The day, Jiko found himself looking for Julie in the library during lunch. He spotted her at the same table, this time tut two juniors who looked both overwhelmed and grateful. Jiko paused at the entrance, suddenly unsure of himself. He didn’t quite know what he was doing there or why he’d even e.

  But then Julie looks up and spots him. Her face lights up with a smile that’s warm and genuine, and for a moment, Jiko feels like he’s standing in the sunlight after a long stretch of rain.

  “Hey,” she calls out, waving him over. “What are you doing here?”

  Jiks, trying to py it cool as he walks over. “Just… thought I’d see what you were up to.”

  Julie raises an eyebrow, clearly skeptical but amused. “Well, as you see, I’m busy saving the academic world one fused student at a time.”

  Her pyful tone eases some of Jiko’s tension, and he finds himself sitting down across from her. The juni him curiously before Julie shoos them back to their work, her focus briefly returning to her tut.

  As Jiko watches her, he feels that stirring in his chest again—a mix of admiration, guilt, and something else he ’t quite name.

  For the first time, Jiko wonders if the timeline he’s been so desperate to preserve might not be the only path forward. And for the first time, he wonders if, perhaps, he’s been looking at Julie—and his own role in her life—the wrong way all along.

  The awkwardness betweearted to fade, not with one big dramatient, but through lots of small, quiet as. Jiko began to return Julie’s kindness in his own way—helping her with heavy books from the library, lending her a pen when she needed one, or making sure there was a seat for her at their usual lunch table. These little things, though they might not seem like much, meant a lot, creating a fortable and natural e between them.

  One especially , Jiko saw Julie shivering outside the school gates. She’d obviously fotten her scarf, and the wind was really biting. Without even thinking about it, he took off his own scarf and ed it around her shoulders. Julie looked up at him, surprised, her cheeks flushed – and not just from the cold.

  “You’ll freeze!” she protests, tugging at the scarf as though to hand it back.

  “I’ll survive,” Jiko replies, his tone dismissive but his expression soft. “Just don’t lose it.”

  Julie stares at him for a moment before nodding, her fingers brushing over the fabric as though it were something precious. “Thanks, Jiko.”

  These small moments of e build an unspoken uandiween them, an almost magic pull that her deny.

  One day, Julie approaches Jik lunch, her hands clutg a ly ed lunchbox. She fidgets nervously, shifting from one foot to the other.

  “I made this for you,” she says, shyly pushing the box into his hands. “You’ve been w so hard with track practice tely. I thought you might like somethira.”

  Jiko raises an eyebrow, slightly amused but also touched. He carefully uns the lunchbox to reveal a beautifully arranged meal, plete with rice molded into a smiley fad side dishes meticulously portioned.

  His initial rea is to joke. “Is this bribery? Trying to make me soft before a big race?”

  Julie pouts, crossing her arms. “It’s appreciation! If you don’t like it, give it back.”

  He grins, pig up his chopsticks to take a bite. The fvors are simple but f, and it’s clear she put effort into making it. “It’s good,” he admits after swallowing. “Thanks.”

  Julie’s face lights up like the sun breaking through a cloudy sky. “Really? You’re not just saying that?”

  “Would I lie about free food?” he teases, but there’s warmth in his tohat softens the remark.

  From that day on, the tensioween them seems to dissolve pletely. Julie begins preparing lunch for Jiko more often, and iurarts to help her with little things—carrying her backpack when it’s too heavy or fetg her favorite drink from the vending mae before css. Their iions are no loinged with awkwardness but instead feel easy, almost natural.

  Their cssmates take notice, too.

  “Are you two dating or something?” Rizvan asks oernoon, his voice full of teasing curiosity.

  Jiko nearly chokes on his drink, his cheeks flushing crimson. “What? No!”

  Julie rolls her eyes, smirking. “Keep dreaming, Rizvan. Okay, say it again! I like it.”

  Rizvan watched them, a puzzled expression on his face. He sensed something was going oween Jiko and Julie, something more than just friendship. He decided to stay out of it for now, figuring he'd let things py out and see what happened. *Something's definitely cooking here,* he thought to himself, *I'll just let them cook.*

  The ge in Jiko's heart is most evident during track practice. As always Julie was ing to watch Jiko train, sitting on the bleachers with her books and him a wave and a smile whenever he gnces her way. Before, he finds it distrag, but now, it bees a sourotivation. Knowing she’s watg makes him push himself harder, his strides faster, his determination stronger.

  One day, after an especially grueling practice, Jiko colpses onto the grass, drenched i. Julie rushes over, holding out a water bottle.

  “You’re insane, you know that?” she says, her tone a mix of scolding and admiration.

  Jiko takes the bottle, chugging half of it in one go before replying. “And you’re nosy. Who told you to e watch?”

  Julie rolls her eyes, sitting down beside him. “No one. I wao. Is that so bad?”

  Jiko g her, notig the way the setting sun catches in her hair, making it shimmer like spun gold. For a moment, he’s struck by how different things feel now pared to when they first started iing. He doesn’t feel the o push her away anymore. In fact, he finds himself wantio stay.

  “Nah,” he says finally, his voice softer. “It’s not bad.”

  As the weeks pass, their bond tio grow. Julie bees a fixture in Jiko’s life, her preseeady and f. She cheers the loudest at his track meets, celebrates his victories with homemade treats, and even soles him with her silly jokes when he loses.