"Ah sorry, I'm late right?"
Indeed she was, but she was so casual about it, it seemed as if it didn't matter. She swept her gaze past every single person by the table, and paused on one person, me, an unfamiliar face.
The gaze on me was strangely offsetting, considering the similarity she bore towards the person in my memories.
But her smile got softer, as she aimed to give off a good first impression, she said then warmly.
"Hello Sil, it's nice to meet you."
Considering the fact that she was talking to me and not anyone else, I quickly snapped out of it and tried not to mix these two people together
And it was then I saw her.
Awesome, whose real name was still unknown to me.
Jackson teased her, asking if I was the only one she saw.
Camila who was sitted beside her softly greeted her, before turning back to the meal in front of her, or the phone below her.
Derrick waved and paused his conversation with Ronald before turning back to me, and Micheal ignored her and didn't even look up from his phone.
He was still sulking from his phone call with his mother.
And I, the person being greeted by such a beautiful stranger was stunned.
'This! This was Awesome! Woah…'
I had no idea if my thoughts were evident on my face, but I knew that one expression could definitely be read from it.
And that was how glad I was that I could make it.
…
Now, Unlike Awesome, the people gathered here were long time friends and were mostly guys, plus the odd one, who was a girl.
In his first year, Sil was so busy he didn't bother himself with meaningless conversations, which was his description for socializing.
He had a lot of courses in his first year, and he could barely breathe, so where would he find the time to waste extra breaths on people who would not benefit him academically. So apart from his original six friends, and some close acquaintances from his Robotics classes which required a team for even the most little of projects, he didn't have many people he could meet or randomly blab to.
This was obviously a huge obstacle to the success of their mission. The socialists in their friend group tried taking him to social events, but he never made it, called in at the last minute to cancel, or just came late.
His excuse was he already had a schedule, and he couldn't fit in their events into it because it takes a lot of time and effort. So they all just stopped trying, but Derrick, his childhood friend.
As someone who knew 'Sil' before his mother died, this Sil in front of him was foreign, extremely foreign to him.
He remembered it so clearly back then, the first time he left him behind was when they were six.
He had to go abroad because of his father's work, and when he heard about Sil's mother's death, he had to wait a long time before he could come back into the country.
And the person he saw was centuries away from the person he left.
He first thought it was domestic abuse done by his aunt and tried to sue her, but on further investigate it was anything but.
After all, his aunt truly did everything she could do for the orphaned Sil, he just turned out that way.
Then it was later diagnosed, after he had been discharged, he had caught the mysterious plague but it was only the first stage and it only ever happened once.
But he knew that wasn't the first time Sil had been hit by the mysterious plague.
It happened constantly to him when they still played together.
Since his mum was always busy, Sil usually stayed over at Derrick's place, which meant he had spent the most time with him and he knew when Sil had forgotten something or not.
But he didn't know anything back then, and whenever it happened he just thought Sil was joking or was just forgetful.
Fortunately it stopped after the last incident.
But he didn't know if it ever happened again because Sil was always busy and he could barely see him since he was always on the move.
Although he had full authority over his presence home and abroad, he didn't want to stay at home and he was told Sil needed some space and therapy.
and he was even more reluctant to stay near the cold and cheerless Sil.
But in recent days, he had been worrying ever since he noticed the symptoms in Sil again. He tried his best to be around him or bring him out for more observation but it seemed like he was determined to stay in hiding.
And that was the reason they fought in the first place, he was so annoyed with his elusiveness he wanted to force him out.
But did he succeed? It seemed like it, but that chance encounter was still bothering him.
Casting a sidelong glance at the flustered Sil, he let go of his worries and decided to just enjoy the now, the present.
…
Sil had once told Derrick to stop inviting him to mixers, and pointless social events.
Back then, they were in their second semester as freshmen and Sil was not as familiar with the rest of the gang, but Ronald, as he is now.
Derrick usually pestered Sil to leave the lab, and had even planned to get him a girlfriend so he would find more reasons to go out, but instead they had an argument which almost caused a fallout between them.
Back then, Sil was much colder and less tolerant of anyone including Derrick, Ronald who always pestered him, and his aunt who called every few days to check on him, but eventually stopped and began to check on him every once in a while.
It almost seemed as if he was trying to cut everyone off, and out of his life. As if he didn't have time for any and everyone.
It was infuriating to be seen as so little by someone you cherished so much. So Derrick did not try to understand as he usually did, and blew the argument up.
And Sil, out of anger and frustration, told Derrick off and almost caused a rift in their friendship if Derrick didn't know better. And the words that began that terrible argument was something Derrick could never forget.
He said, rather than going around looking for something you don't need, why don't you wait for it to come to you when you can accommodate it?
That was a crazy logic that Derrick could not fight against until now. Well he fought against Sil, but not his words.
…
Anyway, Derrick clearly saw how he got flustered at the sight of Awesome. He smiled and could barely hold in his laughter.
But he decided to help his friend and bumped his arm with his elbow, effectively snapping him out of it.
"So how about it? How's awesome?"
He whispered.
"Oh she's fine. Ah I mean good, she's not bad!"
He stumbled over himself and that caused Derrick to laugh and tease him even more, but Micheal was displeased.
While the parties involved, Sil, lowered his head to avoid further embarrassment or teasing and Eunice coldly walked off to her seat after being ignored.
'Hmph, idiot.', she thought in annoyance and harshly threw her bag away, but on second thought she roughly dropped it on the ground beside her.
…
"But you know you haven't replied her right?"
Derrick whispered softly, subtly pointing at Awesome.
"What? Ah yes. Awe- what's her name?"
Still in a daze, I barely understood what he was saying, but once my brain processed his words, I tried to act on them, and it was then I realized I didn't know her name.
"Eunice."
He said a little louder than before, and seemed to struggle to hold back his laughter, but I simply thanked him and moved my attention elsewhere.
"Thanks."
"Nice to meet you, Eunice."
I hurriedly replied, and even tried to smile in return to her warm greeting.
But even I knew how unnatural my smile was, and how awkward it was due to embarrassment that still lingered in the air.