Back To Zero : Kunpimook Bhuwakul

-1

From: Mina
Meet us at the park, will you? ^__^

She finishes her drink, stands up and rolls up the long sleeves of her shirt as a new text from Mina suddenly comes in her phone, telling her to go to the park. She leaves the cafe and heads over to the park.

Before she even gets close enough that she could hear whatever they were saying, she stops in her tracks.

Four of them are there. Mina and Sana who are sitting down on the grass, laughing, (of course, those two are practically inseparable) Jackson who's jumping around and flailing his arms as he speaks, and BamBam who's just casually leaning against a tree as a smile plays on his lips as he watches his friend.

She takes a few small steps closer, her eyes glued to the Thai boy. He's wearing his black and white baseball jacket and usual black skinny jeans. He had told her once that he had actually never washed it before and just sprays perfume on it every time he would wear it, because if he washed it, the color would change and something would happen to the folds of the jeans. She couldn't remember exactly what he said.

She walks closer again and Jackson notices her, screaming out her name and waving his arms wildly, as if motioning for her to hurry up. And so she does. She jogs towards them, stopping by the other side of the tree BamBam's leaning against, though she keeps her distance.

"Jackson just told us something crazy," Mina turns around and smiles at her, giggles still escaping her lips. "I'm surprised if you haven't seen him flailing his arms on your way here, or at least heard his voice. He was so loud,"

"Jackson's always loud," BamBam speaks up from his position, a smirk curling his lips upward again, and then he yelps as the older boy tackles him, capturing him in a headlock and messing up his hair. By the time Jackson lets go, his hair is like a bird's nest and his jacket is rumpled. He frowns and lets out a sigh, starting to fix his hair as Jackson turns to her and restarts his story.

She's watching him and she's really trying her best to listen well to whatever Jackson's saying, but his words just go in one ear and go out of the other. But the storyteller doesn't seem to notice that his listener isn't paying any attention to him.

Probably because he's acting out his entire story and he's too absorbed in his acting to actually notice anything else that's happening. It's only when Jackson calls out her name and pouts, saying that he's hurt because she wasn't listening to him at all, that she actually listens.

She doesn't notice Mina and Sana turn around and exchange looks with BamBam, and she doesn't notice Jackson sneak a glance at the Thai boy as he speaks.

A few hours later, the sky is starting to darken, which surprises her, because she didn't realize that time would fly by so fast.

"Hey, BamBam, can you walk her home today?" Mina suddenly says loudly, catching his attention. He raises an eyebrow questioningly.

"Why? Why me?"

"Because we have some things to do,"

"I can walk home on–"

"Yeah, you can, but we're not letting you do that," Jackson says cheerfully, slinging his arm over her shoulder casually; She ducks away from him. She's not used to Jackson's skin ship.

"But–"

"BamBam, walk her home,"

There was a silence as BamBam glares at Mina, then he lets out a deep breath and flips his fringe out of his eyes, silently nodding.

"We'll get going first, then," Mina smiles and starts pushing Sana farther away from them as Sana shouts a quick 'bye' and Mina merely waves her hand.

"You two should get going, too," Jackson says, a cheerful smile on his face. BamBam nods and starts to walk after muttering a word of farewell. She does the same, bowing to the Hong Kong native.

Their walk back to her house is terribly silent. His hands are in his pockets as he walks without even looking back to see if she's there, and her head is lowered as she follows him, keeping her eyes on her feet.

Fifteen minutes later, the pair of them are standing outside her house, they're facing each other, and again, he's looking anywhere but her. She notices his fingers twitch and somehow, she's reminded of their texts.

"Uh, thank you for walking me back." she starts, the words sounding alien to her ears.

He doesn't smile, he doesn't look at her, he doesn't say anything. Not even a 'you're welcome.' He just kicks the little rocks that are at his feet.

"See you, BamBam."

"Goodbye, peach girl."

His reply comes quickly and she's startled as the way he addresses her. He had never called her that face to face before, it's usually just through text that he calls her using that nickname.

She opens her mouth to say something more, but before a word can leave her lips, he turns on his heel and walks away from her.