The next day, first thing in the morning, Gloxinia found all her missing stuff back on her desk. No message was attached to it, but she guessed the unnamed guy was generous enough to give them back to her even though she scared him yesterday.

The second period of the day was a self-study session, as the teacher couldn't be there for the day. Despite it being called self-study, no one actually studied and everyone just talked to each other like it was a break time.

"Can you stop staring at me?" Vincent said while propping up his head with his arm.

Gloxinia, the one he was talking to, just kept looking at him without heeding his words.

"And why are you turning your chair to face this way? Face forward," Vincent said again.

Gloxinia shifted her chair so she could fully face Vincent's direction. There was no reason, just that everyone else did too and it was much easier to talk to him this way.

"Do you know," Gloxinia finally voiced out. "What a smile is?"

Vincent wondered if she was joking, but judging by her face she was clearly dead serious about her question.

"Are you being sarcastic?" Vincent asked. That was the only reason he could think of as to why she would even ask that question to him. He was aware he never smiled much. Actually, he hadn't been smiling for a few centuries now.

"Did it sound like I was?" Gloxinia blinked in genuine surprise. She shook her head quickly.

"No, but sorry if you got offended."

Vincent squinted his eyes at her to study her expression, but it was no use. He knew she was being honest. Vincent leaned back on his chair and contemplated on how to answer Gloxinia's question.

"It's a…n expression," Vincent began with a careful tone. He felt like he would turn philosophical with this topic, but he would like to keep it logical for Gloxinia so she could understand it first.

He took a glance at her but she didn't give out any particular reaction, like she already knew that before.

Of course she does. Vincent thought.

"It's the expression you make when you're happy," he continued. He glanced at Gloxinia again and this time she looked like she was deep in thought.

"But I once saw Lilly smiling even though she wasn't happy," Gloxinia voiced out the question that had been nagging in her mind. She had always associated smiling with good feelings, but just that once, smiling looked sad to her and she didn't know why.

"Well, yeah," Vincent said and crossed his arms as he tried to think about how to explain it nicely.

"... Sometimes smiling can also be a means to hide one's true feelings," he decided to say.

Gloxinia tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. She got the gist but she wondered why they had to make it so complicated. Humans truly were such complicated creatures. They could do one thing and mean another thing entirely.

Gloxinia studied Vincent's face.

"Can you smile?" Gloxinia asked with a serious expression. She didn't mean much, she just wanted to see how Vincent would look like smiling genuinely.

"I don't have any reason to," Vincent answered, his gaze locked on his desk. Even in front of his superiors and seniors, he never smiled even though it could've gotten him their favors. But it was fine since most of the other angels of death weren't keen on smiling either.

Gloxinia huffed and crossed her arms as well. She was out of ideas on how to make Vincent smile. She leaned back on her chair to relax, and that was when she noticed some stares.

She turned to the side and her eyes met with a few girls who quickly avoided her gaze and went on with their business. When she looked around, the others also seemed to avoid looking at her direction for some reason.

Gloxinia was puzzled as to why they would stare at her and then avoid her gaze. Was there something on her? Did she do something wrong?

Were they scared of her?

The corners of Gloxinia's lips arched down and her gaze casted downwards. She didn't want to make any more people afraid of her.

Vincent, on the other hand, knew exactly what was happening. While the both of them were talking to each other, he heard their classmates whispering about them.

Fangirling, to be exact.

"Oh my god, they look so good together."

"I know. I'm so glad our class has the cool beauties."

"They're a sight for the sore eyes."

And things like that. They were not badmouthing them, and they were definitely not scared of Gloxinia. They were just admiring the two mysterious cool beauties.

Vincent let it be because they weren't saying anything negative, but at the time he didn't know Gloxinia felt down precisely because she thought they were. He thought it was only natural to be able to hear their whisperings, so he had no idea why Gloxinia would look so dejected.

The bell rang, indicating that it was finally time for recess. Nobody in class really batted an eye except for those who were going out of the class.

Vincent stood up from his seat without a word, about to go to the rooftop again to do his daily observation, but Gloxinia stood up as well.

He stared at her for a moment before deciding through experience that it would probably be useless to talk her out of it. He walked to the direction of the stairs, with Gloxinia tailing behind.

"Why do you always go to the rooftop when it's break time?" Gloxinia questioned as they went up the stairs to the rooftop. Without sparing a glance at Gloxinia, Vincent opened the door to the rooftop and the gust of wind brushed past them.

"I have a job," he said as he went out and held the door open until Gloxinia stepped out too.

"Why are you following me?" Vincent said again. He let the door close on its own before walking ahead to his usual spot, the edge of the roof.

He took a seat on the edge, his eyes focused on the usual boy sitting on the bench all by himself. Then, Gloxinia grabbed Vincent's shoulder all of a sudden, which startled him. He looked up at her.

Gloxinia was right next to him, standing still with her eyes fixed on the view below. Vincent could feel that her hand resting on his shoulder was trembling slightly.

Vincent sighed.

I knew it.

He tapped on her hand gently to get her attention. When she shifted her gaze to him, he pointed behind him.

"Sit down facing that way," Vincent said, referring to the direction of the door they just stepped out from. By facing that direction, Gloxinia wouldn't be able to notice the heights since she wouldn't be looking at the land below.

Gloxinia tilted her head, wondering why he told her to do that, but she complied anyway. She took a step back and crouched on the ground, then she pressed her back on Vincent's.

????

So many questions popped up inside Vincent's mind. Like what made her think he was telling her to lean on his back, or what made her think he was telling her to lean on his back.

"Oh, this does feel better," Gloxinia said as she hugged her knees. The wind was starting to make her feel cold, so she had to do it to feel warmer.

For a moment, no one spoke up. Gloxinia listened to the sound of the wind as she closed her eyes to feel the wind against her skin. When she opened her eyes, she looked at the clear blue sky.

"Hey," Gloxinia said, breaking the silence between them. Her voice was in a normal volume, but since it was windy on the rooftop, people normally wouldn't be able to hear her. Only Vincent could because he had a sharp hearing.

"What," Vincent answered with a sharp tone and high volume so she could hear him. On his hand was a small note that he was writing on.

"Am I scary?" Gloxinia asked. She was thinking about what happened in the class before. No matter what, she couldn't help but feel that there was no other reason they would avoid her gaze. Maybe the guy yesterday told everyone else about her.

"That again?" Vincent said. He sounded indifferent as he was still writing something on his note. Once he was done writing, he shoved the note back onto his pocket.

"Didn't you see the others' reaction back in the class? They were avoiding me," Gloxinia said, hugging on her knees tighter. Saying it out loud actually made her feel worse about it.

"Huh?" Vincent said. He paused briefly to process what he heard, then it dawned on him what she meant.

"Aah. They weren't scared of you," Vincent said nonchalantly. He didn't expect she would be concerned about that, but he got where she was coming from. She couldn't hear them talking, after all.

"How do you know that?"