Mr. Storyteller (On HOLD)

v. Orange

October 7, 2010;

'You know... I was thinking that we should stop this,' Adi said, not looking up from his notebook as he could feel Kai staring at him as soon as the words left his mouth.

'What?' Kai asked.

'You know...' Adi searched for suitable words. His mind was refusing to let him look up at Kai, he was not able to understand any words in front of him, yet his eyes didn't leave the notes that he had scribbled down in the class.

'...This!' Adi pointed towards Kai's scattered notes, then at Kai, then towards himself. He could only imagine how absurd he must be looking to Kai. This was one of those very rare occasions where Adi found himself at loss for words, he doesn't know why he was finding it so hard to spit out a single sentence.

Kai let out a soft chuckle as he spoke, 'What are you talking about?' 

Adi finally let himself look at Kai and instantly regretted as he felt a heat seared through his cheeks when he found Kai, under a wave of confusion, but still had a small soothing smile. 'We- uhh... we should stop these... tuition session-'

'Why?' Kai interrupted.

'I was just going to tell-" Adi sighed. "-the midterms are coming a-and we've almost completed the syllabus till now... So, we can study on our own, you know?"

Kai said after a small pause, 'I'd rather study with you, but it's fine. I mean, sure! If you want it.'

"Oh no! I don't think Adi wants that- Even I can tell that!" Sai exclaimed, as she raised her hands in frustration, making the Storyteller laugh.

"Well, you see... Kai is kind of an airhead and he doesn't look for the thorough meanings of anyone's action or words." He explained. "Adi was aware of that and he took advantage of that to run away from his feelings."

Sai shook her head, "What's he gonna do? Hide whenever he sees Kai?"

"Yeah, that's probably what Adi was planning," 

"But, I'm sure Kai'd realize that eventually... won't he?" Sai questioned, hoping the man beside her would answer but all he did was grin and shrug.

She signed knowing that she had no other option than to wait. She was about to ask Mr. Storyteller to continue, but she ended up saying something else, "Kai'd definitely be mad if he found out..."

"Shouldn't he?" He asked and noticed her bouncing legs, something that she did when she thought deeply. The past few days with her had been enough for him to pick this detail. "I mean, Adi purposely pushed Kai away when he didn't even do anything-"

She spoke up before he could finish his sentence, "But, Adi was scared! Adi did it out of fear and I-I think that's alright." She carefully looked at him, wondering if he agreed with her, "Don't you?"

She waited for a response, but he stared at her like, she was speaking a language he wasn't familiar with. He somehow couldn't help, but smile. 

"What?" Sai asked, curiously.

"Adi would have been really happy to hear that," he said and saw her expression change into confusion, but he only shrugged and looked at the ground as he continued his story.

There was a sudden, noticeable, hint of gloominess in his voice that he didn't bother to cover which only made Sai listen more carefully.

The Next day, as Adi was entering the school when Kai sneaked up from behind and grumbled, 'You're not doing this to get rid of me, are you?' Near Adi's ear.

Adi let out a light shriek, jumping away from Kai and watched him laugh. Covering his ear with his hand as he felt it burning up. "What is wrong with you?" He yelled and quickly looked around, few students glanced at them before continuing walking, they probably didn't even know him, but he felt like- in that split second they could look through him. Everyone could see what he was hiding, especially Kai.

'Just confirming...' with a little guilt in his voice, Kai replied.

'Confirming what exactly? It's not even been a day yet!' As much as Adi hated how harsh his voice came out, he couldn't help himself. He felt small, they were almost of the same height, but yet he felt like he had to look up to meet Kai's eyes. He was never someone to get taken back by someone's expression, but he panicked when he saw Kai's face looked rigid with tension.

He let out a nervous laugh. 'It's just study sessions... why are you acting like I broke your heart or something?' Adi didn't realize how those words left his mouth and by the way the tension on Kai face got replaced with a surprised smile, explained that he wasn't expecting that either.

'You might have,' said Kai with a grin and that might have given Adi a feeling of, spring in October or something chirpy like- birds on early sunny mornings. It might have if he didn't get distracted by the school bell.

Realizing they were still standing near the main entrance, gave him a reason to not respond with anything as both of them ran to the class.

As soon as they slowed down, reaching near their classroom. Adi slapped his hand away after Kai grabbed him by his bag and pulled him beside himself. 'Tell me, if we're gonna continue the tuition sessions after the exams...' Kai trailed off, giving Adi time to reply.

'And then?'

'Then you might unbreak my poor heart,' Kai said with a hushed voice and quickly walked into the class.

"They are idiots," Sai sighed. "I thought Adi'd be a little smarter, but he's equally stupid."

"They are, indeed." 

"It's clear that they are attracted to each other! Why can't they just say it?" She said while glaring at nothing particular.

"The thing about attraction is that it'll either bloom and grow more or just die once it reaches a certain point and Adi was hoping for the latter." He said and found her smiling quietly.

"But that didn't happen." She concluded, still smiling and the Storyteller nodded.

There were only a few minutes left before she leaves, so he decided to stop the story for today. He let his eyes wander around, noticed the water puddles due to the big and tiny cracks on the concrete pathway.  How a small boy ran over it, splashing the muddy water then a name was shouted from a distance, by a women, probably his mother and her way of warning him, but he only giggled at her.

Mr. Storyteller smiled at the scene when he felt a poke on his arm. Turning his attention to Sai, he raised his brows. "Hmm?"

"Is it that bad..." she started in a tiny voice. "For a boy to like another boy or a girl to like a girl? It shouldn't be right?"

He shook his head and sighed, "If it was something bad then, I wouldn't have started telling you a story about this. There's nothing bad about it- do you think-"

"I don't! But, from the way Adi is behaving and how he is afraid... Why does he feel like it's wrong?"

"Because, Adi had no one to tell him that there's nothing wrong with how he's feeling."