"Do you need help Pres?" One of them asked,
"Oh, right… I am Pres… I took up the job of President in the class and Max took the Vice. Well, that's not surprising. Max was President last year, he just insisted on making me the President this time."
"Nah… I'm all right" I answered to relieve their worries.
"Don't want to stress you out, Pres, we still have 2 days more before the Festival, we have to have fun with all this work." The other one spoke
"Don't worry… I'm not, I was just thinking of something else… Then he looked at the bandage on my hand."
"Does it still hurt?" I looked at my hand. I knew that this was what they were referring to.
"Not really… I might take it off sooner, it was just a bump."
"Why am I still wearing this bandage anyway? It's just a bump". Then I remembered the way he wrapped it so gently. I looked out and faced the window to take a breath. Then I saw him
"Woah! That's him…"
He saw me looking out of the window, he was within a group walking towards the field.
"He's within the group… he really must hate being alone. Maybe that's why I haven't seen him before, he kept blending in the crowd."
We are now in the room assigned to us. This festival was also a competition. We got the privilege of choosing the room we would use depending on the place of the grade of our class performance. And we chose the one facing the field and near the entrance stairs.
Now that he knew that, I saw him too. I just smiled when I saw him looking back. He waved to me, smiling wide. Then he suddenly stopped walking with his friends. He made a gesture, tapping his hand with his other hand, and pointing to the knuckles.
"Oh, he's asking how my hand was…" I raised my bandaged hand, waved, and showed an okay sign.
He smiled back again and raised two thumbs up. His friends, who were walking a few steps away from him, stopped and looked his way. They saw him making gestures at me and they looked my way.
I put down my hand immediately. Then I saw them running towards him, ruffling his hair, the other one clung to his shoulder, then the other was poking him with a finger. I can't hear them, but I'm sure they're mocking him. I smiled, then I remembered and faced the three girls in front of me.
"Oh my! Are you friends with Grei Bumi of class 2-5?" The other girl almost squealed. I raised my bandaged hand.
"Nah… he's the one who did this to me", gesturing to the injury on me
"Oh, how did that happen? I heard he's the best gentleman in his class, if not in all of our batch", the other commented.
"Well, he is gentle…" I added, and then Max appeared behind me clinging onto my shoulders.
"Who… Who is gentle?" Max asked, and I eyed the girl in front of me not to tell Max, but she couldn't help it.
"The person who did that to her… Grei Bumi." Then she pointed to my bandaged hand.
"Oh, really?" Max was not showing any real interest.
"Of course, Max already knew who it was, we were just talking about him yesterday before I went to sleep."
"It was just an accident, and he helped me get this bandage on" The girls in front of us have different reactions. The other squealed at a high pitch, the other smiled, and the other looked away, hiding her face. Then the other girl started talking.
"Well, he really must be a gentleman… they were just talking with gestures seconds ago asking how her injury went… they were giving okay signs nonstop" The girls even showed okay signs to each other. I looked at Max's reaction. He was smiling
"So, this Grei is something else for you, huh" I reacted back.
"Nah…" But the girls were all smiling wide and nodding their heads. I just shrugged and continued with my task at hand.
When I got home, I got Max on the phone. It was our regular routine to tell gossip, the latest news, and breathe out feelings. He kept bugging me about Grei Bumi that night. I can see he is interested in him. I'm not sure if he's interested in him for me or for himself.
"I should really stop worrying about love like Max is doing. I'm barely 16, I'm still a baby!"
Then the festival came. It was so eventful. Grei went to our class with his friends, and they were mocking him before they came in. Of course, I greeted them and his friend kept pushing him towards me. My other friends came behind me, and they were giggling as much.
"How's your hand?" He looked at my hand. I have removed the bandage already.
"It's healing well, the bump is almost gone… see?" Then I lifted my hand in front of him, and he looked at it.
Then Max came to us, then he took my hand away. I was surprised, and I think my heart skipped a beat.
"Are you here for the event? Do you wish to try our Escape room? You better though, now that you're all here". Max was still holding my hand and I kept looking at it but not removing it.
Grei's friends took the initiative to start the game.
"What are the rules?" One of them asked.
"We're going to let you in, and you have to find clues to solve the puzzle and find the key to the exit..." Max started explaining. I feel that my hand is getting sweaty, he's still holding my hand as he talks.
"…the room is divided into two spaces. The light theme for level 1 and the dark theme for level 2. Technically, the dark room is harder, and you have to solve more puzzles than the light theme" The group of 5 nodded, which included Grei.
"How long do we have to finish?" the other one asked.
"Since we have decided that only a maximum of 6 people can enter the room, the group has to do it in 30 minutes. Based on the test run that we did with our class, you can do the first room in 10 minutes and then the dark room in 20 minutes."
"Do we have to solve the light theme in 10 minutes? Are the two rooms connected?" the group is getting interested and asking more questions
"Yes, the two rooms are connected. The 30-minute time limit will be for the light and dark rooms, so you can extend it in the light-themed room, but you'll have less time in the dark-themed room." They all nodded
"Do we get pre-clues?" This time it was Grei who asked, and smiled sweetly and looked in my way.