Friday, 5:00 AM. In front of Iris' house.
The blue and dark sky complements the silence of the neighbourhood, with only house lights currently present; adults are preparing for their jobs and family breakfast after waking up just earlier. The street is deathly quiet, with not even dogs barking, only crickets. The moon is still staring back at Marlan, silently. Then moments later, a motorcycle passed by, not taking note of Marlan's presence, and then dogs finally started barking. Marlan noticed the cats jumping from wall to wall, a purely white-clean cat. He wonders how mischievous that cat is to still be able to sneak out of its house, which obviously takes care of it like a spoilt human child.
The quiet dark morning should be relaxing, withyet—just the start before the beginning. But for him, it's not. His head could melt away the moon hovering over him due to his overclocked mind. Pumping out every thought he could to make sure he doesn't mess up again.
Marlan stood there quietly, his face as nervous as a child going to his first day of school without their parents, his eyes focused solely on the gate and his thoughts backing it all up with pure intense focus. He's wearing their black-coated school uniform, his buttons all closed up, and both his top and bottom clothes are all ironed up neatly. Patiently, he waited there like a pig waiting for its owner to finally finish eating and give it their leftover food. His mind only has one thing in mind currently, and that is "Watch for her. Watch for her. Wait for her." Then as he repeated those commands inside his head, a thought suddenly came growing out of it, filled with doubt: "How should I start the conversation? Will she avoid me? Will she call out for an adult to push me away? Should I hide first, then surprise her?" Those kinds of exorbitant amounts of jumbled thoughts.
In the end, he decided to just turn off his brain and wait for her in front like a dog waiting for its master to go back home after a long day. He convinced himself, "I already lied once; those indirect behaviours are not something she deserves, so I'll just be a simple-minded man and be straightforward with her. This is exactly what she deserves. She deserves the perfect me."
What a dork he is, am I right?!
After an hour, 6:02 AM. She finally gets out, her hair once again cartoonishly silky, so soft it could make a weak-minded baby fall asleep immediately as soon as they touched it, and the smell which complements its angelic appearance. The black dress school uniform she's wearing matches her so well that calling it a mere school uniform instead of an official part of her physical anatomy feels like degrading science itself.
Because they are rich, their gate was so smooth that it made absolutely zero sounds as it opened.
She walked outside their tall gate so decorously it stunned Marlan for exactly three seconds. After leaving the sweet-filled admiring realm, he slowly started walking towards her, legs quaking, sweat started spawning on his face, and his mind was as hot as a kettle on the verge of evaporating the water trapped inside it in an instant. Yet, his courage did not waver; he somehow instinctively converted his nervousness into adrenaline.
She noticed immediately, the side of her eye immediately registering Marlan's presence the second her head had surpassed the gate. She was hit by both fear and the feeling of being glad. Acknowledging the efforts and work he put into this one single moment, in the morning nonetheless. An event that was caused due to their argument last night online. The colour in her face immediately started to go up with every step Marlan took towards her.
The second Marlan got near her, he immediately went straight to the point with her, not bothering with formalities, as his whole brain is currently only programmed to clear up the misunderstanding they had over their call last night.
"Hi, about last night…can we talk about it? I want to fully explain my side to you…hoping you'd understand and forgive me so we could start hanging out again as soon as possible." He silently verbalised to her, his cheeks growing hotter and more apple-like every second, his voice being hit by a magnitude 7 earthquake simultaneously. His left arm is just silently standing on his left, and his right one is put behind his head, scratching imaginary itchy locations.
"Haven't you already told me everything, though?" she enquired of him, testing how far his commitment is to fixing their shattered and short-lived friendship. Her mind was consciously fighting the redness that was threatening to swallow her whole cheek; at least, that's what she imagined herself doing inside her mind, when in reality, her cheeks could already be described as two paired apples.
As they started to walk towards school, Marlan immediately responded.
"No, that's not the whole thing, actually. Listen, I was not genuinely laughing at you for caring about me. I was just trying to lighten up the mood after that joke." His voice was now a lot louder than it was compared to his entrance.
"Lighten up the mood for what?! We did not have one single moment where you needed to be doing that!" She yelled at him with half the effort, out of frustration, anger and confusion towards his actual action and goals.
"Because I immediately realised how terrible that joke was. That's why. It brought you down, and I just immediately thought to tease you for a little bit to lighten it up a little."
"Oh, so you think you can joke about insulting someone for sharing genuine care for you?"
"No... That's not what I was doing."
"It so is! You think I am dumb, Marlan? What is it? Because I am so nice and quiet, you think now that I am dumb and easily manipulated?" She immediately pressed that into him, genuinely wanting an answer from him, wanting to really know what he actually thinks of her as a person.
"Wait, okay? That's not what I did. Those jokes were terrible; I recognise that now. I know that now, but my intentions were not out of illness, I swear. I'll put this promise to my name; a truck could run over me now if I am lying," he answered, with now a completely calm and controlled tone. Then, he raised his right arm with the posture of a high five.
"Yeah… they were super. Do you even know how hurt I was last night?" Her eyes are now slightly teary, red vines starting to appear due to her recollecting the dread that had consumed her last night due to their conversation. "I couldn't sleep early because of that!" she added, but before she could raise her hands to wipe her eyes, Marlan's handkerchief was already there.
Stopping both of her legs from walking out of disbelief.
"Look, Iris, I am terribly sorry for making you cry alone last night because of my poor jokes, I truly am. I didn't mean it. What about just letting me make it up to you?" He assured her with his soft, calm, and low voice as he slowly and softly wiped the tears coming out of her shiny and delicate brown eyes.
"You better, because I definitely did not enjoy my night because of that," she replied, constantly sucking up the wet snot sliding out of her nose, and her voice had a slightly wavery tone caused by her breakdown from remembering her terrible night.
"Yeah, sure. What do you want anyway? And when do you want it? Should we take it now?" he asked, back with his grin and confidence. As he finished wiping her tears away from her magnificent and angelic face, they once again started moving their legs towards their school.
"We get it now. I want the dirty ice cream that old person is selling in front. I always buy there whenever I can because of how delicious their ice cream is. It's already 6AM, so he should probably be there already, waiting." She immediately answered, her tone obviously forcing herself to cheer up and move past their now resolved conflict.
"Yeah, sure. Dirty ice cream it is then!" He replied back at her with an expression as cheery as a child and with a smirk that looks like it is about to pull something terrible off at you again.
"The most expensive one, by the way. The one inside a bread!" She demanded with an assertive voice and a grin that competed with his, turning into a full-blown smile. Reaching as far as her two delicate brown eyes, the ones he admires and looks up to the most, that sight was enough for his intestines to melt inside him like an ice cream being overly and intensely bathed in the active and burning sun on a beach that casually hits 35°C on a random Tuesday afternoon.
"Eh? Fine, so be it then; I can't back down now anyway." He sighed with a faint soft and approving smile for her, which told her that he wasn't actually mad; he was just surprised. They locked eyes for a solid 5 seconds while walking after that before falling into a silent yet peaceful walk to school.
6:40AM.
The school is as loud as the public market, where parents compete with each other to get the cheapest food to fit into their family. Other students are talking loudly with each other, seemingly thinking they are the only ones that currently exist.
They have finally arrived at school, not even feeling the tiredness of her legs after that long walk they both had, with the only thing their mind registers before spotting the old man selling the dirty ice cream being all of the conversation they just had. The explanation of their argument, the resolution of it, his compensation for it, and just the things they caught up on about last year's school events, like how a senior last year got into an accident and nearly died and a junior accidentally cut his finger off because his friend slammed the door too hard while he was still holding onto the door's side. There was even this one time when Marlan accidentally saw the boob of his teacher, who had just survived breast cancer, when he was in 4th grade. He told her how disgusted he still is after witnessing that unpleasant sight, at which Iris just wholeheartedly laughed while covering her mouth with her left hand.
They immediately walked towards the old man, and Marlan opened up his bag and took out his wallet, pulling out a 50-peso paper bill.
"One 25 pesos po," he ordered, then asked her, "What do you prefer? Just one flavour out of the two? Cheese and chocolate or just one?"
"Mixed!" she answered joyfully the second she heard him say, "What do you prefer?" consciously aware of what her answer would be before he even finished asking her. She stands right beside him, close enough that their shoulders would touch each other but far enough for her clothes to not be dirtied by the ice cream.
"Alrighty then, mixed it is. One mixed ice cream, the 25-peso one." He assured the old guy with a selfish smile that is only reserved for himself, satisfied with the result of his action.
The old guy smiled as he finished his order, with a plastic beneath it to allow the customer to eat it without getting their hand dirty.
"Thanks," Marlan responded. Then immediately, "Here. I hope you enjoy it; that one is good after all." Not much of an assurance, more like a selfish wish for himself, for her to fully move on from last night.
Iris took it, seemingly producing high-quality glitters out of her eyes; she immediately bit the ice cream that the bread was not able to contain, making it look a lot cleaner than it actually is.
"This is so good; I really love the flavour. The cheese really complements the chocolate so well," she muttered almost to herself, but still loud enough for him to hear.
They stayed outside for a while, letting other students pass by them, some rushing towards their classroom, some still sleepy, some complaining about another day, and some even discussing how they'd escape some of their more boring classes.
After 5 minutes, Iris finally took the last bite out of the bread.
"That was so refreshing," she said to him, with a full, genuine smile, her lips reaching her eyes once again.
"I'm glad you liked it. I can treat you to some next time again," he answered with a surprisingly genuinely human smile; it's not as bright as hers, but it was such a tender, melting smile Iris just couldn't help but blush even further, acknowledging that she's finally seeing something deeper inside his psyche.
As they walked to their school gate, the tall yellow buildings were so huge and tall it would make you feel like just stepping near the gate, they are already swallowing you whole, legally trapping your soul inside their stomach from morning to evening, without much choice, and you are merely not even thinking of resisting it, for you already know how worthless and troublesome that would be. The pros just could not, for all their worth, outweigh the cons.
They immediately parted ways, going to their own separate rooms and sections; they both promised to meet each other again after class. With Marlan asking her to wait for him in her last room once again. And her reminding him that he doesn't have to run anymore like yesterday just to meet her as soon as possible and have both of them resting a little longer at school.