It was so odd that for Nick that he couldn't figure her out. Usually, he could understand the girls rather quickly. Or he might have been surrounded by only one type of girls, he wasn't sure which one was true.

For example, Tea was easy to understand, a too confident coquette who thought she could flirt her way out of any situation. She was pretty but in no way exceptional. Yet, she had so much confidence that people found her beautiful nevertheless. The regular features were perceived as pleasing to the eye because she was convinced that she was attractive. 

While Mia was clearly in the shadow of her friend, her beauty was able to shine through no matter how hard she tried to hide it.  Furthermore, it was the natural type of beauty that didn't need any help, beauty that just was.

Nick wondered how people could be so blind in not seeing how gorgeous she was. Her deep blue eyes and long red hair could leave anyone breathless, and yet he could see that she went unnoticed. The funny thing was that it was clear to him that she preferred being invisible.

He could see a great pain in her eyes that stopped her from wanting anyone to notice her. It was like she made an armor to protect herself from the cruelties of the outside world, an invisible wall around her that rare few could get through. It protected her but it also stopped good things from reaching her.

Nick caught himself daydreaming of being her prince charming and saving her from the tower of sadness she was trapped in. It was his dream to show her that the outside world could also be beautiful not only cruel.

"What am I thinking about! That is not how guys should think, is it?" he thought. 

That didn't stop him from imagining breaking her walls and finding the actual person hiding behind the brave front. He knew from personal experience that not showing one's true self could only hinder a deeper connection. 

As for Mia, she swore to herself that she would never feel the pain of loss she felt once before. Pain that was so unexpected and soul-crushing that she never wanted to feel it again. She never saw herself as brave, quite the opposite, it was fear keeping her away.

From time to time, Mia had trouble controlling her real personality, and it would burst through, but most of the time, she could hide it rather well. It was like it went into deep slumber and her rational mind could take over, protecting her from the pain that emotions often carried with them.

One of those moments of loss of control was when Nick said his stupid pun. Puns were one of her guilty pleasures, so it was beyond her power to stop the bubbling laughter that decided to burst through. It was also one of the few moments of pure joy that she had left.