Chapter 0

Zayn took out his earbuds and connected them to his phone, to listen to his favourite songs. He slowly walked towards the nearest train station to head towards the mall. Even though taking the bus would be more convenient, Zayn still went on with the train. He had something, or rather someone, in mind and wanted to check for himself again. It was not his first time doing so, and it already felt like a 'tradition' for Zayn whenever he is at the train platform. Furthermore, he did prefer to commute by train than by bus, too.

He quickly tapped in at the gantry and walked on the escalator up to the train platform. His feet tapped on the beat of the song he was listening to as he waited on the above-ground train platform. This was his commute routine. By bus, train or even by foot, Zayn would have his songs playing on his device and enjoy the beats and melodies, simultaneously enjoying the view he was able to see on his journey. He looked around the platform, carefully inspecting like an undercover cop in search of a culprit. 'She's not here, huh.'

The train finally reached and its doors opened. Zayn took a step back to allow alighting passengers to move out before he stepped into one of the train cars. 'Pretty empty on a public holiday,' he muttered to himself. Unlike other public holidays before this, Zayn thought that it was much less crowded than he had previously encountered. He walked towards the closed doors opposite of where he had entered and leaned against it.

Zayn checked the e-mails he had not yet read on his phone as the train travelled. 'Spams, ads, spams, weird school e-mail...' He got sick of checking the e-mails and switched apps to check his messages. His best friend, Kim, had just sent a text that showed: 'meet at the front of the station?' Zayn smirked as he quickly tapped on the reply bar and typed his reply quickly before sending it. Less than ten seconds later, he received a reply from Kim.

"u better not be late. ur always late when taking the train"

"u always complain over the smallest things zzz"

"coz u don't tend to fix the small issues in urself"

"I want a wife"

"ok..?"

Zayn grinned at the weird reply he sent to Kim; Kim must be wondering what was with that sudden comment Zayn had sent. Their interaction was peculiar in its ways but it was what makes Zayn's friendship with Kim special. Their sarcasm and hideous jokes would always liven up their days. Their friendship is also simple they could even meet up just to watch the water stream in the canal or get twenty cents ice-pops at the convenience store under the void decks.

Zayn changed from leaning his back against the train doors to leaning on his shoulders to look at the windows on those doors. Six meters below the train he was riding, he could see dozens of cars accelerating on the main road the ran parallel with the train track. His eyes followed the passing trees and flats and at times look at the stationary cars waiting for the green light at the traffic junction. He went deep in thought as he waited for the train to arrive at his destination. What adventure will the coming year bring to him?

The train pressed on its brakes as it reached the next station. The doors opened seconds after and the sounds of people's footsteps could be heard departing and alighting the train. Zayn, however, could only feel the thump of those footsteps because of his earbuds sticking into his ears. He continued listening to the song that was played in his ears.

He was indeed initially unbothered, but the beautiful white sneakers that he saw at the corner of his eyes caught his attention. He did not turn his head, but his eyes were still on the sneakers, or precisely the movement of that person wearing them. It was a girl, probably his age. Long hair touching her back, wearing a short dress with denim jeans. Her presence brought a different aura into the train. She slowly walked towards the centre of the train and stood by the pole, holding it with one hand. Her other hand was holding her phone. With the sound of beeping indicating the closing doors, Zayn checked the heels of her sneakers and he could confirm it. The heels had some sort of rose drawing probably scribbled with red and black Sharpie markers. It was indeed none other than her. By 'her', he meant the girl he would always see when he boards the train. Coincidental or not, Zayn would most of the time, if not all the time, see her somewhere on the same train he would take. At the very least, he would see her on the train platform.

Unconsciously, Zayn's eyes were glued to her, monitoring every action she did, from swiping through her Instagram page to putting her hair behind her ear. When the train jerked a little, she was not bothered as much; she was able to elegantly hold in position. Zayn was slightly in awe. He was always feeling that way whenever he was able to watch her movements. She was like a lone princess from nowhere. Despite her casual outfit that resembles almost every fashionable teenager, Zayn couldn't help but think of her highly, as if she had a remarkable position in society. He was undistracted looking at her for a moment until he could hear a slight beeping sound that was not coming from his earbuds.

'What is that sound,' he thought, but his thought was interrupted when he saw the train doors slammed shut.

He looked at the monitor panel above the doors to see and realised that he had missed his stop. Zayn groaned in frustration. He had to spend the next ten minutes to alight and board the train at the opposite platform to get back to his destination. Moments later, he was already tapping out from that station. After putting his transport pass in his wallet, he looked up to see a hand waving at him. He smirked and jogged towards it.

"Took you long enough, as always," joked Kim. The both of them bumped their fist before Kim lightly punched Zayn's shoulder for being late.

"There was a last-minute call; I'm making a multi-billion dollar transaction," Zayn tried impersonating a rich businessman.

"Oh? I didn't know you were planning to be the next Jeff Bezos."

"Nah, I would prefer to be the next Elon Musk."

The both of them smirked and giggled before they headed inside the shopping mall. The both of them had agreed to get their necessities for school on that day, just a few hours before school began. Zayn and Kim were lucky enough to be in the same class together as Secondary Three students. The pair of ridiculous morons spent the afternoon shopping for stationaries and walking around enjoying the air conditioning in the shopping mall.

"Do you think something's gonna happens when we step into school tomorrow?" Zayn curiously asked Kim.

Kim took a second to think before shrugging his shoulders and answered, "Well, it kinds of depends who we meet and what plans the school has for us."

"That's kind of true..."

"Do you think something might happen?" Kim asked Zayn back.

"Well, I hope nothing bad happens, but I have a hunch something unexpected might happen to me in one of these days."

"Are you a chunnibyou?" Kim teased.

"You think I'm that childish?" Zayn scoffed, before muttering under his breath, "Although, I do hope I was the main character or something."

"What was that?"

Zayn quickly pointed at a nearby book store and avoided his question. "Let's go there. I need to get some notebooks."

Kim and Zayn paced themselves to visit that trendy bookstore. The design of the bookstore was probably to attract young teenagers, was what Zayn thought. From the interior to the products that were sold, it looked like the store was mainly to attract teenage girls than some simple teenage boys like Zayn. The both of them slowly walked between the bookshelves in the store, looking for a notebook design that Zayn would like to get.

While looking at those books, Zayn also realised that there was fairly a lot more girls than boys. Zayn was probably right about the store attracting more female customers than males. But that wasn't the issue. Zayn was easily flustered around the opposite gender because he was never sure how to act around them. Zayn spent the next five minutes awkwardly seeking notebooks before he and Kim decided to look for another store.

The both of them continued shopping for another two hours, looking for notebooks, pens and whatsoever. They ended their day together by getting some drinks from a bubble tea store. At that store, Kim nudged Zayn. Zayn turned to see him raising an eyebrow and smirk. Zayn straight away knew what he meant and gave an uninterested look. The cashier of the store was a pretty girl around their age, probably working part-time. After getting their drinks, they chatted for a little while more before parting ways. Zayn headed back home promptly.

'This boy would hook up with anyone, probably,' Zayn thought. He walked briskly and then boarded the bus that arrived about the same time he arrived at the bus stop.