Chapter 8

"That drum sounds nice... maybe..." Zayn hovered his mouse as he edited the drum beats on his laptop screen.

Zayn was really tired - all because of a new guy named Sean who seemed to be provoking him for whatever reason, and Lisa who appeared out of nowhere. Zayn had zero motivation to do any of his homework and straight away glued his eyes onto the laptop screen. Zayn was almost done with a song that he had been working on for almost two months.

"And..." Zayn did his final edit before giving it a listen, pressing the space bar to play it. As he was listening, his mind recalled some things that happened in the evening earlier.

<<<

"P.E. was tiresome," Kim stretched his body.

"Yeah... Amilia and Hana were unlucky enough to be called out in school much longer," Zayn sighed.

"Pretty rare for you to pity them."

"I'm not like you to express everything every time everywhere."

"Yah, yah, whatever, cranky hag," Kim punched Zayn on his right shoulder.

The two of them slowly walked towards the school gate, ready to leave the school compound. As they were closing in, however, Zayn's acute hearing made him turn around as he heard running footsteps.

"Hey!"

Zayn frowned as soon as he saw her face. Lisa was catching up to them, but Zayn took no effort to wait for her and continued walking ahead. Kim was quick to catch up with the situation but slowed down for Lisa out of pity.

"Oh, hey... uh Lisa," Kim awkwardly replied. Kim was really in a tight spot.

Zayn was walking straight ahead.

"You guys heading home too?" Lisa asked.

"Uh, yeah. We had just finished our lessons moments ago," Kim was trying to not be rude towards Lisa, but he also knew what Zayn wanted: to ignore her.

Zayn quickened up his pace, not worried that Kim might be drawn away by Lisa. Zayn knew Lisa would part ways somewhere and decided that was good enough. However, Lisa was especially assertive unlike the usual. She had been talking to Kim ever since she had caught up with them, and Kim had no way out from her rapid questions and stories.

However, what was most strange he had realised at one point was that Lisa was talking too softly, inaudible for Zayn to hear her conversation with Kim.

"Tchk"

After parting ways, the two boys walked silently. Kim knew Zayn wanted him to stay away from Lisa. However, Zayn also knew Kim was too much of a kind person to ignore someone who didn't wrong him, which is the opposite case for Zayn.

"Zayn"

"Yeah?"

"Remember the question during P.E.?"

"Mhm."

"What would you do if there were two and you had to choose?"

"..."

The both of them stopped walking upon the red pedestrian light. Zayn was thinking hard enough. He could answer easily, but why would he bring this up again? Zayn thought this had something to do with Lisa.

>>>

He slammed his head on his desk as the song was almost done playing through his earpiece. His mere motivation to work on his song was destroyed by a few-second flashback of early in the day. Zayn sighed at the fate and journey he had gone through before this year. Zayn could only hope that his days could only be better.

"Maybe I should just do those stack of math questions..." Zayn wanted his mind to think of anything but Lisa and Sean.

He closed the audio workstation on his laptop and switched to Spotify, to listen to his favourite songs while answering the math question that was found in the heavy textbook he had to bring to school every day. Just like everyone else, Zayn questioned why the math textbook should be so big and bulky.

***

It was a new day. Zayn dragged his chair and took a seat. He was earlier than usual and it was only him in the class. He decided not to remove the earbuds, taking the blasting music as his companion until his friends come. As loud and rich the song was playing in his ears, the morning was cold and quiet; the sun was barely out to shine the town brightly.

He took out his phone and switched from the current music to the track that he had been working on. Zayn started tapping his fingers onto the tempo of about a hundred and fifty beats per minute, in a 4/4 tempo. He looked out the window next to him, where he could see part of the sky. The corridor was not covered fully, which made seeing the scenery outside the school compounds easily visible, such as the canal next to the school.

'Would be nice if there was a vocalist to sing this part of my song...' Zayn thought.

"ARGH!" A loud smack on Zayn's back could be hurt. The impact made from slapping Zayn's back made one of his earbuds fall out to the ground.

"Good morning," the culprit calmly greeted. Of course, it was none other than the cheeky Kim.

"What the hell, man... It's early morning, for god's sake," Zayn got angry.

"Relax; no one's here anyway," Kim laughed as he rubbed Zayn's back at the spot where he had hit him. Zayn picked up his right earbud before taking out his left pair to keep them.

The both of them just sat quietly, as more and more of their classmate came in. They gave a handshake to Takashi and Fir when they entered. Otherwise, it was pretty quiet between Zayn and Kim. Eventually, Hana came into the classroom.

She quickly walked to her table but did not take her seat. She instead looked at Zayn and Kim.

"Got rejected by a girl?"

"No," the two boys replied in sync.

"Then what's up"

"Nothing," Zayn replied before Kim.

"It's a quiet morning," Kim added on.

The class was already loud and chaotic when more classmates came in, which was in contrast to what Kim said.

"Weirdos... math homework?" Hana asked another question.

"Done," Zayn replied promptly.

"Great. Goddammit... I didn't even remember!" Kim cursed himself as he quickly took out the math textbook to do as much as he could.

The three of them sat in silence as they did whatever they wanted to. It was not long before Amilia entered the classroom with a cheerful smile.

"Good morning," she greeted.

"Morning."

"Hiiiii!"

"Yo."

"Y'all good?" Amilia seemed to not grasp the situation.

"Yeah. Just a quiet morning," Kim said it again.

"You can drop that, Kim; the class is like a zoo before seven-thirty already," Hana scoffed.

"Seemed like none of us is ready for anything today. At least that's true for me," Zayn sighed.

"Cool. By the way, Kim," Amilia turned to him, "you're doing the wrong exercise."

"FU-" Kim cursed but burst out laughing mid-way, ridiculed by his carelessness. Zayn and Hana tried to contain their laughter.

The four of them waited until Ms June arrived to proceed with their daily attendance taking.

"Everyone is here, right? Did I miss out on anyone?" Ms June double-checked her attendance after calling out twenty-five names in total. The class did not respond. "I guess that's all for attendance. Please do your best in class today. Kim, please. Do your work on time."

Kim was scribbling his math equations away, unaware that Ms June was able to see him rushing his work that is due in less than five minutes.

"Prepare for the math lesson. I'll see you again," Ms June picked up her stack of worksheets for her class before leaving the classroom.

"There's no way you can finish three sets of ten sub-questions in less than a few seconds, Kim. Give up," Zayn scoffed, mocking him as a payback to the smack that Kim did to him thirty minutes ago.

***

"Can I get Iced Milo?" Zayn handed some coins to the stall vendor.

He shook the cup a little before sipping the drink with a straw, walking to a bench where Kim was happily eating his stir-fried noodle. Zayn sat and soon picked up the utensils, ready to eat the spaghetti he had bought.

"Don't you get bored being in the robotics club?" Kim asked as he munched on his noodles.

"I guess I do... I mean I was never interested, to begin with. Should I find another club?" Zayn scratched his head.

"A little too late, I would say... your club points would reset if you do."

"That's another thing." Zayn sighed.

Zayn slurped on his spaghetti. He wished it would have been easier for him when it comes to clubs. He would have joined the band in his school, but blowing wind instruments was not of his interest. Furthermore, Zayn was more interested in modern electronic music than classical or orchestral music.

'But...' he thought. 'What club is Amilia in?'

"...zayn? ....Zayn?" Kim called him.

"Huh?" Zayn was pulled back to reality.

"You okay? Funny how stressed out you can be over a club you have no interest in," Kim scoffed.

"It wasn't about that," Zayn rolled his eyes.

***

"Amilia. So, how are you? Is everything good so far?" Ms June asked Amilia, who was accompanied by her reliable friend Hana.

"I guess all is fine now... she's always with me, and Kim and Zayn are more or less friendly," Amilia smiled genuinely.

"That's good. Are you coping with your studies? I understand that... you know... you only recently got back," Ms June was slightly unsure of how to put her words. Amilia was not bothered nevertheless.

"I did some revision while I was away, so I think I should be able to catch up with the syllabus. But don't worry... Hana's here for me; I'm sure she can help me along the way. Or even Kim and Zayn."

Hana looked at Amilia. Her eyes widened as she saw Amilia's cheek blush. The three of them continued to have a fruitful conversation amidst Amilia's proper return to school.