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SAYA & JAKE ──────────── ' bouquets of red roses '
— "WHY ISN'T SHE ANSWERING?"
Jake stared at the contact on his phone, biting on his nails as he inspected the name. The called ID had practically begun collecting dust.
"Who are you trying to call?" Mateo queried, shoving his math textbook into his bag. Mateo's bag was always ten thousand pounds, and Jake was sure that single textbook was to blame.
"Saya," He answered. Fed up with the lack of response he had been receiving from the girl, he threw his phone in his bag, not caring if his keys scratched up the screen. "Have you heard from her at all?"
Mateo shook his head, "Nope. No one has. Her sister told me that she'll be back soon, though."
Jake had sworn he hadn't seen Saya once in the past week. After their trip out of town last month, it was as if the girl had packed up her entire life and skipped planets. Jake couldn't reach her no matter how many times he called, and it looked as though everyone else was getting the same treatment.
"I just wanna know that she's okay."
"She is," Mateo said, brushing off the comment, "She always is."
Jake's head tilted. "Hm? What, has she done this before?"
Mateo simply nodded, unfazed by the situation, in perfect juxtaposition with Jake's utter panic. "Every once in a while she'll disappear and then randomly show up again acting like she didn't go MIA for a week."
Jake pondered that new instalment for a moment. So, she's done this before, and she's always been just fine; The thought unsettled him. Sure, she was fine when she finally turned up, but what about during her time away? How was she then? Jake didn't want to go another hour knowing that she might not be okay right at that moment. But Mateo knew her better than he did, and if Mateo was sure she was perfectly well, then Jake would just have to accept that.
"Don't obsess over it too much, kid," Mateo interrupted Jake's thoughts, his head sitting in his hand as he continued, "I know you haven't known her long, but this is what you got yourself into. This is Saya. She'd be mad if she found out you were wasting your Friday worrying about her."
Jake knew that Mateo was right, but even if he wanted to not think about her, it seemed as though wherever Jake went, thoughts of Saya followed. While helping his mother with grocery shopping, some old Jonas Brothers song started playing, and he had to forcibly refrain from blurting out something about how Saya had done her own horrible karaoke rendition of the song a couple nights before she vanished.
A couple hours later, Jake had found a plethora of doodles littering his math book— all courtesy of Saya Han. And then when watching a movie with his brother, Saya popped into his head again; This time, due to an actress who he knew Saya was a fan of. He hadn't been able to keep the thought internalized like he had done at the grocery store, though, and muttered something along the lines of 'Ooh! That's Sy's favourite actress!'. His brother failed to comprehend what he had said, catching a couple words but otherwise being too focused on the movie to listen— or care for that matter.
