Chapter Six: First Day of School

Raphael’s Point Of View

I'm packing up and hurrying to the university. I was trying to catch up with her, but I was disappointed when I couldn't and ended up perspiring as I got to our university's gate.

I got to the university early, exhausted and panting. It's not that I'm interested in her; I just felt that someone like me who is familiar with the entire university could be of tremendous assistance to her by giving her a tour and showing her around the school. Even if she might be cute, I doubt I will like her very much.

Since she's new to our school, she could get lost. She is so early, which surprised me. I suppose she is excited. She may be in her assigned room.

I intended to give her a tour of the university. But I guess she never needed it. With my shoulders hunched, I went to my own room and took a seat.

I took a deep breath and leaned my head back on my armchair. I frowned as I closed my eyes and planned to sleep on the entire class. But something interrupted my plans again.

“Oi rap!” Someone called out while I was hunched over in my chair and closed my eyes listlessly.

“Rap!” This insistence annoyed me and made me look at the person who was scratching and tapping my shoulder.

“Why?” I saw Carlos grinning in front of me while his eyebrows were raised and lowered.

“I have something to tell you, man,” he said mischievously and put his arm around me and sat next to me in the seat he was sitting in.

“We have a new classmate, man, and she’s freaking hot,” he raised and lowered his eyebrows and immediately sniffed the one on our left side and the one behind him.

“You’re coming out again, you playboy!” I said in annoyance while looking at the dog next to me now. He never learned his lesson, last year he even tricked me into coming into the room to cause a scandal and now he’s attacking me again.

And because I was also curious about what he was saying, I decided to look at him. He had a snout that made you think he was a duck. His snout was so ugly that I had to look at who he was referring to.

The girl was hunched over and I couldn't see her clearly. It was good that I had my eyes closed and that's when I realized who it was. I immediately stood up when I saw that this girl was in our classroom. It was the girl I was searching for.

I was so excited when I approached her while she was hunched over in her chair and her headset was plugged into her ear.

I immediately went next to her and removed one pair of her headset from her ear. When I plugged it into my ear, what I thought and expect to hear was a happy playlist and uplifting music, but I was wrong, it's pure sadness.

Unlike what we hear and know is popular with teenagers like us, its taste in music is different, compared to ours that listens to mostly Koreans, rock, R&B, Reggie, love songs . . . etc. the playlist contains.

Her music is pure guitar, the sound of its music is pure sadness. The strum of its guitar seems like it was recorded.

I immediately looked at the screen and confirmed that it was a record. Did she compose this one? She looked at my behavior and immediately took off its headset out of my right ear and put it back in its ear.

I felt like a rock when I saw the sadness in her eyes. Her brown eyes are not as same as her eyes on the night she shared a table with my family.

Her brown eyes screamed sadness and pain throughout my bones and soul. What I am swinging right now was the real person who shared the same roof with me. This was the real person the other one was hiding. A person whose name is sometimes seen is in a composition that is painful and sad.

“You're so smooth, man,” Carlos held me close but I couldn't think straight and my full attention was on her. Carlos immediately waved her goodbye left her alone.

How come she's so fine, cheerful and bubble in front of the public while she's so blue inside and in such pain.

"Man, what's the secret to making your moves like that?" What's your story?. I was spacing out because of her. I couldn't even answer Carlos's questions because of my thoughts.

I was preoccupied the whole day and I didn't understand a single subject we were discussing. Until the afternoon, I couldn't even think of anything sensible.

It only got worse when I saw her sitting alone in our room and no one wanted to be friends with her.

“Hi! Can we be friends?” I was surprised when I looked at Carlos who had his hand outstretched in front of the girl who was supposed to be in the same room as me, but I still didn't know who she was.

When she introduced himself earlier, I couldn't even hear her voice clearly because I was far away from her and her voice wasn't very loud.

I saw her plug in her headset again and shake hands with Carlos.

“I'm Carlos Romulo,” I saw her just nod and look back at his phone. I immediately approached and smiled at them.

I also get her attention and asked her to if we could go home together.

“Do you know where she lives?” Carlos asked while the woman was putting away her things.

“We live together,” he immediately gasped as I shook his head and grabbed his shoulder.

“Don’t misunderstand this, she’s renting from us,” I could tell he was relieved as I frowned. The woman I was looking at passed us by and Carlos’s behavior returned same as before.

“See yah!” There was a smile on my face when I said goodbye and joined her walking.

We awkwardly walked together or was it just me who was uncomfortable in our situation. I was silently looking at my feet when I realized where we were now.

I immediately held her hands without thinking and immediately ran and turned them somewhere. I felt her resisting but, I am stronger than her physically.

When we reached the place, I gasped when her hand was released and she grabbed her knees gasping for air from running.

I immediately looked at the clock and sighed in relief that we had arrived just in time.

“What—”I cut her off then pointed my finger into something. Still gasping so I just pointed.

I saw her eyes widen, her lips also curved into a slight smile, and I could feel that she loved the view she just witnessed.

Pink and blue clouds lay in the clouds while a cold breeze from the beach hit our skin.

I saw her put away her headset then closed her eyes, spread her arms, and she kept on that position for about a minute.

I automatically smiled of how she expressed herself to the world. How open book she is in front of our eyes without noticing it.

“Thank you!”

She said then a tears fall down to her checks.