Some of the students glanced around. One of them was brave enough to put up his hand.

"Uh... but now there are three Mr. Vargas?" he questioned. 

"Oh, right. Well, I'm the teacher, so I'm Mr. Vargas. Those two idiots- I MEAN-" he stuttered as the class started giggling. "You know what? Forget it." he mumbled. "Mr. Stupid and Mr. Idiot."

"HEY!!" Lovino cried out. "At least call me, I don't know, Mr. Tomato-Obsessed?"

"I was joking. But if you insist..."

Lovino spluttered. "How about Mr. Vargas the 1st?"

"Okay. So class, welcome Mr. Vargas the 1st, Mr. Vargas the Last and Mr. Kirkland. They're kinda like... extra teachers in a way. Anyway, last lesson we learnt..."

Andrew, Lovino and Feliciano took their spots at the back of the classroom; Feliciano on the right side, Lovino in the middle and Andrew on the left. 

Lovino was standing directly behind Leopold and Peter, staring at them like a hawk. Feliciano had a decent view of Wendy and Erland, while Andrew had a diagonal view of the two. Their job was to make sure they didn't disrupt the class.

Peter was fiddling with a piece of paper, doodling all over it, before he grew more bored and got out his ruler. He placed his rubber on the end and was about to fling it across the classroom, when a shadow appeared over him.

"What are you doing?" Lovino hissed. 

Peter glanced down at his rubber and the ruler. He looked back at him. "What does it look like to you?"

"Answer the question." he snarled.

"Fine. I'm going to slingshot the rubber across the classroom. Happy?" he mumbled.

"Not at all, give me your rubber and ruler." 

Peter chose to mutter some colourful words, before obliging and handing over the stationery. 

Lovino stored the stationery in his pocket and resumed staring at them. Peter quickly glanced over at Wendy and Erland, who were both not listening into the class.

Wendy had put her feet back on the desk again, and had found some spare gum in her pocket. She was chewing very loudly, and Romeo sighed and stared at her. "Put the gum away, Wendy."

"LOL, nope." 

"WENDY."

She rolled her eyes and continued blowing the gum. Immediately, there was a tap on her shoulder, who she assumed was Erland and she mumbled under her breath; "F*ing stop, it's annoying."

"Wrong~"

She jerked her head up, her amber eyes meeting Feliciano's smiling face, even though the grin didn't reach his eyes.

"You need to listen to your teacher, young girl~" he whispered.

She scoffed, shuddering a bit. 'What a f*ing weirdo.' she thought.

"I'm not that much of a weirdo, thank you very much. Now spit out your gum and give the rest to me." he extended his hand.

Wendy gaped, staring at him. 'Mind readers don't exist!! Don't they?'

"Oh yeah, I'm not a mind reader, I can tell what your thinking from the look of your face. There's a difference. Now the GUM, Wendy."

Wendy stared at him a bit longer before spitting the gum into her hand and getting out the remainder, handing it to him. She turned to face forward. She didn't like the three of them, and she was going to annoy them too.

Romeo and the three 'bodyguards' left the classroom at recess and headed back to the teacher's lounge. 

"That was... a lot more frustrating than I thought it would be." Andrew admitted. 'Why did I sign up for this again??'

"Oh well, you'll have to deal with it til the end of the year." Romeo laughed and pushed open the door.

"Noooo...." he groaned, with Lovino giggling.

Tino was already there and waved at them. "How was your morning?" he asked.

Romeo shrugged. "Better than others, thanks to these three dorks."

Andrew, Lovino and Feliciano put their hands in their pockets, and pulled out phones, rulers, gum and just about anything they'd taken off the children during the two periods.

"Woooow." Tino gasped. "Is this the usual?"

"They'll definitely have more stuff. What are they doing to do without their distractions?" 

The door opened again, revealing the Junior Primary teachers. Ivan bounced in, followed by Lilli and Michelle. 

The two girls, Tino, Lovino and Feliciano engaged in conversation, Ivan's head was in space yet again, and Andrew was too busy staring at a thinking Romeo.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Sorry, Romie..."

Romeo stared at a spot on the wall before his face squinted and he turned to face Andrew. "Wait, did you say something?"

"I said, sorry."

Romeo frowned in uttermost confusion. "Why are you apologising? There's literally nothing to apologise for."

"Oh, I'm not apologising for something that happened recently! I'm apologising for my obliviousness of my seventeen year-old self." he sighed.

He tilted his head. "I don't understand."

"Uuuuh, so Lovino-and-Feliciano-told-me-you-liked-me--"

"THEY WHAT?!?!" Romeo's face flushed red. "I'm going to kill them-"

"That's not it- I'm not apologising for not noticing sooner, I'm apologising for being an arse."

He pursed his lips, furrowing his eyebrows, confused.

"I lied when I said I was straight, okay?!"

Romeo wheezed. "Oh no, really?" he said in mock amusement. "I'd never have guessed!!"

"Sorry for not telling you sooner- Hey, wait a minute, you sound like you already knew that!" Andrew gasped, putting a hand over his heart.

"Are you kidding?! Have you SEEN the way you used to look at some of the boys during class?! No absolutely straight person does that!!" 

"Wait... I stared at boys weird during class?"

"You- You weren't aware?"

The two men stared at each other. Before long, Andrew's face cracked and he burst out laughing. "So you're telling me... not only was I oblivious to your feelings... but my own as well?!"

"How can you be oblivious to your own feelings?! How did you get together with Marielle then?"

"Huh?"

"If you're oblivious to your own feelings, how did you confess?"

"Oooh, no. She did the confessing. I felt... something when she did. Like, I can't explain it. But I felt like the right thing to do was to say, 'me too'... you know?" Andrew fidgeted. 

Romeo narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by, 'felt it was the right thing to do'? Did you say it because you felt obliged too? Or did you say it because you genuinely... felt it in your gut?"

Andrew opened his mouth, before he shutting it again. "I- Isn't it the same thing?"

"NOOO!!" he roared, making the taller man flinch and silencing the room. "It's not the same thing!!"

He scratched his cheek and looked lost for words. "T- Then...?"

"We all knoooow you're such a people pleaser, but that's not how it works!!" 

Andrew threw his hands up in frustration. "If you think you're so smart, tell me then."

Romeo rolled his eyes. "You know when you're in love. You can't stop thinking about them. No matter what you're thinking of or staring at, they just come back in your mind. 'Oh, look the ocean. It's so pretty, it reminds me of their eyes- oh s*-'"

"Sounds like you're talking from experience." he smirked.

"Yeah, thanks to you." he scoffed. "Listen, the way you feel around them is a million times different than with other people." He frowned. "So I'm assuming you didn't like Marielle... like that?"

Andrew crossed his arms. "The way you're explaining it... than the answer's 'no'... I don't think I did." He buried his head in his arms. "Oh God, I was such a people pleaser..."

"There's nothing wrong with that. But then, that means... you haven't had a crush before?"

He shook his head.

"But... But I was sure you liked half the boys in the class! You would stare at them and like, sigh an awful lot and swing your legs and stare at them again!"

Andrew's face was blank before he covered his mouth, gasping. "No, no, no! You misread the situation! I was zoning out! I starting daydreaming! I wasn't thinking of fantasies about kissing guys, bleh-" he faked gagged.

Romeo gaped. "You haven't had a single crush? You're so inexperienced!! And you're OLDER than me!!"

Andrew shrugged. "Oh well, if I ever get a crush, I know who to ask for advice."

The two started laughing. Romeo stood up and pulled his friend up and they both finally paid attention to their surroundings...

To notice everyone was staring at them.

Their laughter died in their throats, and they glanced at each other shocked. 

"I ship it!" Michelle squealed, making the whole room erupt. 

"No, stop it- We don't even like each other-" Romeo stuttered, redirecting his glare at Lovino who had coughed very loudly at his statement. 

"H- How long were you listening for?" Andrew questioned.

"Since Romeo shouting at you." Ivan smiled dreamingly. 

Andrew scowled at his friend. "Why did you have to yell?"

He shrugged. "Oops..?"

Before anyone could say anything else, the bell rang and they could hear all the children screaming and running back to class. The teachers (minus Romeo and Andrew) all smirked at each other and ran out of the staff room.

The day passed quicker than ever, and everyone went home. Romeo hopped into his car, yelled for his brothers to hurry up and waved goodbye to Andrew (and Wendy). After half an hour, they arrived at their house and Feliciano and Lovino ran out of the car and straight into the their room. Romeo knew they were planning something... and he had the feeling he wouldn't like it. 

He stood outside the door, trying to listen in to what they were saying. 

"Heeeey, Ivan!" he heard Feliciano cry out. 

He frowned. Were they having a video call? Why? They literally just met at school, they'd see each other tomorrow, was it really that urgent?

"Hey, Michelle and Lilli and Gianna and Tino!!" he cried out as the rest logged on.

"Sooo... I heard you want us to help you pair up Andrew and Romeo?"

He spluttered from behind the door. They were acting like children! His hands were shaking and he reached over and was about open the door before he stopped himself. Maybe he should listen to what they wanted to do. Then he'd tell Andrew and make sure their plan fails and make them stop dreaming childish dreams, yeah that's what he'll do.

It wasn't that he didn't like Andrew. He knew for a fact he was hopelessly head over heels for the man but he didn't like the idea of the others trying to push them together because he knew Andrew didn't, and would never, have a crush on him back.

He put his ear to the door again and held his breath.

"So what do you have in mind?" Lilli asked softly. 

"We've all seen how Andrew stares at him. He definitely wasn't zoning out." Lovino smacked the table. "But both of them are both so oblivious, they'd probably only ever figure this out when they're dead!"

"So we're hoping out to set them up on a some sorta date!" Feliciano interrupted. 

Romeo wheezed, before quickly composing himself. 

"Ooh, a date?" Gianna questioned. "How is that going to work?"

He fumbled with his phone and decided to record the conversation. 

"Set them up in a casual place! Like, at a beach or something." Tino suggested.

"A beach?" Gianna repeated.

"Well, okay not a beach then. But something super casual. The weather forecast says it's going to be sunny on the weekend, so do you want to plan something for then?"

There was some silence. 

"I can tell Romeo that Andrew told him to meet up at some place and someone can tell Andrew told Romeo to meet up and we can see how it escalates from there." Michelle giggled. 

"How about a pub?" Feliciano asked.

"A pub." Lovino repeated, deadpanned. 

"Yeah, because Romeo hasn't gone drinking since last year and Andrew likes to drink but also... what if they could drunkenly confess to each other?" he elaborated. 

Romeo put his fingers in his ears as he heard the girls squeal. 

"Yes, we should sooo do that eventually!" Tino cried out.

"Well, bye!" Lovino said and Romeo stopped recording and ran down the stairs and onto the couch, trying not to look suspicious in the slightest.

"What were you guys doing?" he asked melancholically, picking at his nails. 

Lovino and Feliciano exchanged excited looks. 

"How much do you love Andrew?" Feliciano wriggled his eyebrows, or rather attempted to, Lovino was the only one who could do it properly.

"More than I love you." he smirked in reply.

"SAVAGE!!" Lovino laughed. "No, but seriously."

He narrowed his eyes, trying to think of what to say. "A lot?"

"Cool." They smiled and sat down on either side of him.

Romeo hadn't had any alone time with Andrew for the next few days. His brothers wouldn't leave him alone and the others kept talking to Andrew all the time. Finally on Friday, he managed to get alone time with him. 

"Andrew, can I tell you something?"

He nodded, and leaned against the wall. 

Romeo got out his phone and played the video. Andrew watched, a smile creeping up on his face. "Oh, is that why Lilli told me you wanted to meet up with me at the barbeque at the park?"

He nodded. "We can't let their plan succeed! I, uh, definitely don't like you like that and you don't, do you?"

He shook his head. 

Romeo felt his heart shatter a little. He looked down, biting his lip, hoping his true emotions wouldn't show. He knew this already, why was he still getting so worked up?!

"Okay, let's pretend we don't think something's up and then laugh in their faces." Andrew laughed confidently. "Let's go!"

Romeo forced himself to laugh as well, and the two quickly walked back into the staff room.