XII | Effort

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We're playing soccer

in our usual park
(the nearest one)

when two of our buddies

from another school

appear,

arms draped around

each other

walking like drunkards,
laughing like drunkards,
in love like drunkards.

(They didn't drink anything though.)

The sun hasn't set
yet.

Kumar waves at them furiously.

'Ooi! Tom and Jerry!'
'Long time no see!'
'Aeh, how's school?'

Tom,
the taller of the two,
has pale brown eyes

that make him look like he's living in a different world.
He's four years older than Jerry.

Jerry,
our secondary school friend
who went to a different junior college,
has curly black hair

(and always looks untidy).

His smile
always makes people feel comfortable.

Tom lets him go
so he can give us hugs and handshakes.

'Eh bro, how's life?'
Ming slaps him on the back.

'Join us once in a while leh!
'I keep asking but you never come.'

Jerry laughs.

'We've been busy lah!
'Wah, JC is on another level man.'

'Who ask you study so hard and go to an atas school?'

The soccer game is abandoned.

We buy Red Bull
from our usual vending machine
(the nearest one)

and sit in the middle of an empty carpark.

There's no wind at all today.

But there's laughter.
There's always laughter

when Jerry's around.

Tom smiles all the way through—he doesn't speak much,

it's always awkward
when it's just him.

[Read the full story at novelconbini.com!]