Unexpectedly Expecting

𝒊𝒊. 𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒐

— Chapter 2 —

"Tell me, Kai, what was your first impression of me?" Marie blurted out during lunchtime as Yejun, Kai, Marie, and I were just sitting down and staring at the sunny view of the balcony.

We go to a private school and the campus is really beautiful. In each classroom, there are large windows and a balcony where you can admire the view from and whenever I lose focus and daydream, I would glance at the sky, especially when the weather is beautiful.

Today, there were only a few clouds in the sky and we can clearly see the view of the neighborhood around the school, which is breathtaking. What's even greater is that I have my friends with me to admire the view with.

"Why all of a sudden?" Yejun immediately answered his expression in Japanese. Marie just shrugged in response and Kai immediately answered.

"I found you intimidating at first," Kai said with a nervous laugh, which shocked Marie. I nodded my head in agreement because who wouldn't find the 5'5" girl with a resting bitch face who is really strong and good at sports intimidating? Especially since I was horrible at sports. "I think that was my very first impression of you. But then after talking for a few times, I thought that you were different from what I thought."

Marie just nodded in response. "So I guess I intimidate everyone when I meet them for the first time?"

I only could sheepishly smile and nod. The naturally brown-haired girl just recently dyed her hair to a lighter tone which almost looks honey blonde, and that made her more intimidating. "I mean... Anyone who gets caught breaking the rules at school can be intimidating?" I added, unsure of my words.

Marie started lifting her index finger but stopped repeatedly before shrugging. "Anyways, thank you for your honest answer, Kai," she said as she pats Kai on his back, which he slightly winced at.

"No problem," he managed to say with a cough.

"Why didn't you ask me or Kiera?" Yejun asked as he stole one of my jelly, which I managed to take back as I slapped his hand.

Marie smiled in amusement as she saw Yejun failing at taking my jelly. "You've voluntarily told me your first impression a few times and I don't want to hear your voice for a moment," she said as she laughed at the end. "As for Kiera, I don't think she wants to hurt my feelings so she might've answered it with a sweet surface."

"What makes you think Kai won't answer with a sweet surface?" Yejun scoffed, obviously ignoring the fact that Marie wanted him to not let his voice out. "Look at him."

The Australian boy just sat in silence, looking at us with his puppy-like eyes, which always warms everyone's heart just by looking cute and innocent. "Look at what?" the boy questioned with his deep voice, which clearly showed the gap of his duality.

Before anyone could answer, a voice came from the school's speakers.

"Marie Hashiguchi from class 2-3, please come to the office immediately," the speaker blasted out in Japanese, perhaps her homeroom teacher. As soon as Marie's name was announced, everyone in the international classroom looked at Marie and gave her the "see you in the afterlife" kind of look while Marie herself looked indifferent and just simply shrugged at the announcement. Everyone looked at her in that way most probably because the announcer said it in a really cold and serious tone, which was unusual.

"Oh shit," escaped Kai's mouth, which was not too surprising since I often catch him muttering or almost shouting curse words as if that was his second language, but he would manage to stop himself midway. It's entertaining to watch his eyes get wide as he panics upon realizing what he has said. That usually happens when adults are around.

Yejun looked at Marie and gave her a thumbs up. "Come back in one piece, alright?"

Marie let out a small laugh. "You all are being too dramatic," she said in Japanese with a grin. "I probably won't be able to make it back in time, but I'll see you after school?"

Kai, Yejun, and I gave her a nod as she collected her belongings before going to the teacher's office. We finished our lunches in silence and my mind kept on wondering why Marie was called.

It wouldn't be surprising if it were about her breaking the school's dress code as she dyed her hair and wore a hoodie on top of her uniform which did not have our school's logo.

"Do you think she's in serious trouble for breaking the dress code?" I pondered out loud and Kai silently nodded as he was chewing his rice ball.

Yejun moved his hand from his drink and put it on his chin as if he was thinking. "I mean, anything is possible with Marie."

"I hope it's nothing bad," Kai added and we all nodded.

▬▬▬

"So what happened?"

Marie seemed to be lost in her own thoughts as she was staring at the ground as we were walking out of school to head to McDonald's just a few minutes away from our school. She looked up upon hearing Yejun spoke up.

Unlike her usual resting bitch face, her expression was instead replaced with an unreadable expression between being sad or lost. Marie just flashed a small smile that did not reach her eyes and shrugged. "It's nothing big. You guys were just overreacting," she said with a small laugh.

There was definitely something up, and as if Yejun, Kai, and I could read each other's minds, we all looked at each other and gave each other a small nod, not wanting to bother Marie but we're concerned for her.

I hope that nothing happened to her or anything around her. I don't want to force her to tell us, but hopefully, she would not do anything that will harm herself.

"If there's anything you'd like to tell us, please do tell," Kai said softly, putting his hand on Marie's shoulder. "Sometimes it's not easy to keep everything to yourself and I hope that you trust us enough to keep your words." His time spent in the Japanese cram school didn't fail, and he was able to convey all of that in Japanese.

I can tell that Marie tried her best to not crack, and she just held Kai's hand that was placed on her shoulder and smiled. "Thank you," she replied in English with a small voice. "I'll tell you when I'm ready."

"Let's hurry up and go to McDonald's, I'm hungry," Yejun jumped in and Marie rolled her eyes as she laughed. "I'll buy you fries, Marie."

"Why? It's fine," Marie said as we got into the fast-food restaurant.

Yejun looked at the sign next to her and shook his head. "Look, the price of the large fries are way cheaper than usual, let me buy it for you."

Marie finally gave in and I just laughed at their interaction. I felt bad for not being able to cheer her up like the boys.

"Are you gonna get me French fries too?" Kai asked upon Marie giving into Yejun paying for her fries.

"Are you gonna get me French fries too?" Yejun repeated in a horrible Australian accent. "Get it yourself, rich boy."

"Are you calling me poor then?" Marie retorted, causing Kai to snicker.

Yejun dropped his smug face and started to panic. "No, that's not what I meant. I swear! You didn't seem to have a good day after lunch and--"

"Yeah, okay I get it," Marie said with a smile on her face. "Thank you so much though. Thank you, y'all helped me and made my day today."

Marie looked at me and cupped my head to her shoulder. "Are you alright, Kiera?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I insisted. "I'm sorry I can't do much to help you."

Marie looked surprised at my words. "What? No, Ki, just by your being here is enough. Arigato. I mean it."

We all walked to our seats after we got our food, and Marie looked happy again as usual. I smiled at her words and Yejun looked at me with a smile.

"So uh, can I ditch math tomorrow?"