Hana walked into her science class, it was the last period of the day. Finallyyy.

“Hi.” The boy who sat next to her, Kai, grinned.

“Hey.” She replied and sat down.

The final bell rang and the last-minute stragglers walked in. That included one of Hana’s good friends, Ara.

“Hey.” She said, sitting down.

“Hi.”

“Go away.” Kai retorted.

“I wasn't even saying hi to you.” Ara snapped back. “Stupid, ugly boy.”

“Excuse me?! Did you just call me ugly?!” Kai yelped. “I mean, look at all this!” he motioned at his face. “It's beautiful! Did you really just call me ugly?!”

“Yeah, I did, what are you going to do about it?”

“If I'm ugly, then you're hideous.”

“Oh yeah? If I'm hideous, you're tremendously hideous.”

Hana just sat it in the middle of their little argument. This was normal; Kai and Ara were always going at each other's throats.

“Whatever.” Ara rolled her eyes and turned to Hana, “Wh-”

But she was cut off by their teacher, “Okay, quiet down and take out your books! We're taking a note.”

Hana inwardly groaned as she took her binder out. Kai nudged her arm, “Paper?”

She nodded and gave him a sheet as their teacher began the lesson.

During the lesson, Kai and Ara didn't argue much because their teacher got really mad when they talked. Honestly, I think she hates us. Hana thought as she watched her teacher yell at some kid who was throwing paper balls across the room. Then again, this class is……. Rowdy, to put it nicely.

“Do your homework now. It's on the board, copy it and make sure it’s done for tomorrow.” The teacher instructed when they finished the note. Hana rubbed her hand, I hate notes.

Ara immediately began talking about her plans for the weekend.

Ara and Hana didn't do much work in class. Actually, Hana did more work than her, and Kai did more than Hana. Ara just sat there and talked nonstop.

But the funny thing was, Ara got higher grades than both of them.

Kai leaned over and began writing on Hana’s paper. She gave him a weird look and when he moved his hand she saw that he had written his signature on her paper.

“Normally, I charge people for my signature. But I'll give it to you for free.” He said, smiling.

“Gee, thanks. Cuz I reallyyyy wanted your autograph.” Hana said sarcastically. Kai nodded and went back to his work. Hana shook her head and looked at her textbook for the problems she had to do.

“Ara, is there a reason you keep your bag on the table?” Hana asked. “There's barely enough room for the three of us here and then your gigantic bag comes along and takes up half the space!”

“I know right, you're so stupid.” Kai said.

“Shut up, ugly.” Ara snapped.

“See that? She's so mean to me!” Kai said to Hana, turning away.

“Why are you mean to him?” Hana asked her.

“Why is he annoying?”

“Why are you mean?” Kai shot back.

“Why are you annoying?”

“Why are you mean?”

“Why are you annoying?”

Hana decided to keep shut; this was going to get nowhere.

Eventually, they stopped bickering.

“She's so mean.” Kai whispered one last time.

Finally, after the longest science class ever, it was the end of the day. Hana was always one of the first ones out of class, she hated every minute she was inside a stuffy classroom with no windows.

“Bye!” she said, stacking her chair and dashing out of class.

She grabbed her things from her locker, said bye to her friends and began walking home. This was her favourite part of the day.

Not only because the school day was done, but because of him.

Hana happily walked to the open park near her school, she excitedly entered it.

There he was, cleaning up garbage like always. When Hana had first seen him, she had wondered why he always cleaned the park up. At first, she thought he had broken the law and had been assigned community service. But she didn’t believe that after a while, he didn’t seem like the law-breaking type. Then one day, she asked and he told her.

“Why do we have to do things only when we're asked? Why can't I just show my appreciation for the community without being asked to?” He asked. “I mean, someone has to clean this place up. Everyone just expects it to be done by the next person because they weren't the ones that made the mess. So I decided to be that person and give back to the community.”

Ever since then, she admired him. She admired him for his willingness to give back to the community and be a good person. He seemed a little sad though. When Hana saw him, she saw an aura of sadness around him.

She wondered why, but she never asked. She didn’t want to offend or bother him. She never talked to him after that, and he didn’t seem all that interested to talk to her either.

She walked through the park, watching him peacefully pick the garbage up. Hana saw him doing the same thing every day, he had one glove and one garbage bag. He would use the hand with the glove to pick up any piece of trash he found and carefully throw it in the bag.

But the problem was that there was a lot of garbage.

As Hana was walking, an elderly lady passed by the boy.

“Look at this! This park is a mess, these maintenance people don’t do anything anymore! Look at that boy, he’s not doing a good job at all. The park is still a garbage dump! What will this world come to?” she exclaimed to her granddaughter.

The boy ignored her, but Hana didn’t fail to notice that the hand that was holding the garbage bag, balled into a fist. The boy’s expression turned grim and he looked like he was ready to throw the bag down.

But he didn’t.

Hana was mad, she was mad at the elderly lady. She wanted to walk up to her and tell her that he wasn’t a park worker, he was voluntarily cleaning this park. In fact, he did it every day. How often do you see that? A teenage boy coming quietly to a park every day to clean up? Not a lot.

Hana shook her head at the insensitivity of some people. Don’t worry, I appreciate what you do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chen sighed as he threw away the garbage he had just collected.

What was the point of doing this? What was the point of cleaning up the park every day if people wouldn’t notice it? Or if they did, just criticize him?

As he walked away, someone threw a plastic cup in the trash, but missed. Chen picked it up and threw it away. The man who had missed didn’t acknowledge him or thank him.

Chen slipped his hands in his pocket as he walked home.

Then he thought about why he was doing this.

His grandmother. His sweet, loving grandmother.

She told me that if I'm doing something good, then I don't need anyone's approval for it. That if I'm doing something good, I'm doing it for me and for the greater good. She told me others opinion on what I do doesn't matter. As long as I'm happy about what I'm doing, there's nothing to worry about. Chen repeated in his mind.

But was he happy?

Yes, he felt good when he did hard work for someone else.

Like those notes he puts in the disabled girl’s locker every day. He had started to leave those notes in her locker when he saw that she looked down every day, she seemed depressed. So, to liven up her day, Chen would slip notes of encouragement in her locker and when she saw them, her eyes would shine. That was one of the things that made his day; seeing his little notes (that didn't take much effort) make someone happy.

Then there was him volunteering at the local orphanage. He would go and play with the kids every weekend. But he made sure no one saw him except the head of the orphanage. He didn’t want people to know he did these things.

He liked to do silent good deeds.

But he still yearned for someone to notice what he did, that was why he began picking garbage up from the park. But had one person ever acknowledged him? Ever thanked him? No.

Then there was the girl that had asked him why he did that, but Chen didn’t really know where she was coming from or where she was going when she asked him that.

No, I can’t stop. I have to help. Someone, somewhere appreciates me, I have to keep going. Chen thought determinedly. Grandma would be disappointed in me if I didn’t and let others lack of encouragement bring me down.  

But the sad thing was, Chen’s grandmother –the woman Chen was doing all this for, had died a couple of months ago. He was crushed, and he felt like there would be there for him ever again.

He still felt like that, but then his grandmother’s wise words would surface in his head.

 Someone, somewhere, appreciates what you do. You may never find out and think for your whole life that no one cares about what you do. But someone does, someone always does.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In science, Hana told Ara about Chen.

“And he never seems embarrassed about it.” Hana told her. “He seems sad though, I don’t know how to describe it.”

“What? Who seems sad? What are you guys talking about?” Kai budded in.

“Hana’s made friends with a guy who likes cleaning the park.” Ara joked.

“Eeeyyy! Hana and the creepy stranger!” Kai sang. Hana rolled her eyes, oh please.

“Just turn around, Kai, turn around.” Ara instructed.

“No, I don't take orders from anyone.” Kai crossed his arms and scooted closer.

“You're so annoying.”

“And you're mean!”

“And you're annoying.”

“And you're mean!”

“Miss, can I go to the bathroom?” Hana asked her teacher, getting up from her seat. She nodded and Hana closed her books.

“Great job, you scared her away.” Ara snorted.

“No, you did.”

“No-”

Hana didn't stick around for the rest of their conversation and left.

As she was walking, she noticed all the garbage that was in her school's hallway. It wasn't that much, but it sure was there.

Like the boy had said, people don't do these things if they don't have anything to do with them. But someone had to; janitors could only do so much. Then she thought about how the janitors must feel, they clean the school and then the kids come and mess it up again. Hana really doubted that anyone had ever gone up to a janitor and said ‘Thank you’. Or told them that they appreciated the fact that they maintained the school’s cleanliness. How must they feel? Don’t they get mad when they see the kids acting so recklessly when it came to the hours they spent cleaning the halls?

So Hana began picking up pieces of garbage and throwing them away. She didn't even go to the bathroom and cleaned the entire hallway, just to show her appreciation.

She looked at the hallway in satisfaction; it felt really good to know that she had done something good. She just hoped someone would notice, preferably a janitor.

When she went back to class, Ara and Kai weren't speaking to each other.

“What happened?” she asked, sitting down.

They answered at the same time, “She's mean.” “He's annoying.”

Of course. Hana thought as she shook her head.

At the end of the period, Hana walked out of her science class. She looked at the amount of people in the halls.

Then she looked at the juice boxes, tissues, and papers that were on the ground.

Her heart sank a bit, had no one noticed that the hallway was clean? Did they think that the janitors were their slaves who cleaned up after them? Why didn’t people clean up after themselves? Or at least show the janitors that their work didn’t go to waste. Or maybe even helped them out a bit by not throwing their garbage on the floor?

She sighed as she walked to her locker, He has a lot of strength. People dirty the park all the time, and he goes back and cleans it every day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chen silently watched her as she took his daily note of her locker.

Her face lit up, and she smiled as she read the note. Chen had even made her a special lunch that day.

In the note, Chen just talked about everyday stuff. Sometimes he would compliment her and ask her how the food he made her tasted. But then he would joke and say ‘Oh well, it’s not like I’ll know if you like the food or not. Cuz you don’t know who I am, so you can’t tell me~!’

The girl wheeled away on her wheelchair and into the classroom. Her legs were paralyzed and on top of that, she had trouble speaking. Some kids made fun of her and made jokes about her, no one befriended her. So Chen decided to be her ‘mystery friend’ and give her day a little more life.

Why hadn’t he befriended her directly? Because he didn’t want her to think he pitied her or anything; that was the last thing she would want. So writing notes of encouragement was what he decided to do to make her happy.

Smiling lightly, Chen walked to his first period class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I just wish people would notice all the work he does.” Hana sighed to Ara. “They don’t even notice that he’s cleaning the park. In fact, sometimes they add more garbage.”

“Maybe he doesn’t want people to notice him.” Ara suggested.

“Yeah, he doesn’t seem like the type to boast about what he does. But I bet if someone told him that they noticed his work or appreciated him, then he would be so much more motivated.” Hana said.

“Have you?” Ara asked.

Hana blinked and shook her head, “No, but he probably already knows about me. I mean I asked him about it…..”

Ara shrugged, “Your call.”

But Ara had just given Hana an idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hana walked into the park, clutching her bag. She looked around for him and when she found him, she tapped his shoulder.

He turned around, “Um, yes?”

“Hi.” Hana smiled. “I don’t know if this sounds creepy or not ,but here goes. Every time I walk here, I notice you cleaning this place up. You don’t work here, do you?”

He shook his head.

“I just wanted to say, I admire that you do this. It must take a lot of energy and character to clean this place up. I think it’s great that you do this every day and you should know that it doesn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated. Because people do notice and appreciate it. Actually, you’ve inspired me as well! You have a partner now.” She smiled again, “Thank you.”

Chen’s lips curved upwards and into a beautiful smile.

That was all it took, two words and a smile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a beautiful gif, no one can deny it. Chen <3333

Don't forget to appreciate something someone does, even if it's a small thing.

It only takes two words and a smile (: