Chapter Text
Rafayel was the best, at everything. Even though he never studied for any of his tests, and barely put effort into his work he was always able to get perfect scores. Not only that he was also extremely popular, always looking perfectly handsome and being crowded by people everywhere he went.
Despite that, it didn't matter how popular or talented he was, Rafayel never seemed to mind any of that, and if you looked too much at him, which you did, even if you hated to admit it. It was clear that he carried life with a type of laziness that made your blood boil from jealousy.
He didn’t need to spend hours practicing talking to someone, he didn't need to study for hours on end, he didn’t have to work hard for people to recognize him and his art, because he got all of that handed to him on a silver platter. And as if that alone wasn’t infuriating enough, he didn’t care a single bit about all of that.
Maybe he could’ve fooled everyone into believing how happy he was about getting first place or how flattered he was to receive so many love letters on valentine’s day. But you saw right through it, always being 2nd or 3rd place made you look more into him, jealous of his achievements, and the more you did the more you understood how all of that was a facade.
Still, you were able to ignore your passionate hatred towards Rafayel most of the time, would you want to scream at the top of your lungs every time he scored higher than you at tests? Sure! But despite those times (or anytime when he was near your field of view) you could live just fine. Even though you were both art majors, you didn't have much classes together anyway, so it's not like avoiding him at all costs was totally impossible.
But that was before, before going to meet with your friends for lunch and noticing a very familiar purple wavy haired guy between them.
Your brain immediately went short circuit, there was just no way in hell he was here, most of your friends weren't even art majors. How could they possibly have met? maybe it's a different purple haired guy, purple is a pretty color, and nowadays everyone dyes their hair so...
Except he looked in your direction, probably noticing your staring, and you could never mistake those blue eyes with the tiniest bit of pink hue, looking right at you. Flush quickly came up to your face, it felt like the world stopped, you were caught.
And before you could say anything, or ask what he was doing here, your friend Simone took notice of your presence and quickly walked towards you.
"Hey! Almost thought you weren't coming." You quickly averted your gaze at Rafayel, and smiled at Simone, she came just in right time.
"Hey… I- sorry, I just kinda got distracted while coming here."
Still, you kept glancing at the table every now and then to check if what you saw was real.
Following your eyes and noticing the confused expression you held, the corners of her mouth tug upwards forming a soothing smile, and she explained.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you, we started talking to Rafayel after a party. He's really fun, so we decided to invite him too. Come on, I will introduce you two."
She walked towards the table slowly, being sure you were close, probably spotting your nervousness and trying to reassure you.
Even though you never told her or any of your friends about your one sided rivalry/hatred with Rafayel, they always thought you had some weird feelings towards him, but whenever asked, you just brushed it off, so eventually Simone and everyone just assumed you were shy, and gave up on the topic.
"Hey Raf'"
That took you off guard, they were already on a nickname basis? It took so long for Simone to call you by your nickname and within a day she was already fine with calling him "Raf"?.
He looked at both of you with that same fakeish smile he was always wearing around and stood up. You saw his outfit and of course he was looking extremely dazzling with just a brown hoodie and some jeans, god you hated him so much…
Simone introduced you to him, but you didn't even pay attention to what she was saying, you couldn't focus at all on anything, too blinded by pure rage, only realizing you should say something when she nudged your shoulder, you coughed and smiled while holding your hand out for him.
"I'm sorry, I just had a really tough class so my mind is not that great right now." You chuckled, and he followed you, shaking your hand gently.
"Don't worry, I get it, my name is Rafayel by the way, you can just call me Raf' though." He smiled and you three sat down.
"You're also an art ma-" he continued, but before going any further people started talking to him again, and soon enough he was getting flooded with praise, about his art, his appearance and everything that was possible to compliment him.
After that you went quiet, having him around really made you uncomfortable and if you tried to talk you would have to be very careful to not make a mean comment about him, your friends noticed the sudden change in your demeanor because even if you tried to hide it, it was very much clear that you at least didn't appreciate his presence, but they didn't bother you.
Rafayel would every once in a while sneak a glance in your way, you didn't notice it of course, but by the way he looked it was clear that he knew something.
Soon enough lunch was over, everyone was saying their goodbye's and Tara, your roommate, went up to you.
"Oh, sorry Tara, I'm going to the studio. I need to finish some projects haha."
You tried putting on a smile but the truth was you were very much stressed out about the whole situation you just found out, if you went home right now Tara would probably press until you finally explained why you hated him so much, and you could not possibly afford to do that, after all, deep down you knew you had no reason to hate, and were just being petty. Tara was a sweet girl, but just the idea of her and all your friends realizing how much of a bitter person you were, and leaving was terrifying.
"Awnnn, but i dont wanna leave you alone! you look so tired now..." she pouted "Wait! Raf' isn't your next class close to the art studio? You guys should totally go together! I mean, she barely tal-"
You quickly covered her mouth, scared of what she was about to say next. Rafayel just chuckled.
"I wouldn't mind some company, but I don't wanna bother you." He said, trying to be polite.
Why was he being so nice? Couldn't he just say that he was going with someone else or give any type of excuse? You would rather die than be alone with him but you also didn't want to be rude and just shove him off...
"Oh don't worry, I also didn't want to bother you, but if you don't mind I guess it's fine." You smiled and chuckled.
It's not like there was any other option so you just accepted fate and hoped for the best (whatever that was supposed to mean in a situation like that).
Rafayel and you said goodbye to everyone and started walking towards the studio, the silence was deafening, your head kept screaming at yourself while you tried to distract your mind by looking at the surrounding's, he looked so calm and comfortable... god you really wanted to just rip that smile off his face, why did you even do this? spend at least 20 minutes alone with no one other than Rafayel? Did you really hate yourself that much? Maybe you should try and say something to be polite? Oh no... what if he notices something weird and tells all your friends about it? You should just keep quiet but mayb-
"You know, you don't need to pretend you like me when it's just the two of us."
You stopped, completely shocked, and slowly turned to look at his face, who simply held a smirk, his eyes looking like he finally caught you, you've never seen him look like that before, you were definitely screwed.
You tried speaking but no words would come out of your mouth, you couldn't deny it, there was no way he would believe you but admitting wasn't a good option either.
"What cutie? Cat got your tongue?"
What's wrong with him? What is that nickname? And did he realize it now? or was it before? But when? And how? Your face turned extremely red, eyes wide open, mouth agape, trying to think of something to say, anything, but before that he sighed and started talking again. The smile did not falter once.
"Maybe you really didn't realize it, but all those angry glances you gave at me every time I won a medal weren't as subtle as you thought. At first I didn't mind it, barely noticed, but every time I’m near you glare at me like I committed some heinous crime.” He paused with a satisfied smirk, slowly his eyes turned into pure mischief “it almost looks like you are obsessed with me, cutie”
That asshole, now he pushed it, you knew he was teasing, testing, but you couldn’t help yourself from falling for it.
“What are you even saying?! Me? obsessed with you? Come on, you can't be serious about that.” You calmed down and sighed, the corner of your mouth turned just lightly upwards, almost forming a smile but not quite reaching your eyes. “I just wonder how long your little facade is going to last until everyone finds out who you truly are.”
He chuckled softly and spoke slowly, deliberately. “Ah, so you think you know who I am? How did you find out then? Was it by your own deceitful act of ‘ingenious girl’ who was just curious about my past while asking everyone you knew?”
You scoffed, offended at the idea that you were also being deceiving, you weren’t near as dishonest as he was. “Not everyone is like you, and it doesn't take too much to figure you out, you’re less complex than you believe.”
It was his turn to scoff now, but the smirk remained. “So all those times you glared at me, full of hatred, was just for fun? Liked my face so much that you couldn’t tear your eyes away, yeah?”
He waited patiently for your answer, like he was savoring the bewildered expression on your face, but before you could answer Thomas, his friend called out to him.
“Rafayel!” He screamed as he walked towards both of you.
The smirk Rafayel had left his face as quickly as it came, you also stopped frowning and put some distance between you and him, just realizing how close you two got while arguing.
“What took you so long to get here? I thought that you forgot we had to finish our project today so I called you and when you didn’t answer I kept searching for you!” He held the bridge of his nose while sighing, trying to calm himself down, then he quickly looked at you with an apologetic look before speaking again. “I'm sorry for being rude but we need to go NOW, unless you wanna be late.”
Rafayel Chuckled slightly and looked at you while waving before walking towards Thomas.
“See ya” He winked and left.
You stayed there for a moment and then walked towards the studio, your body moved but your mind was blank, all that you could think about was how you would be around him more frequently, now that your friends liked him and in addition to that he also knew you didn’t like him.
You were screwed.