Aoki enthusiastically waved at me as soon as he noticed me. I didn’t think I was going to be able to escape this situation, so I walked up to him, unable to maintain eye contact.

“Hi, Pauline, how are you doing?” he asked nonchalantly.

I didn’t answer. He put his hands on my shoulders, making me shiver, and looked me straight in the eyes. I, on the hand, stared straight at the ground.

“Look, I’m sorry about yesterday, alright? I shouldn’t have done that.”

That was the sincerest he’d sounded since I met him, so I looked up at him and felt myself blush.

“Is that why you tried to call me?”

Oh, no. Of course he remembered. Why did Noémie have to put me in this situation?

“Uh, it’s because I, uh, wanted to say…”, I stuttered.

His gaze was just as intense as yesterday, right before he’d kiss me. I felt like he was just about to do it again, despite apologizing for that exact thing. I wished for anything to force me away from him so this conversation could end.

“I might… have feelings for you.”

I wanted to bury my head in sand. I had to settle for burying my head into Aoki’s chest instead, as he pulled me into a hug right when he heard those words.

“Get a room, guys!” I heard Noémie’s voice shout from the distance.

Of course she had to see us like that. This day certainly was off to a strong start. Aoki let go, and started looking at Noémie, who was walking up to us from the other end of the street. I couldn’t help but notice he seemed annoyed by her presence ; maybe that was the reason she was trying so hard to find dirt on him? Did they just dislike each other instinctively?

“Anyway, I thought I’d tell you,” Aoki said. “Math class is canceled this afternoon. I checked the school’s website.”

“Oh,” I simply replied.

I was secretly a little disappointed to hear this news. I looked forward to that hour with him.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t hang out!” he added.

He looked at Noémie again, who had nearly arrived.

“Well, see you later then, my love!” he winked.

I wanted to strangle him.

“Aren’t you going to school?” I asked, pretending not to have heard what he called me.

“I’m pretty sure we’ve already had this conversation,” he replied. “I’m sure you can handle being away from me for eight hours!”

And just like that, he left and was replaced by Noémie.

“Did I scare him away or something?” she lamented. “I wanted to see my favorite couple interact some more!”

I sighed. I had no idea how to handle the both of them.

“Hey, you won’t believe what I found using his phone number,” she said, changing the subject. “That guy’s getting more suspicious by the second.”

“What?”

I was fully expecting her to say something mundane and pretend it was a big deal.

“I accessed his phone records, and –”

“That’s illegal, Noémie,” I cut her off. “How far are you going to go just because you hate him for no reason?”

“Let me finish!” she complained. “I accessed his phone records, or at least the records associated with the number you gave me.”

She took out her phone. I couldn’t believe it, but she had screenshots of Aoki’s phone records. How did she even obtain them?

“Look,” she continued. “What do you see?”

“Uh, illegally accessed information?”

She scoffed.

“That’s because you don’t have the mind of a detective! What I see is that your number is the only one, aside from his, that shows up on that thing.”

She was right.

“This can only mean one thing : that guy’s a total loser who only ever calls or texts you because he has no friends.”

I couldn’t believe any of this. I didn’t even suspect Noémie would be capable of accessing someone’s phone records illegally in a single evening. Moreover, that she’d do it just to prove that Aoki had no friends.

“Impressed, huh?” she boasted. “That’s the power of being a hacker in a society ruled by technology!”

I was at a loss for words. I’d known Noémie for a long time, and she’d never pulled this kind of stunt before.

“It’s fine, you’re allowed to date a friendless loser,” she joked, giving me a friendly pat on the back.

“Just when did you become a hacker?” I finally asked.

“Well, you know, a girl’s gotta find a way to stay busy on her off days. It’s just a hobby, like drawing or playing video games. I get very bored late in the night.”

Somehow, hacking out of boredom at 3 a.m. sounded exactly like the kind of thing Noémie would do.

The school bell rang, interrupting our discussion. Like everyone else, we made our way to class. At the end of the day, seeing I was starting to leave, Noémie stopped me.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Well, math class is canceled,” I answered.

“What? That’s not true. I checked the school’s website this morning ; not a single teacher is absent.”

“Huh?”, I simply said, confused.

“Besides, Mr Dumbass is never absent. You know how he is, he’d come in even if he had every illness in the world at once!” she laughed.

“But Aoki told me he was,” I thought out loud.

“Wow. Is Prince Loser trying to get you to skip class with him? How romantic,” she teased.

“Shut up.”

When we arrived at the usual math classroom, we were surprised to find that Mr Demasse hadn’t arrived yet.

“That’s weird,” Noémie mumbled. “Dumbass is never late.”

As is customary, we started waiting for the teacher to arrive. A minute passed. Ten. Twenty. Eventually, one of the school monitors came to tell our class to go home.

“Okay, so it’s confirmed ; your boyfriend is a psychic.”

I did find it weird, too, that he had somehow foreseen that math class would be canceled, but I brushed it off as a coincidence. Though I didn’t quite understand why he’d lie to me about seeing it on the school’s website.

Noémie and I left together, and for the second time today, Aoki was waiting for me by the entrance gate. I was hoping he wouldn’t make it a habit.

“Hi Pauline!” he exclaimed, completely ignoring Noémie. “You’re 30 minutes late.”

She gave him a death stare.

“You know, I exist too, so stop pretending I don’t,” she attacked.

Oh, no. Were they going to fight? Aoki looked visibly annoyed, and they were staring each other down. I took a step back.

“Why would I care about you?” he asked coldly.

“Guys, please, let’s not…” I tried, but they both ignored me.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because I’m your girlfriend’s best friend? You know, the one she can trust with anything? Unlike you. You’ve been weird from the start.”

“Really? From my point of view, you’re the one who shouldn’t be trusted. You’ve been trying to discourage her from hanging out with me this whole time.”

I was starting to feel very embarrassed. It’s like they were trying to make me pick a side without outright saying so.

“How’d you even know that?”

“I know more than you think.”

“You’re trying too hard. You come off as a stalker.”

“You come off as someone who’s jealous that I’m stealing her friend. Or is she your crush?”

Noémie looked taken aback, but that didn’t prevent her from replying.

“Of course you’d need to steal someone else’s friend, since you don’t have any of your own.”

“Oh? What makes you think so?”

She started rummaging through her pockets, and I hated that I knew where this was going. The slight hope I had that she wasn’t actually going to do this was crushed when she took out her phone.

“I have your phone records right here. She’s the only one you ever talk to.”

Aoki simply laughed as an answer, surprising both Noémie and I.

“And I’m the stalker!” he said.

For the first time since this conversation began, he stopped looking at Noémie, instead turning around to face me.

“Pauline,” he started, and he’d never said my name this seriously before. I got a little scared. “Did you give her my phone number?”

“I, uh…” I stammered.

He sighed.

“Maybe you should be a little more cautious about who you can trust,” he said, glaring at Noémie.

She looked like she regretted bringing this up. She, too, turned around to face me.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I should’ve kept this between us.”

They had stopped fighting, yet I still felt the tension in the air. An awkward silence set in, during which the three of us just stared at each other. They were obviously expecting me to say something, maybe even pick a side, but what was I supposed to do? Noémie had been my best friend since primary school, and Aoki made me feel things I’d never felt before.

The silence was finally broken.

“I’m going to go home on my own,” Noémie said, defeated. “I don’t want to bother you guys.”

She left, looking at the ground. I felt horrible. Aoki took my hand, and tried to reassure me.

“Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. She was the only one you hung out with before, but now I’m here, so she sees me as a rival. It’s natural.”

“You didn’t have to be so hard on her,” I retorted.

“I didn’t say anything that I regret."

He accompanied me home in a heavy silence. I couldn’t stop thinking about Noémie, hoping that she’d accept my relationship eventually. I wished the two of them could just get along.

When we arrived at my house, Aoki hugged me goodbye and left. I wasn’t in the mood to speak with him for hours. Thinking I could finally unwind, I sat on the couch and unlocked my phone. I saw I had received a text from Noémie. Worried about her, I opened it immediately.

“isnt that demasse?” she had sent, alongside a link to a news article.

About a murder.