The man put down his coffee on our table. He doesn't look irritated at all. He carefully unbuttoned his outer suit and showed a vest inside. It has a dark color, so the stain is not too visible. He just tapped his vest a little to check. We think he's a nice guy. With a worried look on Jun's face. He just said…
"I'll pay for the dry cleaning…" With his hands still trying to wipe the man's front body, the man just chuckled a little. He's showing dimples. He stopped Brother Jun's hands again and squeezed it a little.
"I'm okay sir, please don't worry so much, I can take care of my suit. I insist that it's my fault anyway… How about you? Are you okay?" That's when he got conscious of his own suit. I still remember how expensive that set was. I was with him when he got that. He tried tapping his clothes, the man even looked from behind to check if some spill got on him.
"You look good, you're fine… Don't worry about this" The stranger folded his outer suit and hung it on his arm while the other hand reached out, to his coffee placed on our table.
"Brother Jun, you've got friendly workmates here, huh," Max said. The man furrowed his brows a little and looked interested.
"Are you Jun Ishii? The newly hired software quality analyst?" Jun followed the man's gaze.
"Have we met earlier? I'm really sorry I can't remember everybody that was introduced to me earlier." A little bit shy, Brother Jun lowered his face.
"Oh no, I just remembered your name when I heard a new hire was on board at last week's meeting. I was part of the team that was in need of your position, but I'm in the developer department". The man smiled with his dimples showing again.
"We'll be seeing each other more soon, nice meeting you" The stranger held out his hand, and Brother Jun took it for a shake. Then the man continued.
"I'm Shin, by the way…" Mr. Shin squeezed my brother's hand again before he let go and walked away. My brother was left stunned by what happened.
"Well, that's interesting. Look at the bright side, Kuya Jun, you could make up for what happened as much when you started working together." I can see my brother's cheeks blush a bit and I could totally understand him.
"Imagine making a scene on your first day." We just watched my brother walk away from the exit to tap out from his floor. And when he got back, he even told us that the man seemed familiar. All in all, nothing much happened drastically anymore that day and we walked Max to his house, which is blocks away from ours.
Back at school, time flies, we are now in our second year of Junior High, and this time Max and I were classmates. We had an upcoming event that would highlight most of our high school years. This is the event where lovers get nourished, or new lovers pop out and that is the school festival. With all the extracurricular activities, the planning, the preparations, and the actual event, it will give opportunities to individuals to socialize with others to complete the tasks, and it will not stop there.
Preparations are a hassle, and we will render time to make the festival fun and spectacular. We are now required to put up a booth or gimmick for the festival. Last year, as first years, we were just attendees.
There will be late-night meetings, that's where others will have the opportunity to bring home their crush after a long day of work. Some even stay near school due to deadlines and after a long week of work, here comes the actual festival. It is a 2-day event where one of them will be a work day for the theme that the class has prepared, and the other day will be an opportunity to experience other classes' hard work depending on how we will delegate tasks.
"Good thing, Max is with me this year"
It depends on the theme per section, some will be playing on stage, some will open mini food or drink establishments, and some will prepare unique booths like horror houses or fun houses.
And of course, as part of the student leaders in our class, Max and I are required to polish everything in the plan that the class has decided. This is an every-year event that all high school students from junior to senior have to participate in. Very busy week and a lot of preparations are needed because the school will be open to outsiders such as parents, families, and other students in the area.
"Ugh! I'm so tired! And we still have one day of preparation to do this all to make it all work out" Max is getting dizzy while painting the signboard and complaining.
"Everything will work out even if we have mishaps, so don't worry" Max gave a gentle stare.
"How can you do all of this? You also organize the class papers, the teachers ask you to do this and that, then you still have the energy to make up with ideas to patch up the holes in this ridiculous plan. Tell me, how do you do it?"
"I'm not sure if he's serious about all those questions."
"You're just making it sound hard, I did all of that with your help too, right? Every step, I ask for your advice and solutions." Then Max flips his invisible hair.
"You're right, I'm the queen. I need to finish this sign to plan my beauty rest next". Then he continued painting.
The day went pretty exhausting. Left and right there were things to do.
"Who the hell even thought of this idea? Oh, it's me. sigh. We're making an Escape Room Theme. With all the props we need, the ideas for the challenge, even down to the prizes if they get out within time"
Dusk broke out when I had time to get out of the classroom. All of them had gone home already an hour ago. I just had to finish the time frame schedule for the event, the division of labor, the assignees, and all.
When I got down to the last step of the stairs, I took a deep breath. I saw another person running through the field holding a box of files. He's a student too. I don't think I have known him before. I saw him running to the gym.
"He must be going to the storage area too". I looked at the box I was carrying and sighed.
"If I could just call him to bring these with him too… sigh, I'm so tired"