Suppose everyone’s curious why Kaizer and I were brisk-walking on the hallway, fingers intertwined, me pulling him back to the classroom after our steamy session, that they then again pulled up their cameras and started taking videos of us. Neither of us have the energy to chase them away as we struggle to catch up with the class that we have purposely left AWOL. It may have been a different story in their heads if it was just holding each other’s hands, but I guess that’s how people always work. Nevertheless, we are fortunate to find out that the professor has yet to come to the class; one of our classmates, Mark, told us that he will be an hour late because of some congested traffic at British Columbia where he got stuck for like an hour or two. A minor delay ripples through the day, I could assume.

As we took a seat, I snatched one look from Kaizer, and saw that he also dId the same. From his smirk I could totally see what he was thinking, which made me paint red and look away. I could hear a slight chuckle at the other end, which doesn’t help either.

“Don’t make me remember it,” I warned him. Because if I do, I might go turn into a dog in heat.

“Why? Is he standing again?” he teased, pointing at my crotch that is acting like a full blown tent. W—why you!

“You’re going to take care of that once classes are over, you psycho.”

“Take care of what?”

I turned my head, only to see our dear Roxanna in her golden era. Literally. Sure, she’s wearing the androgynous version of the uniform, but she partnered it with tons of golden knickknacks that I’m tired of describing. TL;DR, she’s golden like Goldilocks.

“Really, Roshan, bleaching your hair?” Kaizer criticized. Nah, that’s not the right term. Scorned. Yeah, that’s better.

“One more Roshan and you’ll say bye-bye to your balls.”  I need not to say that I smirked at her threat to this lad. Serves him right. Roxie sat beside me and inched her distance to me as though she wants to hear some gossip. “Back to the question, take care of what?”

My heart dropped as I could see from my peripheral vision that Kaizer’s lips are about to part.

“That—” Kaizer never heard the end of his sentence as I sprung out of my seat to cover his tattle mouth. God fuck you and your eccentric public behavior, Kaizer Woodsworth!

I took one look at our dear Roxanna Caseys, and it only took word from Kaizer to understand what in tarnation is going on. She smiled and put out a thumbs-up to us. I replied with a middle finger before rolling my eyes.

“Congrats,” she said before laughing. Congrats, my ass, you bitch. I sighed in defeat as I looked at her.

The classroom was unnecessarily calm and noisy at the same time, that for some reason should a professor enter, this façade will shatter to pieces almost immediately. I could paint my description as that of me being at a local wet market at the Philippines, voices here and there salestalking about the prices of their fishes amounting a hundred-twenty pesos a kilo. Two-eighty-eight in Canada for reference. Maybe it’s just me, or some random creep holding the pen, inking the outline of what will happen next, but it felt odd. Maybe it’s because of the fear of finding out which among the three at the Espresso pulled the trigger and the fact that I had some random hanky-panky with the other guy, but I can’t shrug it off. I’ll bet my today’s money some shit will happen and whatnot.

What; won’t believe me? Let me give you a teeny-tiny bit of context.

Back during my senior high school days, I felt something will go wrong about this certain day, but even I couldn’t’t believe it at first because it was a random kid’s birthday.

A classmate of mine had invited his circle of friend to fly to Japan for his birthday, his treat. Of course, having a free flight and free food means being a freeloader for them, and in a heartbeat they agreed to come with them. I wouldn’t say no if I was asked to join, because, let’s be honest, who wouldn’t? Even some who weren’t even existing in his perspective showed up and asked if they could join.

About 30 students were with him, and he had spent hundreds of thousands of pesos to cater for the flight alone, notwithstanding the fucking food.

Hours later, there has been a commotion and cries from teachers and some students. The plane carrying him and the 30 freeloaders exploded mid-air, killing everybody, even the pilot, on board. Gone in an instant, lives innocent and unknowing that their fate had already been carved in stone. I could feel their cries during the final seconds of their lives, trying to escape the inescapable doom that will loom them.

How I wished I had voiced out my fear to one of them, but being the untouchable in a land of brahmans, for sure no one would listen to me. Weeks past by and still, I blame myself for not being the one who could at least warn them that something may happen.

Now that I am in college, sitting side by side with Roxie and Kaizer, the urge of saying this is dominating my brain, but there’s a part of me that is saying that this is just a figment of the paranoia I am experiencing. That, and maybe the world is cooking a cruel joke, and yours truly is the punchline.

Creeps are crawling under my skin, the fear ambling gently in the figment of my imagination. It felt like something big is going to happen, and I can’t . . . I couldn’t shrug it off my brain. I tried to looked at my surroundings but I was greeted with only the opposite of my thoughts. My head are full of what-ifs and I . . . I can’t seem to pinpoint exactly what would happen. I’m no fortune teller by any means. Heck, I couldn’t even be so sure of what will happen! This feeling, perhaps, might be a hoax. A sheet of paranoia blanketing my sanity. But what if it’s not? Maybe I’ve read too much mystery novels way back at home, that I couldn’t help but feel that something like a plot twist is going to happen in my plot-holed life of mine. The jittery feeling of wanting to stand up and run for my life is evident, even without me describing the feeling of such. I tried to peer thoroughly at the door of the classroom to check if there’s something fishy going on, but there wasn’t even a single thing that stood out in me.

I guess it was just a shred of paranoia shoved in my system, after all. I exhaled heavily through my nose as I slumped towards the table in front of me, clumsily doodling random circles with my finger. This time, I’m trying to rack my brains of things that could happen today. What if the professor was caught in an accident? Or perhaps, what if the killer Kaizer is pointing his fingers to barge in and tried to shove a bullet in Kaizer’s head? Or worse, in my head? I’m no coward when faced with death, but surely it’s too early for me to say bye-bye to Earth, yes?

Okay, I’m a fucking coward. I’ll admit it. Surely, eveyone would tremble in fear, knees shaking, and clinging on their beliefs to save them from the impending event. I’d even strike a deal with the devil if I could just so I could live. I sighed again.

Art, that’s just paranoia talking. Surely you wouldn’t suspect that something bad may happen in this wet-market-esque place, no? Get a grip, you whip-ass bitch.

“Is there something wrong, Art?”

I turned my head and saw Kaizer, his auburn eyes speaking for his worriness. He was still in his public figure persona, but a quick look at him tells me he’s bound to break that persona for me.

“Oh, nothing. I’m just . . . tired? Yeah, I’m tired.” I pulled out a fake yawn before smiling at him, which hopefully doesn’t go to him as insincere. “I just wanted to sleep.”

“You can just sleep at my lap if you want to, no problem.”

“Right, unless I would wake that guy sleeping in your tent, that is.”

“More like a Goliath inside that David-sized gal,” Roxie interjected as she casually pulls out her foundation powder kit and slaps her face with the cotton that came with it. Really, Roxie?

“I mean, Goliath did got his head off, so . . . there’s that,” I retorted.

“Okay, that’s enough internet for you today, Art,” Kaizer chuckled before rolling his eyes. “Wait, I’mma head to the restroom. My bladder’s gonna burst soon enough.” He never heard any of my reply as he quickly rushed out of the room, and unto the restroom he goes. The sad thing about that area was that it’d take you around five minutes to get there from here. Hopefully he could keep his valve closed until then. I heard a click from the door; Kaizer surely knows how to not leave the door open. A Filipino thing so as not to let the winds of the cold A/C go out of the room.

Five minutes, I told myself. That seems too long, to be honest. Anything can happen in just a second. So, what gives? I looked at Roxie but she seems busy pressing things at her phone, scrolling while at it. She was living in her own bubble, so as others. Meanwhile, here I was, checking if there’s something that would pop their bubbles out of existence. A quick screech of someone’s turned heads to its direction, mostly I was, and believe me, my heart pounded faster than a jackhammer on the roll. It was just a random student who apparently leaned his back too much on the chair and almost broke it in half.

“Hey, bestie, looks like you had a spare cup of caffeine in your system. Calm down.” Roxie’s playful voice didn’t help in easing my soul to peace.

“I guess I had too much matcha coffee after all, haha.” My laugh felt forced, and Roxie noticed it too. But like a usual damsel on a balcony high above the palace, she couldn’t an odd spectator amidst the crowd.

Then it happened.