LB 19

He left the school grounds and went outside the school gate. There were still a lot of parents dropping off their children at the gate. A girl around the age of 12 had ran into him and fell down. "Ow! Hey! What's your problem!?", she yelled. From the looks of it, she was the one who bumped into him. Why is he in the wrong? "Hey, are you okay?", he asked as he held his hand out to help the girl. The girl rolled her eyes to the side and pouted. "Hmph!"

This made Mellow irritated. What does she mean by "hmph?"

"Anna!", a woman wearing a short red dress came running towards them while shouting. "Anna! Are you okay?", the woman held the girl's hand as the girl looked away.

"What a rude child", Mellow thought. The woman stood up and faced Mellow. "Hey! What did you do to my.. ", she paused and slowly widened her eyes. "ah", Mellow thought. No wonder the girl had a nasty attitude. "Mel, is that you?", she asked with a sudden change of tone which Mellow replied, "uh-huh"

The woman suddenly smiled at him, causing him to feel uncomfortable. "Mum! He made me fell! Why aren't you yelling at him?", the girl suddenly yelled while pointing at Mellow. The woman instantly turned her head towards the girl and glared. "Don't. Embarrassed. Me", she said sharply. The girl turned quiet and looked away. "And get up already, you making a scene!", the woman shouted. Mellow had stood still at the same place for the past 4 minutes. He didn't want to stay in this awkward position any longer. He excused himself and walked pass them. "Hey wait!", the woman called out from behind. Mellow ignored her and kept on walking towards the gate.

"Well, hello there handsome", a voice suddenly said next to the front gate. It was Iory. "oh, hi Iory", Mellow greeted without sounding excited. Iory made a dramatic heart pain gesture and whimpered to himself. "God... where did my small, timid, cute friend that I once knew gone to?"

This made Mellow cheered up a little and chuckled. Iory turned to him once more and pat his right shoulder. "Ah, there he is!", he said with a wide grin. He slithered his right arm around Mellow's shoulders and walked away together.

"I saw you bumped into Mia and her daughter. How are you feeling about it?", Iory asked as the two of them walked towards his car. "Ugh, to think I'd see her again", Mellow shuddered. He wasn't fond of the woman. During their school years, Mia always harassed him since he was small and puny.

"Didn't she used to like you?", Iory teased. The thought of it made Mellow cringed. That woman had some issues back then. "Wait, didn't she moved to the big city? Why did she came back?", Mellow asked. When Iory was about to answer, someone suddenly bumped into Mellow from behind, causing him to lose his balance. Luckily, Iory was quick and pulled Mellow's arm in a reflex.

"Thank you", Mellow said to Iory while still feeling surprised. "What's up with people bumping each other today?", he thought to himself. "yo, are you blind?! Can't you see my friend?!", Iory yelled at the person. The person slowly stood up while rubbing the back of their neck. "Oh calm down Ior, you're not his only friend", the person said. It was Mia.

"Oh, hello Mell! Sorry for crashing into you. Are you okay? Are you hurt?", she said while attempting to touch Mellow. He felt annoyed and gently pushed her hand away. "I'm fine, you don't need to touch me", he said coldly.

Mia laughed while saying, "it's okay, I insisted. Oh and by the way, what brings you here?", she leaned closer to Mellow shamelessly.

"I'm just dropping off my..uh... ", he hesitated. Now that he thought about it, what should he say? Should he refer Rem as his brother or a relative?

"Hellooo, earth to Mell?", Mia said as she waved her her hands in front of Mellow.

"huh?", he said as he came back to his senses. Mia giggled and said, "I asked what were you doing here, silly!", she tapped Mellow's left shoulder. She was making Mellow felt uncomfortable. Iory turned towards Mellow and noticed that he looked pale. He decided to help the poor guy. He pretended to look at his watch and said, "shoot! Look at the time! We better get going now", he turned Mellow around and placed his right arm around Mellow's shoulders. "Well then, bye-bye!", he said while looking at Mia over his shoulder

The two of them head towards Iory's car and went inside. "Mellow, be careful around her. She's gotten crazier ever since her husband got transferred to another city", Iory said as he took out his car keys from his left sweater pocket. Mellow fastened his seatbelt while asking, "why didn't she followed him then?"

Iory shrugged while shaking his head, "don't know", he said. Mellow sighed turned his head towards the window, looking at the passersby.

Iory turned on the engine and pulled the car gear. "Aww, don't worry about it so much. There's no way she'll make a move towards a married man", he said playfully.

Mellow looked at Iory, puzzled.

"a married man?", he asked confusingly.

"yeah, a married man", Iory responded while driving. This made Mellow even more confused. Iory hasn't married yet and the child that he sent to school was his youngest sister. Was he referring to Mellow?

"who's married?", Mellow asked. Iory took a quick glance at him and pointed his finger towards him. "I'm talking about you, duh!"

Mellow was utterly dumbfounded. Why would he think that he's married? "I'm not married. I don't even have a partner", he stated.

Iory glanced at him for a few times and suddenly shouted in confusion. "What?!Wait, hold up"

He parked the car near a sidewalk and quickly turned his head towards Mellow.

"wasn't that kid your son? How did you had him if you're not... ", he paused for a second and slowly gasped dramatically. He leaned closer towards Mellow and whispered, "by any chance, are you a widower?"

"What?! No! How did you came up with that conclusion?", Mellow almost yelled.

"Then what about Rem? Is he a relative?", Iory asked as he began to drive. "Something like that", Mellow replied.