Dear bestfriend,

Please stay in my life forever because you’re one of the best things that had ever happened to me.

Love, me

11^th March 2000

What is the word written on the second row?

Luhan turned upon feeling a soft tap on his right arm, his eyes scanned the notebook placed between the small space between Bixue and him right away.

“Photosynthesis.” He replied immediately and Bixue nodded her head, jotting it down in her notebook right away. When she was done, she gave him a smile before the two of them turned to face the blackboard once again.

Sitting beside Bixue was probably one of the best choices Luhan had ever made in his life. It was done out of goodwill but he didn’t expect himself to benefit from it because his grades had been improving all thanks to her.

As their seats were quite far away from the blackboard, there were many times where Bixue couldn’t see what the teacher wrote. The first time she nudged him and wrote in their notebook to ask for an answer to a Maths question, Luhan couldn’t answer. Despite the girl shaking her head, telling him that it was okay, he didn’t like how he failed to help her.

So since then, he swore to himself, he would make sure he could answer to every single question Bixue asked him. And he honored it simply by paying attention in class. It was that simple.

“Let’s go for lunch!” Luhan told Bixue excitedly when the bell to their lunch break rang and they walked swiftly to the canteen together.

As they stepped into the canteen where it was crowded with students, Luhan led the way towards the food queue.

“Hello Luhan!”

“Hey Lu!”

“Hi Luhan! Oh and hello Bixue!”

Throughout the short distance, many of his friends greeted him. Some of them acknowledging the girl’s presence behind him. Luhan watched the girl nodded shyly at their friendly greetings with a wide smile on his face. He was glad that his schoolmates had finally stopped calling Bixue mute or dumb after his continuous emphasize on how she was his friend and he didn’t like them calling her names. Instead, she was now known as the girl who would only talk to Luhan. Although she doesn’t, at least to him, the name sounded much nicer.

“Ah yi, no brocolli for her please.” Luhan told the catering lady and she left Bixue’s plate free of vegetables. 3 months with Bixue and he had learnt how to know her, watch her facial expressions, watch the way her body twists and bends. He hadn’t heard her laughter or her voice when she talks but he managed to know about her favourite place to draw and she picks out all the brocolli if it was being served during lunch. And just like this he managed to know her a little bit more and more everyday.

With a nod and a faint smile, Bixue thanked Luhan through her eyes as they settled down on the nearest table to eat.

“Slow down.” Luhan told the girl before her as she chewed and swallowed her food quickly. However, she shook her head stubbornly and just when Luhan finished his food, her plate was empty too. Glancing at her watch, they had half an hour left as they made their way to their usual spot; the school field.

Go play.

“Okay.” Luhan tore his gaze away from the notebook to the field that were already filled with his friends kicking the soccer ball around, “You brought your sketchpad?”

Nodding her head, Bixue sat at the side and pulled out her sketchpad. Arguments from the field earned her attraction, making her look up.

“You should be on my team!”

“No! Luhan should be on my team!”

“That’s unfair! He was already in your team yesterday!”

“I don’t care! Scissors paper stone!”

She watched how Luhan was welcomed by his friends warmly as they argued over how he should be their team. A warm smile hooked the corner of her lips genuinely. Luhan was well-liked by everyone in the school and there wasn’t anyone who didn’t know him. And it was all thanks to him that she could blend in so quickly. Not only did they stop calling her names, they had learnt to accept her as Luhan’s friend which she was glad for. None of them had ever forced her to talk, not even Luhan.

Picking her pencil, she started sketching on the white paper. It was her first sketch of the day and she couldn’t hide the excitement as she let her pencil danced all over the paper. A week into the start of the school, Luhan questioned her about her habit of drawing during lesson time and she couldn’t find an answer to that.

She used to draw because she didn’t like her home schooled teachers and it had unknowingly became a habit. But now, she didn’t exactly hated school so there wasn’t a need to draw anymore.

Because for the first time someone like her gets to experience a normal childhood with a friend. Bixue was sure 3^rd grade would be a big time with Luhan around. With him, she wouldn’t mind skipping lunch so he could have another additional half an hour to play his favourite soccer. And she would another half an hour to draw. With him, she wouldn’t mind spending everyday like this.

“What did you draw today?” Luhan came running up to the seats beside the field as the bell signalling to the end of lunch break rang in the background.

Turning her sketchpad around, Bixue showed her first sketch of the day to him excitedly. And on the white paper was a boy dribbling the ball across a field with their school building in the background. Luhan recognized himself in the sketch right away and he broke into a smile, with his doe eyes twinkling.

“It’s really beautiful.” He ruffled her hair gently before packing her pencils into the bag.

Luhan, it’s for you.

“You want to give it to me?” Luhan asked the girl and she nodded, tearing the paper from her sketchpad neatly and giving it to him. To Bixue, Luhan had already became her best friend she wouldn’t know what would she do without him.

“Thank you.”

Luhan placed the sketch carefully into the canvas bag he was carrying, mentally deciding to pin it beside the portrait she drew for him on the first night they met. Turning around to the girl behind her, he broke into a boyish grin as he stretched out his free hand.

“Let’s go back to class.”

A short filler chapter.

Updates may be a slower recently because I'm having my exams next month and Chinese New Year is coming. Time for springcleaning!

Enjoy!