Old Friend
"Le Rong, are you ready for your first day?" A woman with a kind smile asked her son, Yong Le Rong who is sitting beside her.
Yong Le Rong wanted to say yes, but the words seem to get stuck on the tip of his tongue.
"Don't worry, you will make new friends!" His mother said as she let her son out from her white Porsche.
After she had left, her son looked at the signboard of the tuition centre. "Secret Skill Tuition Centre? What a weird name…"
As Yong Le Rong walked up towards the classroom he heard someone loudly shouting one word that you would never hear at a tuition centre repeatedly.
STRIP!
STRIP!
STRIP!
STRIP!
STRIP!
'Did mum accidentally send me to a strip club? The name is a nice cover for this type of business, really fooled me there.' Yong Le Rong said to himself as he continued listening.
The door suddenly opened right in front of Yong Le Rong, revealing him to the whole class.
At that moment, Yong Le Rong realised that this was really a normal tuition centre except for the crowd of people who are watching porn in the class.
One of the perverts patted the person who is holding the phone and told him. "Wow, Kai Wen I thought that the rumours about Chong Xi Kang were false, but today I had "seen" it for myself."
'Kai Wen? What a coincidence I used to had a friend with the same name.' Yong Le Rong thought as he walked closer to the crowd.
"I have more where that came from, you all heard of Tan Han Sheng the playboy? I have a few videos about him too." Lee Kai Wen said proudly.
One of them punched the table in anger as he said out loud. "Damn I hate that guy; his handsome face caused all of us to never have the chance to get a girlfriend!"
Before Lee Kai Wen can say anything Yong Le Rong finally saw his face.
"It is you…"
"It is you?!"
They both said in unison, but their tones are different.
Four years ago…
Two boys are standing outside the school gate looking at each other. One of them is Lee Kai Wen and the other one is Yong Le Rong.
"See you tomorrow?" Innocently Lee Kai Wen asked Yong Le Rong with a tear in his eyes.
Yong Le Rong let out a loud laugh that caught everyone attention as he told the young Lee Kai Wen. "Today is our last day of school, who will come tomorrow?"
"See you next time…"
That was the last thing that they said to each after and now the two best friends meet each other once more, but after four years they are not the same person anymore.
Lee Kai Wen is the first to broke up this awkward situation by asking Yong Le Rong how is he been doing for the past few years.
"You have changed…" Yong Le Rong did not answer his childhood friend's question instead of he found himself standing in front of someone completely different.
"The old you would never do something like this, the old you is pure and innocent."
Before Yong Le Rong can continue someone else walked in, an old man that is even older than the bald Lim Zhen Cong came into the classroom.
His hair is as white as snow, but you can see his scalp easily underneath his thinning hair. Yet his body is muscular and fit for a man of his age.
"Since there is a new student here, I'm going to reintroduce myself. I'm Mr. Lord your chemistry tuition teacher. You can sit beside that boy who is not wearing a shirt right now."
Yong Le Rong looked around as he searched for somebody like that, then he found him, of all the people who stripped his upper garment it had to be Lee Kai Wen.
Yong Le Rong unwillingly walked over and sat beside Lee Kai Wen, and then he was called out to introduce himself to everyone.
"My name is Yong Le Rong. I'm sixteen years old this year and I'm from Hope Star Secondary School."
"I'm his childhood best friend Lee Kai Wen. I am studying at Genius Secondary School. You know the second to last school on the rankings."
Mr. Lord started clapping his hands while the others chanted Lee Kai Wen's name full of energy and excitement for some unknown reason.
"Genius Secondary School is going to close down because of whom?!" Lee Kai Wen shouted to the others.
CHONG XI KANG, THE STRIPER!
(Very simple)
TAN HAN SHENG, THE MOST WANTED!
(Jealous of his face)
KOH ZI HONG, THE CRUSHER!
(Referring to his superior gaming skills)
JOHN NG JIA AN, THE MASTERMIND!
(Smart and knowledgeable in porn)
LEE KAI WEN, THE SIDE CHARACTER!
(This is the truth?)
"Wait, isn't the main character of this novel me, when did I become a side character?" Lee Kai Wen asked himself as his popularity seems to be lower compared to his friends.
Finally when the commotion died down Lee Kai Wen sat back down exhausted due to him shouting nonsense nonstop.
Before Lee Kai Wen can enjoy his rest the person sitting beside him, Yong Le Rong asked him a question. "You had really changed a lot since we last met."
A carefree laugh came out from Lee Kai Wen's voice box as he looked at his old friend. "Actually I had just changed recently; just a few months ago I was still that kid who cried a lot."
"I met a group of people; they might not be the best people to be around with. As you can see many people wanted their heads because of the things they usually do naturally."
"But, I had fun with them. The laughs we had, the tears we shed it is a piece of memory that I will keep for the rest of my life just like the time we had together."
At that moment Yong Le Rong found out that his old friend actually never changed, he is still that innocent boy that believes in friendship even though it has been "tainted."
Before Yong Le Rong could say anything more another weird thing happened.
"Ket Mi?" Mr. Lord said as he pointed at the chemical equation on the whiteboard with a plastic fish.
'What a scene killer…' Yong Le Rong told himself as he looked at his chemistry teacher and his plastic fish. Then he asked Lee Kai Wen what does Ket Mi meant and about the plastic fish.
Lee Kai Wen answered as if it was a normal thing that you see and hear every day as he told Yong Le Rong. "Ket Mi is actually Get me and the fish actually have a touching backstory to it…"
"Don't worry you will get used to all this, this is nothing compared to After School Tuition Centre." Lee Kai Wen said blandly.
Yong Le Rong smiled, all those thoughts that are bothering him disappeared as he told Lee Kai Wen in his heart.
'You had changed but, for the better…'
End of week 40.