A Rose With Its Thorns Cut Off

6. A Close-Knit Group of Friends

Jane and I became instant friends. We bonded over the next two periods together. The "bonding" mostly consisted of Jane talking about a dozen things 500 miles per minute and me listening while nodding to show I follow or understand. She is definitely a talker. It didn't bother her much that I was contributing nothing verbal in the conversation. She seems glad enough that I listen. A sure sign that she likes the attention. Maybe that's why she wanted to be president.

She soon introduced me to her circle of friends. They were more of a trio because there were only three of them. Looking at Jane, I initially thought she'll have dozens of friends. I mean she strikes me as an attention-seeker or a social butterfly by how much she talks. She said she's friends with everyone in our batch but they're more of friends because they attend the same school or class. These two people, however, were her "bestest of friends". And I'm happy I became one of them.

One of them was Lucy Ann Torres. Or better known as Lucy. She was by far the most contrasting person to Jane. If Jane was the literal sunshine, she'd be the darkness during the night. She was an emo teenager, always brooding and her favorite colors were black, dark red, and dark violet. She even wears eyeliner and constantly has her earphones plugged blasting either metal or rock. But she also listens to good acoustics if she was in a sentimental mood. She says she's into music and claims to be a pro in every kind of guitar that exists. She was friends with Jane since diapers.

Then there was Marco John Diaz. Resident jock of the group. He was the tallest in class and can be constantly found in the gym playing basketball. His motto is "ball is life". He isn't very smart and can be seen as an idiot most of the time, but his smiles are just as bright as Jane's, maybe even more. He isn't very handsome, but he was cute in my opinion. He's constantly bickering with Lucy because she always points out how stupid he can be. He became part of the group because he was constantly hitting on Jane. He claims she's her ideal wife. He would subtly propose his feelings for her time to time even though it was pretty clear that Jane did not reciprocate his feelings. It became kind of a habit for them. Lucy rolled her eyes at this and became very quiet during this part of the conversation, but it did not go unnoticed to me. It seems Lucy likes Marco, but Marco likes Jane. What a weird love triangle.

"So, how does it feel like being muse?" Andrea asks me intriguingly.

We were currently situated on a table near the windows of the school canteen. It was lunch time. We have seven subjects this Monday. We already had five of them before lunch. Two subjects in the morning, from 8 to 10, then a 15-minute break time that was mostly spent talking with the trio. Three subjects in the late morning to noon, 10:15 to 1:15, then lunch for 45 minutes.

By "we", I mean six girls occupying the same table. The six girls are composed of Jane, Lucy, me, and the triple A's - Andrea, Aileen, and Amber. The triple A's were our classmates as well. They were the sacred trio in school. They were all dancers and they were all K-pop fans. Whenever a dance performance in school shows up, the three of them were sure to be present in the performance itself. I haven't seen them dance yet but I believe they're good dancers since Jane did emphasize their "awesomeness". Lucy even said she "stans the right dancing queens". I have no idea what stan means but they must be big shots on the dance floor. The five of them bonded through a common interest: K-pop. The triple A's say they're "multi-fans". ...Don't know what that means. Jane also says she's a multi-fan like the three of them, but Jane apparently is a terrible dancer with moves as hard and stiff as rusted metal. That honestly made me laugh when they all started dancing like a bunch of robots to imitate Jane. Even Lucy is a K-pop fan. But she claims to only be a fan of B1A4, Big Bang, and AKMU (occasionally). Again, I have no idea who these people are.

It saddens me how little I know about these K-pop things. I guess the most K-pop I heard was PSY... But I don't even know if he's Korean. They tried to console me by saying that PSY is Korean, not that it did anything to lessen my worries. They told me it was fine and that they would be glad to educate me in the ways of a K-pop fan... I felt a chill run down my spine. Something tells me, bad things would result out of this kind of "education". Soon after that conversation, I ended up with a handful of K-pop groups I was supposed to look up as homework. When I looked at the small list, I saw 2ne1, Big Bang, Girls' Generation, SHINee, Super Junior, and f(x). Although confused as to why there was a math equation involved, I still thanked the girls and promised to look them up. The triple A's kept giggling at me. Something about a rabbit hole I'd get stuck into. But Jane and Lucy assured me to pay them no mind.