I hate her.

Okay, maybe "hate" is a bit too much, but I get extremely annoyed every time I see her face. Every exam, every assignment, every grade announcement—she’s always there, standing on the same level as me, if not higher. We are academic rivals. Always competing, always arguing, always looking for reasons to outdo each other.

"Seriously? Just 89?" I smirk, crossing my arms proudly. "I got 92."

She scoffs, eyes flicking to my test paper with irritation. "Huh?! Just three points? No big deal."

I shrug casually. "But I’m still higher. How does it feel to be below me?"

And that’s how we are every single day. But at some point, the people around us started seeing it as something else."They argue like a married couple, don’t they?", "There’s no way they actually hate each other. This is just denial.", "Just date already!"

I nearly choked when I heard that. Me? With her? Ridiculous.

"Me? With her? No way," I quickly say when our classmates tease us.

"I’m straight" I add confidently. "Not with a girl. And definitely not with her."

But the more I deny it, the weirder it feels. Do I really hate her?

Or am I just too scared to admit it?