Lunch Date

18

In which Forth just needs Beam to listen.

First Semester, First Year

There were a lot of people within the room. Some were talking to their walkie-talkie, checking everything to make sure it was in order. Forth just sat still on his chair as one of the seniors in charge for make-up patted the make-up sponge onto his face.

Forth was not familiar with the products she was using, but she seemed to know it very well so Forth did not care. As long as he did not end up looking like a white ghost on the stage, Forth could not care less.

The scratches on his knuckles fortunately were not as noticeable as before. He was worried if someone noticed it, but so far none of the seniors said anything so he thought they did not notice. The Moons and Stars were supposed to avoid getting into any mess until the competition night, but Forth clearly could not care less about it.

He once in a while looked down to his smart phone, his airpods were both in his ears, softly repeated the song he was about to sing that night. He could faintly hear Phana talking to another moon behind his back, but Forth decided to not pay attention to it. The medicine mood was getting his hair styled, after he was done with the make-up almost half an hour ago.

Will he come tonight?

Forth blinked at his own question inside his head. He was not sure why he was questioning that considering how Phana probably had forced both of his best friends to attend the show.

“Forth,” The senior who was putting on his make-up called out. Forth looked up to her.

“This is good, right?” Forth heard the senior faintly asked over the soft guitar instrumental from his airpods.

She handed him a hand mirror and Forth took it wordlessly. He took a look at his reflection on the mirror and wondered what the hell did she use to make his cheeks tinted pink.

Forth just silently nodded and handed back the mirror. He stood up and took a seat that Phana left empty. The other guy was apparently got his hair done already.

“Alright, Phana! Your turn!” The senior in charge of the stage coordination called out.

They were doing the solo performances first, before introducing themselves together later and then they would have group performance. According to the plan, they would each be asked one question from the jury, and would be marked according to their answers.

Sounded like another exam to Forth Jaturaphoom. But he just dismissed it.

Forth sighed. He was nervous, but not really. He felt like he wanted to throw up, but not really. He wanted to freak out, but again – not really.

“Hey, you're going to do it right, right?” A voice asked, putting his hand on top of Forth's right shoulder.

Forth looked up to that person from the corner of his eyes. It was one of his seniors in the hazing team. The freshman just blinked at the older.

“I'm asking you.” The senior reminded him. Forth just blinked again, and wordlessly nodded slightly.

“What are you going to perform anyway? June told me you did not even sing during the rehearsal.” The senior ranted shortly.

Forth shrugged. “Hey–”, “I will perform my best. Alright?”

Forth turned to look back again at his senior who gaped at him. It took a few second for the senior to finally regain his composure back and threw his hands into the air.

“I don't know why I even bother!” The older gave up. “Why does Wai told me to take care of you? You don't even listen to your seniors!”

Forth just shook his head lightly. He took off his earpods, stopping the same instrumental that he had been listening for the past three days during his free time at his apartment.