Kocher's lunch is fairly gourmet, made by critically acclaimed chefs. However, it costs an arm and a leg to even eat lunch here. We sat in the cafeteria and I finish my lunch as Gorya eats hers and asked her, "How was last night?"
She stops and looks at me, "What do you mean?" I picked at my remaining chicken and said, "Wasn't it your 222nd day at Kocher High School,", exaggerating my hands to form a rainbow.
She pushes my shoulder playfully, "It was. Don't make fun of me. I don't know why my family makes it a big deal."
"Oh stop, they're proud of you. As I am too." I gush, scooting closer to her.
She smiles at me before continuing to eat. Hana approaches our table and sighs as soon as she sits down. "I still can't believe what I witnessed yesterday."
I agreed and said, "It's truly unbelievable how cruel people can be."
She nods, "Thanks for warning me, or else I would've spoken out about it and gotten in trouble," she replies. Gorya grins, "No problem."
I look in between them and ask, "Should we share the mantra we say every school year?"
Gorya nods and turns to Hana, "We always say this." She looks at me, and we speak in unison, "Focus on schoolwork. Stay quiet and stay safe until graduation."
Hana smiles in response and says, "Stay quiet and safe for a bright future, just as Mira said."
"Oh, you like Mira too? You like her, right?", I nudged Gorya. Hana waits for Gorya's reply and she says, "She's the one that inspired me to apply here."
Hana excitedly says, "Me too. If only she'd warn us about F4 though."
I joke, "If she did, I believe no one would apply here." They both chuckled at my comment, and Hana looks behind Gorya, her eyes lighting up. Who is she looking at? She stands up and quickly smiles at us, bringing her tray with her, and says, "I have to go. See you later."
I nod as she walks away, I look behind me to see her walking in the path of F4. My eyes widen, oh no, as she bumps into none other than Thyme. The remnants of her lunch hit directly on Thyme's bedazzled shoes. The clang of her utensils hit the floor, making the whole cafeteria so silent–you could hear someone chewing with their mouth closed. Gorya hastily turns to me, what should we do? I shrug at her before looking back to hear Thyme's demeaning tone as he says, "Is this how you approach a guy?"
"P'Thyme, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," Hana says, hugging the tray close to her as if it was armor.
"I'll have your shoes cleaned or-or I can buy you a new pair," she stutters.
He snickers, "Buy me a new pair? These are tailor-made in Paris. Can you buy these?"
They sure are ugly shoes, I think to myself.
MJ interrupts, "Thyme, go easy on her, She's cute."
Hana continues, "P'Thyme let me repay you... I-I'll do whatever it takes."
He smirks, "Whatever it takes?" Then a few students with their dumb annoying voices say, "She can clean them by licking them."
"Good idea, lick them. If you do, then I just might forgive you." Thyme moves his foot towards Hana on the ground. My mouth gapes open as I turn to Gorya, who is clenching her fists. The cafeteria is chanting, "Lick it. Lick it."
I shook my head at Thyme but Gorya slowly stands, and I ask in a hushed tone, "Gorya, what are you doing? Sit do-"
Then Gorya punches the table with full force. At that moment, I feel like the whole world is watching us. I cover my face, with both hands while looking down at the table, "Oh my god." Gorya walks towards them, and I cover my mouth with my hand looking back at her, watching for the horror that is about to come. She stops in front of Thyme.
"What are you doing?" Thyme asks her.
He brings his face closer, "Answer me." I gulp nervously just watching them as Gorya replies, "I think it's too much." My heart sunk to my stomach looking at Thyme's intense predatory gaze. He asks menacingly, "What?"
I can't just sit here. I'm no better than those dim-wits if I sit back. I swallow my anxiety and clench my shaking hands as I stand from my seat, making the biggest screech from my chair. Gorya and Hana look at me terrified, while I walk my way over to them.
I feel Ren stare at me but, I keep on going. "She said what you guys are doing is too much. Our friend apologized already. Can't you let her go just this once?" I bravely say as I meet Thyme's intimidating eyes. His eye twitches as he smirks, "Oh, so we have a group now? " He turns away from me as he addresses the people around him, "Anyone else wanna join?" His voice thunders around the whole cafeteria, and no one answers. Oooo, I want to punch this guy.
I touch the back of my hand with Gorya's to signal that we're fighting this together. Thyme turns back to us and says, "Fine. I'll stop as you've ordered." He looks at Gorya and then at me.
Gorya interjects, "I didn't me-"
He steps in front of Hana, who cowers back, "You're lucky you have good friends." Thyme walks out first with the rest of F4 following behind. I meet Ren's eyes as he walks by but, I couldn't read what he was thinking at this moment. I look down immediately and we hear voices from every angle, whispering:
"What's going to happen to them?"
"Ugh, they're attention seekers."
"OMG, Thyme is so hot. Did you see Kavin, Ren, and MJ too?
"I hope they get the red card."
Red card. I look at Hana who is pretty shaken up and watch her as she leaves me and Gorya in the middle of the cafeteria. I look at Gorya who nervously looks back at me, and for the first time, we are both very fearful for our lives.
...
After my last class, Gorya and I went our separate ways, she went home while I stayed to hang out on the rooftop. When I got there, I slumped in the vacant seat. I laid my head on top of the desk and groaned, "Why did I do that?" My fist met the top of my head as I looked at the view of the school.
I went to take out my notebook in my bag and flipped to a blank page. I just started writing with whatever pen I saw in my backpack. They were incoherent and had terrible lyrics like Thyme deserves to rot in hell. I hate my life, I wish Thyme can pee himself in front of the school-
"What the hell am I even writing?", I ask myself, ripping the page out and crumbling the paper, throwing it in my backpack. I flipped through the pages of my notes but the wind blew on a page to reveal an unfinished song. It was from a year ago, a song for my dad.
The melody and tune are fuzzy in my head but I managed to remember them. I glide my fingers on the paper, slowly, feeling the grooves of my penmanship while reading the lyrics. My heart felt weakened, but calm all at the same time–I wasn't as enraged as before.
I looked around, once again, to see if there was anyone here with me. The last time I didn't look was when I met Gorya. I smiled at the memory, of how we were both sophomores who didn't know a thing about having a social life. We were outcasts or at least intended to be. Now, we angered the leader of the biggest group in the school or, the leader of the school.
Anyway.
I sat up straight to fix my posture, and looked around again to make sure before I sang,
Words have been eating me
But I fail to say
Now that I am older
The more I try to get away
All I can think of
Are thoughts that I can't recognize
My memories are all jumbled
But you stay on my mind
I miss you, I miss you
So much that I can't live without you
I miss you, I miss you
With memories, I can never forget...
I finish the song with the lyrics I'd only written down. I cleared my throat and looked at the sky–where I'd like to think my dad is at. Suddenly, a slow clap sounds from behind me and I twist my body to see who it is.
It was Ren.
I just stared at him, frozen, unable to say anything. He looked at me for a moment before breaking eye contact, he smiled, "It's been a while since I heard your voice. It has improved a lot over the years."
I blinked and swept a strand of hair behind my ear. I blushed, "I didn't know you'd be here, I thought no one was up here."
He spreads his arms out and jokingly says, "Well, I'm here right?" I give him an unamused expression before picking my things to put into my bag. "You're leaving?"
"Yea, I don't want to be here when you've invaded my privacy," I say, furiously putting my things in my bag.
"I wasn't trying to invade anything. I was here first. If you believe that I invaded your privacy, then you invaded my space first." he said.
"It wasn't a song I wanted for anyone to hear," I say frustratedly, I combed my hair out of my face, the wind wasn't exactly being kind. I crossed my arms and held my suit jacket closer, to mask my discomfort. "It was a beautiful song. You have a talent...Nova," he says to me.
"Thanks," I mumbled. He pauses before saying, "What happened at the cafeteria earlier. I was shocked. I didn't expect you to stand up to Thyme." I tapped my foot on the ground, apprehensively, and said, "He was being unreasonable."
He chuckled, "That's Thyme for you." I looked towards the setting sun and at him, catching him looking at me. I averted my eyes as I said, "Look, I don't want to be involved with you guys. I don't want Gorya to be harmed."
"I don't control who gets the red card."
I scoff, "But your friends with him. Better yet, you're best friends with him right?" He doesn't answer me and I felt let down that he isn't trying to stop this craziness. I sighed, grabbing my bag and I began walking away to go to the exit but he stops me. His warm hand rest on the cold fabric of my jacket. I look at him confusedly, and he meets my eyes with his sad ones as he says, "What happened to us? You used to be my best friend."
I tug my arm away from his grasp and I said, "You know why." His eyelids falter as I walked away from him, and he lets me.
...
Note:
Hey guys!
This is definitely a deeper, (might I also say darker) retelling of the story with Ren as the protagonist's main interest. As for the song, I just made it up in my mind LOL so it's not a real song. I'm still developing storylines using the episodes as my guide, so it's a little different/hard but, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
PS: 100 reads!! Thank you so much! TYSM for the votes as well! :)