When Love Fills Up The Empty Spaces

Chapter 1

"Let me introduce to you, the new member of our family, Emmanuelle Mendiola. She's the exchange student from the Philippines." My homeroom teacher said with a big smile on her face. Her pronunciation of my name was kind of funny but well, she's Japanese. What do I expect?

"Nice to meet you. You can call we however you want." I bowed. "Please take care of me." My best friend always told me to say that when I meet people in Japan.

"Since she's new, I want someone to volunteer to give her a tour of our school." Our teacher patted me on the shoulder. "Any kind souls?"

"I'll do it." A girl with the long curly brown hair and doll-like blue eyes raised her hand. Is she a foreigner?

"Ah, as expected from our vice president." My homeroom teacher clasped her hands. "I'll leave her in your care." She turned to me right after. "You can take whichever seat at the back. Just tell me if you want to transfer."

I went to my chair and noticed that some of my classmates were looking at me so I slightly bowed to them. Am I doing this right?

"Emmanuelle." I turned and saw the vice president. "Is it okay if we have lunch first before the tour?"

I nodded.

"Oh, I haven't introduced myself yet." She smiled at me. "I'm Catherine Danniel. You can call me Cath."

"Nice to meet you Cath. You can call me Em or something. Emmanuelle is too long." I tried to crack a smile.

She tilted her head. "Are you okay with Emi then?"

"As long as it's easier for you to pronounce, it doesn't matter to me." I answered.

"Alright, let's get going so we could finish with the tour early." She slightly pulled me to start walking.

When we stepped out of the room, a guy with short spiky hair stood in front of us. He was wearing a big grin on his face and I thought it seemed cute but weird at the same time.

"Cath." He sounded so sincere when he said her name. He looked at me for a few seconds. "So, is this the exchange student?" He pointed at me.

"Ah, yeah." Cath moved forward. "Emi this is Lawrence. Lawrence, this is Emi. Her name's Emmanuelle, feel free to create your own nickname for her."

Lawrence laughed a bit. "Nice to meet you Em." He reached out his hand to me, gesturing a hand shake.

I took his hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you too Lawrence."

"I'm also Filipino by the way." He let go of my hand. "I just transferred here about 2 years ago because my mom, my new mom, wanted to transfer back here in Japan."

"I see." I nodded to show enthusiasm.

"Lawrence, hurry up!" A guy from afar shouted. "We're going to leave you."

"Gotta go." Lawrence turned to Cath. "I guess we'll see each other when class ends?"

"I have something to do later, are you going to wait?" Cath replied in a sweet voice.

Lawrence's lips slowly curved. "I always wait for you." He immediately left saying that.

I confusedly faced Cath. "Are you two--?"

"Ah, right. Lawrence is my boyfriend." Cath's smile was so big her eyes disappeared into two lines.

My eyes widened. "Oh, cool. For how long now?" I began to walk to avoid wasting any more time. Cath followed me.