(1)
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY! UNCLE YANG!" Rushing out of the classroom, Yun shouted as I walked in, almost scaring me to death on the first day of my adulthood, "How does it feel to be an adult, man?"
"Old." I blurted out the first word that came into my head. But for her, I might've forgotten it was Wednesday already.
I sometimes envied those who celebrated their birthdays during summer or winter vacation, for they could throw birthday parties or just hang out with friends on whatever day it was. But my birthday was on the busiest days of the year, one month before a school year ended when we had to revise for the final exams while still learning new things. I'd even checked the lunar calendar to see if my lunar birthday was somewhere during the vacation, and it turned out that the lunar one didn't make much difference and was even closer to the final exams. However, receiving gifts on a birthday was always a pleasure.
"Happy birthday to my dearest friend on this planet." Lili came and sat down next to me while I was unwrapping one of the gifts.
"Thank you, Lili. And I hope this isn't from you." It was a pack of condoms. Extra Thin. Sure. Like I remembered suffering from the time when they'd been a little bit thicker.
"Of course not! Do you think I'd wrap up a gift with… what's this, a flyer?" Lili took the pack from my hand and laughed. Then it must be from Yun. A lovely gift for my 18th birthday. Very meaningful, I had to say.
Then Lili put the pack onto my desk and patted a box wrapped in light blue paper. "Here. This is my gift. It's a pair of gloves. I spent almost two weeks knitting them myself."
"Thanks. It's so sweet of you to give me these in the hottest days in summer." I opened the box and took out the gray gloves.
"Shut up." She flicked the back of my head. "I'll kill you if you don't wear them this winter." I knew she wasn't kidding.
I put them on. They looked good on my hands. Lili had such good taste.
"I do wish I could wear them now. Quite comfy. Thanks, Lili." I meant it. But I had to take them off, for my hands started to sweat already.
"So just wear them. Why did you take them off?" Chenhui came and sat on the table in front of me, hands behind his back.
"How about I wear one, and you wear the other?" I asked him and threw one glove onto his lap.
"Can't believe you guys are eighteen." Lili shook her head and murmured.
"Sure I will." Then Chenhui leaned forward and put a box on my desk. "But not before I give you my gift."
The moment I unwrapped and opened the box, I was literally astonished.
It was a Magic 8-Ball. Actually, I'd never seen a real one.
"How did you know about this kind of thing?" I looked up and asked him. I wasn't even sure if he knew what it was called.
He picked the ball up and cupped it in his hands. "Magic 8-Ball, should I never see Rachel again?"
"Ask again later." I finished the line almost as a reflex reaction.
"Wait. Was that a code?" Lili was bewildered.
Chenhui, a guy who seldom watched TV shows and hadn't even known how many seasons there were of FRIENDS when we talked about it at my place four days before, gave me a Magic 8-Ball identical to the one from the show as my birthday gift. I couldn't even. It was freaking hard to resist the smile on my face.
"It's, um, kind of useless, I guess." I cupped the ball and shook it hard. WITHOUT A DOUBT.
"Do you like it?" asked Chenhui.
"Can't say no. I mean…" I lifted my eyes only to find him smiling.
"Happy birthday."
"Couldn't be happier."
"Awwwww. Look at you two. It's like watching a romantic movie." said Lili, cupping her face with both hands. "Though I just don't get it. What's this huge billiard ball for?"
I forgot she was still next to me.
(2)
On that muggy afternoon, we were given a half-day off school because of the hot weather. Lili and Yun decided to get some iced coffee to cool themselves down. I said I'd pass when asked if I wanted to join them. Yun said fine and put the Magic 8-Ball in her bag. Then she went out of the classroom with Lili without looking back at me.
The nearest Starbucks from school was just as crowded as we'd expected. I was pretty sure at least half of the guests came here simply for air-conditioning rather than coffee. "You go grab a table and we're gonna get the drinks." said Yun. It sounded very much like an order.
"Yes. Ma'am." I clicked my heels and gave her a salute.
Luckily enough, I found a table that had just been cleaned, from which I could also see the two girls lining up at the cashier counter. After a while, Yun turned around to locate where I was. Then she and Lili came towards me with a tall and a grande cup in their hands respectively.
"Where's mine?" I asked when they were seated.
"Go get it yourself. We don't know what you want." said Yun, then took the first sip of her coffee.
"Caramel Frappuccino! Venti! As always!"
As I was about to stand up, Yun stopped me by laying her hand on my shoulder. I believed I'd seen some spilled coffee on this hand.
"Hold on a sec. We need to talk to you."
"We?" I looked back and forth from Yun to Lili. Although I was really thirsty, I did sense they were kind of serious. "Can we talk after I get a Frappuccino?"
"You won't die without it, will you?"
"You can drink ours if you want." added Lili.
"Fine. What?" I had to sit down again, waiting for the issue we were gonna broach.
Lili exchanged glances with Yun quickly and said, "You like Chenhui, right?"
I frowned. I'd never thought of it that way before, but, yeah, I guessed so. Even though that was probably true and kind of obvious, I didn't really expect anyone to say that out loud.
"Please tell me you have something more urgent to talk about, Lili." I pressed my hands gently on the table, pretending I was gonna stand up again.
"We think you should tell him." said Yun, the hand with coffee spills on my shoulder again.
"No no no no no no… You girls are completely insane. No, totally." I shook my head so hard that I even felt a little dizzy.
"Come on, Yang. You are a great guy, you are sweet, you are funny, you are warm-hearted. Just be confident. You really should tell him. He deserves to know that." said Lili.
"I'm so flattered, Lili. But glad you've also noticed that I am a great guy. I, am, a, great, guy. A GUY. My girl. For your information, Chenhui is too a guy." The suggestion sounded really ridiculous to me. "By the way, you never told me I own those merits. It's so sweet of you to say so."
"What's the worst that could happen?" asked Lili, totally ignoring my gratefulness.
"Let me think. Hmm. I could die." I said without pausing for thought.
"No. Yang. Chenhui's nice. You two can still be friends if it doesn't work out." How come these two girls just couldn't see the difference between a guy showing his affection to a girl and to another guy? Had they read way too many LGBT novels? When you found the story unconvincing, boring, or too scary, just close the book (or put the book in the freezer like what Joey did)! But if my story went badly, who the hell would be there to close me?
"Yeah. Tell me about it." I made my tone sound as sarcastic as I could. It was even embarrassing enough for me to think about how embarrassing it could be if it didn't work out well.
"Look, Yang." Lili put a hand on mine. "I hope you know we're not forcing you to do anything if you're not OK with it. I'll always be 100 percent supportive of you no matter what decision you'll make at last. What I've been trying to tell you here is Chenhui could be the one for you, there's definitely chemistry between you guys when you're talking, joking, or just smiling at one another. Please don't tell me you never feel it."
Gazing at our hands overlapping on the table, I said nothing. Yes, I did. I felt the chemistry I'd never had with anyone else before. But the thing was, how could I be sure the feeling was mutual?
"So just think about it." said Yun. Then she and Lili took a sip of their coffee simultaneously.
Frankly speaking, I was a little pissed but didn't know if it was because of the stupid suggestion or my own cowardice that made me reluctant to confess my feelings to Chenhui. Probably I was just being angry with myself.
"He asked me about you. The other day." Lili put down her cup and said, breaking the awkward silence.
"Me?" I pointed at myself.
"Who else? Me?" Yun sniffed.
"He asked me if we'd known each other for a long time." Lili continued. "I don't know exactly why he asked, but at least he did want to know more about you for some reason."
"Oh well then…" This reminded me of something. "That explains it."
"That explains what?" Both of the girls chorused.
"Nothing important…" I shook my head slightly. That explained why he knew Lili and I used to be in the same kindergarten. But how did he figure out we'd known each other for a long time? He was, like he'd said, an observer.
I stood up abruptly, which shocked them.
"Where are you going?" asked Yun, eyes sparkling with that he's-gonna-do-that expectation. "Don't forget the gift I gave you. You may need them!"
"I just want my Frappuccino." So those condoms were indeed from her.
(3)
BETTER NOT TELL YOU NOW.
Hmm. That made sense because I wasn't thinking of any questions in mind. I placed the ball on the nightstand and turned off the light.
"I don't know exactly why, but at least he did want to know more about you for some reason."
Having laid down, hands behind my head, I couldn't help but think about what Lili had told me. Did he really wanna know more about me? For what? He might've been killing time chitchatting with Lili or simply testing his own detective skills. Either way, I hoped Lili had just told him something nice about me. Sometimes you would be amazed at the number of shameful things about yourself that your friends were able to remember, especially those who had grown up with you.
Anyway, what had I known about him? His single-parent family, his favorite singer, his favorite movie. That was it. I wanted to learn more about him, which I wouldn't deny. I wanted to know which kindergarten he went to, I wanted to know since when he'd begun to listen to Robbie Williams, and I wanted to know if he liked Rachel Green as much as I did… I wanted to know if he felt the same way about me as I did about him.
So, let's do it bit by bit, starting with collecting information about each other. But I might have to blame the lack of communication on the fact that we didn't really have much time together to hang out since everyone was quite busy preparing for all kinds of tests.
A sigh escaped me. Yeah, this was typical of me. If I claimed to be the king of making excuses, everyone would clap me. Had I been that busy, I wouldn't have been lying in my bed at 10:30, the time when my mom was even watching TV in the living room.
BE A MAN AND ASK HIM OUT.
That was what Lili had told me to do during the detention. OK, I guessed it was time for me to take some action. Would it be too awkward if I asked him out to watch a movie?
Hey man. Are you still awake? I sent out the message before I changed my mind.
Yes. You? Chenhui replied quickly.
No. I'm sleep-typing now.
Stop it, Yang. It wasn't time for jokes.
Wait a sec. I almost forgot we were supposed to go to a farewell dinner arranged by our class monitor on Sunday since she'd move to Australia with her family as soon as the semester ended. So it wouldn't be too late to ask him during dinner, right?
Lol. You have got to tell me how to do it tomorrow.
Then what should I say?
All jokes aside, what I really wanna tell you is I like the gift very much. Thanks.
Glad you like it. The show's great. Thank YOU.😊
I liked the smiley face. It was fun picturing Chenhui giving me a smile like this. Correction – giving me a smile much cuter than this.
Then, with the occasional noise of cars crashing and people screaming in the TV show mom was watching on the other side of the wall, I fell asleep while hesitating, unsure of whether to ask Chenhui about his plans for the coming weekend.
However, I'd soon be glad I didn't ask.