The two of them found a good table right beside the windows, where they could get the view of the busy street in front of the restaurant.
"Can I pick whatever I want?", asked Nolan excitedly as Liam took a look at the menu.
"Yeah, sure.", Liam said as he turned to look at the waiter who had just arrived beside their table to take an order.
The waiter waited for the two of them to make up their minds on they wanted to eat and once he took a note of their orders, he asked, "Would you like some beverages with your meals, esteemed sirs?"
"Oh I'm fine with just water.", Liam said and Nolan nodded, agreeing with him and picking water as well.
Just as they were about to start gossiping about the city once again, Liam heard a familiar voice call out his name.
"Hey Liam, I didn't expect to see you here!"
Liam turned to look at Noah who was walking towards him with his girlfriend tagging along right behind him. He let out a sigh and Nolan, who was sitting in front of him picked up on his reaction but he stayed silent.
Noah stopped right beside the table and looked at the two guys sitting opposite to each other, "Um, can I join you guys? And if you don't mind, could you move over so that me and my girl can sit together?"
He sounded polite and respectful but just as Nolan was about to get up from his seat, Noah's girlfriend quickly sat down beside Liam, "Baby, it's fine. We're just having lunch with friends anyways."
Knowing that there wasn't much to do, he gave in and took a seat beside Nolan before introducing himself and his girlfriend to him.
"Hello, you can call me Noah and this is my fiance Barbara. Seeing that you and Liam are here together, am I safe to assume that you two know each other?"
Nolan responded with a reserved nod, "Yeah, we're roommates. Are you a first year as well? Or are you from Liam's homeplanet?", he asked as he glanced at Barbara who had her eyes on Liam for the past few seconds while Liam looked a little irritated.
"Oh not really. I met him around a month ago and I just knew that we would be really good friends.", he said proudly as another waiter walked to the table.
The couple gave their order and went back to chatting. The conversation stayed about the academy even though it wasn't something Liam didn't know, the conversation went into the details so he didn't complain and kept things in mind.
Luckily for him, the girl beside him didn't do anything creepy like he had expected her to do and ate her lunch in peace.
"Wait, you're all 21 years old?", Liam asked, the surprise apparent on his face as he looked at the three of them sitting with him. All of them nodded in response but Nolan was the only one who went forward and gave him the answer he wanted.
"You see, usually people don't take the exams before 21 because the entrance exams are extremely hard. There's also the fact that you have to either take up the pre-university course after high school and it has more than twenty subjects that are absolutely useless.
If you don't want to take the pre-university, you have to take the pre-exam which is actually harder than the entrance exam in a few ways. You got the admission through the second method and every year, there are probably only a handful of people like you."
That gave Liam some insight on how things worked as he did not know about this part even after he dived into the memories that did not belong to him.
'Looks like originally I thought that the pre-exam was the only way of getting an admission. Well, it's better this way.', he thought as he put the last meatball into his mouth.
"Hah! I actually didn't think too much about the pre-exam. Should I call you lil bro?", Noah asked with a smirk of his face but Liam just shrugged, "Call me whatever you want as long as it isn't something dumb or rude."
"Bah, boring!", Nolan quipped in but Liam ignored him.
Unfortunately for him, that was the end of him being carefree and happy as Barbara placed her phone at the center of the table to get everyone's attention.
"I would like to officially invite both of you to my birthday party that's going to be held after two days. The venue is Noah's mansion and a lot of people will be attending so I hope that you will attend without fail.", she said as she smiled at everyone while Noah nodded and spoke after her.
"Yeah, both of you can bring one person with you. After all, the theme is valentines. I don't think you'll have any trouble getting a girl with you though.", he said as he grinned at Liam.
Nolan banged the table with a frustrated look on his face, "He'll have no problem with getting girls but what about me?! Haaah, such a heartless theme for singles... Damn Liam, why do you have to be so pretty?", he said as he pointed at his nose and looked Noah.
"Just look at this bitch. That clear ass smooth skin and sharp jaw! Argh, all he has to do is maintain a proper facial expression and any girl would fall for him but guess what he does? Studies all night and gets dark circles instead!"
Liam didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he listened to Nolan's sudden outburst. He could tell that the guy was just letting his thoughts out and he didn't feel like he wanted to stop him.
'Yes praise me more. Call me the most handsome guy on this planet, hehehehe. Yes yes, boost my ego!', he said in his head as he listened to Nolan who continued his rant.