"Shoma, have you seen the latest messages that Patrick sent?"
Yuzuru asked his roommate who was eating noodles with chopsticks from a cardboard cup.
"Nope," Shoma answered as he chewed thoughtfully on the noodles. Currently, he was wondering how Cheng felt right now and what sort of reaction he would have if he was in her shoes. (You know, moral lessons he had back in the day.)
"Are those from Boyang again?" Yuzuru eyed the cup noodles warily, recalling the previous memories including Boyang and instant noodles. The outcome hadn't been very good.
"Yeah." Shoma sipped the broth of the noodles tentatively. "But don't worry, I checked the expiry date this time. It's next year. Boyang said something about him getting it from some other guy named Boyang as well who gave it to him as leftovers after a celebration for winning something."
Yuzuru still sent a distasteful look towards the cup of noodles in Shoma's hand. "Don't drink that Shoma, there is a lot of MSG in that. You'll lose all your curly hair."
Shoma shrugged but dutifully poured away the rest of the soup into the sink.
"What did he say?" Shoma reverted back to the previous topic, as he tosses the leftover cardboard cup into the recycling bin.
"See?" Yuzuru shoved his phone in Shoma's face.
GossipGuy: GUESS WHAT GUYS?
GossipGuy: None of you are online.
GossipGuy:*Sigh
GossipGuy: I wld go to the girls, but I already told them.
GossipGuy:I think Yang is bullying Cheng. Like, He Is So Mean. He glared.
GossipGuy:HE GLARED AT ME!
Boyangman: I sympathise
GossipGuy:Ikr
Boyangman:with Yang.
GossipGuy:Wut
Guitarhero: Agreed.
Snooki: What is this new chat?
Guitarhero:I think it's Patrick's new gossip forum. Delete it if you like
Snooki: Good idea.
GossipGuy:NOOOO! WAIT!
Snooki left chat
GossipGuy: Whatever. The rest of u can listen to my amazing theory.
GossipGuy: Yuzu, Shoma i see you guys online
GossipGuy: Alright, so I think Yang's bullying Cheng. After all, they weren't around for that anti bullying thing we had with Mr Machi-something.
Guitarhero: Well it doesn't have to be bullying. It could be
GossipGuy: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE!
Pooh-san: Are you sure? Domestic violence sounds too extreme.
GossipGuy: Wait wait wait wait WAIIITTTT! im formulating a theory right now and its still on going give me 5 minutes I'll be back bai.
Pooh-san: Wait what?
Guitarhero: Don't worry 'bout it. When Patrick says he's gonna do it he does it fast.
GossipGuy: HEY IM BACK!
Pooh-san: Right. That was fast.
GossipGuy: Ok I have confirmed my theory. Yang is evil.
Boyangman left chat.
GossipGuy: anyway Ive already shared my theory wth the gals. So theyve also shared wth me their findings. They all hve questioned Cheng abt her bruise, to which she trys to avoid answering them directly. i think she's doing it out of fear of Yang. Else y doesn't she just give them the straightforward, truthful answer? Isnt tht enuf evidence?
Guitarhero: It does make sense. However, I'm sitting on the fence.
GossipGuy: Anyways im done with my research. Any ideas on what to do now?
Guitarhero: Try talking to Cheng yrself to get the full picture. Girls aren't very reliable.
GossipGuy: Excuse me? my sources are very accurate. Anyway ive already asked her myself. Same type of reply.
Pooh-san: I can ask if you like. I think I have a way with words.
Pooh-san: I mean, I conduct life-talks with Shoma. I'm basically a pro without proper qualifications.
GossipGuy: sounds like we're in gd hands.
GossipGuy: Any comment, Shoma?
ShomaDos: I don't really agree with your opinion but Imma observe Yuzuru's life talk.
GossipGuy: sure thing.
~
Yuzuru peeked into the classroom, seeing Cheng resting with her head on the desk. He padded over to her, Shoma in tow.
"Hey."
Cheng didn't bother to reply.
"How's life?" Yuzuru found the situation awkward, having to settle for such a casual question.
"Good." Cheng shot back flatly.
"Um...ok. Well, how's Yang?" Yuzuru tried again.
This time, he got a reaction.
Cheng sat up straightway, and looked past Yuzuru, towards the door of the classroom, where heads were peeking over the side of the door frame.
Glaring at Yuzuru, she pushed away her chair forcefully and rushed out of the classroom.
.
Shoma found her sitting on the front steps leading up to the school.
"Is everything...ok?" Shoma tapped on Cheng's shoulder.
She rounded on him. "Why does everyone keep asking me 'is everything ok'?" She mimicked Shoma's tone of voice. "You're with them, aren't you?"Accusing bitterly, she buried her face in her hands.
"With who?"
"Them." Cheng's voice came out muffled. "Yuzuru, Maia, Yuna, Patrick, everyone."
"Oh." Not knowing how to comfort or convince her, Shoma sat down on the step next to her in silence, letting the wind serve as conversation.
"You're still here?" Cheng didn't move. "Go away."
Neither did Shoma. He drew his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on one palm, staring out into the distance.
"They keep accusing him!" Cheng finally burst out. "They keep saying bad stuff about him! And I don't...don't want to tell them...the...truth." Her initially angry tone quietened down and quivered slightly.
Shoma remained silent, as he felt it didn't seem right to say anything.
"I...I did something bad..." She started to sob quietly into her hands. "I hurt him...and now no one will believe me..." The sound of the wind whistled through the bushes surrounding the school campus, causing the dead leaves to flutter and dance like corpses come to life. (What sort of comparison is that.)
"I'm a bad person and I don't...deserve such a friend." Cheng choked out the words and fell silent.
"I believe you." The still small voice rang out, shattering tranquility, his heart directing him what to say. (The wind came to a halt, and the leaves dropped to the ground, listening.) "I believe that you have done bad things, but I also believe that you can do good things. You may think you are a bad person, but I believe the opposite. And so I think of your friend." There. His deep speech was over.
"How would you know?" Cheng challenged. "I could be part of the Triads for all you know."
That's what I thought too. Shoma smiled guiltily to himself. Pulling out something from his pocket, he passed it wordlessly to her, her fingers closing around it.
Cheng looked at the object in her hand. "You want me to commit the honorable action of seppuku?" She asked dryly. "I guess that's how you Japanese do it."
Shoma shook his head, disappointed with her answer.
"You want me to kill him?" Her tone of voice escalated in horror.
Shoma shook his head vigorously.
"Then what? Murder everyone else in the world so there'll be no one who doesn't believe me?"
Shoma had enough. "Look at the knife!" (He also noted that Cheng's thought process could have been one of a Triad's/Yakuza's member.)
"I don't see any answer written there." Cheng held the knife up to her eyes.
Shoma slapped a hand to his forehead. He didn't realize how dense she could be. Not Triad/Yakuza like then. "Is it familiar to you?"
Cheng inspected the knife carefully. "It doesn't look familiar." Throwing the knife into the air, Cheng spun it around her hand like she did that very night. She gripped it in her palm, weighing it before performing a few small strokes with it. "But it feels familiar."
"Of course you wouldn't have recalled how it looked like," Shoma mumbled, slightly creeped out at how Cheng wielded and remembered the knife, the Triad/Yakuza idea suddenly revived once more. "It was a very dark night."
"You were that little boy?"
Shoma marveled at how fast Cheng put the two and two together, considering how slowly she gripped concepts before. Definitely has Triad/Yakuza potential.
"Then why are you at this school?"
Shoma speculations once again failed him.
"How did they let such a little boy like you study here?" Cheng's tone of voice changed, like the one you would use to talk to a twelve-year-old. "Are you like, one of those supergenius little kids that get into university prep schools really early?" Her eyes narrowed. "No. Don't tell me. You're lost! Where's your mother?" Cheng whipped her head around, searching for presumably a woman who had just lost her child.
Shoma couldn't tell if she was joking. "I'm a student here." Shoma huffs, blowing out the air from his cheeks exasperatedly, "I just look young."
Cheng shrugged, patting him on the shoulder sympathetically, "Possible. I blame height problems," She herself wasn't the tallest of palm trees. Glancing at the knife again, she asked sheepishly, "So why did you give me this knife? I sort of forgot."
"Because I want you to know that you're a good person!" Shoma blurts out frustratedly. "Look, Cheng. You saved my life. And I believe that such a deed can only be done by a Good Heart. Whatever Bad Things you did..." Shoma sought for words in his limited vocabulary to explain his thesis. "...surely can be forgiven. So cheer up! Everything's alright now." He heaved a sigh of relief, wondering how Yuzuru managed to spend hours lecturing someone with such sentimental talk. (He probably practiced with Pooh-san)
"You mean everything should be alright now?" Cheng snorts, "With Yang in blame and all? Yeah, I believe you."
Shoma sits in hurt silence.
"But, whatever you said does make sense. Although it was mainly Yang's idea to help you." Cheng closed her eyes, letting the breeze encompass her.
"Well, all the more to bring his case to the light now." Shoma moves out of his brooding, cracking a smile, "I seriously need to thank him."
There was a pause.
"Oh yeah, I wish you luck on convincing Yuzuru and co. that the bruise was truly an accident and you're not a victim of domestic abuse."
Cookie~
~Time frame: A week after incident~
"Did you see my bag?" Yang burst into the class.
Yuzuru and Shoma looked up, perplexed. "Oh no! When did you lose it? Yesterday?" Yuzuru was concerned.
"Wait..." Shoma craned his neck to take a closer look before replying flatly. "Aren't you wearing it?" (He did not only notice that because he was jealous of the bag. Not at all.)
"What bag?" Yang seemed to have forgotten the said bag entirely. He gaped at the two.
"Um...the one slung on your shoulder?" Yuzuru added helpfully.
Yang gave the two a mystified glance before walking away to his desk.
"Well that was strange." Shoma commented and went back to doing his homework. School was almost about to start.
~5 minutes later~
"Did you see my bag?" Yanhan burst into the class, shouting a tune.
Everyone in the class sighed concurrently. "Shut up." Boyang countered rudely.
"No seriously, did you see my bag?" Yanhan earnestly gazed at his classmates.
"You got that line from Mic Drop, didn't you?" Evgenia didn't bother to look up from her phone. Nor remove the earphones plugged into her ears.
"Come on!" Yanhan kicked his desk in frustration. "I lost my bag, and all you can say is-" His foot hit something soft, making it jingle. Bending down, Yanhan squinted at the object decked with keychains, which sported tiny photographs of Asians with brightly colored hair. "Nevermind, I found it." He announced, embarrassed to have made such a fuss.
~
Gazing thoughtfully at his bag, Yanhan mumbled to himself. "I thought I checked here earlier..." He rummaged through his bag, making sure that nothing was lost. Digging to the bottom, his hand brushes something soft, it responds with a jingle. Yanhan's face turned white, and he slowly pulled the offending object out of his bag. Or we should say, objects.
He turned to his bunkmate, his tone of voice escalating. "Boyang..."
"I didn't do it, honest. I left them back at the dorm." Boyang shrugged as though it was an occurring thing that happened.
Turning back to the donkeys, Yanhan swore he heard one of them jingle with laughter in his palm.
(Firstly. The two newcomers are kool kids and we wished that we could write other kool pair skating kids in *cough cough* *Aljona/Bruno or Sui/Han but we were too lazy.
Author 2 here. I wanted to address the ShomaDos username Shoma has, (more like talk to the readers but Author 1 insisted on bringing up this issue.) Its a reference to a one shot on ArchiveOfOurOwn, Shoma Dos The Femme Fatale, and we wanted to credit the writer with coming up with that name. Such a genius.
Also, fun fact of the day.
Wattpad corrects ShomaDos to Thomas.
That's all, thank you. You can stop reading now. It's the end.)