Sleeping with my Best Friend

The scorching sun blazed in the sky, and the cicadas' cries pierced the air.

Inside a classroom on the second floor of Sunny School.

Robin stood at the podium, holding a large teaching triangle ruler while giving his lesson. His shirt was already soaked with sweat.

The air was so hot it felt like it could bubble. The ceiling fan whirred loudly, but even the wind it produced seemed scorching.

The students below looked drowsy, their eyelids heavy with fatigue.

Robin was growing impatient.

"Look at the blackboard." Noticing a girl in the third row zoning out, he frowned slightly and smacked the ruler against the board with more force. "Did you hear me? Look at the blackboard!"

Several students who had been on the verge of dozing off jolted awake, forcing themselves to focus.

Yet, the girl in question seemed oblivious. She kept her head down, absentmindedly sketching with a pencil.

She had a delicate, innocent face-still youthful, giving her a soft, adorable look.

Her posture was upright, her demeanor calm and composed, the very image of a model student.

-That is, if you ignored the fact that she was treating her teacher like thin air.

Robin's frown deepened. He continued his lecture, his voice tight with frustration.

"Angle one equals angle two, angle three equals 108 degrees-"

He was nearly finished explaining the problem, but she still hadn't looked up.

Robin's patience snapped. He slammed the triangle ruler onto the desk.

A loud bang echoed through the classroom.

The students flinched collectively, and the already tense atmosphere turned to stone.

"Lily!"

The girl named Lily finally looked up, meeting Robin's gaze for two seconds before calmly putting her pencil down and standing up.

Robin clenched his jaw, attempting to restrain his irritation. "What did I just say?"

Lily glanced at the diagram on the blackboard, her expression unruffled. "Angle four equals 72 degrees."

Robin had been tricked too many times by her obedient act to fall for it again. He tapped the desk with the ruler, sneering, "I haven't even taught that yet!"

"..."

Lily felt a little troubled. "Then... why did you call on me?"

Robin shot back, "What do you think?"

Lily pondered for a few seconds, then guessed, "Do you not know the answer?"

Robin, "..."

Lily, "Do you want me to explain it to you?"

Robin, "?"

"I see," Lily nodded in understanding, then turned to the blackboard. "Since angle one equals angle two, AB is parallel to CD. When two lines are parallel, the consecutive interior angles are supplementary-"

Robin couldn't take it anymore. "If you're so smart, why don't you take my job?"

Lily blinked in mild confusion. She opened her mouth, hesitated for a second, then said hesitantly, "But I can't take away your livelihood."

"..."

Silence stretched for three seconds before the classroom erupted in laughter.

Robin was livid. "Quiet! All of you, shut up!"

The students, however, were too entertained. The classroom buzzed like a marketplace, and a few boys in the back row started cheering-

"Teacher, I think it's a great idea! Let Lily take over!"

"Does that mean no more homework?"

"Can I just stop coming to school altogether?"

Robin roared, "Enough!"

He turned back to Lily, his breathing heavy as he fought to keep his composure. But in the end, he couldn't hold back his frustration.

"Lily, bring your parents to school tomorrow!"

-

The dismissal bell rang.

Robin stormed out of the classroom without looking back, his expression thunderous.

Since it was the last class of the day, most students had already packed up, eager to leave.

"Why did you mess with Bald Robin again?" Her friend, Iris, rushed to her desk the moment the bell rang. "You know he loves calling parents for the smallest things, right? It's only halfway through the month, and your mom's already been here twice."

Lily stuffed her notebooks into her backpack and zipped it up forcefully. "I don't even know what I did wrong."

Iris gawked at her. "You don't know?"

Lily scowled. "Didn't I answer his question?"

"Yeah, but your answer was asking for trouble!" Iris burst into laughter. "Saying, 'I can't take away your livelihood.' Even I would want to smack you."

Lily scoffed. "Then you're just as unreasonable as him."

"Hey, seriously though," Iris said, "why weren't you paying attention? And how do you always get caught?"

"Doesn't Baldy's voice sound like a lullaby to you?" Lily yawned as she slung her backpack over her shoulders. "If I actually listened without doing something else, I'd definitely fall asleep."

"..."

Iris had to admit, that made sense.

Before she could say anything else, her gaze flickered toward a group of boys standing at the school gate. She changed the subject.

"By the way, are you coming to the bookstore?"

Lily gave her a sideways glance. "For what?"

"Alexander invited you," Iris said, grinning. "Along with some guys from Class Six. We're all going together."

Lily repeated, "For what?"

Iris huffed, "Are you coming or not?"

Lily, "Not."

"Why not?" Iris bumped her shoulder playfully. "Alexander is kinda cute, you know."

The two walked side by side.

Hearing this, Lily's expression became difficult to describe. "You should get your eyes checked."

Iris protested, "What's wrong with my eyes? It's not just me-lots of people think he's handsome!"

Lily nodded and sincerely suggested, "Then you guys should go together."

"..."

As she spoke, Lily pulled out her phone from her backpack. She hesitated before typing out a text to Andy,

[Brother, you haven't been home in a while. When are you coming back? Can you come home tomorrow? I miss you so much TAT]

Iris, oblivious to her actions, sighed. "So you're really not coming?"

"Nope."

"They're all waiting at the gate, you know..."

"You can go if you want." Lily said absentmindedly, still staring at her phone. "I'm not in the mood today."

Iris hesitated. "Is it because of the parent-teacher meeting? What are you going to do? Maybe call your dad this time?"

Lily shook her head. "They won't come."

"Huh? Why not?"

Lily kept her eyes on her phone, waiting for Andy's reply. "I'm not telling them."

Iris reminded her, "But if they don't come, Bald Robin will call them himself."

"It's fine."