amae.

As agreed, the two of you meet up in your school library in between your classes. You got there first, scratching your pencil on a blank piece of paper as you wondered just how you could tackle the equation in the textbook you borrowed for practice. You hear the rustle of a bag settling down on a chair beside you and feel a soft kiss on the top of your head before you look up and see your girlfriend, whose eyes were no less tired than yours as she sits down on the chair across yours.

"Tough lab this time?" You ask, handing her a spare sheet of newsprint paper for her to do her recall on. She lets out a sigh and takes the sheet from you before searching her bag for a pen.

"As usual. You should get to work, don't mind me," Arlecchino whispers, letting out a rather deep breath as she remembers something. You give her a hum in response and put your focus back on your own study materials, your pencil encircling your current practice problem and its answer key.

Ten minutes have passed... and you've just written a few lines of your solution on your paper. Again, you've come to a stump. Just as you did a lot of quizzes ago. Before you could let out a frustrated sigh, Arlecchino slips a coffee candy to your side of the table. You look up again and slump your shoulders before lying your head on the table, equal parts frustrated and tired. Of course, your girlfriend notices and she sets her pen down from writing.

"Get up after a few minutes, you haven't even finished one practice problem," Arlecchino chides, tapping your head with her pen. "Forget feeling angry over it. You already know the answer, you just have to write it down."

"No, I don't... It's just dumb, I'm dumb..."

"If you keep saying that, it'll be what you'll think over and over. Get up, wallowing in it achieves nothing. Eat the candy, or if you want, we can come out for a coffee break. I could use one as well."

-

The coffee can tumbles down the vending machine along with your change. You kneel down and get it from the machine and crank it open, letting Arlecchino drink the first half. She hands you the coffee can back and you chug the bland coffee down before tossing the can to the trash bin nearby.

Out of the blue, you break into a small laugh and shake your head, running your hand through your hair. "Just a little more, I think I'm turning into a monkey..."

"Monkeys are intelligent in their own way."

"That's not what I meant- dude, can't you just-"

Silence. You avert your eyes from her in guilt, your stomach feeling worse than before. Ice slides down your back when you hear her sigh and it gets replaced with warmth when she holds your cheeks in her hands, giving them a soft squeeze before squishing them together. You squirm and wince before she lets go, letting out a soft chuckle when she sees how you've given her the nastiest side eye since you've known each other.

"Stressing this early in the morning? It's not even noon yet and you look like you've spent a day. I reckon you should be doing better than that," Arlecchino crosses her arms over her chest, giving you a knowing look.

"A series of zeros, and my blockmates are doing better than..." You began.

"...and? That does not mean you're hopeless. Take those scores as valid criticisms instead of attacks, and, please, you're not your peers. If you see it as soon as possible, then, you might actually learn how to write what you know on those problems you have." She pulls you closer to her as you both walk back to the library to continue your study session.

"You already know the answer," she repeats. "You just have to figure out how to write it down. Plus, it's just one subject, you pull your grades up with the others. You're a top scorer in one of your subjects, aren't you?"

"Says the future dean's lister," you quip back, your mood a bit better than before. "Whatever, so long as I pass in the end, get a job, marry you..."

"Figure out how you're going to fill out your paper first before thinking of that."

You stomp on the spot just before her foot and she barely flinches, gently ushering you back to the library.

-

After half an hour, Arlecchino hears a thud on the table. She looks up from her textbook to see you dozing off on your own textbook, your pencil still in your hand. She takes the pencil from your hand before carefully sneaking in an earphone bud in your ear connected to her phone that had an alarm from a 30 minute timer ready. Arlecchino taps her phone to set it off and she stands up beside you to pry the textbook out of your head to replace it with her bag. You mumble something under your breath when she drops your head on her bag and she stops, only moving again to place your textbook back in your bag when you relax again.

"Silly girl, learn to rest," her words never leave her lips as a silent wish. "You're already doing a lot more than you think."

She ruffles your hair for a bit, her hand staying longer than necessary. Your girlfriend then returns to her seat to close her textbook, setting aside her scratch papers and place the other earphone bud in her ear for the alarm. Her eyes fall onto your sleeping figure, pulling the hood of your jacket over your head so you get a better nap. Tempted by your state, Arlecchino lies her head on her book, covering her face in her arms to rest on her own, forgetting her troubles of the day as well.