"The Return of My Best Pal"

x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Time passed, and after passing the finals exams, we became Seniors.

Hammy and Katie had already made up during summer after some time in the karaoke, and when classes started, I hung out with them again, but at that time, Justin became the newest member of our little group of friends. As much as possible, I try not to let them see how I was infatuated with Justin, because I believed that it would cause trouble for our newly-formed friendship. Besides, I knew what kind of girl that Justin would be attracted to.

Justin liked the pretty and demure types of girls who seemed weak and fragile that a guy would love to protect, which were far from my traits. I am not the girly-type, the weak-type, and I am definitely not pretty. Sometimes I wondered if there would be any sane guy who would fall for me.

"Oh my god, who's that?" one of the noisy girls in our class said. They were in the hallway, and there seemed to be someone who had arrived.

I heard some girls squeal, and one of them uttered, "He's so handsome! Is he a transferee?"

I got curious, and I glanced at the person who was walking towards our classroom.

A handsome and tall guy.

At first, I didn't notice who he was, but when he shouted…

"Buns!"

It was Johann Williams, my best friend.

No, wait.

Boyfriend?

He was my first boyfriend, yet no one in school knew.

'Does he… still consider me as his girlfriend?', I thought.

He left me without saying goodbye, so… what should our relationship label be?

I didn't think he would return and I was never ready for this circumstance.

Johann didn't hesitate to run and give me a hug. He embraced me so tightly and whispered to my ear, "I missed you so much, Buns."

I hugged him back, and when he let go of me, I saw the girls in the hallways glaring at me! I dragged Johann inside the classroom so we could have a proper chat.

"Why did you leave so suddenly? I was worried, you know?" I said, expressing my disappointment, "I thought we're besties! You're so mean!"

Johann laughed at my pouting face, "Sorry, sorry. It was urgent, so…"

"We even met the night before you went away! You even sent me home-"

"Buns, you were mad at me, remember?" Johann gave a sad expression, "I really planned on telling you that night, but you insisted that I should tell you the next day."

"Ehhh, it's because I didn't know you were leaving! But if you told me beforehand, we would have talked about it!" I pouted, and he kept on laughing and teasing me.

I was relieved because it seemed like Johann was not angry at me for shouting at him that night. Instead, it felt like he hadn't left at all.

"Hey, look who's here!" Hammy exclaimed, "Welcome back!"

"How's your vacation? Where are our 'England' designed T-Shirts?" Katie jokingly said, and Johann just laughed at the two.

"You two didn't change, you're still annoying," he said in a playful expression, "Did you take care of Zurich as I told you to do?"

"Uhh… Well…"

Hammy and Katie couldn't answer, because we all knew that they had a friendship problem last year. I went behind the two of them, and patted their backs, "These two… took care of me very well."

"I also took care of Zurich," Justin suddenly came to join the conversation, and I saw how shocked Johann was.

"What's… What's this, Buns?" Johann turned to me and asked, "Is he your boyfriend? Wow, finally! Congratulations-"

"Hey! No! He's not!" I retorted, and I explained the noisy scene to Justin, "Do you remember Johann? He was our classmate last year, but he suddenly left in the middle of the school year. And now he just transferred from England…"

Johann extended his arm, "I'm Johann. In case you don't remember me."

"You're right, I don't," Justin shook hands with him, "And I'm Justin, in case you don't remember me, too."

"Of course I remember you, Justin," Johann grinned, "Zurich always talks about you-"

I covered his mouth before he said some other unnecessary things. Justin looked like he didn't mind it, and Johann seemed to be enjoying teasing me.

Maybe Johann just missed me, and honestly, I really missed him, too.

After all, he never once sent me a message ever since he was abroad, so we didn't have any communication. I wondered what he did there that was very urgent. He must have been panicking in his mind at that time if he forgot to tell me that he was leaving. Also, it crossed my mind that the reason might be related to his mom.

As the days passed, Johann and I were able to catch up with the months that we had not met. As usual, he kept on bugging me, taking my snacks, and teasing me. Even though there were five in our usual group, the girls around us must have noticed that the closeness that Johann and I had was different.

It came to a point when the group of girls, who had crushes on Johann, asked to meet me at the back of the cafeteria during lunch time.

"What do you want from me?" I asked them, pretending to be naive.

They all glared at me, and one of them stepped forward, "You're awfully very close with Johann," she said as she crossed her arms, "What's your real relationship with him?"

"I…"

I was speechless. What were these girls trying to do?

"Answer," she said in a cold tone, "I asked you… What is your real relationship with Johann?!"

"I… We're-"

Johann suddenly came rushing from the cafeteria and cut me off, "Why do you want to know our real relationship?" he stood in front of me.

The group of girls panicked a little, but the one who was asking me a question was the most courageous one, and so she responded, "Johann, we were just curious. That's all."

"Hmm? Curious?" Johann uttered. He grinned as if excited to speak up, "Then... I'll tell you my real relationship with Zurich. She's my-"