The phone did not stop ringing, blaring loudly like an alarm clock, and Bass had to pick it up half-awake.
"Oh Goooddd, what is it?!" he whined over the phone.
"Khoon Bass?" said the voice on the other end. He sounded familiar to Bass. "It's me, Godt,"
Bass jumped on his bed, electrified. He looked over his wall clock and realized it was past 10:00AM.
"Shit!" he cussed.
The other night Godt messaged him through Line and asked what time will they go around the city. Bass half-wittingly answered at 9:30AM, clearly not excited to start his task as a tour guide. Now he was past 30 minutes late of the schedule.
"Godt! I'm so sorry! I'll be quick! I'll meet you at the school gate by 10:30!" Bass replied apologetically and jumped straight to the bathroom. "Shit! At this rate I won't be able to have my breakfast!" he whined tearfully and busted open the shower knob. "Bul--! It's so coooooldd!!!" he screamed as the icy water burst out of the pipe and bathed him all over the body.
Godt, on the other hand, was left hanging as Bass hastily dropped the call. He was standing by the doorstep of his house already. Ready to go despite the scorching heat of the sun. "It'll be thirty minutes more," he thought to himself.
"I guess it's true with what they meant of 'Filipino' time," Godt muttered to himself and went back inside the house.
"Godt," echoed Bass's voice inside Godt's brain. A smile escaped from Godt's lips. It was the first time Bass called him by his name after being an absolute bitch yesterday. He sounded apologetic on the phone. Perhaps Bass wasn't so rude after all.
Godt remembered their first day of class. While sitting next to Bass, he would occasionally steal glances at him every now and then, including lunch break. On Bass's desk, several books about Thai language were piled on top of each other. Godt would notice how Bass was busy praciticing by himself, mumbling words while looking over the adjacent window to his left. From the books, Godt's eyes eventually scaled up towards Bass's face.
Bass had fair white skin, small pinkish lips, and soft, rosy cheeks inviting to be pinched. His eyes were dark but deep, with long lashes in them. Bass's had a small nose, but it wasn't flat either. If one would look closely, anyone could see how Bass was undeniably cute. Almost too cute anyone could mistakenly take him for a girl with a pixie cut for hair. Godt was unconsciously enjoying the view that he unwittingly cast a smile on his face. When Bass suddenly turned his eyes on him, Godt jerked on this seat and glanced the other way.
"Shiaa..." he cursed nervously under his breath. Bass must have felt someone was staring at him for hours, Godt thought to himself.
* * * *
"Sorry I held you back an hour," Bass muttered apologetically. "I should've set up the alarm,"
"Well, you're here already, why don't we eat first?" Godt suggested. "I haven't had my breakfast,"
Bass beamed a smile. "Perfect! I haven't had mine," he replied. "With that being said, the first part of learning our culture then is to have a full Filipino breakfast!"
Godt cheered up and nodded. Suddenly, Bass's mild temperature turned up a few notches warmer as Godt flashed that smile of his again. Something about Godt's smile was tugging a few strings inside his chest, but he managed to keep his cool somehow. "I shouldn't be acting close with this idiot. He still owes me an apology," he thought to himself. Bass thought Godt might have anger management issues, something he doesn't want to deal with. "Best to keep distance and be professional," he muttered to himself.
"What?" Godt asked as he heard Bass mumble.
"N-Nothing!" Bass exclaimed in pretense and started walking down the road, gesturing Godt to follow him. Sometime after treading the sidewalk for several hundred meters, Bass and Godt finally found a local food house or carenderia, as locally called.
"What's this?"
"Oh, that's tocilog,"
"It's too sweet!"
Godt forked the piece of meat and held it up distastefully. "Filipino breakfast tastes weird," he said. Bass interrupted and said, "It's marinated in a sweet sauce, it's supposed to be sweet,"
Still, Godt couldn't find it in himself to dive in at the food served before him, so Bass asked him. "What do you want then? You look like a child I'm forcing to eat vegetables,"
Godt looked agitated. He wondered if he should ask for a different kind of food or just finish the whole thing. There were fried eggs on his plate coupled with garlic rice, only that the yolk was cooked till it was baked dry. Godt placed the meat strips on the side of the plate and decided to eat the rest. Bass didn't bother asking further as he noticed Godt pulling an effort to finish the whole thing. They went on and continued having breakfast. As Bass sipped his coffee and watched Godt get used to the food, he noticed that there were still a few shreds of tocino left on the plate. Bass didn't say anything and just patiently waited until Godt puts down the cutlery.
Bass's companion then sets down the spoon and fork. He was done.
Bass realized that Godt was not eating the remaining tocino pieces, so he took the liberty of taking them out of his plate. "You know my mother used to tell me I should never waste whatever food is placed on the table, many kids don't have three meals a day," Bass mumbled while stuffing the food into his mouth.
"I tried, it's just too sweet for me. I'm sorry," Godt explained.
"It's okay. I just meant that Filipinos value every food served on their table. But if it doesn't suit your palette, there's not much we can do about it. Right?"
Bass continued on, saying, "Anyway, do you have any idea where would you like to go?"
Godt stretched his lips down and cast an "I-don't-know" look on his face. Bass stopped eating and tried to think of engaging activities to do.
"Maybe we can start with places where you can eat, shop, and buy things you needed" Bass suggested, "We're going to the Mall,"
Bass and Godt started traversing the road to the nearest shopping mall. It was quite a walk going to the establishment but otherwise doable. Bass told Godt he can also take local transport going there, pointing to one of the public utility vehicles passing by. A local mode of transport found uniquely in the Philippines graced all the roads of every city in the country. "That's called a Jeepney," Bass said, "Just take a look at the signages they placed on the window to check if they're heading for the Mall. Come, let's take a ride,"
Bass told Godt to wave his hands or limbs to halt the Jeepney. Godt tried to do as he was told, and a Jeepney stopped right before them. They hopped inside and sat at the available seats of the vehicle. The transport was full of different kinds of locals—students, office workers, market hawkers, elderlies, etc.
"Listen," Bass tapped Godt, who was rather confused and curious about the environment. "In order to pay, just take your money, pass it over to the person in front of you and say pakiabot po. Watch!"
"Pakiabot po, Manong sa may SM lang," (Fare please, to SM mall only)
Godt nodded in amusement, and Bass kept on. "Now when you're the one in the middle and someone passes their fare to you, just take it and say the same—pakiabot po,"
"Ohh... I see. By the way, how much does a ride to the mall costs?" Godt asked.
"Depends actually. The transportation fee varies on the actual distance it takes you to get there. In this case, you can ask the driver to give you an idea. From where we started, it'll cost you 15 Pesos only," replied Bass.
The Jeepney took a few more stops before arriving at the Mall. Bass and Godt sat quietly next to each other, staring at the views outside the open-air windows. When the Jeepney stopped again, a few new loads of passengers climbed in on the vehicle. Everyone started squeezing in. Godt was surprised as he was pushed forward along with Bass. "What's going on? It's already full," he asked.
"Oh, that's how it works here. Closeness is a real thing here in the Philippines, like literally," Bass quipped. "Sometimes when two passengers disembarked from the jeepney, the driver calls for 4 more,"
"Hai?! Where are the extra two going to sit?" Godt exclaimed in surprise.
"Oh, you know, butt size matters! Sometimes we have the emergency exit seats available," said Bass as he points out towards the exit path of the Jeepney. The Jeepney driver climbed down from the driver's seat and moved towards the back of the vehicle. A plank of wood was placed by the driver over the metal handrails anchored at the entrance. Then there sat two male students facing in their direction.
"That's dangerous," Godt uttered in surprise.
"Yes, but really, people just want to be on time for work and school, so you really can't ask for business class seats here," quipped Bass.
A few more blocks passed by before they reached their destination when suddenly, someone handed over their Jeepney fare to Godt. Godt flustered, but he quickly tried to act all cool and normal.
"PAKI—YYU PO!" he called out to the driver rather loudly.
And just like that, everyone gazed back at Bass and Godt. Even the driver pulled the brakes out of shock.
Bass sat there stunned and frozen in utter embarrassment. The old lady before Godt was left in a state of shock as she received the money from Godt's hand. Bass quickly shoveled Godt out and jumped off hastily from the Jeepney.
"What the fuck just happened?" Bass muttered in total disbelief as the vehicle motioned away from their drop-off point.
"What's their deal? I just said what you said," Godt mumbled in confusion.
"What was it you said again?"
"Pak… yu... po…?"
"YOU MOTHERF—!" Bass bawled in shock as he clenched his fist in utter frustration. "Godt! What you said, it can be interpreted as fuck you!"
Godt clasped his mouth with his right hand. "SHIA!"
Bass felt his soul temporarily left his body at that instance. Godt stood over on the side, rubbing his chin as he tried to recall what were the exact words he should have said.
"Jusko po, sana kinain nalang ako ng lupa!" (Oh God, How I wish the ground would just swallow me down!) said Bass as he held his hands to the sky.