Chapter 35: February 14, Monday– I called him (Chapter .27)

In February, the sky turned to a brilliant blue. On the fourteenth of the month, Valentine’s Day arrived. So did the second test-taking day of the English competition.

The small crew of M High students participating in the competition set off in the morning. Instead of going to school, they gathered at the train station. Thanks to their head teachers’ application for leave, the students could comfortably get ready at home.

Unfortunately, since Pan Rita was one of the more ‘popular’ subject teachers, popular as in, she had several classes per day and had to stay at school. Another teacher chaperoned the competition attendees to the country’s metropolis by train.

All in all, eleven students set out to compete, four of them being first years and three of them being from the humanities class.

Sae did not know anyone from the science class apart from the boy he had seen Deil talking with a few times. The boy’s name was Yohan.

Yohan sat with Kaikai next to him, and across from them, Minke sat to Sae’s right. The three chatted while Sae closed his eyes and listened. Thirty minutes into the conversation, Sae still did not move nor gave any sign of being mentally present. The others weren’t sure if he had fallen asleep or not.

An hour and a half later, the train arrived at the capital, and the group had to change routes for the city’s in-line transportation. The school that organised the second round of testing was a university affiliated high school. It was quite old, but the building got a full renovation, so it looked more like a modern industrial park rather than an educational institution.

The first test on the agenda was hearing comprehension, followed by a short break where the students got divided into groups of threes for the oral examination. They had to participate in a three-way conversation on a selected topic while two invigilators listened and graded them. The topic got chosen by a draw that one of the students performed after everyone entered the room. They had thirteen minutes overall to get ready and perform.

“Yo, who did you get?” Kaikai asked after getting his allotted number. His ID read #811, with the first number indicating which school he attended. M High was school number eight. Kaikai looked over the columns on the poster stuck to the classroom’s door. “It says I’m with seven-oh-four and ten-twenty-eight? Hmm, maybe we can find out who they are…”

Sae was not interested in finding out about his partners in advance. He showed his slip of #803 with a flick of his wrist, then turned away from the cluster of ID numbers.

Kaikai traced Sae’s number with his forefinger. “You’re in a group with fifteen-oh-six and thirty-one-seventeen,” he read out loud. “Wonder who they might be?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Sae said, and true to his words, his tone was really... well, uncaring. He folded his slip of paper and asked, “What about Minke?”

“Oh, she actually got someone from our school.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, she’s checking with everyone now. Way to go!” Kaikai grinned. “About the listening comp…”

“Mnm,” Sae sounded.

“Wasn’t it too easy?”

“It was whatever. Way easier than in real exams.” Sae knew he sounded quite arrogant saying it like that; however, he only stated the facts.

Kaikai leaned to the wall beside him, slumping down to a squat. “Yeah. Maybe they’ll squeeze us with the conversation topics?”

That had a high possibility. These competitions were held to boost a school’s name. The real deal never came until the semi-national scale.

Sae squatted down as well. He refolded his piece of paper and slipped it into his pocket. He and Kaikai still had at least an hour to go. Waiting was a war of nerves for some, but Sae found it boring. How much time was wasted just sitting around?

Kaikai turned to his phone to snoop around. He sent out two identical and anonymous posts on the schools’ forums for fun:

Looking for #704/#1028! If you know what this is about, hit me up [wink emoji]

Sae peeked at the screen from the side. “Could you be more shameless?” he asked, smiling.

“Why?” asked Kaikai. “If they misunderstand, that’s on them. I’m a respectable student looking for basic information.”

“Do you have to be like that just to look for basic information?” Shaking his head, Sae pulled a piece of chocolate from his pocket and munched on it. It reminded him of the time Shum Deil had given him chocolate as a consolation prize.

“That’s not it,” Kaikai corrected Sae. “I have to make an impact. Since it’s an anonymous post, it’ll get buried in five minutes if it doesn’t grab any attention. It’s hard enough to get spotted in these dense waters. How do I know the other two aren’t the studious type who won’t even look at their phone in a situation like this?”

“Yeah, yeah. Your knowledge is bountiful,” Sae told him with an exaggerated bow. Pressing his lips, he raised his arm and waved to Minke. To Kaikai, he said, “I’m sorry for doubting you.”

“Whatever.” Kaikai punched Sae’s shoulder and dug the chocolate wrapping from Sae’s loosely fisted palm. “Do you think we could go out and eat while waiting? Hey, where did you buy this?”

“From the convenience store. And no, I don’t think they’d be down with that. You can’t leave the school grounds until the competition is over.” Sae rapped his knuckles at the notice overhead.

Kaikai looked up, seeming like he wanted to protest but got distracted by Minke. The girl stopped and looked down at them. “Why are you two on the floor?”

Sae shrugged. “It’s better than standing around.”

“You do know there’s a room for waiting in the auditorium, right? There are refreshments and chairs to sit on.”

“Fuck, then why are we here?” Kaikai immediately jumped up and pointed to their left with his eyebrows. “Hurry! What if the food’s already gone?”

Before Kaikai could fly off, Minke grabbed his arm to turn him around. “That’s the way.” She pointed ahead, “Next to the big staircase.”

Needless to say, Kaikai ran faster than lightning. By the time Sae got onto his feet, even Kaikai’s shadow had disappeared from sight.

As Minke and Sae made their way over to the auditorium’s room, Sae asked, “Did you find out who’s your partner from our school?”

“Yes. It’s a girl I’ve never talked to until now. She’s nice enough, but we didn’t want to chat too much. Well, it’s not like I can assess her whole lexical knowledge by exchanging a few sentences. And it wasn’t even in English.” Minke folded her arms before her chest. “She told me the third person is really intense about competing, so not to be surprised too much. They’ve already met at different competitions, and know each other’s style.”

The two arrived at a set of tall doors next to the staircase. The auditorium wasn’t huge but had an abundance of interior height. The organisers had sectioned a corner off with movable partition walls where students could mingle or sit down and rest.

Atop a long table, a selection of beverages and a coffee machine waited for the competitors. Just like what Minke had told them, the organisers also took care of the food, although most of it was fruit salad in cups or oat bars and packed nuts. At the other side of the table, with his back turned to them, Kaikai simultaneously stuffed his face and engaged in light conversation with someone.

As they approached, Minke wondered, “Why does he always act like a famished wolf who never knows whether he’ll get his next meal?”

Sae tapped Kaikai on the shoulder.

Kaikai glanced back with a smile. “Yo, they have blueberries!” The person across from him was another student. He pointed at the boy and explained, “We just met and guess what? He’s ten-twenty-eight. I didn’t even have to check the forum, haha!”

“That’s great,” said Sae. The four of them made proper introductions, but then the boy left to sit with his friends.

“How can you act like this?” Minke asked as Kaikai stuffed a packed cookie into her hand. She tried to avoid it without success. “Where’s your young master attitude? Your family has more money than grass in this school’s yard, yet you want me to smuggle free cookies out for you?” The more she talked, the more her tone decreased. Minke glanced around, making sure no one heard them.

“But I’m hungry!” Kaikai whined, “Sae said we cannot leave until this is over. What if someone gobbles up all the cookies?”

A 1.8 metres tall, rich city boy publicly cried about food in front of everyone. Minke turned to Sae with a face full of help me before I kill him vibes.

Sae held a hand out and took the cookie with a half-suppressed smile, “I’ll hold onto this.”

Minke let out a sigh and grabbed a bottle of water. Uncapping it, she glanced around.

At such a perilous time, Kaikai’s phone sent a notification. “Ah, maybe it’s seven-oh-four!” He checked the incoming message with excitement. “It’s not... But Susu asked whether we’d be down for a game after we’ve finished. She says we don’t have to go back to school. Did you know about this?”

“What?” Minke leaned closer to see, and Sae took over the phone.

His eyes scanned the messages. “It’s funny how they know more than us. Where’s that teacher? Let’s go and ask about it.”

In the end, Minke went to gather the relevant information. An organiser came over and read aloud the next batch of student IDs for the conversation test. Sae’s number got called, so he stood to go, stuffing the cookie back into Kaikai’s hands.

“What do you want me to do with it?” Kaikai asked with surprise. “If you give it back, I’m gonna eat it. It’s meaningless.”

“Well, do you want me to take it with me?” Sae shot back while walking away. “Perhaps offer it to one of the judges?”

Kaikai: “…..”

---

 

Although the topic Sae’s batch got was a bit misleading: air pollution, the actual conversation turned out to be a lot less tricky. Air pollution could be covered on a pretty big scale but wasn’t that easy to pin down with concise against and in-favour reasoning. Who’d want to give the impression they think it was anything good? There weren’t many people to take the baddie side with something like this. Thus, in their round, the argumentative nature of the conversation was left behind.

Sae’s partners, #1506 and #3117, were a very meek boy, who generally had pretty crafty input but felt too nervous to say much, and an overachiever girl. Both were older than Sae, but that did not faze him. The girl liked to talk over others. She succeeded with the boy, but Sae didn’t let himself get brushed aside.

Thirteen minutes passed in a blink of an eye. By the time Sae returned to the auditorium, considerably fewer students loitered around. He saw Minke sitting on a chair with a wrapped cookie on her lap. She was scrolling away on her phone with a pinched look on her face, her long hair gathered to one side of her shoulders.

Coming closer, Sae could not help but laugh – laughing until Minke chucked the cookie at him. He caught the thing, sat down, and asked, “Where’s Kai?”

“He got called away to the preparation room,” Minke answered, “His turn is after the current team. Two rounds after you.”

Sae hummed and put the cookie on the chair beside him. “What about you?”

Minke glanced up from the phone’s screen. “Don’t know. It can’t be that long. Take a look around; the kids are waning. The ones who finish don’t come back here. They go outside or stay in the hallways. The teachers will notify everyone when it’s time to gather.”

Sae looked out the auditorium’s high windows. From here, he could only see the caps of trees and the deep blue sky. Since it was still winter, pale yellow sunshine lit up the outside world. “Who’d want to go out now?” Sae asked, puzzled.

Minke chuckled. “Just wait and see. Once Kai’s back, he’ll drag you out in a minute.”

“What about going back to school?” Sae took two cups of fruit salad and three snack bars to replenish his energy. “Did the teacher say the same thing as what Susu talked about?”

“Mnm,” Minke nodded. The heels of her shoes tapped the floor without rest. “The teacher was flustered and forgot to announce it. It will be afternoon too by the time we arrive home. Returning to school isn't important. We don’t have to ask for leave either.”

Minke had always been attentive to things, sensitive too. Sae could sense the growing nerves making her restless, so he gave her one of the snack bars. “Eat it so you won’t pass out later. It will help to calm down.”

“Eating sweets?” Minke doubted, but she still opened the package.

“Mnm,” Sae responded, “Think of it as a recreational activity. While you eat, think of nothing but that bar of highly nutritious berries and…what else is in it?” He flipped over his own package to read the ingredient list. “Grains? Fancy grains and chocolate.”

They sat and munched on their snacks. After the bar was gone, Minke did seem less fidgety. Sae fixed his gaze on her. “Did it work?”

“It kind of did.” Minke smiled at him. She wiped crumbs from the corner of her mouth with the side of her thumb. “Now I’m a still water of calmness.”

As she said this, the organiser returned to call the last of the groups. When Minke heard her name, her face involuntary stiffened.

“A still water of calmness,” Sae reminded her.

“Mhmm, still,” Minke said and stood up to go. The auditorium’s polished wood floor had lost some of its colour by now, but its initial shine lingered if cleaned well. As Minke straightened up, her foot caught the edge of the chair next to her and made an awful noise on impact. Not only the thunk of bone knocking on metal but the whiny sound of the chair and the heel of her shoe sliding with a screech reverberated in the room.

“Shit,” Minke whispered with tears in her eyes. It was rare to hear her cuss.

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“You okay?” Sae watched on but did not know how to help. Minke wasn’t seriously injured and made to walk out even if she felt embarrassed. He could only wish her good luck.

Minke didn’t answer but nodded her head. Sae wasn’t sure that the sound that came out of her mouth if she were to open it wouldn’t be a sob.

Just as the girl staggered away, Kaikai arrived. The two passed each other and exchanged words that Sae could not hear.

“What’s with her?” Kaikai asked as he approached. “Did she cry? What for? It’s only a stupid competition…” He let out a breath and asked, “Hey, you want to go outside? Oh, my cookie! Thanks for keeping an eye on it.”

Sae mentally sent a thumbs up to Minke for her outstanding deduction skills. He handed the cookie over and explained, “She didn’t cry but knocked into a chair by accident. Come on. Let’s walk around for a bit. My head’s starting to hurt.”

“Huh?” Kaikai followed behind with half the cookie hanging out of his mouth. “Why the hell did she knock into a chair?”

---

 

The competition finished at one-thirty in the afternoon, followed by a small ceremony where everyone got a memorial card. No first, second, and so on places got meted out, but the students qualifying for the regional round got officially invited with a round of applause.

The students of M High arrived back home between three and four o’clock. Everyone took off from the train station, going home or wherever.

Sae, Minke and Kaikai made their way to the group’s usual gathering ground, the PC room in their neighbourhood. It was the best decision, as they didn’t have to make a detour to get food from somewhere else. Kaikai loved what they sold in the PC room. Delicious scents incited the senses every time they passed by the food section. Fortunately, there was an abundance of sweets in their selection too.

What welcomed them upon arrival was the sound of Susu and Daniel arguing. The siblings were so loud it could be heard even from the entrance.

“Sis, it’s really not my fault,” Daniel said with a sigh. He slumped into the overstuffed chair.

“Well then, is it mine?” countered Susu.

“No, just...” the little brother was wise enough not to finish his sentence. Instead, he turned to the computer before him without another word. He had learned one thing through the years. That was to let his sister make a ruckus if she wanted to. It was easier to let her talk it out than to dissuade her.

Upon closer inspection, Sae saw flowers and a wrapped box before Susu on the table, the main reason for her gripe as she told her side of the story to Emi.

Now, where did she come from?

“They actually thought we were a couple,” said Susu, immensely dissatisfied. “Can’t they see!? He looks exactly like me… If someone snatched his wig.”

“Or you look exactly like him with a wig,” Kaikai singsonged as he passed by Susu. The three newcomers sat in the empty seats around the others.

“What the hell. I’m not eating this,” Susu grabbed the box of chocolates and put it down before Sae. “Here. Congratulations on getting first place.”

“Who says you get the chocolate?” Two seats away, Daniel returned from his hide-out to ask his sister this question, his tone indignant.

“Then should I get the rose because I’m a girl?”

“Did I say that?”

“Well, you insinuated it.”

“Who did?”

Amidst the back-and-forth, rapid fire rapping, Sae didn’t have the heart to tell them that nobody came in first place. He turned the box in his hands this way and that. It was very pink, very full of hearts, but looking at the ingredients, it had a pretty decent cocoa percentage. He turned to the twins, shaking the box a little. “Thanks. Can you tell me where this came from?”

In the following five minutes, another commotion broke out. Kaikai ordered his food, logged in and started playing while he listened to the story with half an ear. He was smart to do it that way; it was way too loud if one gave their whole attention. From bits and pieces, Sae put together the loose course of happenings in the afternoon.

As they had learned from Susu’s messages, school let out early for the students representing M High in the competition. This information had travelled through the whole school as early as the morning. Everybody knew about it except the people in question. That meant the group was allowed to go straight home once they had arrived back in B city, even before anyone knew what time they’d be done.

The kids being in their rebellious phase, naturally found this situation to be unfair. Why did they have to stay put and suffer with classes when others travelled to another city, not even coming back to report? Thus, the unruly bunch decided to cut class and came to play to their heart’s content.

“Wait, so why are you here?” Sae interrupted, pointing an accusing finger at Emi.

“Me?” The little girl jabbed a finger at her own chest as well. “I only have training this time around. School’s out already. I arrived like half an hour ago, actually.”

Sae’s eyes narrowed. “So you’re cutting training?”

Emi laughed at the interrogation, “It’s not like the first time I’ve done that?”

“That’s not the point here, though? Hello?” Susu waved a hand between them. “Can we get back to the business at hand?”

“Yes, in a minute,” Kaikai raised an arm to indicate his wish to put in a word. However, he did not tear his eyes from the screen before him. Kaikai’s avatar was currently waiting behind a big rock, ready to raid a level-twenty God artefact from Daniel. His only error was that Daniel sat right beside him, full-on knowing he was on the lookout. The boy even warned lowly, Kai don’t you dare.

Kaikai didn’t wait for anyone’s permission before asking his question. “How come Daniel’s here as well?”

“Since Minke won’t play, I called Daniel so the numbers would be even,” replied Susu.

“Funny, I called someone for the same reason as well,” Kaikai said but did not disclose anything else.

Susu furrowed her thin brows as if to ask: was Kaikai serious, or just teasing them? But she was not in the mood to find out and shook her head. “Whatever. The point is the sale at the plaza near the yoghurt shop we like so much.”

Susu had met Daniel there, and the employee promoting their store outside discerned the two to be a couple, giving away small gifts for Valentine’s day. Susu became livid upon being perceived as his twin brother’s girlfriend, which was honestly understandable.

“Then why did you bring them back?” Minke asked, straightforward as always. She took the rose from the table and twirled it in her hand.

“You can keep it,” Daniel told her.

Minke looked at him, but Daniel turned back to his screen before she could say anything.

Susu laughed. “Like I wanted to? Dani literally dragged me away before I could react.”

“You would’ve used the gifts as weapons to torture the employee until she realised we’re siblings,” said Daniel. He swept a hand over the two clear tabletops, “See? Now we have nothing. Did anything happen?”

He told Susu, “Don’t think it thrills me the first time anyone thought I have a girlfriend, they assumed it was my sister.”

Kaikai burst into obnoxious laughter. He laughed all the way until one of the cafe’s employees gave him his food, and he started to eat. The overhead lights glinted off his straight teeth, giving his expression an eerie quality. It didn’t last long, as a string of noodle almost shot up his nose. He finally shut up.

Just then, Emi spoke up, surprising everyone. “I kinda like it. I want to get these presents!”

“Why would you want them?” Susu asked with horror.

“Because they’re free, duh,” Emi responded, unconcerned. “Which one of you will come with me to the plaza? Sae, hmm?”

“Go by yourself.” Sae finally ordered his food and didn’t want to be disturbed. The delicious smells wafting from Kaikai’s tray hit like a personal attack.

Emi jumped in her seat, whining, “Why not!? I can’t go by myself! They won’t give it out if you aren’t part of a couple. How can I ask alone?”

“Tell them you want to surprise your sweetheart later,” advised Sae.

“That can’t be; you know I’m a horrible liar.” The little girl still didn’t give up. She argued, “It’s easy for you to talk. You already have a box of chocolates. Give it to me then.”

Sae put a hand on the box atop the desk. “That’s a no-no.”

“Wah~” Emi moved on to the other boy, “Kai, come with me?”

“Where do you want to go?” Teo asked out of nowhere.

Sae didn’t look up, only throwing out a perfunctory, Mnm, you’re here. However, the following sentence made him level his gaze.

Susu, surprise evident in her tone, exclaimed a string of questions, “Deil!? What are you doing here? And you brought Teo with you?”

“How could that be,” Shum Deil said, “We met outside.”

“I called him,” Kaikai shouted.

Sae swept a glance over. He didn’t know how long the two had been standing there, listening in on them. Sae turned his head to the side, mentally calculating where the empty seats were. It was the first time everyone gathered in one place since Emi shared the truth about Shum Deil being her tutor. Sae was curious if Shum Deil would act differently with the little girl now that the cat was out of the bag.

He was convinced that Emi had told Shum Deil what was up. It’d be foolish to think she wouldn’t disclose information of this importance.

Firstly, now that they were in the know, she did not have to sneak around. In addition, with Sae no longer acting suspicious, he stopped asking about her whereabouts so much. Emi could say, I don’t have time; there’s a lesson then and then, and Sae would let her be.

Although this did not change Emi’s relationship with Shum Deil at all, it would be unfair to not tell him that other people knew he was a private tutor.

Sae and Teo figured out the secret, and Shum Deil knew that they knew. It wasn’t just a guess, either. On the first week after winter break, Sae stared out the window at recess when he felt someone’s eyes on him from the upper floors. It had been during those weeks Shum Deil still wouldn’t put a foot within a ten metre-radius of the English club’s perimeter.

That time, Shum Deil inclined his head at Sae, his elbows thrown over the railing. The look in his eyes made it clear that Emi had spilt the beans. That was when Sae knew for sure. During the following week, Shum Deil returned to the club but acted like nothing was the matter. Which actually was true...

Now Shum Deil sat down at one of the PCs and logged in. He sat a bit farther from Emi, who still nagged the others.

“Teo, will you come to the plaza with me? We’ll get presents if they think we’re a thing.”

Sae finished placing his order and watched Emi’s failed attempts at making a fool out of someone for her liking. He turned to see Teo picking a strand of Minke’s hair and twirling it around his finger. “What thing?” he asked, a little lazy. “A thing like this? Little girl, you’re too young for me. Better go with Sae.”

“First of all, eww.” Emi’s face twisted with disdain. “And he already got his chocolate. No way he’ll move now.”

“Someone gave you Valentine’s Day chocolate?” Teo asked, showing Sae a teasing smile. “Why didn’t I know you have a secret admirer? Shit, and here you are, running away to some competition.”

Sae could feel several pairs of eyes turn his way. Of course, what Teo said wasn’t true, and a big part of the people present knew that, while the other part could assume. He didn’t get flustered by the insinuation, but there still had to be a line. By now, these jokes neared the territory of bothersome. If the others already knew the answer to Teo’s question, weren’t their actions the same as ganging up on him?

Sae threw some chips from Kaikai’s tray at Teo, warning him, “Don’t make a fuss.”

Meanwhile, Minke was probably the only one who still tried to think of a way to help Emi. “Why does it have to be a boy and a girl?” she asked no one in particular, “Emi, no one said you have to show up with a boy.”

Emi’s eyes shone with a new light. “Right! Then, Minke––”

Kaikai, however, was simply unable to stay put. He interrupted, “Why don’t Sae and Deil go then? One friend and one tutor, helping a girl out.”

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