younger version of Matt while he talked to a bunch of kids. It was obvious how loyal Matt's friendship was him to now, so he wasn't worried Matt ending their friendship anytime soon, not matter how many arguments they may have.

Among many other stuff that Mello got easily possessive over, there was also [Name]. But like Matt and a handful of other people. [Name] wasn't a mere object in Mello's life. She was a loyal friend, not to mention beautiful. The boy often got confuse over his feelings for her, merely waving them off as mere attractions in the end. But lately, he couldn't help but feel like these confusions for his feelings for her were happening more and more often.

There were a lot of times before where it was just the two of them, how Mello could have easily grabbed his chance then to test out his so-called feelings for her.

He's had his fair share of failed relationships in the past with girls, but [Name] was definitely different compared to the rest of the female population in his school. He didn't know whether it was just his possessiveness acting up whenever he caught [Name] hanging out with another boy he didn't know, or whether he did actually did feel something for [Name].

All Mello knew was that she wasn't just any other girl he could easily throw away in the end.

Matt would kill him for that.

So my Easter break is coming up pretty soon. Two weeks of no school! It'll be a good break from the usual routine of getting up and dragging my butt over to school, haha.

I'm pretty excited about releasing this chapter, so I'll hopefully get a lot of feedback from it since I really want to hear everyone's thoughts on it ^_^ I was pretty tempted to delete this story yesterday and start all over again, but I decided to go ahead and continue on with it.

What do you guys think? It's a pretty short chapter but the next one will be a lot longer, I promise!