“Bella?”

An indolent wearing a chequered shirt with a pair of jeans suddenly approaches her. And obviously, she’s not the first person nor the second of whatever place she’s ever seen to wear a chequered shirt. Her voice and appearance changed a lot since she came home to Vietnam when her parents divorced.

It was Linh. Her favourite childhood friend (Bella has a lot of favorites tho). Although they only spent 3 years before Linh returned to their homeland, they shared a very precious bond and Bella treasured her a lot.

“Linh Bai Thien!” Fortunately, she still remembers her. It’s a shame if she squeals a wrong full name, though.  

Linh is her very first best friend before Lucky and the rest came into her life. Lucky was the first born of her mom's friend in Japan, Alaska Reuben. And their mothers ship both of them. Bella doesn't want to admit it, but even before they do, she already liked Lucky.

Anyways, it’s another story. It is Linh Bai Thien who’s in front of her. Who was gone for years!

“How have you been?” They hug for a while and Bella answers when they let go.

“I’ve been good, yeah.”  The smile plastered on Bella is probably there to stay until this conversation lasts. 

Lihn looks down on her bandaged-finger and nods. “I see. Without a doubt.” And she chuckles. 

Bella nods along and remembers to ask her, too. “How about you? It’s been almost a decade, yeah? How's home?”

Linh hums to think. “Pretty good, actually. I enjoyed my homeland.” She forces a wry laugh with two single syllables. “Not as much as I did here. They were.. making fun of my fluency in English back then. I can’t blame them, though. I only knew basic greetings and thank you.” She rolls her eyes reminiscing about those times.

Bella feels amazed that Linh is still a social butterfly as ever. They just had a conversation after all these years without being awkward. If Linh wasn’t like this then maybe even just an eye-contact would make her shiver in edginess.

“They’re just jealous that you’re cool. You’re unique, unlike them.” Bella says to comfort her. But it's true, actually. Linh and Natie shared so many similarities. They act and talk just like one. Natie is just clingy and small.

Linh laughs suddenly, almost bringing her palm on her tummy. Bella watches her inquisitively as Linh catches her breath. “Why? What’s funny?”

“I-I can’t believe —” Linh pants for air, can’t seem to finish her sentence. “—you’re still easy to fool. You’re still as innocent as ever, Bella.”

Bella’s brows furrow, her whole facade screams bewilderment. “What? What do you mean?”

“I’m just messing with you. They really liked me because I was fun to hangout with and they thought I wasn’t asian because I only speak in English.” 

Bella sighs. “I can’t believe you. The puberty hits but not as hard as I expected it to. You’re still the L