It didn't take too long for Ran and I to become comfortable around each other. We had the same sense of humor and we joked around as if we've known each other for a long time. I have forgotten about my friends' warnings. For a while, their warnings didn't make any sense. He was nice and fun to be with.
Our friendship eventually led my other friends to distance themselves from me. Apparently, I have become the villain of their stories, just because I became good friends with Ran.
One morning, when I just got in class, Ran approached me and told me about the things he had heard just a few moments before I entered.
"Duday, pinag-uusapan ka nila Morisette kaninang wala ka pa dito." He delivered the news that both sent me into a place of confusion. Should I be glad that he is concerned about me? Or should I be sad that my friends are turning their backs on me?
"Hayaan mo sila." I replied, trying my best to shake it off and make it seem like it didn't bother me at all. But it bothered him. I saw dismay in his face. He was probably worried that I wasn't making a big deal out of my friends talking behind my back. But there wasn't much that I could do then. Confronting them will not put off the fire – that I knew for sure.
Ran was always there for me after my friends left me for good. There was even a time when I belonged in a group who was assigned to clean on a specific day of the week, and that time I was, again, left alone to clean the whole class room. I was about to cry my heart out then. But Ran, who I thought had gone home earlier that afternoon, suddenly appeared and helped me clean and organize the room. I remember him closing the windows for me.
We didn't talk, but what he did was more than enough to tell me that he will always be by my side to help me get through difficulties.