KIDS WILL BE KIDS

03. the foreigners

in our friend group, there were two people from outside of the country. jake and niki. jake is from australia and niki is from japan.

our friend group would always take pride on that. i still do. i mean... the chances of befriending a foreigner for small town bumpkins like us, were really small. plus, the chances of them coming at us and befriending us instead was near to impossible. not many people could get a taste of other culture as close as us, moreover for kids.

i still remember the day when the two of them joined the crew. the first one was jake. he looked just like us, but he was having difficulties in speaking in our language. so we would question that again and again to him like "if you look just like us, then, what's the problem?" such inconsiderate brats that we all were asking that said question. the short information that he had been born and raised in other country, didn't get into our brains through our thick skulls.

jake never answered such questions back then, he didn't know how to speak our language though he understood one or two words of our language if we had spoke slower not louder. he was unfamiliar with the language, not deaf, just like what we did to niki.

whenever the two of them got asked the said question, all they did was to look at us one by one in the eyes and by the end of the line where their eyes met mine, they'd drop their head hanging low. jake would play with the rim of his shorts while niki would scratch his index finger with his thumb.

if we had english class, that'd be a win to our friend group. although, when the teacher asked to group with two to three people (any number under seven) we'd have to get in each other's way to make jake became part of each of our group. it wasn't unusual for us to debate then sulk for some of us had failed to make jake joining the group. but when the lunchtime came, we'd move on from what happened and roll like we always did. a good six friends sharing a meal.

the thing with niki was more interesting. you see, niki was the youngest of all. he was one grade below the rest of the crew. but he approached us first on a late afternoon pointing at our soccer ball while mumbling something we didn't know. to be precise, he was speaking in japanese... quietly, while avoiding eye contact from six sweaty boys looking weirdly at the young boy. our shadows were casted on him i pity him now, truthfully, must be scary...

as the loverboy that you were and i bet you still do, you came up to him, you put your hands on his either side of his shoulder and i could see it, no, i could sense it even though you were back-facing me that while you spoke sweetly introducing yourself and you also introduced the rest of the gang, you had that sweet smile on your lips. and i also bet your eyes had turned to upside-down crescent moons because it was clear, reflected on niki's face that he was also bewitched.

because if not, then explain why he was enthralled with that slightly agape mouth spoke clearly of it and why did he suddenly gain the courage to come up to the rest of us in body language he spoke, "count me in into the game!" like he wasn't a scared little mice just seconds ago?

it was always you and your magic!