on the next spring | ✓

1

Photograph - Ed Sheeran

It was winter in 1994. 

Little did I know how much my curiousity could led me to such trouble, but the damage had already been done. I hid behind the wall, particularly sure that I had nowhere to run to. I peeked through the little hole on the wall, witnessing as a rather big man - the school's principal - making his way towards the wall which I was hiding behind. Amidst the chaos between the discipline teacher, the security guard and the principal, I prayed with my whole chest so that I won't get caught. That was the most messed up stuff that could ever happen to me. 

A first grader that bunked off mathematic class because he found the teacher unamusing. Wait till any of my neighbour find out about it and eventually spill the tea to my mum. I'd rather die. 

As I closed my eyes, accepting my fate, I could felt a great force pushing me towards the bush besides the wall I was hiding behind. Before I could comprehend, there I was behind the dense bushes, crouching down while my mouth were kept close by a pair of hand. 

A foreign hand that somehow smelled like candies. 

My eyes almost fell out of it's pocket when the first thing that I saw was a rather familiar face, in which the said owner of the face were peeking outside of the bushes, while her hand were still on my mouth. After a few minutes, our eyes met. I knew her. 

She was a second grader, a gem for the school. One that would score straight As and won hundreds of competitions in the same breath. 

But somehow, why was she here?

"Shut up for now, little sprout. You got me into this mess." She hissed at me, although I didn't utter any word. We were still crouching down, and eventhough honestly my leg broke from the force of my upper body part, I didn't dare to move an inch. I was sure that the teachers and security guards were still busy examining the whole 'crime scene', looking for traces of me. One sound from me and I'd be a dead meat once I reached home.

"There you are!" a loud voice echoed. I shut my eyes, as her hand fell down, stopped covering my mouth and letting me breath just fine once again. Ironically, I didn't feel the urge to breath anymore. Please just kill me. 

I heard the girl sighed and I could felt the compact space we both shared earlier widened as she got up. When I opened my eyes, I could see the shocked expression of the principal and he laid his eyes on me. "Okay but Miss Lee, if you're going to bunk off school again, mind you not to bring first grader with you! Gosh, what did you feed him to follow you all the way here?" 

Eng? Am I hearing things or -

"Sorry, Mister but excuse you? I didn't bring him with me. He was just there when I was doing my agenda. He chose the action of skipping school himself, I didn't influence him in any way. I don't even know him." She fought back, before glaring at me and signalled me to get up. I clicked my tongue as my feet pushed towards the ground and eventually got up in the slowest speed possible. 

Sceptically, the principal squinted his eyes on me, examining me from head to toe. All I got to do was rolling my eyes in annoyance. Cuff me up, sir. I'm all busted. I glared to the so-called Miss Lee besides me. So she was the real target, then? So I was running and hiding like crazy earlier only to found out that I could have run away earlier as the teacher didn't actually see me climbing over the gate but rather they spotted her exiting school through a hole on the wall?

The more you know.

"Alright then, both of you! Follow me to the principal room, now!" When the teacher turned his back towards us, I glanced towards the girl. She was small. Probably three centimetre taller than me, but she had got this intimidating aura. Or was that probably because she thecnically held me hostage in the bushes earlier? I personally believed in the later part. 

When our eyes met, I couldn't help but mouthed 'YOU are the one who got me into this mess.' 

And she replied in a clear voice, smirking and shrugging. "We're both messed up, then."

Well, maybe we were. Because from then onwards, I found myself investing in the mess we created.