The gaze ahead / Where the gaze is directed / Following one's gaze

I have a beautiful best friend named Riko. She's an exceptionally pretty girl who is incredibly popular with boys—receiving confessions is practically a daily occurrence for her. I'm happy to have such a girl as my best friend, but... perhaps because of that, I've started frequently feeling someone's gaze on me for some time now. It seems to be from a male student, but he just looks at me without doing anything in particular... He apparently seems to be waiting for the right moment to confess his feelings. Despite feeling somewhat irritated by this boy who silently and sneakily stares at me, I went about my days normally. However, those days were soon coming to an end. In fact, Riko was going abroad for a study exchange program and would be leaving this place for a while to go to some foreign country. But even so, when the final day before her departure finally arrived, nothing changed. I thought his love would surely end with this... but on the way home that day, that male student finally appeared before me.