Chapter 25: Chapter 25

Steven

"Yo, Steven! How is your social media life?" Marco asked, walking towards me. "I heard you added everyone yesterday. What happened? Is it your second phase of making friends?" he added.

I knew he would say this first thing in the morning. I should not have gone to school this early in the morning. One of the biggest mistakes I made early in the morning.

"Steven? Come on, speak up. You were not born to stay silent. Explain while our classmates are still not here." he added.

"She made me." I told him the truth.

His mouth quickly turned into a grin. "No wonder," he said. "When I saw your friend request last night, my jaw dropped and I thought, what the hell was wrong with you? I even hesitated about whether I should accept it or not, because it might not be you. But based on your photo, I can tell that it is you." he added.

"Huh?" I said, confused. "How did you know that it was me?" I asked.

He snorted. "Based on your characteristics, I can tell it. You rarely use your phone, and I can say that you are not a fan of selfies. You did not have a display photo until last night. You are just using messenger only for communication." he explained.

He can tell exactly who I am when it comes to this kind of thing.

"I wonder how she made you do that. Sunny is incredible." Marco complimented Sunny.

"Actually, she was in our house yesterday. My parents visited us yesterday and asked for her and her grandmother's presence. They wanted to meet them in person, so I had to fetch her. Unfortunately, her grandmother is out of town. After our lunch, that is where my doom came." I shared.

"Your doom?" He replied, laughing. "Why? What did Sunny do to make you say something like that?" He asked.

I sighed loudly. Just by thinking about it, I am getting stressed already.

"After I helped her with the dishes, we went back to the sala and saw my family watching a variety show." I started sharing. "We came across the people on the television talking about their social media. Sunny asked me why I did not have any display pictures. I do not really mind things like that because I just use them for important communication. Then that is where she forced me to take a picture." I added, telling him how much I suffered yesterday.

"So, she is the one who took pictures of you?" He asked.

I sighed loudly again. "She just did not decide to take one picture. She even took many pictures of me and even made herself into our photographer when she asked my parents to take family pictures." I said.

I can not forget how she asked me yesterday.

She asked―no, she told me to stand up and even led me to an aesthetic background―she says. Asking me to stand and smile. At first, I was wondering what the hell she wanted me to do. I did not even know what she was doing in the first place, but then she told me that she was going to take a photo of me so that I could use it as my profile. We spent a few minutes arguing about why we should do that when we could just live it like that. She said that she would help me fix my social media account.

I was not able to do anything but follow her. She kept on forcing me to smile and even follow me wherever I tried to avoid her, until I stopped avoiding her and finally did what she wanted me to do. I did many poses just to satisfy her. Yeah, I did. After that, she asked my family if she could take a family photo of us. That is where she became our family photographer that day. I do not know how many photos she took. She even asked each one of them to take a photo with her.

"Sunny is very bubbly. She wants everything happy around her." Marco shared. "No wonder. She will do that to you and your family. That means she is really comfortable with you. When she was still new here before, I remembered her crying the moment our professor scolded her." he shared.

"She cried?" I asked.

Marco nodded his head, still laughing as he shared the story. "We previously had a professor who was very strict about the cleanliness of our paper. She does not want to see any erasures on our paper. When we passed our papers, she looked at them one by one and saw Sunny's paper. Our professor at that time had an intimidating look, and the moment she asked Sunny why her paper had an erasure, she cried afterward." he added.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes, she did. Our professor at that time was very surprised after seeing her cry. She asked Sunny why she was crying and tried to calm her down. Sunny said she was scared that she might scold her because of her erasure and that she could not stand that kind of situation. She even said sorry cutely which made us laugh. She was like a baby crying and saying sorry to her mother." he said. "After that, our professor started approaching us more calmly than before. She will easily say that she is not going to scold Sunny before asking her a question." he added.

I smiled, hearing the story from Marco. That is likely her. She even told me before that she could not stand things like that. I can imagine the scene where she was crying in front of their professor.

"How about her boyfriend? Do you know something about Jake?" I asked out of curiosity.

He went silent.

There was a big silence after I asked him that question.

"Why? Is there something wrong with him? I am curious about her boyfriend. I am still not able to see him in person." I added.

He wrapped his arms around himself. "Honestly, at first I liked him for her. He can make Sunny happy and we can see that. But now, I am starting to hate that dumbass. I rarely see Sunny and him bond together, but he is always with his friends. Sunny usually shows her exhiliration about her boyfriend before. Now, it feels like she can not do that anymore." He shared his thoughts. "Do you happen to know something about him? Does she share something about him?" He asked.

I looked at him. He sounds worried and curious at the same time. Does this mean that they have been friends since then? However, all they did whenever they interacted was fight and tease each other.

I nodded slowly. "Can you calm yourself after sharing what I know about them?" I asked him.

"Why does it feel like you are going to share something I do not wish to hear?" He asked back.

Well, he is right. He got the hint already.

"Do you remember the day that Sunny was excited all day because she had a date with her boyfriend?" I asked him again and received a nod. "Her boyfriend said to wait for him at the gate after class, but he did not come at all. Sunny waited there at the gate alone until evening, waiting for him." I shared.

His serious expression turned into a shocked one.

"What?!"

"What if we never called her that night? Sunny will wait for him even though he may not come. And what's making us mad is when she asked her boyfriend if he forgot something that day. He said he had not forgotten anything and even had fun with his friends." I added.

Just thinking about it makes me mad again. That jerk is truly a jerk. How could he do that when he was the one who invited Sunny that day? How could he forget that?

"What the hell is his problem?" Marco asked, pissed off. It was visible in his face. "What is that damn f*cking guy doing to her?" he asked again.

"And it seems like they are not on good terms anymore. Only Sunny is worried about their relationship. I told her yesterday that she should talk this over with him and settle what they needed to settle." I told him.

Only Sunny is hurting between the two of them. She needs to know their label now. It is better to cry now than later.

"I will make sure to punch that man when I see him." He said. "Do not let me see him anywhere. I will definitely run and land a punch on his face." He added.

"You should help yourself not to. My older brother and dad asked her if they could take revenge on her, but she politely turned their offers down. He does not want to hurt her boyfriend at all." I answered. "We just have to wait for her to have the courage to talk to him and fix what they need to fix." I added.

"Does Shiela know about this already?" He asked again.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I do not know. Sunny told me that she would talk about this with her family and Shiela." I told him.

"I guess, Jake should hide now. If I can stop myself from hurting that man, Shiela won't. I am sure, 101 percent, that she will smack that man down. Shiela is built differently and that is what makes her more scary." He said.

After our long talk, some of our classmates started to come over, and we decided to stop talking about it anymore. Some of them addressed my friend request yesterday, and I just told them that I am really starting to make friends now.

After a few minutes, Sunny came and yelled. "Good morning, everyone! Rise and shine! May I see your notes from our lesson with Ma'am. Bapin?" She greeted and asked what she really wanted to do in the first place.

"Why bother greeting us when you just want to ask for the notes?" Marco teased him.

"Just shut up, Marco. I do not want to ruin my mood early in the morning." She replied.

I raised my arms for her to notice me. She was able to see me and walked towards me quickly.

"Good morning, Steven. How's your sleep?" Sunny asked.

"It is good. How about yours?" I asked back.

"It is good too. Have you had your breakfast already? Has your mom and dad gone home already?" She questioned.

I nodded. "I had and they went home this morning." I replied as I got my notebook and handed it to her. "Make sure to give it back nice and clean. This is a warning." I warned her. "And... you forgot to bring this home yesterday." I added and handed the pens we bought at the school supplies store.

"Oh my gosh! I forgot about these cute pens! Thank you very much!" She replied excitedly. "I will use this very well and I will take care of your notebook. Promise!" She added before going back to her chair.

That is good to see.

I also wonder if she decided to talk to her boyfriend.

"Good morning, students! May I ask for help from the boys? We need a chair upstairs, in my room, for my students. I hope you can help me get them." A professor asked for help.

I immediately stood up and looked at Marco. All of the boys in our class went out to help the professor.

"It was weird to see you volunteer yourself first and make friends even on social media, but that is good to see Steven!" Philip said. "Welcome! You have to come with us now!" He added.

I nodded. "Sure, sure." I answered.

"Will you also help us with our assignment?" Mark asked.

"It depends. I do not help anyone who did not even try to answer it first." I said.

"Well, that is much better than not helping us at all." Marco laughed.