LMLY #01

I was staring blankly at my school works when my friend suddenly came and put her bag down before screaming like she saw something that would make her be like that.

"What happened?" I turned around to see her face—as red as a tomato.

"Do you remember the guy that I always tell you?" She asked with a grumpy face.

My forehead formed into a frown. "Who among them?"

"Uhm…" She scratched the back of her head. "Yoshi."

"The Japanese?" I asked in shock before I covered my lips. "What happened?"

"He asked me out… a date, yeah." She averted my gaze. "Before I go."

I did not easily process what she just stated. "You're going? Where?"

"My father needs my company in Singapore. But I cannot guarantee you that I will go back." She became so pale after saying those words, especially the last ones. "But I don't want you to hold a grudge against me, so you'll come with me on our date."

"Who told you I'll approve that?" I shot her a glance and raised one of my brows.

"Me, myself and none other than Ishanna your babyloves!!!" She kissed my cheeks like she never did.

"Aaaah! Stop! Please, Ishanna!" I slightly pushed her to stop her from kissing my cheeks because I can feel that my face is getting red and it feels like I already have scratches all over it. "Your saliva smells like some spices!"

"I will stop if you'll agree that you're—" she was about to continue kissing my cheeks when a man came and held her arms.

"Stop it, miss. She's uncomfortable with it." Ishanna stood firmly and faced the guy.

"Who are you? I don't remember your face in the class." Ishanna rolled her eyes. "And this girl beside me is my best friend."

He fixed himself before looking at me and back to Ishanna. "I know, miss. But look at her face. She got cuts."

That made my friend red again and asked for my forgiveness. "I'm sorry, Naomi."

"Taliyah, I told you!" I glared at her.

"Whatever, baby. I'll just buy you some bandages." She was about to go outside when I told her that I have my first aid kit with me.

"I'm really sorry, Taliyah." She went to my back and started braiding my hair.

I faced the guy beside me who's silently watching me apply ointments on my face.

"Thank you." I mouthed and he nodded before sitting beside me and handed me a pack of bandages.

"Cuts don't look good on your face," he added before smiling again.

Ishanna sat beside me and clung around my arms before she asked me what do I want for lunch and she'll grab one for me, but I refused.

"Just listen to the lesson later, I'm already good with that," I chuckled, and so she does.

Someone cleared his throat, so I looked at the man sitting beside me. "I would like to introduce myself. I'm Mark Adie Tuan." He extended his hands to me. "I'm sorry about meddling your business earlier."

I reached for his hand. "Taliyah Naomi Simbillio. And thank you for earlier." I gave him a small smile which made him smile again.

I noticed his small dimples while she was smiling. Does it mean that he's smiling genuinely?

Ishanna cleared her throat and introduced herself as she took my hands away from holding Mark's hand.

"I'm Ishanna Selene Andrews. Nice to meet you." She was about to offer her hand when the guy beside me just nodded.

I saw how her expressions changed. "Girl, I don't like him for you."

My forehead creased. "And why is that?"

"See how he only pays attention to you? That's rude." She shook her head.

I just chuckled at her reaction and the moment our subject teacher came into the room, she immediately eyed us and made Mark stand up in front of the class and introduce himself with his name, age, and his expectation for the class.

"Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Mark Adie Tuan, 18 years old. And I'm expecting everyone to be a great company while I study here." He looked me straight in the eye and smiled so widely.

"Oh my golly. He's a year older than you." Ishanna whispered.

I look at her. "And so?"

She shrugged and giggled. Oh, I know what this means.

"Stop your thoughts, Ishanna." I pinched her arm that was resting on my armrest.

She was about to answer me when Yoshi came in, handing a box of chalk and Mark was still in front.

"Yo, Mark! I'm glad you've made up your mind." He chuckled and gave him some shoulder taps before looking at Miss Menese. "Here's the box of chalk, Madame. It came from Sire Ignacio."

I saw how our teacher blused, the reason for her not to notice that Yoshi waved his hand at Ishanna.

"He's friends with him?" She asked in confusion while waving his hand at Yoshi who's smiling from ear to ear.

Mark already sat down beside me and was shocked with Ishanna's question. "Are you friends with that guy or what?"

"He's my cousin." He firmly answered, which shocked my friend.

;

"I will be giving you a task to complete by partners. Just know what your partner likes and dislikes and write all your thoughts about that." Our last subject teacher for this day commanded. "Find your partners. Make sure you're not friends."

Mark and I exchanged looks after hearing that which made him and I laugh simultaneously.

Ishanna raised her hand. "Ma'am, I just want to ask when would be the deadline for this?"

"On our next meeting. We don't have any meeting for tomorrow, right? Wednesday morning then," she smiled. "Make sure to finish this simple task."

Someone from the class raised her hand. "How many items should be listed for both likes and dislikes?"

"Hmm, ten. Foods, genres, books, movie titles, music, clothes, and anything you want to know about them." They all reacted that ten items is just simple, so our teacher added, "Minimum of ten sentences for your thoughts about it."

Mark raised his hand, to my surprise, and asked, "Ma'am, are we going to read the thoughts out loud or just pass the papers to you?"

Some of our classmates groaned and irritably looked at him as if he commited crime.

"Class President, what do you think?" Our teacher looked at me and I just told her that it's much better to just pass the papers and let the partners decide whether they'll exchange thoughts or not.

After answering few more nonsense questions, but surely entertaining one, she dismissed us.

"Mark, how far is your house from the school?" I asked while fixing my bag.

"I live with Yoshi. If… if you know where his flat is." He touched his nape before licking his lower lip. "Why?"

"Uh, I want to finish the task as soon as possible since we both have other tasks on the other subject individually." Even if I'm so shy to tell him this, I still did. I hope he understands.

"Oh, that one. I could stay if you want to." He gave me a reassuring smile. "Wait, do you commute or do you have your driver to fetch you?"

I laughed upon his question. "I don't have any driver. I am not as wealthy as you. So, yeah, I do commute."

"You don't have any… company?" He asked once again.

"I have. She's still in class and the line might be so long now," I said, referring to the blockbuster line the terminal beside the school has.

"If you're going to wait for her, we could do the task here." He suggested and I nodded, opening my bag again to get the pen and the paper for this interview-like task.