Chapter 3

"It's been going on for about one week by now, and I think our classmates are starting to notice. Everytime we eat lunch at the same time, our classmates will start to whisper with each other, but I don't want this to end. Because everytime I'm with her I feel so warm and calm."

Kael is sitting on the bench near the cafeteria of the school, watching the students eats happily. He also has his lunchbox out already beside him, but he's waiting for someone.

Just then, a footsteps comes closer behind him, he quickly turns around to see Shin catching her breath and a boy with some kind of chilly aura around him.

"I'm sorry! There's a meeting earlier and I didn't notice the time."

Shin says, still catching her breath, probably from the running she use to get here. The boy behind her has an unreadable expression on his face, and that chilly aura feels like he's always down.

"I-It's okay, I just got here myself..."

Kael replies, he grab the lunchbox beside him and put it to his other side where Shin is standing.

Shin eyes lit up as she saw what's inside the lunchbox. It's curry, the one she asked for Kael to make, she remembered asking Kael if he can make a curry and Kael didn't answer.

But this is his answer. Shin quickly put down her bag below the bench and grab the lunchbox in happiness.

"I can't believe this! You can really make anything, huh?"

"W-Well, it's not that hard to make..."

"No way! I've been trying to make curry, but everytime I tried, it always tasted bad."

Shin opened the lunchbox and the smell is so good that she started drooling. She grab the spoon and took one of the sliced chicken in the curry.

"This is so good! I can die happily now."

"You're overreacting again..."

"Shut up, Rin."

Rin Amagai, the secretary of the student council. Always said to be so cold and distant, but he is good mostly with his writing and his intelligence is said to be one of a kind.

Rin sits on the other bench and pulls a lunchbox out of his bag. Shin turn around to him with Kael's lunchbox.

"Hey, what do you have for lunch?"

"None of your business.."

"Come on, give me someeee."

"What? No way, you already have your own."

Kael is staring at their bantering, thinking about how out of place he feels now. Of course he's not the only friend that Shin has, how dumb of him to think that.

But it's alright, as long as he makes Shin happy with his cooking, he feels happy too. Because for the first time in his life, someone has taken an interest on the things that he does.

Shin turn her head to Kael and saw him smiling to himself, is he getting crazy? She asked to herself.

"Ah, right... Kael, meet Rin, he's the student council secretary."

Kael quickly looks up to Shin, he saw it again, the smile that gets him to fall in love with Shin.

"What? Do I have something in my face?"

"U-Uh, no! Sorry..."

"You're still nervous around me. Relax Kael, there's nothing to be nervous about, it's not like we're going to eat you."

"Yeah... Maybe you're going to eat him with that appetite of yours..."

Shin looked down and quickly approach Rin, she raised her hand and slaps Rin's back, making him spit the soup out of his mouth.

"What's that for?"

"You're saying that I'm fat?"

"What? No. I'm just saying that you have a large appetite."

"Do you know that I'm dieting? My friends says that I'm getting fat, and I don't want to get fat."

"You're saying that while eating something..."

"Did you say something again?"

"No."

That playful banter between them, will I ever get something like that? Kael asked to himself while looking towards Shin and Rin. He lets out a small laugh that caught Shin attention.

She quickly walk towards him with a playful smile, and stand in front of Kael.

"Did you just laugh?"

"U-Uh, no."

"I knew it! You can laugh too, don't be like Rin, that guy doesn't know how to laugh."

"I'm still here, you know?"

This is the longest time he interacted with this many people, well not that many because it's only two, but it still makes him happy.

They continue to talk until the bell rang, signalling that the lunch break is over. Kael and Shin said their goodbye to Rin, they walk towards their classroom and Rin does the same.

...

It was already dark by the time Kael make it to his home, it's raining outside and he is drenched from the rain. He quickly heads to the bathroom to change his clothes, he hang his wet clothes in the bathroom and take a quick shower.

He stared at the wall while the water from the shower fall on his back. He's thinking about the lunchbreak earlier, he didn't know that he can still laugh considering that his whole life is filled with traumatic experiences from his father.

Getting whipped from time to time after you make a small mistake is not normal, but for him it was normal. The scars on his back is what made him stronger till this day.

If it wasn't from his father, maybe he would give up already in this unfair world.

As he stood in the shower, reflecting on his past and the present moment, he couldn't help but feel a mix of emotions. The laughter, the conversations with Shin and Rin, they reminded him that there is more to life than just pain and suffering.

Wrapping himself in a towel, Kael stepped out of the shower and made his way to his room. He gazed at his reflection in the mirror, noticing the scars that adorned his back, a reminder of his past struggles.

As he lay on his bed, contemplating the future and the uncertainties that lay ahead, he felt a sense of determination stirring within him. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance for him to find happiness and peace, to break free from the shadows of his past.

Then his phone buzzed to life. Kael quickly grab his phone and opened it, there's a message at the front from Shin.

"Hi Kael! Are you free tomorrow?"

He remembered giving Shin his number three days ago, but this is the first that she texted him.

"Hi, yes, I'm free tomorrow."

He hesitated for a moment before sending the message, unsure of what she wanted to talk about. Moments passed, and Shin's reply popped up on his screen.

"Great! How about we meet up at the cafe near the park around noon? It's weekend tomorrow and my friends are going to be there."

"Yeah... Sure."

"Okay! See you tomorrow!"

...

At Shin's room. She is sitting on the chair just beside her bed, her phone is on the table in front of her and Kael's message is on the screen.

She's actually blushing right now, it's been a week since they first met up in not a normal way. She's walking from the hallway with the art materials in the box that she's carrying and when she's about to turn, she accidentally tripped on the stairs, making her dropped the box that she was carrying.

And that's when she saw a boy, crying without releasing much expression on his face. She wants to warn the boy, but the box is already in front of him, the boy's eye widened in surprise and the box hits him.

She quickly rush down the stairs to help the boy, and as the boy removes the box from his face. Her eyes quickly lit up in surprise, its as if she saw the love of her life lying on the ground with the art materials scattered around him.

She couldn't help but smile as she recalled the initial awkwardness of their encounter. She had been so caught up in her own thoughts that day, and then there was Kael, unexpectedly entering her world with a literal crash.

As Shin reminisced about the moment they first met, a warm feeling spread through her chest. She had never expected that a clumsy accident would lead her to someone so intriguing and mysterious like Kael.

...

RING!!

The sound of the alarm reverberates through Kael's room, waking him up. He slowly crawl his way to the table beside his bed to shut the alarm off.

Kael rubbed his eyes and stretched as he sat up on his bed, feeling a mix of excitement and nerves about meeting Shin today.

He gets up from his bed and make his way to the kitchen. He makes a black coffee to get the sleepiness out of his mind,

as he contemplates the day ahead. The morning sunlight streamed through the window, casting a warm glow over the room. Kael couldn't shake off the butterflies fluttering in his stomach at the thought of meeting Shin.

He glanced at the clock and realized it was almost time to head out. Quickly after finishing his coffee, he takes a shower and puts on the clothes he ready last night just after Shin's text. It's casual, shirt and jeans but comfortable.

Kael grabbed his phone and wallet before heading out the door. The fresh morning air greeted him as he stepped outside, the excitement building within him as he made his way to the park cafe where he was supposed to meet Shin and her friends.