Chapter 6

Zayn rubbed his dead-looking eyes. The morning sun was hurting his eyes more than usual that morning. He gruntled. He was aware that he had a poor sleep last night, all because of that pathetic overthinking and speculations on Amilia. As a matter of fact, his mind was still on it. People slowly rode up the escalators and waddled towards the platform's edge.

His heart felt heavy. He woke up accepting that he probably had feelings for that train girl Amilia - or at the very least, knew that he has some sort of feelings developed for her. He sighed heavily. He had seen her for a year and had only started talking as classmates for slightly more than a week. What a mess did Zayn put through himself?

He recalled yesterday's encounter - or accurately, trying hard to. He was very sure he had seen her talk to him. However, the term 'talk' itself was too vague. He felt as if something was off about Amilia. Was he wildly speculating again?

He looked at the screen forty-five degrees above him. The screen read 'Train Arriving: 8 minutes'. He must have missed the earlier train by a few seconds. As he was about to face the front again, he saw a student.

Tall, lean male student in the uniform the same as his. He was standing there, staring at Zayn. Zayn squinted his eyes a little, trying to see his face but to no avail. His eyes were too tired to function thus far. Zayn took a step back, curious at his intentions of staring at him creepily. Nothing can be compared to Zayn's stare at Amilia in the previous events of encounter, but that tall student's stare was sending chills on Zayn.

Not long enough, the student turned and walk away towards the front end of the platform. Zayn was left puzzled, as he walked away towards the opposite end of the platform too. Zayn thought he had looked familiar. He walked as he watched his foot take their steps. He wondered where he had seen him before, but his thoughts were interrupted. He felt a bump on his head and quickly took a step back and face the person. He was greeted with an ice-cold glare.

"Watch where you're going," she said before giving a proper greeting. "Good morning."

Zayn was surprised to bump into Amilia. "Morning," he greeted back in a ridiculously high pitch voice. He breathed naturally as another step back before he faced forward, parallel to Amilia's direction of where she was facing.

He tilted his head to the right, away from Amilia. Is this another black page in his history in a short span of less than two weeks? Zayn secretively hid his embarrassment.

"Funny voice you had."

"So you heard it." Zayn could hear her trying to contain her soft giggle. His embarrassment faded and his heart was warm by hearing her laugh quietly.

'Wait.'

Zayn had lost his train of thoughts from three minutes earlier.

***

"But you know how Ms June is so much better than the other teachers? She doesn't get all angsty unlike the other teachers," Kim complained as he put his hands down on the canteen table.

"That's because you only make commotions out of Ms June's class... you remember when you randomly screamed in the physic lab and made the whole class shocked?" Zayn monotonously objected to Kim's claim pinching his forehead like a disappointed parent.

"I couldn't help it. I just felt like doing it!" Kim exclaimed. Hana was silently following their conversation.

"Who the hell thinks 'Oh, I feel like screaming. Let's do it?'" Zayn raised his arms to show how clueless he was about Kim's random and ridiculous behaviour. Amilia and Hana were eating their fishball noodles quietly while listening to the two rascal's pointless argument.

"Then what about Mr Foo? He always picks on me for god-knows-why?!" Kim waved his spoon in the air. His fried rice was going cold.

Zayn swallowed the sandwich in his mouth before counterattacking. "Because Mr Foo knows what you do in his class. No; in fact, I think the whole class knew."

Kim was taken aback, unable to believe what he has heard from Zayn.

"Weirdly shaking your hands under your table-" Zayn explained Kim's arms movement when he had played his game, but Hana misunderstood his words, chocking in her soup she was sipping. Anna was surprised.

With a rough voice, Hana shouted, "WHAT?"

Zayn and Kim were startled. "W-w-what?" Kim stuttered. Zayn looked at Hana, before turning to Amilia. Amilia had a surprised expression too.

Zayn looked at Hana who was pretty petrified as if she had heard the crying of a cursed doll. He then turned to Anna. Anna looked as surprised as him. Zayn raised his eyebrows, signalling his curiosity. Anna shrugged in response. So she was unsure too. They turned to face Hana back, giving a puzzled look.

Hana scrambled in her pouch and looked for her tissue packet. She hurriedly took a piece and wipe herself from the spillage she caused. As soon as he is done with it, she crumpled the tissue paper aside and regained her composure. Hana realised that she might have misunderstood.

"F-Forget whatever happened," Hana gave a strict look at the boys, especially Kim.

Kim slowly turned away, unable to comprehend whatever happened. Zayn took another bite of his sandwich.

"Anyways, Kim, everyone knew they were playing your game," Zayn said as a matter-of-factly.

"Huh? G-Game?" Hana tilted her head in wonder.

Biting onto his sandwich again while looking at Hana, he responded, "Yeah, he was gaming." This clarification caused Hana to feel a knot in her stomach.

Blushing in embarrassment and looking away, she softly said, "When you said... Kim was... shaking... y-you know.." She quickly covered her face and stopped explaining.

Zayn and Kim stared at her while chewing their food, wondering what she was so embarrassed about. Kim looked at Amilia next to him; she was embarrassed, too but at the same time holding her laughter.

Zayn was about to take another bite but paused in realisation.

"Hana..." He covered his mouth in embarrassment. Amilia smiled, hiding her laughter looking at Zayn and Hana.

"What? What is it?!?! Tell me!!!" Kim felt left out, not knowing what Hana meant when she tried to explain herself, and why the other three of them were embarrassed.

"Fi-figure it out yourself. You should know how weird it could be," Zayn tried to prevent Kim from understanding what went through.

"Shut up" Hana whined at Zayn trying to give hints to Kim.

Hana couldn't finish her food in peace, while Amilia couldn't stop containing her laughter from Hana's cute misunderstanding. After how weird the conversation took off, the four of them continued their meal with the hope of not being late for their next class.

"You guys go ahead first. I want to buy a drink; I'll catch up." Zayn jogged to the drink stall and quickly grabbed a bottled tea from the refrigerator.

As he turned away from the stall, prepared to jog to his friends, he saw a student at the opposite end of the canteen. The same student he saw smirking at him on the train platform. There he was standing with a hand in his pocket, smirking at Zayn again. Zayn decided to ignore and hurry to his friends. The lesson soon continued after Zayn caught up and finally reached the class.

***

Kim and Hana waved goodbye to Amilia and Zayn. The both of them wanted to try out the new menu item at a bubble tea stand nearby their school. Amilia was not interested in bubble teas, whereas Zayn had to help out his mother at home.

Hana smiled to herself before telling Kim a story that had never been told.

"You know, Amilia was never like this before," Hana delicately spoke. Kim was silent, but still lending an ear to what Hana had to say.

"We were in the same class, but she rarely came to school.

She was admitted to counselling at the IMH*... She was in severe depression for a while. Almost one full year later, she was relieved of counselling.

She started attending school regularly since Term 4 of last year."

Kim opened his mouth, but was unable to say a word. He was honestly shocked by this discovery.

Hana continued. "When she came back to classes and attended lessons, however, she was out of place; no one was comfortable with her and she was comfortable with no one. It happens when you already have your own group of friends. Her previous friends are all in different classes."

The two of them reached the bubble tea stand. "Guess the rest leaves for another time."

Kim gave a weak smile, unsure what to say. Hana stepped forward to counter.

"Do you think we could help her?"

*IMH - Institute of Mental Health, a psychiatric hospital in Singapore.