It's Monday. I search for an empty table in the back of the cafeteria. Something catches my eye. Behind a chair, rose jewels glitter along a white silk backpack. It belongs to my friend, Shanaia. She is sitting by the window with two other students. It's Rei and Leo. As soon as Rei catches my stares, I walk towards them. I gently put my tray down and sit at the other end of the table where Shai and Rei are facing Leo .
By the looks of their faces, they clearly don't know who the guy is. No one was speaking so I thought nobody is willing to talk first. Leo must be here because of Kael. But where is Kael?
Rei nudges me with her foot. I take a look at her, signaling what's wrong. She usually starts the conversation on her first, so I am confused by her silence. Shai on the other hand, I know she's loud but I didn't expect her to be silent today. When she looks at me, she blinks three times while massaging her forehead.
I look at Leo. I didn't know he could be more handsome this close. His Dad, Mr. Louie is half Australian. So I think he still got the Australian features in him.
Since nobody wants to start the conversation, I start to talk.
"Why aren't you guys eating? Being silent won't finish the food." I start to take a spoon of my rice with pork steak.
"Can loudness finish it?"
I almost choked when Rei spoke. She caught Shanaia's humorㅡ she burst out laughing while covering her mouth and looking away from our table.
"Thought you need to hear it," Rei says with hoarse her voice. I shove my hand infront of her face, telling her to stop as I try to chew my food. Shanaia continues to laugh when Rei didn't stop making fun of me with her voice. She knows I dislike hearing it when her voice becomes like that. But I can't help but to laugh, too.
Leo shows a little grin just by looking at us. I didn't know her hoarse voice was the reason why she kept silent. It did not cross my mind.
"Sorry, I just can't bare it." Shai laughs one more time. She must've knew about it that's why she's also silent, careful that she might burst out laughing. I'm starting to understand her humor.
"I can't bare with you either." Rei didn't even finished her sentence yet but Shanaia laughs again while I mentally squeezed my ears shut. Rei just silently laughs.
A moment later, Kael arrives with his tray. He sits beside Leo and we start to talk about him, joining the club.
"But where have you been though before you came here?" Shai asks him.
"I printed the fliers that's all." He answers, showing us the fliers. "Leo made the illustrations by the way."
Leo smiles and raises his chin up. "I had a hard time honestly, choosing its theme and such.. But I do hope you like it."
He hands us a copy. I gasp at the look of Leo's work. He must be a great illustrator to make this. What I see on the flier is our club's name, The Asian Student's Club, and the things about it. We talked about this last Saturday and the four of us agreed with it's name and purpose. It's a two-day movie show with only the Asian movies. The new movies last year and to the current year are available and we're showing it to everyone who joins the club. I'm happy and thrilled for this. They can relax while watching at the movie theater.
"What are your favorite movies? Let's add them to the list," Kael asks us. His question repeats inside of my head. I actually don't know what my favorite movie is. Without any notice, I look at the others. I think Kael noticed Rei not talking so he asks her first.
"Rei? You seem to be a little silent today," he says. "How about sharing your favorite movies or something."
"You don't want to hear her speak today," I say. Shanaia snorts and Leo crosses his arms, showing a grin. Kael gets curious and bugs us about it when we try to avert his attention back to our club. But because of curiosity, he starts laughing when Rei speaks to him. We start to laugh, too. I don't usually laugh at someone's hoarse voice but when Rei makes fun of her own, it makes it more funnier than it really seems. Kael didn't stop making fun of it and even tries to make her talk again but Rei refuses to jump into his jokes.
Our lunch break was filled with our plans for the club and all of us introducing to each other for the new friend, Leo. Kind of a fun moment if I was to say.