🔵 You do realize that the only reason I win in Uno is that i shuffle the deck, rite...?

🔴 Yeah...sure...right...

It's been a week since I actually asked him of the reason of his deafness.

Why is he like this now?

Since that day, he's always been half-mood. Especially now that we already have pretty much the same classes, I've been watching him for the past days. It was as if he went back to the Hali he was before.

My nerves start feeling sketchy over his sudden weird aura. He didn't exactly start being the intimidating Hali again. Instead, he went kind of blank, both figuratively and literally, actually.

At Design Theory class, he barely sketches. Mostly fidgeting, like me. More to that, he barely even shows up. Later on, I eventually realized he's been taking in more jobs, perhaps to pay tuition.

Other than his first two, now he has one more. Today, he plans to get another one.

I want to tell him to take a break. I mean, no one's exactly pushing him to provide for his family, I guess. Still, I can't find the right way to tell him that since, right now, we're at Ergonomics class. Our professor is a bit stricter here, she won't exactly tolerate phones. It's kinda a good thing Solar decided to move from her classes though. He won't stand her.

For a pregnant woman, she knows how to be uptight.

My mind continues to linger on other things, however. How long I'd have to endure Economics class for the next few days, judging by it'll be my only class until the weekends, how I'm writing out of pages in my notebooks, and mostly how Hali's been pretty bummed out lately.

Not to mention how he came to this class late, sweaty and even more exhausted than usual, pissing off our Ergo prof.

He also sat somewhere else. Usually he picks the seat next to me.

Something's just not right.

There's always things not right for me.

The feeling that comes to me is sickening, draining, worrying. It was only a matter of time for Prof to wrap up the lesson.

"Okay, class," she yells for the entire class to hear. Though...we can still hear her just as fine as usual. "You won't be able to see me for our next few meetings, I'm on maternity leave. Now scram...Class is dismissed."

Wow, did Hali literally make her stressed over being late?

She wants us to scram, so I scram. I tidy my things quickly, considering how this is to be my last class for the day. At the same time, I rush to reach for my phone, trying to call to Hali.

When I look up from my table, he's gone. Off going outside.

I walked down our tiered aisles, looking down to the windows to see Hali. I'd rather have to chase him down than to chat him and he doesn't reply. Something's up.

I follow Prof with my eyes, watching her walk to the north wing. Until my eyes shift to another angle. I find a guy in an orange varsity jacket, accompanied by a bunch of other fellow doofuses with jackets, actually. With one in purple, and one in blue, I'm very much told who these boys are.

Aren't they the frat boys?

Gempa's advices come to my head instantly. It's the usual advices you'd hear from an older cousin regarding fraternities, really. Don't mess with the frat boys. Leave their messes to the school head. They don't usually attack. Normally, they only pick on someone they find strange or unfit in the school.

For Pete's sake, they can even double-cross their own members.

I try to convince myself all may be okay. All may be fine. They aren't exactly a threat normally.

Except today. They are today.

"Ahhhhh...little loser weebo got himself into a knot with the Ergo Prof, eh, Probe?"

I've never known the boy named Adu Du from this close. Many say he's from the Architecture course. But only now do I see him for who he truly is.

No professor is around now.

I get that stupid tingle again.

Where's Gempa?

From in the classroom hall, I see Probe throw a piece of crumpled paper. "Looks like fake royalty, but smells like fish in the morning. Is that what your stupid name means, Hali?!"

Another crumpled paper is tossed.

I know Hali feels it. He just isn't looking back. He can't hear their words.

Still, the thought bothers me.

Immature little shrimps.

Adu Du stuffs his hands to his pockets. "You're pretty smart though, Probe. Yeah, sure. Nice job. I mean, if this maniac won't hear you, yeet stuff, right?"

Probe chuckles, sneering. "Man, this doofus just won't hear nothing, would he?" He throws another piece of paper harder.

Adu Du yells. Everyone in the hall glances. At least they're smart to not look for long. "Coward tryna fake being deaf!"

I rush to his side.

These frat boys don't mess with me.

He knows I'm beside him, walking. He gives me that weird look again. "What are you doing here?"

"You're being thrown at."

"I know that!"

"You ain't leaving without me."

I pat his back. I'm his buddy now. I'm clearly showing Adu Du and his stupid gang to not mess with him if he doesn't want me in the fight.

Gempa will eventually hear about this.

He just doesn't know that. "AWH, little boy came to play, huh?!" Probe cackles. "So much for a boy without a tongue!"

I don't look back at them when I feel a crumpled paper hit my head.

Hali knows I was hit. He looks at me.

I want to lead him far from here.

Adu Du's voice blows once more. "Look at these cowardly pieces of~"

"Hey! What do you think you're doing, you brat?!"

I hear a fist slamming into a face. There are gasps. It's 8:15 in the morning. The other Ergonomics class has been dismissed.

This is Solar's voice.

Hali looks back first. Then I do. Solar's arm is fresh from the punch. More students come by to pull him back before more chaos erupts. Adu Du also has Probe's back, along with their other member whose name I never bothered to learn.

Solar resists the hands holding him back, his hands pointing and his voice echoing through the open corridors. "You don't mess with my cousin, you listen to me! You got something to say, you mess with me! I see you lay a single finger on my cousin again, I am sending you home in a bleeding mess, you blasted son of a~!!"

"Solar!" This is Gempa's voice. He's here.

I only manage to watch. Other students usher us away. Hali can't understand a single thing. I hear it all.

"They're picking on Taufan, I had to~!" he croaks out, the students backing him out restraining him from yelling more.

Gempa holds out his hand, handling this all perfectly. His eyes scowl on the frat boys. "I'm reporting this incident to the school head. She'll know about all this."

===

In the dorm, Solar and Gempa sit in front of me. Hali by my side.

All of us were taken aback by what happened. Still, he works this out professionally. "I've talked to the head, they'll be dispatching spy-student-council-members on the hunt for more violent fraternities. In this environment where we welcome other..." He looks to Hali carefully. "...disabled students, we can't see to let this slide."

Solar looks down on the table. Thankfully, he got no bruises. "I'm sorry. I lost my temper."

"I get how you got mad for Upan's sake, I know. But...we can't physically brawl. Let's just hope you won't get suspended or expelled, Solar. You physically hurt him first. We're kinda at a loss now."

I worry for Solar now. All he wanted was to protect me. With me as the youngest, and him taking martial arts summer classes, I sort of already saw this happen.

It becomes awkward when Gempa wants to talk to Hali. He tries to converse, asking for my phone.

"Upan, can I borrow phone?"

I nod, handing it to him.

He fumbles with it, typing something on my notepad app to talk to Hali. When he hands it to us, we both read.

"Your Ergo Prof will be away for sometime. You won't be in classes for the next 5 days. If the two of you want, you guys can try to go back home. Get away from the dorms for a while, we'll try handling this case while the two of you are gone. It would be for the best."

I look up to Gempa. If it were for the best, then I go with it. I nod, then look to Hali.

He stares down on the message, his eyes frozen and pasted on my phone.

Does he even get what Gempa meant?

I swipe the phone, tinkering with the touchscreen. I chat him.

🔵 Hali...He says let's go home...
🔵 I'm going...Are you...?

I look to him. He takes his phone in his pocket, feeling it vibrate.

🔴 Yeah
🔴 Yeah sure
🔴 I'm going...