Basta | Annyeongz

Finale

“For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.”

Gustuhin man ni Wonyoung na makinig sa guro niya sa harap, she can’t help but want to fall asleep right now. She likes studying, sure, but their science teacher’s voice really feels like a lullaby. She feels like she’ll fall asleep if this keeps up. Hindi pa nakatulong yung fact na natapat sa alas dos ng hapon yung subject, which is exactly good for some siesta time. To think na ganito yung sched until finals, good luck talaga sa kanya.

Napabuntong hininga na lang si Wonyoung and tried her best to focus on their topic at hand, of Newton’s three laws of motion.

But unfortunately, her best isn’t enough.

Naka-ilang kurot na siya sa sarili in order to stay awake. Hindi na rin niya mabilang kung ilang beses na siyang tumingin sa wrist watch niya just to check just how much time should she try to hold out sa subject na ‘to, (also how much time is left for this subject to end). And every time she did, she inwardly sighs kasi apparently, twelve minutes pa lang pala into the subject’s time but to her, it feels like an eternity had already passed.

She swears na mahal niya yung subject along with math but she agrees to the people who says that a student’s liking towards a subject can also depend on the teacher who’s educating them about it. Kasi minsan, nasa teaching style din talaga siya nakadepende and kung magaling magturo yung guro, no doubt that even the most difficult concepts can be easily digested by the students. And ayaw naman din niya sana mag-compare but their math teacher is one of a kind kasi kahit na madalas parang nag-ra-rap yung guro nila sa math, interesting and nakukuha naman din nilang magkakaklase yung topic.

Wonyoung can feel her eyelids getting heavier by the second. Paunti-unti nang nagsasara ang kanyang mga mata until she felt something graze her elbow that was resting on top of her desk. She lazily looked at the culprit first and saw her only seatmate, who has her eyes in front and even acting as if she’s listening and taking down notes. Wonyoung scrunched her nose in disbelief.

Siguro nakikinig nga talaga ‘to kay Ma’am. Grabe yung concentration niya eh. Wonyoung thought.

Or so she thought. Kasi pagtingin niya sa may elbow niya, she saw a notebook that was obviously opened at the back side dahil sa mga doodles and scribbles, (gawain niya rin ito lalo na kapag bored siya sa isang subject) but it’s minimal and there’s still a lot of space to write on.

‘Inaantok ka?’ Yun lang yung nakasulat in a rather small yet readable and clean penmanship ng kaklase. Wonyoung is and will probably be forever jealous of her seatmate’s handwriting. Ang ganda kasi tignan, parang font na galing sa computer sa linis. At siya din yung tipo na kahit anong ballpen man hawak niya, andun pa rin yung consistency ng penmanship niya. Unlike hers na madalas nakadepende yung penmanship sa ballpen, papel, at mood niya if she’s writing.

Wonyoung glared at her classmate first before writing a reply kasi naantala yung pagtulog niya but at the same time, she’s grateful because she’ll become distracted and would probably forget about her drowsiness because of this. And so, she wrote, ‘Obvious ba?’ before handing the notebook back to its owner.

Almost immediately, she received a response. ‘Oo.’

‘Pake mo ba? Eh sa inaantok ako.’ Sulat naman ni Wonyoung sa papel, pabagsak niyang nilagay yung notebook which unfortunately made noise a little too loud and caught their teacher’s attention.

“Ms. Jang and Ms. Ahn, is there something you want to share with the class?”

As if on cue, all of the drowsiness she felt earlier suddenly evaporated, “None, Ma’am.” She felt her face burning up due to both embarrassment and feeling flustered. She knew that it was a bad idea to notice Yujin’s notebook in the first place but anong magagawa niya, bored na bored na siya.