To Leon, the next few days passed by a bit too fast to his liking.

Leon woke up, early in the morning before the sun rises, and then he prayed. After that, he took a shower, and then he began to cook breakfast for the morning. While waiting for his food to be ready, he’d occasionally go clean up his room and house, but he’s oftentimes too lazy to do that on a weekday.

After the food was ready, he’d sit in the dining room to eat breakfast. He doesn’t really have many options on what he could eat during breakfast—it’s either that he cooks a quick meal like scrambled eggs, pours down some cereal, or just reheats yesterday’s leftovers. Though, he’s most likely to choose the first two as last night’s leftovers are oftentimes used for lunch later in the afternoon.

Before going to school, he prepared his lunchbox. After that, he also went and check his backpack to make sure he didn’t leave any books behind. And now, after everything is finished, Leon was ready to go to school. However, rather than heading immediately toward the bus stop, he found himself choosing to sit on top of the couch instead.

Leon froze. He was seated right in front of the television, staring at it, but he was spacing out. For a moment there, he contemplated how heavy life has been. And after he’s had enough, he finally headed toward the bus stop.

He went to school, and... school was just, well... school. There’s nothing special about it. And as per usual, Leon was the earliest student to arrive at his class. He still doesn’t know to this day if it’s either because he came in too early, or everyone else was just lazy. Regardless, he was the first student to arrive at his class (and occasionally, the first student to arrive at school).

He walked through his class and placed his bag down. He came in so early that he was even responsible to be the one who turns on the class’ air conditioner. Yeah, the class wasn’t particularly comfortable early on in the morning, so as he waits for the room to cool down, he’d go outside and get some fresh air.

He leaned against the railling—his class was on the second floor—and throw his entire body weight on it. It’s quiet, too quiet. Birds were chirping above, and the cleaning service worker still sweeping the leaves from the basketball field. Well, he guessed it was pretty nice and peaceful up here.

Although, that peace was immediately disrupted when out of a sudden, a familiar voice suddenly screamed. “Aaah!” her voice echoed out, causing Leon to turn his head towards the voice. He was startled, but his lips slowly curled up into a smile when he saw the British girl with hijab and glasses standing at the very top of the stairs, fingers pointing towards him with a disgruntled expression.

He mumbled out her name. “Ienna...” he said, looking at her.

Her hand gripped the hilt of her bag, and Leon swore he thought that she was preparing to throw that bag in his direction. Ienna ran towards him, and Leon was already bracing himself to dodge if she were to actually throw that bag at him. But then, she suddenly stopped running in his direction and stopped right beside him.

“So,” she said, her fist clenching. “I lost... again?” she asked.

Leon’s body was still tense, but he eventually relaxed. His fearful expression slowly turned into a weak chuckle. “You didn’t seriously think you’d ever beat me, will you?” he asked, scoffing at her. “Good morning to you too, Ienna,” he continued, and the girl smiled.

Okay, this may require a bit of an explanation to understand. It’s sort of an inside joke between him and Ienna. As this happened on the first day of school in grade 10—they’ve been sharing the same class for as long as they entered high school. Leon was the first student to arrive at school, and Ienna was the second after him.

Ever since that day, he doesn’t understand it, but Ienna sort of made it her life goal to arrive earlier than Leon. And, so far, she’s only ever ‘won’ twice: on the first day of school in grade 11 because Leon forgot that school started that day, and on the last day of the mid-term exam a few weeks back.

Leon honestly never even tried to win whatever competition this is. He went to school early in the morning because he doesn’t want to miss his bus. And by coincidence, he always arrived earlier than Ienna. While her, she’s, um...

Ienna’s kind of a psychopath. Truthfully, Leon wouldn’t doubt it the slightest if she had told him that she changed her schedule just so she could arrive quicker than him. Though, so far, she never managed to do such. And although he kept a cool facade in front of her, even he admits that he would always laugh at her behind her back whenever she lost, alone.

Lol.

Well, aside from this so-called competition, bickering with her early in the morning was the first source of entertainment he’d have all day. Ienna’s a pretty chatty person. In the morning, she usually tells him about what happened to her the day before. And if Leon feels like it, he’d tell her about his’ as well.

They’re pretty good friends, he thinks. Just, the only catch is... when the third students arrive in class, the two of them cease to communicate.

He never questioned it—it was always so natural. The only reason they even talked to each other was that they had no one else they could talk to. And yeah, just that. Nothing more, nothing less.

And then, later in the day, during recess, Leon would eat lunch alone in the corner of the cafeteria. He doesn’t know when it started, but one seat, in particular, has become his usual seat now. Last night’s leftovers were salted egg shrimp. It doesn’t taste quite as good when it’s cold, but it was a bearable lunch for the day.

What was harder to bear was the sound of laughter that keeps popping up behind him—the sound of Reynatra’s voice. Whenever she laughed, he would occasionally get startled by the voice behind his back. Her voice distracted him, as he always forgets that he was no longer part of their conversation anymore.

And later, when school’s over, he immediately headed toward the bus station (busway) near the school and waited for his ride back home. This time, he has learned his lesson; he’s going to check on the bus schedule and make sure that he didn’t take the wrong bus home again.