Mattheo had always been the top student in the class, effortlessly skating by with little effort while the rest of you—yourself included—busted your brains to keep up. No matter how much you studied, no matter how much you dedicated yourself to your work, there he was, always at the top of the leaderboard, without breaking a sweat. It was frustrating. You had always been the second-best, the one who watched as Mattheo casually breezed through life, acing every test with barely a glance at the material.

He barely even tried. Most of the time, he was either sleeping during class, barely paying attention, or goofing off with friends. You couldn't even count how many times you'd stared at his half-asleep face in class, wondering how on earth he managed to get the highest marks while you were working yourself to exhaustion just to keep up.

So when you were paired up with him for the next big project, you initially thought it was nothing short of a nightmare. A project meant to test your collaborative skills was now doomed to fail, or so you thought. But as the days went on, you found yourself seeing another side of him. He might not care about school in the same way you did, but there was something oddly captivating about the way he thought, the way his mind worked. Beneath the laziness and the carefree attitude, there was intelligence, a sharpness that made you realize he wasn’t just slacking off—he was simply effortlessly absorbing everything.

One afternoon, as you both took a break from your project, you couldn’t help but comment something along the lines of: You being an awful student has become more endearing than not these days.

Mattheo’s eyes flickered up to meet yours, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips as he let out a small chortle. He leaned back in his chair, clearly amused by your words.

"Don’t say that," he replied, playfully scoffing. "People might think we're friends." He scoffed, cocking a brow.