what hurts the most

CHAPTER 1.

4th grade. To be honest, I don't remember how I made friends before this, but on my first day as a 4th grader, I have about five? seven friends with me? The usual for this school was to find your name on the papers posted outside each homeroom. But if you had incredible friends, you wouldn't have to tire yourself trying to hop from one room to another. Ah, that's because they would be waiting for you at the end of the staircase and lead you to your homeroom.

The conversation our friend group had while waiting for our teacher went from "how's vacation?" to "Ran Josh is our classmate!".

"Maniwala ka sa akin, mama's boy 'yun!" Morisette told everyone in our circle. "'Wag na 'wag mong lalapitan ang lalaking 'yon." She warned everyone, but at the time it felt as if it was directed only to me.

Morisette's remark bothered me for a while, so much that I still remember what she said verbatim. What's wrong with being a mama's boy, though? Why would you avoid him as though he is a bad influence or something? But I guess, a 4th grader can have shallow opinions sometimes.

I saw Ran inside the classroom and he was just quietly sitting at the back. If he was going to be like that the whole school year, then I won't have to try hard to avoid him, right?

Wrong.

The next day would be the start of something I wasn't prepared for. He was absent and it was time for our homeroom teacher to assign seats. As classic as our teacher is, she assigned me at the back because I was too tall to sit anywhere else.

She then added, "Dude Jeric, paki-save ang katabi mong upuan para kay Ran Josh. Okay?" There was no way I'd argue with my teacher then, so I just nodded in agreement. But because of my friends' glares and teasing, I pushed the chair a few inches away from me as if I am disgusted by the fact that Ran will be my seatmate for the first quarter of the school year. Heck, I was unconsciously feeding my friends' teasing. I wasn't even sure if I actually hate the guy. I just went with how my friends approached things.

But I'm glad my teacher decided to seat us together. The days that followed was almost like a dream, now that I'm piecing them again together.

Ran and I, we became friends. Best of friends, actually.