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The Student Council office was unusually quiet that morning, which should have been View's first warning that something was about to go wrong.
She sat behind the president's desk with a stack of papers arranged neatly in front of her, reviewing the attendance reports while making small corrections with a black pen. As the Grade 11 Student Council President, View had developed a reputation for being strict, organized, and almost impossible to argue with. She followed the school rules herself, expected everyone else to do the same, and had very little patience for students who treated the regulations as suggestions.
Namtan was the complete opposite.
The Grade 12 Vice President was currently sitting backward in her chair, leaning over the backrest while scrolling through her phone. She had been quiet for nearly five whole minutes, which View had already considered suspicious.
Then Namtan suddenly lifted her head.
"View."
View continued reading. "What?"
"We have a problem."
View's pen stopped.
She slowly looked up. "What did you do?"
Namtan's mouth fell open. "WHAT!? It's not me."
"You sounded like you did it."
"Funny. I was trying to sound pro-fes-sio-nal."
View narrowed her eyes. "Whatever. What is it this time?"
Namtan leaned closer, lowering her voice dramatically despite the fact that there was nobody else in the room.
"Rattanawadee Wongthong."
View stared at her for a moment.
Of course it was 'her' again.
"What did she do again?"
"Well..." Namtan glanced toward the office door. "Technically, she hasn't done anything terrible."
"Then why are you telling me?"
"Because she's currently sitting underneath a tree during class."
View slowly put her pen down.
"Because..?"
"She said the classroom was too boring."
View closed her eyes for a second.
"That's not a valid reason isn't?"
"I know."
View stood up.
Namtan immediately followed her, grinning. "I'm coming."
"No need. You'll just laugh at my face anyway."
"Fair point. I'm still coming though."
View gave her a look.
Namtan grabbed her clipboard anyway.
They found Mim exactly where Namtan had said she would be. She was sitting comfortably beneath one of the large trees near the back of the school grounds, her bag beside her and a book open across her lap. She looked completely unbothered by the fact that she was supposed to be somewhere else.
Mim looked up when View approached.
"Awee, did you come find me?"
View gave her a look. “You can't just leave class whenever you want.”
“But I wasn't wandering around campus.”
“That doesn't matter.”
“I was still doing something educational.”
View raised an eyebrow. “What could possibly be educational about sitting under a tree?”
“duhh, I was observing nature.”
Namtan laughed and Mim looked at her proudly as though she had just won an argument. View, however, was not amused.
"Phi."
"I'm not laughing."
"Hmm."
"What? I'm supporting you.. emotionally."
"Well it's not very helpful."
View reached for a disciplinary form and began filling it out, explaining that Mim would have to help organize the storage room after school as a consequence.
Mim's smile disappeared. “You're giving me work?”
“You broke a rule.”
“Can't I apologize instead?"
“You can apologize and still accept the consequence.”
Mim looked at her for a moment, then smiled again. “Fine. I'll apologize.”
View thought that would be the end of it. She should have known better.
The next morning, she arrived at the student council office and found a bouquet of roses sitting neatly in the middle of her desk. There was no note, but there was no need for one. View had barely sat down before she spotted Mim waiting outside the office window, watching her reaction with an expectant smile.
View carried the roses outside.
“No.”
Mim blinked. “You didn't even smell them.”
“I know they're from you.”
“They're pretty.”
“I appreciate the thought, but I'm not accepting gifts because you broke the rules.”
Mim took the flowers back with a sigh.
“You're difficult.”
“You're the one who broke the rules.”
“I said I was sorry.”
“And I heard you.”
“But you didn't forgive me.”
“I didn't say that.”
Mim studied her face for a moment before smiling mischievously. “So.. you forgave me?”
“Go to class.”
Mim laughed and walked away, leaving View standing there with the uncomfortable realization that she had almost smiled.
The roses were followed by a small bear plush the next day. View rejected that too, although this time Mim looked genuinely offended when she took it back. A few days later, Mim appeared at the student council office with a cup of matcha in both hands.
She stood in front of View with a hopeful expression and held it out.
“I made sure its matcha latte.” Mim said
View slowly shook her head. “You can't bribe me with my favorite drink.”
“It's very tasty~" Mim teased.
From behind View, Namtan suddenly shouted, “WAIT, SHE KNOWS YOUR FAVORITE DRINK?”
View's shoulders tensed. "Everyone knows I love matcha!" View argued.
Mim immediately turned toward Namtan, trying not to laugh.
Namtan walked closer with an expression of exaggerated disbelief. “You've brought her roses, a bear, and now matcha? Nong Mim, are you trying to get View to fall in love with you?”
View nearly dropped her pen.
Mim's smile became impossible to hide. “Maybe~”
Namtan gasped loudly enough that someone passing the office looked through the window.
View gave her a stern look. “Phi! What would you say that?!”
“What? I was just asking.”
“Go finish the attendance reports.”
“Eh?”
“Phi.”
“Fine, fine.” She raised both hands in surrender before returning to her desk, although she continued grinning at herself.
Mim looked back at View. “So?”
View glanced at the matcha before looking away. “No.”
Mim sighed, but she did not look discouraged. If anything, she looked like someone who had already decided she was going to keep trying.
That what worries View the most.
Because she knew Mim.
And when Mim decided she wanted something, she rarely gave up easily.
By the end of the week, View had written Mim's name on more disciplinary notes than she cared to count. There was always something new. A uniform worn incorrectly, wandering somewhere she wasn't supposed to be, ignoring a classroom instruction because she had decided to help another student instead, or simply finding some creative interpretation of a rule that nobody else had thought of.
Mim never seemed genuinely upset about being caught.
If anything, she seemed almost amused.
And every time View told her off, Mim would nod, apologize, and then show up the next day with another attempt at making things right.
It was beginning to test View's patience.
It was also beginning to make Namtan suspicious. Not suspicious of anything romantic, of course.
She simply couldn't understand why Mim seemed so determined to get back into View's good graces.
One afternoon, after another incident had been settled, Namtan leaned against the council office door and watched Mim walk away.
"That girl really likes annoying you."
View gathered the papers on her desk. "She's just a troublemaker"
"Well.. She specifically likes being your troublemaker."
View looked up.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm just saying."
View shook her head and returned to her work.
She had no intention of admitting that Mim had become unusually good at getting under her skin and Mim, for her part, seemed perfectly happy to keep trying.
Especially because she had one more apology left, and this time, it was not flowers, a bear, or matcha. The following morning, a small shopping bag waited beside the Student Council office, and Mim was standing beside it with an expression that suggested she was far more confident about this attempt than the previous ones.
The moment View arrived, Mim reached into the bag and pulled out a small dog plush with long, floppy ears. She held it out with both hands, watching View expectantly.
“Last one.”
View looked at the plush, then at Mim. She could already tell from the way Mim was watching her that she had chosen it carefully, probably after remembering every little thing View had mentioned liking. Still, View kept her expression firm and shook her head.
“My answer is still no. I'll only accept your apology if you behave.”
Mim's shoulders dropped.
“What? Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“But I bought this one specifically because you like them.”
View crossed her arms. “That doesn't mean I'll accept it.”
Mim stared at her for a moment before letting out a long sigh. “You are very difficult.”
“And you're very persistent.”
“Don't you think that's the reason why we're very close?”
View paused.
There was something about the way Mim said it, so casually and naturally, that made View hesitate for half a second longer than she should have.
Mim noticed and smiled.
“Right?”
View looked away, pretending to be more interested in the papers in her hands than in the girl standing in front of her. “Go to class.”
Mim laughed softly and walked off with the plush still in her hands.
She had barely made it down the hallway before Bonnie spotted her.
“what's that?”
Mim lifted the plush.
“Phi View rejected it.”
“Again?”
“Yeah... ugh! You can have it.”
“Thanks! It's so cute! What's her name?”
"I don't know but I guess I'll name her.. vimmy."
"Vimmy? It's a very cute name."
Bonnie hugged the plush happily, turning it around to look at its floppy ears. Mim smiled at her reaction, but she did not notice that someone inside the Student Council office had looked up.
View happened to glance through the window at exactly the wrong moment.
Her eyes landed on the dog plush first, then on Bonnie holding it against her chest. She watched for a little longer than she meant to before realizing what she was doing.
Namtan, who had been sorting through a pile of forms nearby, noticed.
“View?”
View immediately looked away.
“What?”
“You're staring.”
“At what exactly?”
“Bonnie.”
View straightened the papers in her hands with unnecessary precision.
“Shut up.”
Namtan blinked.
Then she looked toward Bonnie then back at View. A slow smile spread across her face.
“..Do you want the dog?”
“No? What kind of question is that?”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
“Okay then.”
Namtan turned back to her work, looking suspiciously pleased with herself.
View tried to ignore her which only worked for several minutes. Eventually, she put her pen down. Without saying anything, she left the office.
Bonnie was still standing in the hallway, happily holding the plush when View approached her.
“Bonnie.”
Bonnie looked up.
“Yes?”
View's eyes dropped to the dog for a moment before returning to Bonnie.
“Give me that.”
Bonnie blinked.
“Give you what?”
“That... That plushie”
“But I thought you didn't want it.”
“I didn't want it before now I changed my mind.”
Bonnie looked at the plush, then at View, clearly trying to understand what had happened between the two answers.
After a moment, she simply shrugged.
“Fine... You can take it, I guess.”
She handed it over and View took the plush immediately.
It was soft, with long floppy ears that fell over either side of its little face. View adjusted her grip around it before looking back toward the office.
She had barely taken a step when a familiar voice came from behind her.
“Wow.”
View stopped.
Mim had returned just in time to see the whole thing.
View slowly turned toward her.
“Don't say a word.”
Mim lifted both hands innocently.
“I didn't say anything.” Shaking her head.
“You did.. Just now.”
“But I—”
“Not. A. Word.”
Mim laughed, unable to hide how pleased she was with View getting jealous over a plush toy.
View tightened her grip on the plush and gave her a look that was supposed to be stern, although the effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that she was still holding the gift she had rejected only minutes earlier.
“Go to class.”
“Okay.”
Mim turned around and started walking away, but after a few steps she glanced back over her shoulder.
“Do you forgive me now?”
View looked down at the dog plush in her arms.
She had tried very hard not to smile since the moment Mim first offered it to her, but now that she was holding it, pretending she did not like it seemed increasingly pointless.
Her expression softened despite herself.
“...Only a little bit.”
Mim's smile immediately returned.
“Then... I'll work on the rest.”
View shook her head, but she could not quite hide the small smile that appeared on her face.
“Go.”
Mim smile gently and finally continued down the hallway.
The school day carried on around them as though nothing unusual had happened. Classes continued, teachers moved from room to room, and students gradually filled the hallways between periods.
By the time the final bell rang, the school had begun to empty. Students packed their bags and filtered through the gates in groups, their voices gradually fading as they made their way home. The Student Council office became quieter with every passing minute until only the faint sounds from outside remained.
View finished the last of her paperwork, carefully stacked everything into place, and finally stood. She slung her bag over her shoulder and looked once more at the dog plush sitting on her desk. After a moment, she picked it up and carried it with her.
Mim was waiting near the school entrance.
She adjusted her bag when she saw View approaching.
“See you tomorrow, Phi.”
View nodded.
“Try not to break any rules again, okay?”
Mim smiled. “No promises.”
View stopped in front of her.
For a moment, neither of them said anything.
The evening air had begun to settle over the school grounds, and most of the students had already left. Now that everyone had left no one will be bothering them nor teasing them. It's just the two of them.
Mim tilted her head slightly.
View looked at her for a moment before stepping closer.
Then she leaned down until she was closer to Mim's height and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek.
Mim flushed.
View straightened as calmly as though nothing unusual had happened, adjusting the strap of her bag over her shoulder.
“I'll see you tomorrow, Nong.”
A smile slowly spread across Mim's face.
“Tomorrow, then.”
View gave her one last look before turning toward the road home.
Mim watched her leave for a moment before heading in the opposite direction.
And with that, the school day ended, leaving behind the roses that had been rejected, the bear that had never made it past the office, the matcha that had gone untouched, and the little dog plush that somehow ended up exactly where Mim had wanted it to be all along.
The End.