"Emma, what in the hell are you doing?"

"Staring at you."

"Why?"

"Cause I need to prove something and you're apart of the problem." I glared at the back of his head.

Ray stiffened as I walked towards him. "Can you please stop, we're at work."

I ignored him and reached over slowly, putting my hand in his hair and messing it up. Ray quickly turned around, a bit flustered.

"Emma, what exactly are you doing?"

"Well, I told you already." I ran my hand through his hair. "But don't worry I didn't mess up your hair."

He grabbed my wrist, a strong blush on his face now. "This is weird, even for you."

I stared into his eyes. "You look cute when you're flustered."

His face turned darker as he pushed me away. "You're so weird these days, get back to work."

It had been two weeks since I started flirting with Ray, and after a while it become more fun than nerve wrecking. The only problem is the guilt of doing this is starting to give me stomach aches during the act. It was punishment for being such a cruel friend.

"Hey, Emma, what's up with you and Ray these days. You've been more flirty than usual." Gillian comes up to whisper. "Like he's getting flustered and stuff."

I puffed out my chest. "Well, recently I've been informed that he's been flirting with me-"

"-recently?"

"Yes-recently. So I decided that I should try and flirt back for once, and as a way to prove to my friend that our interactions are normal I began to do the things he does to me. Turns out my friend was most likely right and now I've got a crippling addiction to making Ray flustered."

Gillian leaned onto the table she was cleaning. "That's it? You feel nothing else while flirting? No feelings of any sorts."

I slapped her back. "Of course not, except for the guilt that manifests in my stomach when I drive him insane, nothing at all."

Gillian hummed and grabbed her cleaning supplies to move on to the next table. "Right. But don't freak out when you fall for him."

I crossed my arms. "Yeah right. We're just friends, Gillian."

What was she talking about? I should be able to tell if I'm into him, thought not like I've ever had a crush on anyone to compare. I made my way towards the counter as I cleaned out the food from the display case, as I walked past Ray I could feel him stiffen. Did I make him nervous now?

"Hey, Ray, after we've closed and gotten off work let's walk home together." I smiled.

"Why? You don't usually walk home with me."

"Well, it seems fun. I wanna spend more time with you, Ray."

He glanced back at me. "Okay, fine."

I ran off with a grin, the feeling of making him flustered was irreplaceable. Though I wonder how far I can push it.

—-

The walk home was quiet. What could I do to knock him off his guard? Something risky would do, but to be honest it would be a bit embarrassing if I didn't execute it right. I took a deep breath, this better give me serotonin or I'm gonna die.

"So, Ray, how's everything? You've been avoiding me lately so we don't talk much about the normal side of our lives." I sighed.

"Well, I've been feeling a bit tense these days." He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. "And you?"

"I've been really happy these days, wanna guess why?"

"Why?"

I leaned over and placed my hand on his shoulder as he broke into a cold sweat. Softly I whispered in his ear.

"Because you keep on getting cuter every day, I'm almost falling for you."

Ray quickly pulled away, his face not only tomato red but in pure shock. God, this was the greatest moment of my life.

"Ugh, what the hell is wrong with you? Don't say stuff like that, stupid." He tried to hide his face. "Why are you doing this?" He whispered.

My smile began to fade. Oh no, was he catching on?

"Doing what?"

"You know, saying weird things like how I'm cute and saying things in a flirty tone and now whispering stuff into my ear like that." He groaned. "Why?"

I felt my face heat up. "Uh..." the apartment complex was just a few yards away. "You know, it's getting late. Goodnight, see you tomorrow."

"Don't run away."

Ray called out to me as I ran as fast as possible, leaping over two steps at a time to my floor. I slammed the door shut and leaned against it, a sigh escaping me.

"Hey, kid, home already?" Yuugo called out, not moving his head from the TV. "Also don't slam the door."

"Sorry." I kicked off my shoes and ran to take a sit next to him. "How are you doing?"

He shrugged. "I'm good. How was work tonight."

I hummed. "Lots of things you could say. It was tiring and fun at the same time, fun because me and Gillian were working together, and tiring because it's a Friday night."

Yuugo chuckled. "Well I'm glad it was interesting for you. Work for me is always the same: scanning books, filing books, and checking out books."

I nodded my head, crossing my arms. "Sounds awful, I'd much rather be on my feet than sit for so long."

The conversation came to an end, the only thing to be heard was the ticking clock on the wall and the tv playing an unfamiliar sitcom. I began to fidget my fingers and tense, the thought of what happened a few minutes ago ran through my head. My face felt hot.

"Hey, Yuugo, say you begin to aggressively flirt with your best friend and you begin to push the limits when you can and then they eventually notice and they call you out so you run away what do you do then when you have to see them on a nearly day to day basis?"

Yuugo hummed, he clearly already knew who I was talking about. "Well you can keep on going or stop. Not much to it."

I puffed my checks and groaned. "But that feels weird."

"Well it's the best course of action, kid."

"Right," I got up. Heading towards my room. "I'll just decide what to do when I see him."