Creative Writing II

I have never really done a piece of creative writing for this blog have I? Well...I sorta enjoy creative writing despite my abysmal composition marks back in secondary school. So I thought that in any case, I am going to have at least one piece of creative writing here. Eh wait...Jack and Jill....oooh. Ok this is the SECOND one then. It is about a dream scenario of someone the guys and I discussed avidly about yesterday in our little outing.

The Change

You know. I never would have thought that it could have happened. It was just like a dream. Ethereal. Faded. But it wasn't. I couldn't have trusted my senses.
In any case, it started just like any normal school day. The usual. Except I was a little late this time. By the time I reached, he was already there. I cringed a little, knowing what to expect. Sighing, I went over to place my bag, waiting for the moment.
"Hey Victor," he greeted.
I knew something had gone wrong. Horribly wrong. Or perhaps, horribly right. The voice he greeted me with was one laden with warmth. A total deviant from the usual "HEY VICTOR. DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE NEW GRAPHICS CARD COMING OUT AT THE END OF THE MONTH WITH FIVE ONE TWO EM BEE WORTH OF MEMORY?!???!" I examined him, from his skewed glasses, to his thin frame, to his dark complexion, thinking that I would find a physical anomaly that was causing this...revamp. But perhaps, I was concluding too much from two simple words.

"Oh? Hi Guoyin" I replied tentatively, not knowing what I was in for.

Surprisingly, there was nothing. He returned me that little corny grin of his, before he kept silent through the entire assembly. Some may think that it is nothing much to shout about. But it is. Silence was something Guoyin could not grasp the concept of. This was going to be an interesting day.

It was a Thursday. One of my favorite days of the week, because it meant that the week was drawing to a close. We started off with chemistry tutorial. I decided to prod Guoyin a little, to see if he was just acting the whole while. Apparently, Benjamin seemed to have noticed something different. We decided to collaborate to see if we could tease that imp in him to rematerialize. It was easy, the usual insults, the usual fast quips , the "DIRT CHEAP PRICES" and we slowly turned up the heat when we saw that he was responding in a good natured sort of way. Instead of being all tongue tied, leading to "Can I crush you with my racket?" which in turn was followed up with a futile move to wrestle the offender, he was simply laughing at us. In fact some his smart replies were actually pretty damned hilarious, and quite respectable as well. He made no attempt to physically abuse us, and indeed, it was...weird. Feeling sorta stupid, me and Ben decided to stop the onslaught. In any case, we weren't really winning.

And thus, the rest of the lesson continued, uneventfully and ended late again thanks to Mrs Chai. First break of the day. Benjamin quickly pulled the rest of the guys out of earshot of GY and revealed our observation for the day. Of course, news like "GY has TOTALLY changed!" is difficult to accept at the start. Qinghao was exceptionally sceptical about the whole thing. He knew his enemy too well. Changed was NOT a suitable word of description. Hence, the guys decided to spend breaktime in class to further test it out. A usual round of "guy talk" started, and suddenly Yanhan with his reputable evasive/decoy/targetswitching maneuvers lead the topic straight to Guoyin. Everyone waited for the inevitable "Can I SLAP YOU!!!?". But it never came. Rather, Guoyin gave a small chuckle and grinned. "Well Bunny, how about you and Rose..." and continued on in a completely civilized manner which left Yanhan smarting. His hand never strayed near a one metre proximity of the squash racket, always the bane of anyone talking to him. The conversation continued until Guoyin excused himself politely from it, citing that "he had important business to settle with the class".

He stood up and stepped over to where Ruina, Louisa, Shiyin and Eileen sat, busy with their tutorials. We shuddered. This wouldn't end up well. Yet, we wait with bated breath, interested in seeing what our new friend would be up to next. The smile never left his face as he walked up to Louisa and hesitantly called out her name. Her eyes roved upwards and upon seeing him she...was not pleasantly surprised. But what happened next would though.

"Hey Louisa," he muttered in a quiet, apologetic fashion, " I sorta remember something I did during last year's orientation. So I am here to apologise...ya know...sorry..." it did seem sort of difficult for him to get those last words across. However, apologies never did come easy.

Should my jaws not be connected to the upper part of my mouth, I am sure it would have broken through the floor as it hit the ground. My eyes threatened to leave their sockets. I could see similar phenomenons occuring in the other guys as well. Guoyin...apologising? To GIRLS? WHAT THE HELL!?!! He hadn't talked to a female in class for like what, years? Ok there are a couple of exceptions of course(hehe) but still!

Louisa appeared dazed, unsure of how to answer. "Oh? That was such a long time ago! Don't worry about it" she said weakly.

GY appeared satisfied with that. Turning around he headed to the various cliques, where he had a few words with some of the individuals, occasionally expressing regret at what he did in the past. The responses were varied, ranging from flat out amusement and surprise to suspicion. Nevertheless, they were mostly positive. It appears that chances are always freely given. His behaviour started to attract some attention, and there was an increasingly loud buzzing in the background. He came to Cai Shan's group and faltered abit. After all, he had a couple of unhappy run ins with them before. I noticed that subtle gesture of him gritting his teeth, before he stepped forth and made the guys proud.

"Wow Yanhan. He talked to more girls in half an hour than you did in a year" I whispered.

Yanhan stuck his little finger out in my direction, though his eyes were obviously glued to the scene in front of us.

Our new friend came back to us, and he had that disarming, innocent expression on his face. It was like looking at a whole new person. His aura was confident and sure, but not that of arrogance. He came to each of us and extended his apologies for some of his past misdeeds, and there just something about him that made him impossible to not forgive. Qinghao took a long hard look at the hand extended in front of him when it was his turn, and a conflict of beliefs was clear in his eyes. After some gentle nudging, he finally reached out and gave it a firm shake. We all had a good hearty laugh and everyone had a great time until bell rang, and it was time for GP.

Woah. She was returning our essays. Well as usual lowest in class was me again with like nine marks out of fifty, but I couldn't help but notice that Guoyin had scored an impressive thirty three. Yet, he was never obnoxious about it, and took our jibes with good humour. I was expecting him to throw his head back and to laugh in a sinister voice, and to display his marks about the class. But that did not happen. Discussions with him no longer included topics about computer parts! Apparently, he had finally figured out that no one really gives a damn about what Intel is researching which is a two hundred gig harddrive with integrated graphics processing power blah blah blah. I felt as if my day had brightened. This was far better than I had ever dreamt of. He was quiet when the situation called for it, and when it was time for some noise, he was able to get his points across in a non offensive way. It was almost as if he had ingested a pill which raised his emotional quotient by about a hundred points. Even the girls seemed rather impressed.

And so the day passed on, uneventfully it seems. Lectures were quiet as everyone was becoming serious about work. Tutorials were fruitful. In PE, Guoyin was rather encouraging and concerned about the others. Remember, this is term three now, SO YOU SPORTSMEN ARE BACK IN PE. "Hey dude you can do it!" he gave me a friendly pat on my shoulder as he ran past me. I was immensely disturbed and I spent my entire rounds of walking contemplating this new turn of events. I would..."discuss" this with him later.

As the two of us sat on the stone bench outside audithorium, trying to regain our breaths, I started it.
"GY. You've changed. It's like God asked you to shut up and be nice. And you obeyed," I stuck it out as crudely as I could.
His brows raised," God? Hardly. But I guess I sorta thought about what I did in the past. I realized no one likes me the way I am now. And it's kinda sad. The way I am now, I can be stuck alone forever. Look, I am actually a decent blank canvas. I may not be handsome, but I am fairly knowledgeable, quick on my feet and a squash player. It's just that my behaviour was over the top. It just came to me, through that trigger...."

Hmmm? " What trigger?" I continued.

GY stood up and smiled at me. He walked away with a never before seen flair, and his head turned slightly, "Why? Love, of course,"" as he strode away calmly.

I was left dumbstruck alone on that bench. Surely, there must be more to what he meant to say....

TO BE CONTINUED

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