CHAPTER FIVE

  Nick either had no friends or just really wanted to be friends with Liam.

 On seeing Liam that Wednesday morning, he asked about his hip and immediately handed him a large bowl of sliced fruits saying vitamins help the bones get stronger.

 Technically, that was wrong. Liam vividly remembered his elementary school classes on how Calcium were responsible for strong bones and he doubted, strongly, fruits containing that much calcium.

 Instead of attacking him with the above lecture, he smiled, collected it and said “thanks.” He was thankful though more surprised.

 Like Nick could hear his thoughts, he quickly added, “It’s no biggie. I told my mum a friend hurt his hip and she just handed me the bowl of fruits to give you so you can feel better.”

 That made sense. Mothers were like that. His was a huge example. He remembered when he was still 13 and Jasmine was grounded at home and upset, she made a whole basket of sweet foods and pastries for him to take to her to cheer her up.

 Now recess, the large bowl of fruits proved useful. He sat in the cafeteria, eating from the bowl whilst having no appetite whatsoever for every single thing on the menu.

 “Should I just bring you fruits every day?” Nick asked, eating his pasta. “We always have these bowls in the fridge. I could just pick it up every morning.”

 The fruits were fresh- the apples red, the strawberries and pineapples extra juicy and the watermelon containing the perfect amount of seeds required to not get on his nerves but “No.”

 “No?”

 “No. It’s fine, you don’t have to. Thanks.”

 “You’re welcome,” he replied him. “Ah, Trevor’s at it again.”

 “Trevor?” Liam asked, turning in the direction of Nick’s fixed gaze. “Who?”

 Liam peeped at the sight. Someone was getting bullied and the Trevor seemed to be the instigator. He couldn’t figure out what was going on cause they were sitting far from the scene. All he could see was a guy on his knees, clothes soaking wet and Trevor smiling.

 Disgusted, he looked away. It didn’t take long for neck to betray him by turning back to the scene. This time, it turned to meet the guy standing next to him.

  Yes, it was him.

 “So, he’s a bully,” Liam said, turning away.

 “Who? Steve? No. Trevor? Yes.”

 The look on Liam’s face made Nick continue. “That’s Trevor. Steve’s best friend and yes, a major bully. He’s cocky, arrogant, a bully-gosh, he and Steve are literally opposites.”

 Opposites really did attract each other.

 Liam turned to look at Trevor again. He strangely looked familiar. Tall, dirty blonde hair, colored eyes and a tattoo peeking through his short sleeved shirt.

 “I always wonder how they even became friends,” Nick continued, interrupting Liam’s attempt to remember where he’d seen him. “Honestly, the only things they have in common is that they’re both hot, popular, play football and have rich parents.”

 “That’s more than enough reason for them to be friends,” Liam shrugged. “And so what if he isn’t a bully like his soul mate? Does standing there doing nothing make him a better person?”

 Nick looked like he wasn’t expecting that . “No. not really but-“

 Liam didn’t want to hear another word in Steve’s defense.  “Birds of the same feathers flock together, Nick.”

 No, that wasn’t always true. He and Jasmine were total opposites.

 But who cared?

 “They are the same,” he emphasized.

 “Okay okay,” Nick raised his hands in defeat. “Believe whatever you want to.”

 Yes, he was going to do just that. He was going to believe what he wanted. Just whatever floated his boat.

 ---

 Liam knew something was up the moment he spotted Liam by the car fidgeting, hands all sweaty. He didn’t welcome him with the normal smile intended to reassure him and ask how he was. Instead, all he said was, “Liam.”

 His heart skipped multiple beats.

 “Is my mum okay?” Did it come out in a whisper? His head was spinning. He felt dizzy. All he could see was Brian’s lips moving, he couldn’t comprehend what he was trying to say.

 “Liam!” Brian’s tight grip on him brought him back to reality. “Get a hold of yourself.”

 He exhaled, remembering how to breathe. “How’s my mum?”

 “She’s fine now. Better than she was. She had an attack earlier.”

 “Oh,” it made him calm to know his mum was at least still alive. “God, I was so scared. Let’s go. Let’s just go.”

 They got to the hospital in less than twenty minutes, Liam running to his mum’s room faster than he had ever did.

 Her room was empty.  She wasn’t in.

 He turned to meet Brian standing behind him. “Where’s she?”

 “The ICU. She’ll be back here soon,” Brian replied him. His eyes were soft like they were telling him not to worry. “She’ll be fine Liam.”

 Having heard those words so many times, he was beginning to lose faith in them.

 After waiting for close to an hour, he was finally able to his mum. She was still unconscious when she was rolled him.

 Without his permission, tears rolled down his cheek.

 “Liam,” Brian squeezed his shoulders.

 By 7:30pm, she still hadn’t regained consciousness and Liam’s worry had doubled. Not just because she wasn’t getting up but because he eavesdropped on the doctor and Brian’s conversation.

 She needed to get her heart transplant surgery soon.

 He wiped the freshly rolled down tears from his cheek as he noticed his mum’s eyes blink. “Mum?”

 “Li-”

 “Shh. Don’t speak,” he shushed her. “It’s okay. How are you? Oh, no. Don’t speak.”

 “Liam-”

 “I’m really going to get angry if you try to talk one more time,” tears were welled up in his eyes already. “Don’t. You’re weak already as it is. Don’t try to talk. Just save up all your energy and use it to stay with me longer.”

 Hands covering his eyes, he allowed the tears roll down his cheeks freely. He shouldn’t be crying. He really should not.

 “I’m sorry.” He hurriedly left the room to the nearest bathroom to cry. After crying for close to five minutes, he washed his face, put on a fake smile and stepped out.

 ---

  Liam’s mind was still clouded when Brian drove into their compound. His head was glued to the car’s window, hands sitting in his lap as he kept on imagining the worst.

 His mum had uselessly tried to comfort him while he uselessly tried to act like he was comforted. They both knew better.

 He opened the familiar empty house, his backpack hanging loosely around his right arm. His steps were slow, making the fact that he wasn’t glad to be home even more obvious.

 As he stepped into the living room, his eyes travelled to the couch. There was a backpack laying on it. A familiar backpack that wasn’t his.

 He raised his head to find his one inch shorter than him best friend standing few meters away, arms wide open.

 “Oh my God-”

 He said no more and proceeded to temporarily bury himself in Jasmine’s arms. “Gosh, I missed you.”

 “How are you?” she asked, pulling away.

 “Why are you here? I mean, how are you here?”

 “It was supposed to be a surprise so I called Brian to ask him what time you left school and he told him so here I am.”

 “Oh,” he knew what was normally to come next. The reason he was home late. She probably knew it already but still. “Actually-”

 “Soooooo,” Jasmine cut him off. “When I got here and you weren’t here yet, I decided to be an amazing friend and cook for you so when you get back, you’ll have something to eat.

 “Oh shit,” Liam’s expression changed. “You did not.”

 “I did.”

 “So?”

 “I ordered pizza! The delivery man should be here any minute.”

  “You ordered pizza. What happened to trying to cook?”

 “It didn’t go as planned,” Jasmine pouted. “I guess I have to work on my cooking skills a bit.”

 “What was I expecting,” Liam shook his head. “I guess I should be glad you didn’t burn down the whole house. Omg, is the kitchen safe?”

 “It’s safe,” Jasmine bit her lip. “But kind of in a mess.”

 “Jasmine.”

 “We’ll clean it after dinner. But hey, look at the brighter side of things,” she said, playfully punching him on the shoulders. “We’ll get to spend time together doing something interesting. And we’ll listen to Bigbang and lizzo as we do. We’ll be done in no time.”

 “Are you being serious right now?”

 “Or even PSY if you wanna,” she clapped her hands. “We’ll wash those dishes in gangnam style.”

 Liam laughed. There was no way he could stay mad at Jasmine even if we wanted to.

 “You’re insane, Jas,” he said amidst laughter. “Anyways, when is your pizza dude arriving? I’m starving.”

 Like he was listening, the doorbell rang.

 “Here he is.”

 ---

 Liam bent to tie his shoelaces and pick the small basket containing not so good tasting homemade food. His cooking had gotten better but they still weren’t the best tasting food to eat.

 Brian had left to drop Jasmine at her place as early as 6:00am. Luckily, her parents were out of town so all she needed to do was send a text message to her brother who was more than glad to have the whole house to himself even if it was just going to be a few hours.

 After feasting on two boxes of pizza and an unhealthy amount of soda, Liam and Jasmine cleaned up the kitchen which was indeed a mess. Then they headed to Liam’s room and Liam forcefully made Jasmine do a powerpoint assignment and practice presenting it to the whole class. Then they watched homealone again and laughed.

 Liam glanced at his wristwatch. It was 6:45am. Brian was supposed to be back from Jasmine’s. He opened the fridge, taking out two big red apples and then laid them neatly in his food basket.

 It was a Thursday and he was skipping school. Knowing how much his mum was going to disapprove him skipping school when it was only his first week didn’t stop him. She was going to nag but once he smiled like a puppy, her anger would fade.

 He had never put that much effort in getting dressed to just see his mum. He was putting on a new jean and the prettiest tshirt he found in his closet. He hair was washed twice and he smelled like fresh flowers.

 The sound of the car driving in highlighted Brian’s arrival. It was already 7:15am. He switched the kitchen’s light off, basket in his hands and stepped out.

  As expected, his mum wasn’t glad to have him. It took a lot of smiles and promises to never skip school for her to finally allow him stay.

 “By the way, Jasmine told me you finally attended a party?”

 “She did what?”

   “Yeah,” she laughed. “I felt so proud of you.”

 The look on her face made it seem like she felt even prouder of him than when he brought home his straight As report sheet.

 “There is nothing to be proud of, mum.”

 “There is,” she replied. “You sometimes I feel guilty. Your dad and then…me. I feel like we are the reasons you’re not living your life as a normal teenager. Your life pretty much revolves around three places- home, school and the hospital. You don’t have any other friends other than Jasmine. I want you to live your life to the fullest.”

 “Mum, I’m living my life to the fullest I can. I have you, Jasmine and Brian. What else could I need?”

  She wiggled her eyebrows. “Maybe a girlfriend?”

“God, no,” Liam didn’t even laugh. “I certainly do not need a girlfriend.”

 “I had my first boyfriend when I was thirteen. Your dad has his when he was fourteen. We’ve laid down a pretty good example for you to follow. You’re seventeen, Liam. You’ve never dated anyone.”

 “Okay mum,” Liam said in defeat. “I don’t know what Jasmine said to you but we’re not talking about this. We’re ending this conversation.”

 “Alright,” she laughed. “So tell me about school. Or life. The last movie you and Jasmine watched. Anything.”

---

3pm. His mum was taking a nap after they both rewatched ‘Boys over flowers’ to an extent. Just like Jasmine, his mum was team Jun Pyo and he was forever on Jin Ho’s side. He just had no idea why a rude, obnoxious, arrogant and immature spoilt brat deserved to get the girl. Jan Di might have been an idiot but she definitely deserved better than a guy who didn’t speak to her for years even after she broke her shoulder because of him and couldn’t do what she loved the most.

 Guess that was what love turned people into.

 He closed the door gently, careful not to make a sound so as to not wake his sleeping mum. He headed to the hospital’s balcony. It was usually quiet and felt really peaceful.

 It was empty when he got there. There was someone else already there and from his figure, it was obviously a guy.

 As long as they just ignored each other, there would be no issues.

 He stood as far away as he could from the stranger. He really didn’t want to be talked to.

 The breeze was blowing so strongly all Liam could wish was that it just blew away all his worries.

 “Liam?”

 The voice didn’t belong to any of the three people he wouldn’t murder for interrupting his peaceful time. He turned to meet the only person he could actually kill for interrupting his peaceful time.

 “Steve.”

 His reply was short and showed no enthusiasm. He returned back to his original position hoping the strong wind would blow him away

 “What are you doing here?”

  Ah, the wind hadn’t blown him away.

 “I really don’t think I have to answer your question,” Liam deadpanned.

 “I’m just asking as a fr- classmate.”

 He sighed. He already felt the need to end the conversation. “What do people do at hospitals?”

 “Various things,” Steve replied. “You could be here to-”

 “Deliver fried chicken? Yeah, I’m here to deliver fried chicken.”

 He burst into laughter. “Deliver fried chicken? Okay. At the balcony?”

 “I don’t remember any fried chicken I’ve eaten having labels that specify where and where not fried chicken could be delivered to or eaten.”

 Steve laughed, again. “Gosh, Liam. You seem so fun. Why are you so cold to me?”

 “Maybe because I haven’t found a reason to act otherwise.”

 “But-“

 “I definitely didn’t come here to talk to you. On that note, please excuse me.”

  Steve ran his hands around his hair watching Liam turn to leave. “So, you’re really not going to tell me why you’re actually here?”

 “I already did.”

 ---

 “Liam! Ha! We meet again. Twice in a day, isn’t this fate?”

 After spending about an hour with his mum after she woke up, all Liam wanted to do was go home to sleep. Brian was waiting for him in the car at the parking lot and all he was doing was walking peacefully when-

 He was just going to ignore him.

 He continued walking and almost immediately felt him grab his hand, Liam yanking it off instantly.

 “I thought I asked you to never touch me.”

 He shrugged. “You weren’t stopping. I needed you to stop.”

 “Why?”

 “To say hi.”

 “Okay. I guess you’ve said that already,” he turned to leave.

  Liam heard Steve mutter something under his breath then let out a groan. “What’s up with you? Is this about what happened at the cafeteria?”

 “Let’s say that’s what this is about,” Liam turned. “Don’t I deserve to be mad?”

 “I already apologized!”

 “Of course, you did. I’m not disagreeing with that.”

 “Then what?”

 “I just don’t want to talk to you or get involved with you.”

 Steve’s face fell. “Why?”

 “You can say it’s just a natural instinct.”

 “Wow, you must really just despise me.”

 “Yes,” Liam admitted.

 “More than you love your mum?”

 Liam was sure he heard wrong. “Excuse me?”

 Steve shoved his hands down his pocket glad he finally got Liam’s attention. He was shocked by the question, his face said it all. “My dad pretty much owns this hospital. This one your mum’s receiving treatment at.”

 Liam felt weak in his knees. He hated him. “So? Am I supposed to congratulate you on that?”

 “You know,” Steve paused for a while. “Your sarcasm hurts me more than you think.”

 Liam couldn’t bring himself to give him a reply. The conversation was heading towards a direction he didn’t like. He hissed and turned to leave.

 “You love your mum, don’t you?”

 He stopped in his tracks. Slowly, he turned again. “What are you getting at?”

 “I know about her condition and all. I know she needs to get her surgery done fast.”

 Liam remained silent and Steve took it as a cue to continue. “And you know, I happen to be pretty much best friends with my dad.”

 “Okay so you have a great life with perfectly healthy parents. So? Am I supposed to scream on the top of my lungs on how much I want that too?”

 “Liam, calm down,” he placed his hand on his shoulder, Liam aggressively jerking it off.

 “Stop touching me.”

 He sighed. “Anyways, I know the way things work around here. She’s on a queue, right?”

 “So?”

 “I could help you jump the queue or just at least, help speed up the process. All I would need to do is talk to my dad?”

 Liam’s heart leaped. No, no, he shouldn’t be. “Why would you even want to do that?”

 “I don’t know. Can’t I be nice?”

 “You’re not nice.”

 “Actually, you’re right,” he twitched his lips. “I’m not nice. I have a condition if you want me to help.”

 Liam looked at him, anger surging through him. His lips danced to a rhythm of contentment. He was having fun. It was all fun for him.

 “Is it fun?”

 “What?”

 “You know what, Steve,” Liam breathed out. “Fuck you. Honestly, fuck you. What exactly is your problem with me? My life sucks already as it is so must you? Why? You think your life’s so perfect all that’s left for you to do is mess with other’s, huh?”

 He paused, feeling tears sting his eyes. “Steve Reeds, I’m begging you. Please and I can go on my knees if you want  me to but just stay out of my life. I understand this is fun for you but please just look for someone else to tease. Please. Just let me be.”

 “Liam-”

 “Please.”