Chapter 7: The Lovely Cherry
The morning at the alley way campus, always almost empty in Friday. You can hear the rough step sound echoing across the long way, make a steady vibration in each every step. The boy that walked not paying much attention to the empty and lack of noise of that place, in the opposite he actually felt much more at peace.
Each step somehow doesn’t seem eerie, but it does vibrating loneliness. However, slowly but surely the whole building was occupied with activity, people starting to come one by one. Slowly but sure the whole building was not dominated with the boy step noise, but people's voices.
The boy walked like an empty corpse, as if he was walking aimlessly. Until he sees a girl distributing some kind of flyer. Her soft features did not change even people that passed around didn't even bother with her, but that cheerful and soft tone from her voice did not flatter. Her dress flapped each time she made a sudden movement, each time the boy walked closer, the stronger he could smell the fragrance of her perfume.
The girl was indeed very familiar.
The moment the girl sees the boy, he can remember who it is.
It is Sharon.
>>>>>>>
“Hi Joshua! Would you be interested to come to our arts and literature festival?!”
The girl, Sharon, immediately approaches me as soon as I’m within her reach. Right hand hugging the pile of flyer close to her chest and the other hand giving and showing me the content of the flyer. I take it and study the content slowly, letting my eyes jump from one word to another, to one picture to another, until everything makes sense to me.
I stood there, still. My eyes sometimes move between the flyer and her. Her soft smile is still the same like the other day, her eyes and feminine also still shown. It’s weird to find a woman like her that still smell traditional like her
“It will be fun, our member from literature club will held this festival together with other arts clubs too”
“I’m not sure that I really fits with this kind of thing, I’m not arts nor literature student”
She claps her hands, she is successful to direct my attention to her. Her soft tone showed no opposition to my idea, but she still assured me.
“Arts and literature is not only for people that comes from that said world”
“It’s for everyone, the language we spoke, everything we see with our eyes is arts in different form”
Her gesture is very delicate, almost noble like, just like contemporary women.
“People there using any form of arts to convey their thought and feeling, it will be very nice experience”
I sigh a heavy breath, that is the problem, the skill that I might never be able to learn nor understand.
“Comprehending someone else's thoughts is never my forte…”
“Even a better reason to go! You can learn a lot and try experiencing more about that”
Her face lightens up even more, her tone becomes more excited.
But is it worth it? Doing all kinds of things, never mind, I already decided to not involve myself with something that will hinder me.
“I do not think that it will be a good idea…”
Before I could finish my sentence, she cut me and held my hands that were still holding onto her flyer.
“Do not worry, maybe not for learning, at least you can expect to have a good time”
“Even merrier if you bring friends there, it will be a fun time for all of you”
“The Festival consist with many activity, it won’t be boring”
“I’ll be there too, in case perhaps you want to go alone, don’t be afraid you won’t feel lonely”
It’s not like your presence will be significant to me. I look again at the flyer carefully, thinking whether going or not is actually a good decision.
Enough, I can’t think right now.
“I… I don’t know, I can’t promise you anything Sharon, but thanks anyway”
But to my surprise, instead of looking disappointed, she smiled at me, as if she doesn’t mind my rejection at all.
“Well then, it’s okay. But if you change your mind somehow, just so you know, I’ll be there”
Her smile does not even shrink, in fact it becomes softer than before.
“Oh! Here, take this flyer instead of the one you holding up”
“What’s the difference?”
I study the new flyer that she placed in my hand. Its soft blue contrast to the previous yellow and black flyer, it’s even not much of a picture. There are a lot of words in cursive written on it.
“That one have poetry written by one of the Literature member, I just want to say that words sometimes can be very beautiful”
Words can be beautiful?
I snickered once I heard that. I wave to her with my hand that is still holding on to the new flyer and walk away. While walking toward my class I read the poet slowly, trying to absorb the meaning.
Trapped and crying, but nobody listens to you…
Oh no, people heard you but didn't help you…
Your wings get bettered up, it’s swollen and bleeding…
Chains pierce in every flesh of your wing…
Can you fly?
Each sentence brings shivers to me, each word resonates. I look back at the person who gave it to me, she still distributes the flyer, until I feel that I am staring at her, she smiles and waves at me.
Words can be beautiful, that much is true.
But lie always still lurking inside them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Yuen can’t give us any slack at all, that witch just keep getting bothersome each years”
Daniel walked beside me, out of the class together. His annoyed tone can’t be controlled from his voice. His dark blue jacket hangs loose from his shoulder, showing part of his shoulder which is not covered due to his sleeveless yellow tank top, his both hands placed inside the pocket of his dark jeans.
Sometimes I wonder, do people like him ever feel cold?
His attire is almost like this, a street like, he looks super rough with his facial hair and his features. I do not know why he has to dress that way on campus, not that I care, I myself am not a fashion expert. He doesn’t look punk or anything like that, but sure people can smell the street from him.
If it’s not because of his cold and rude demeanor, the number of girls that entice him will exceed the current number. But, I guess the number of girls that like men like him aren't a joke either. Sometimes I wonder whether he is actually aware of their affection and simply none of them catch his eyes yet, or if he is just staying in oblivion.
But again.
When I asked him, he said he has personal reasons and greater things to take care of right now. Can’t argue with him about that, but human attraction is not something I could really understand well. Albern and Daniel's case always make me think, are feelings really can’t be controlled? Is it really something you can’t help with?
Is attraction just based on feature?
But if it is, can we call it shallow?
“Calm down she is just doing her job”
“Hell no, she is always like that. She most of time will increase the difficulty if she's fit”
I raised one of my eyebrows.
“Is that so? You awfully know her well don’t you?”
“We both goes long way, she is moved and becomes my neighbor when I was teenager”
Teenager?
“During high school?”
“She been there for quite some time alright”
It is roughly 4 to 6 years, it’s a long time to know someone, I do not think with that timeline anyone can question their relationship.
“So how close you guys?”
“Close enough that she becomes my second mother”
I laugh, to have a neighbor to be that close, not to mention Mrs. Yuen we talking about, she is very strict after all, imagine her taking care of the Daniel family kind of surprising.
“What is so funny?”
Daniel looks at me with her menacing eyes, like he wants to strangle men and throw me off this building.
“It's just funny, no wonder you have a good group ethic, that comes from her right?”
Daniel warps his arm around my neck, shaking me and strangling me with enough force. Instead of making me scared or stop my laugh, it just makes me laugh even harder. People passing by none of them pay much attention to us.
“It’s not thanks to her! I’ve been like this for very long times!”
He gritted his teeth.
“I won’t let her take the credit!”
Daniel let me go and laugh, and I laugh again, we both laugh together.
“So, is she some kind… go to your house to do laundry and cooking and stuff?”
“Not to that extent, but yeah, she does the cooking sometime. But mostly just help me taking care my brother and house”
I stop and look at him, curiosity gets the best of me.
“You have a brother?”
“Yeah, one younger brother, he is about to go into high school next year”
Honestly, I thought he was the only son. His demeanor doesn’t look like someone that might have a sibling. But, people are not always able to show their entire family either.
“What’s up with your face?”
“I though you are the only son in your family, never thought you actually have sibling”
His hand grabbed the back of my neck and put pressure on my muscle. The moved success holds my head in place.
“You make fun of me again huh?”
I smile and give a nervous laugh before I struggle to be freed from his lock and sprint leaving Daniel yelling my name.
Along the way we go to the canteen, both Daniel and I talking about our assignment, and which direction we want to take to make this program work. He is very good at discussion, it’s really stark different from his behavior normally, just like he is a different person.
I guess people won’t know this side of him, according to Mrs. Yuen, people tend to run away from him, not helping the case: he also likes to reject invitations from his fans. He said they’ll just end up daydreaming instead doing the project.
“I do not think it will be working at all”
“Your pseudocode leads to that direction, why suddenly chicken out?”
He looked at me in disbelief.
“Its way complicated, if three function can be fit, that will be miracle, I’m afraid we need implementing more”
Suddenly he grabs the top of my head and spins it, so I can face his direction.
“No sense! Do not give up yet! We will try this, plus if your code make sense, then there is a way to make it possible”
His lips curved, snickered to me, his hand pat on my shoulder. I guess if he insists, plus he seems to know what he is doing. For what all has been shown for this couple of days, I’ll trust him for now.
“You have too much confident for your own good”
I shake my head with a small smile slip from my lips.
We arrived at the canteen, it’s packed just like any other day. People passed both me and Daniel, both of us scanning this place, searching a good place to sit, and discussed. While two of us are going deeper into the sea of humans, a loud scream of my name can be heard.
“Joshua~~!
“Senior Joshua!”
My eyes divert to the two different directions. My eyes squinting to the source, great, just great, the twin suns are here.
I guess the sun can attract each other.
“Your friends?”
Daniel leaned down to my direction, his eyes looking at the same creatures that I see right now.
“Definitely not, but it’s complicated”
“Let’s go, its better we ignoring them”
I grabbed Daniel's big arm that was even bigger than my own, but he didn’t really bug. And the voice that called my name getting louder too, the moment they saw me trying to run away.
“There is no use, better go to them instead”
In the end, Daniel at the end dragged me to the table of the twin suns.
Both Chad and Maya clapping and laughing happily. This is going to be long day.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“I can’t believe that you, all out of the people, will be the one dragging me here to sit down with them”
I can’t control the annoying tone from my voice. I kept my eyes closed and bowed to my chest, both arms folded. The both clowns in front of me just chat with each other like nothing happened.
And the person that dragged me here only laughing mockingly while eating his meal.
“What to hate? They seem like bunch of fun people, kind of misfit but fun nonetheless”
Daniel shrugs and continues eating, not even acknowledging how irritated I’m with him. In fact, he seems to be enjoying all of this.
“Senior, why didn't you eat? The meal you ordered will get cold!”
The toothy grin comes from the goofy and big guy, while eating like an animal, he keeps his posture as the annoying gorilla he is.
“Right! If it gets cold, it won’t taste good anymore you know!”
The girl resting her chin with both of her back hands, her colorful hair let loose at one side and covered up her face. But I can always see the teasing intention from those eyes.
“Senior? Aren’t you supposed to be the senior or at least the same as me and Joshua?”
“How about your paper? Have you prepared yet?”
“We only have one and half year left”
Daniel suddenly blurted out his question, well he is not wrong to be questioning that, I’m not any differ the first time the oaf talks to me. As if he just misheard the words coming out of Chad's mouth.
“He is junior, he just applied this semester”
I let out a loud sigh, while answering him.
“He is?!”
I’m not surprised with Daniel's reaction, but the fact Maya goes as far as standing up with that revelation is the most surprising for me. More surprising than the fact Chad is younger than any of us.
“You are Junior?! I thought you were senior!”
“Great! That means you are going to be my slave!”
Maya posture like she is kind of slave owner, with her chest raised up, her finger pointing slowly to Chad. Her chin raised with her smile goes sinister. She is having a lot of fun with all the fact Chad, the big man, is actually younger than her. Chad just like a fool he is, just smile and nodding to Maya whim to my dismay.
“Enough! Maya stop teasing him, and you! Chad! Stop mindlessly following people like that!”
“Also! How come you guys sitting here together? Since when you guys grew closer together?”
“Just a moment ago”
To fuel my irritation they answer me at the same time. I can hear the tall man that sits beside me laugh, I just glare at him. This is also part of your mistake too Daniel, you are the one dragging me here, so I have to deal with this nonsense.
“I few moment ago while waiting you here for our daily lunch, I saw him sitting down across this table”
Maya only shrugs and shows me her boring expression.
“And I heard him said something like ‘I need to ask senior’ bla bla bla, and I hear your name comes out from his lips”
“And she approach me, asking whether I’m referring the same person”
Chad nodding at Maya and at me, as if that is not the most random and weird thing.
“And turn out, it is the same Joshua!”
Maya spread her both hands with her laugh and slipped through her teeth. I facepalm myself, their reaction makes me think that I’m the crazy one. I let out a heavy sigh, I can’t really pull this through, what kind of person these two?
Maya has been awfully clenching onto me every single day during lunch times. I want to run, but I do not have that much of will to move to another department canteen. It is also not worth it to run away that far, just for running from one person.
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting her to be this persistent and stick to her words, she is not playing at all when she said we will have lunch together every day. To see her here and waiting is not surprising to me, but part of me wants her to just forget about it, believing she grew tired one day.
Sometimes I just hope mother nature listens to me.
Chad on the other hand, does not really pose any threat nor problem. He did constantly ask me about something, mostly school and study related, which is weird, we belong to different departments. But I go easy on him because I know how hard it is to adjust to university life, even harder if you do not have anyone that you can rely on.
He is a good boy at least, that is a good thing I guess.
However, they both have very striking personalities, they are both suns, their presence enough to make me feel like my skin melting, and that is how painful they can be. But they seem friendly to each other, supporting one another even.
“You have very odd friends”
Daniel spoke to me in a teasing tone, I swear to god I want to strangle him for bringing me to this mess.
“To be fair, mine perhaps much more… odd I guess”
He laughed, but there was some kind of dark tone in it.
I just looked at him, his eyes looking at the odd animal that was sitting and bickering at the front of us. He takes a bite while watching them as if they are some kind of TV show.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
He shakes and shrugs as reply to my question, but his eyes are still focusing with his meal and the clowns.
“For a record they aren’t my friends!”
Yeah, to my defense they aren’t.
“We are”
Both of the clowns looked at me at the same time and spoke in sync too. I can only growled and shake my head, do not want to deal with them anymore, and start digging my meal.
“Ah! I believe we are yet to introduce ourselves to one another properly!”
Maya suddenly claps, and bowing to Daniel, cue him to give her attention.
“My name is Maya Lewis, an Arts student! I’m majoring in Design Graphic Interactive!”
She uses her thumb and points it toward herself, her smile is coloring her personality, just like her clothes, every time I meet her, she always wears something oddly super bright, it’s always bright and shining color. And her accessory usually classifies with one another each time she moves.
“I’m Chad Harley, I’m majoring in health science, and as you know, I just recently enrolled”
Chard followed up with his beaming smile. Since he completely enrolled in the health science department, he wears something casual each day. I believe that is because his study consists of sport, body, and health management. And I often saw him running on the field too.
“I’m Daniel Koma, I’m belong to IT department, the same as your friend over here”
Daniel brings his hand to my head, and he proceeds to mess with my hair, my temper already at the limit. So the next thing I do is yank his hand from my head, and glaring at him, warning him.
“Eat your meal before its get cold”
He just stunt for a few seconds and laugh loudly, and proceed to give me head lock and even mess with my hair.
“This boy can be mad too!”
And the entire table laughing, except for Maya. She is laughing but her eyes show something completely different, and her smile is much-much different from any other smile I ever saw from her.
We proceed to talk some more, to be honest it’s mainly them, I just stay out of the way. I just speak when they throw me some questions, but mostly I just am not paying much attention to them.
But I can see that three of them get along well.
Which is a bad news for me.
At the end of the day, Chad and Maya are busy with one another, while me and Daniel are busy with our assignment. Both Daniel and me, we focused on our task very smoothly despite the noise and the outer distraction. I admire how Daniel is able to stay in his focus state, in fact, he is the one who seems much capable.
While we are discussing, sometimes I can hear the very disturbing noise from the two people across the table. And I can hear how Maya takes advantage of Chad gullible for her own good. I can hear faintly how she would like to have Chad as her model, and ask how many times he works out in a week, she is something else, such a piece of work.
All in all, I'm just happy nothing major really happened.
To have another unexpected surprise is the last thing I want.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I step down from the stair slowly to the exit gate of the campus, I’m happy everything is done without a hitch. Both Daniel and I decided that we can start to write the program by next week. And we both decided that we are going to handle that work at Daniel place, due to my less experience. I never have anyone come over, I just do not think that is going to be a good thing.
Both Maya and Chad got awfully close for some odd reason. As long as they can keep it for themselves I do not care with them whatsoever. In fact, three of them actually get along too well, it’s almost scary.
I keep my mind flying.
Descending each step with new thought inside my head.
Until suddenly I passed a bushes but I saw something much unexpected that I jumped with shock, almost screaming at the same time. If it is not because of the weird thing that crouches down between the bushes signaling me to keep quiet, perhaps the security will come over.
Kristin just looked at me pleadingly, her palm rub together in the front of her face.
What is this girl up to now?
And suddenly I hear someone bustling and panicking walking past me. That woman has a very panicking face and voice, with her clothes seems wrinkled. Sweat can be seen dripping from her, as if she was running straight for 4 hours before she reached here. Did she just see a ghost? Because her complexion is awfully pale.
“Oh no! Please Kristin! We do not have time!”
“That kid always does this!!!”
“Her parents did not play me enough to be tortured like this!”
And she suddenly makes a 180 degree turn, exactly face to face with me, her labor breath can be heard by me.
“Uh… excuse me, did you see a girl that ran in this direction?”
I glance at Kristin who still crouches down, her face becomes even pathetic, her lips mouthing me ‘please’. I let out a heavy sigh, I told you, this is the second time I help you, there will be no third time.
“No, not really, I just arrived here”
“Argggggg!”
She grabs her hair with both of hands, and she quickly strides in the opposite direction, I eye her for a while before I signal Kristin everything is safe.
“She is gone”
She quickly jumped out and started cleaning her clothes.
“I’m so fired up! I swear! I’m going to fire her!”
I shake my heads with her reaction, that poor lady just doing her job for god sake.
“Perhaps it is much better that you just follow her direction, she is your manager after all”
“If she actually listens to me then sure! I ask her to leave me alone, and I want some days off too!”
She placed both of her hands on her hip.
“I ask her to manage my schedule! Not to make it packed like that!”
“Is tossing people away that easy for you?”
She stopped herself from cleaning her dress further once she heard my question. She looked at me and let out a big sigh, an exhaustion kind of sigh.
“Listen it’s not about she is not following my whim!”
Suddenly she stopped and brought her hands to her lips, as if she was thinking of something.
“You know what!, tomorrow you are free right!”
“Do not assume my activity”
She let one another exhaustion sigh.
“That is not what I mean!!!”
Now she thumps both of her feet in turn, her hands straight with fits vertically aligned.
“Listen! Just come with me okay! Tomorrow!”
I just glaring at her, not moving nor answering her question.
“Please! I promised it won’t be a bother for you”
The fact you are asking me already bothers me enough. I just shake my heads, too tired to actually take her seriously.
“Please Joshua! I promised you! I just want a free day, and I’ll explain to you too about my manager!”
Right now she is just annoying by yanking my hands and swinging it. I roughly snatched away my arm from her.
“Fine!”
He immediately hugged me hard, for a woman she is really strong, despite how she looks. I feel like my lungs are crushed with this hug.
“Enough!”
I yank her from my body, her raw power itself enough to crush me if I’m not careful. Is she the same type as Chad? What are they eating every day?
“Sorry… anyway, may I have your contact?”
I quickly tore my notepad, wrote my email address into the paper. Quickly shove it to her hand and press her finger to cover the small paper.
“Tell me who you are and the need first in your message, I ‘might’ reply you”
Her eyes were not moving from her hands that were holding to the piece of paper, and she standing there froze. I took that opportunity to walk away from her, when I far enough, she snapped from her mind and started yelling at me.
I can’t be careless, just smile dryly while my back at her, not even care with her tantrum.