Outrun The World

Chapter 5

"News traveled fast," Rica said, her hands on her side while looking at a grouo of kids and teenagers arriving to the river. They have all sorts of paraphernalias with them like empty coke bottles, gallons and one carried a leafless banana trunk. She smiled and shouted to them in their local language. Her voice really carried, even with the noisy river current.

"Kuya Ian!" several little kids called and He Tian waved at them before holding a thick vine hanging from a huge tree overlooking the deepest part of the river. He looked like a dog who has never been out from its kennel for a long time.

"Watch me!" He Tian shouted, looking at Mo Guan Shan while stepping backwards before he dashed forward and leaped, letting go of the vine. He made a big splash.

The spectators cheered and ran towards the elevated embankment where the vine hanged. After a while, kids started falling from the air to the greenish blue water. One kid rode on his floating banana trunk.

It was weirdly entertaining that he didn't notice his own grinning face while taking in the scenery.

"What did they call him?" Mo Guan Shan asked Rica after a while. His eyes never left the other boy who was tilting his head and gently knocking on it to get rid of the water in his ear.

Rica handed him a boiled banana and he had common sense enough to know how to at it just like the other kids.

"Kuya Ian? I made it up," Rica winked. "I got Ian from Tian. Tian here sound like Tiyan, our term for tummy. People find it kinda awkward and kids would always laugh at his name. So I made up an easily acceptable name for him."

"How about my name?"

"Well, in local ears, your name sounds way funnier than He Tian's because it doesn't make any sense."

Mo Guan Shan felt his face burn.

"Make a name for me too. One that's cool and easy to say," he said. The girl laughed, commenting about him being lowkey competitive.

"Shan is all right," she said and the called attention of the kids. They turned to their direction.

"Listen up! His name is Shan, so call him Kuya Shan okay?"

"Okay!" the kids answered. They were still looking at Mo Guan Shan, taking note of everything he did, so he pretended to not notice their attention.

"Don't mind them. They're just mesmerized by how handsome you look. They said your skin was unbelievable," Rica told him.

"Will they ever stop?" Mo Guan Shan asked, ignoring the word handsome. He'd never felt handsome so he felt like it was unacceptable and not worth repeating.

He was aware of his own face, of how people see him, but he can't just understand how they he appeared to be, or in what way they look at him to see something good in his physical appearance.

"They'll get tired, eventually. Wait until they get used to seeing you around, or until you get sunburn and look just like the rest of us."

"So it won't be today, huh," he muttered.

Two pinkish feet stopped in front of him so he raised his head to look at He Tian. The water dripping from the boy's hair fell directly to his face but he didn't complain.

"Join me, Kuya Shan~" He Tian teased. Mo Guan Shan scooted to the side, effectively evading the pair of wet hands trying to cup his face.

"Shut up. What's Kuya, anyway?"

"It means older brother."

"You know a lot," Mo Guan Shan stood up, dusting off his damp bum.

"And you scowl a lot."