Three months passed like a precise gear turning. The classroom ecosystem at Eternal Hope State High School has been fully established with all its hierarchies, friendship camps, and drama. In the midst of this busy social cycle, Alcel remains a static object that cannot be moved. He maintains his routine with the consistency of a machine.

That afternoon, the second break bell had just rang loudly. The classroom atmosphere which was originally stuffy suddenly turned into a noisy arena. Groups began to crowd tables, plan cafeteria lunches, or simply gather to exchange the latest gossip.

In the front seat, Alcel stood. He put the lens cap in his uniform pocket, slung his old DSLR camera around his neck, then reached into the desk drawer for a lunch box wrapped in a faded blue cloth. Since deciding to live independently one month ago, cooking a portion of functional food every morning is a new addition to her routine.

He held his lunch, preparing to walk towards the park under a quiet tree - a lunch location that had become his absolute territory.

However, the steps had not yet begun when the sound frequency in the classroom suddenly changed. The chatter near the door died down, replaced by muffled whispers that spread very quickly. The attention of almost the entire class was drawn to the doorway.

Standing there, a girl with long flowing hair stared into the room. Her uniform is the same as other female students, but the way she wears it is accompanied by a body posture that exudes an infectious cheerful and confident aura. His face was bright, decorated with a friendly smile that didn't look fake.

She is Laura Meyer. A transfer girl who has only set foot in this school for one week, but her name has already dominated all conversations in the corridor. News of the beautiful, fresh-faced transfer student spread like wildfire, putting him straight at the top of the social pyramid without him even having to try.

"Excuse me," said Laura in a clear voice, greeting a male student who happened to be standing closest to the door frame. "Can I come in for a moment? I'm looking for someone."

The student who was greeted nodded brokenly, his face suddenly red. "Oh... sure. Go ahead."

Several boys in the class immediately straightened their backs. Some were straightening the collar of their uniforms, some were combing their hair with their fingers. The class president had even put on his best symmetrical smile, ready to welcome him if the popular girl really came looking for the people at the top of the hierarchy.

Laura stepped in. His eyes swept across the room in a fast rhythm. Just as her gaze fell to the front corner where Alcel was standing, the smile on the girl's face grew wider—a smile that was much more sincere and brighter than her polite smile at the door earlier.

Without paying attention to the dozens of pairs of eyes that followed her every move, Laura walked straight across the row of tables. He passed the popular kids. He ignored the amazed looks. The goal is only one.

The girl stopped right in front of Alcel.

Alcel looked at Laura. His face remained flat. There was no flash of surprise to see the figure of his little brother suddenly at the same school, standing in his class, wearing a white and gray uniform that matched his own. He only recorded Laura's presence in his spatial space as a new visual fact.

"Found it," said Laura cheerfully, her eyes sparkling at the expressionless face in front of her.

Before Alcel could process the next logical step, Laura immediately reached out with both hands and grabbed the sleeve of Alcel's uniform. His grip was tight, not a rough tug, but a proactive invitation that did not provide the option of rejection.

"Let's have lunch together!" Laura said in a very enthusiastic tone, almost sounding like a cheerful commando.

Alcel glanced at his right arm which was now held tightly by Laura, then his eyes rose again to look at the girl's face.

"I usually eat in the park," Alcel responded flatly.

He didn't ask why Laura was here. He did not question his brother's move. He only provided logistical information regarding lunch.

"Okay, let's go to the park!" Laura replied without losing the slightest enthusiasm.

The girl turned around and immediately grabbed Alcel's arm, leading him along the aisle between the tables.

Alcel didn't fight the pull. Expending physical energy to argue or pulling back his hand in a crowd is very inefficient. He let himself be led out of the classroom, walking at a calm tempo behind the most popular girl in the class, while holding his lunch box in his left hand and keeping his camera from hitting the edge of the table.

Behind them, complete silence froze the entire classroom.

Some of the boys' jaws nearly dropped. The class president stared with a political smile that now looked very ridiculous. Even a group of female students like Nadila could only look at each other with their eyes wide open.

How could this strange child whose hobby was photographing ants be just pulled away by a transfer angel?

No one in the class knew that the two teenagers shared the same last name. In the eyes of a class ecosystem obsessed with prestige and social validation, what had just happened before their eyes was a systemic error—a logical anomaly that made their entire perception of hierarchy fall apart.

***

The garden at the corner of the school is still shaded by the same banyan tree. As usual, the boy wearing glasses was sitting there, leaning against a tree trunk while chewing his lunch in silence. However, the boy's solitary peace suddenly collapsed when he heard the sound of extra footsteps approaching.

He looked up and almost choked. His eyes widened behind the lenses of his glasses when he saw Alcel walking towards the place, not alone, but being pulled by Laura—the transfer girl who had just become the main topic throughout the school for the past few days.

The bespectacled boy hurriedly looked down, shifted his sitting position slightly away, and pretended to be reading the notebook on his lap very intensely. Even so, every now and then his eyes would steal glances from behind the cover of the book, still not believing what he was seeing.

Alcel sat cross-legged on the grass, placing his camera carefully by his side. Laura without hesitation sat down in front of him, folded her legs gracefully and carried her own lunch box.

Alcel untied the faded blue cloth. As soon as the lid of the lunch box was opened, Laura leaned forward slightly, peeking at the contents of the lunch box with sparkling curious eyes.

Inside the plastic box, everything is arranged with an astonishing degree of precision. White rice is pressed solidly on one side. Next to it, there are pieces of grilled chicken cut symmetrically, side by side with broccoli and boiled carrots which are still fresh in color. No messy oil, no dripping sauce. Very healthy, very neat.

"You cooked this all yourself?" Laura asked in amazement.

"Yes," answered Alcel flatly. He started holding his spoon.

Laura looked at her own lunch - sausage fried rice that her mother had prepared this morning - then looked back at Alcel's lunch with a slightly envious expression. "Wow... that's really neat. Mom still cooks for me every morning. Brother can really live independently well, huh."

Alcel put a mouthful of broccoli in his mouth, chewing it calmly, before looking at his brother.

"Why did you move here?" Alcel asked. A logistical question, without the slightest emotional overtones.

Laura pursed her lips. His cheerful face turned into a slightly childish look of annoyance.

"Of course to look for you!" Laura replied a little grumpily. "Three years, Big bro. Three years since you left home and you haven't contacted us at all. Mom and Dad are really worried about you, you know? I even had to ask your former junior high school teacher to find out which high school you enrolled in."

"I can't contact you. My cellphone is broken," answered Alcel briefly.

Laura frowned. "Just because of that? If it's broken, why don't you buy a new one and send a message? Why is it so broken that it can't be repaired?"

"The cell phone fell out of my shirt pocket, into a culvert, then was carried away by the current."

"How did it fall into the sewer?!"

"I was bending over on the edge of the sidewalk, photographing the moss patterns on the gutter stones," Alcel explained innocently.

Laura looked at Alcel with her mouth half open. He was silent for a few seconds, trying to digest the series of absurd logic he had just heard.

"What kind of reason is that?!" Laura protested, her voice rose slightly but was followed by a small laugh that she couldn't hold back. He held his stomach. "Geez... you really haven't changed at all, big brother Alcel. Still taking pictures of strange things at inopportune times."

Alcel didn't respond to the laugh. He just continued eating at the same rhythm. The glasses-wearing kid next to them was quietly turning the pages of his book, listening to the conversation with a brain that was almost short-circuited.

"Besides, how have you been able to survive on your own these past three years? Do you have enough savings to buy all these healthy foods every day?" Laura asked again, her tone now soft, filled with real concern.

"I have enough money," answered Alcel. "Every now and then I get work as a freelance photographer. The pay is good enough to support myself. Sometimes, I also get paid by taking photos of random people I meet on the street. Apart from that, the neighbors near the rental sometimes give me extra food."

Laura smiled faintly. Imagining his stiff and expressionless older brother working taking photos of people and receiving food from neighbors somehow made his heart feel warm. He knew, behind that flat face and short answers, Alcel had his own way of surviving and being accepted by his environment.

"I miss you, you know," Laura said suddenly, her voice low. The afternoon wind blew his hair gently. His eyes looked straight at Alcel, channeling the feelings that had been suppressed for three years.

Alcel stopped his mouthful. His eyes met Laura's gaze. For a split second, a faint smile—so faint but real—took hold of the corners of his lips. He did not respond to his longing words with dramatized words. His gaze slowly lowered, making a visual scan of the contents of the lunch box in his brother's lap. His brain automatically calculated the nutritional composition of the fried rice and processed sausages.

"I still have two pieces of roasted chicken left. Do you want some?" Alcel offered, holding out his lunch box. "The nutrition in your lunch is still not enough. The rest is enough."

Laura was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing again, this time louder. His laughter echoed under the cool banyan tree, filling the silence of the usually frozen garden.

"Of course I want to," answered Laura, handing her the spoon. He realized that for Alcel Meyer, giving a small smile and analyzing protein levels for the sake of his brother's health was the highest form of expression of longing and affection that he could give.

They spent the rest of lunch quietly. As soon as Laura's last bite was finished and she had just closed her lunch box, Alcel immediately re-tied her own lunch box with a faded blue cloth.

"Go immediately," said Alcel flatly, as he grabbed his camera from the grass and put it back around his neck. "I have something to do after this."

Laura pursed her lips, having just felt warm and now immediately chased away with her older brother's typical functional style.

"What business? Taking pictures of caterpillars again?" Laura teased.

"No," answered Alcel without providing further explanation.

Laura took a deep breath, but her smile grew again. She stood up and patted the grass on the back of her skirt.

"Okay, okay. I'll go back to class first. See you later, Big bro!" said the girl while waving, then walked away, leaving Alcel who was preparing to carry out his own agenda.

***

As soon as Alcel stepped back into the classroom, the atmosphere in the room felt different. The air seemed to become denser. The gazes of dozens of pairs of eyes immediately locked onto him, as if he was a gravitational anomaly that had just attracted the brightest object in their solar system.

Alcel walked towards his seat calmly. He put his lunch box into his bag and began to readjust his camera lens cap. However, before he could sit down properly, the table in front of him was surrounded.

The class president stood at the front with both hands pounding Alcel's desk lightly, while the other boys crowded behind him. Even the group of women leaned over from their tables to eavesdrop.

"Alcel, explain right now!" the class president demanded, his expression a mixture of peaked curiosity and bruised ego. "What just happened? Why did the transfer girl suddenly pull you out?"

Alcel looked up, looking at the crowd with an expressionless face. "He invited me to eat."

A groan of frustration escaped the mouths of several students.

"That's not what we meant!" interrupted another student impatiently. "What's your relationship with him? Why does he call you 'Big bro' even though you're in the same year?!"

"He's my brother," Alcel answered simply, presenting the facts without bothering to provide additional context.

A moment of silence fell over the crowd. Their brains try to process the information.

"Your brother?!" shouted one of the students. "Wait a minute... Laura Meyer... Alcel Meyer. Oh my gosh, you have the same last name!"

The bell rang loudly, echoing throughout the school. However, the loud voice did not disperse the crowd at Alcel's table at all. Instead, they pushed forward even more, ignoring the change in class hours.

"If he's your little brother, make sure you introduce him to me!" "Why have you never told me that you have a brother as beautiful as her?!" "Ask for the phone number, Alcel!"

The rain of questions and demands continuously attacked his ears. Alcel didn't blink, didn't panic, and didn't feel intimidated. He just answers each question one by one with frustratingly functional honesty.

"I don't have his phone number." "I never told you because no one asked." "I won't introduce anyone."

The class became increasingly boisterous, dissatisfied with the too literal and dry answer. Just at that moment, the sound of footsteps could be heard entering the room, followed by a loud smack from the doorway.

"What's all this crowding around in front of?"

The firm voice of Mrs. Farra, the homeroom teacher, cut through the commotion. The whole class suddenly froze. They slowly turned their heads and found the female teacher standing with her arms folded across her chest. His eyes swept across Alcel's desk, which was usually surrounded by empty space, but had now become the center of the crowd.

"This bench is so busy," muttered Mrs. Farra with slightly raised eyebrows, surprised to see the social anomaly in her class. "Go back to your respective seats. Lessons will start soon."

Within seconds, the crowd dispersed. The boys ran back to their seats with slightly sullen faces, still curious but not daring to argue. Alcel just took a slow, very slow breath, then opened his notebook as if nothing extraordinary had just happened.

Lessons continued as usual, although Alcel could feel several pairs of eyes still stealing glances at him from various corners of the classroom. He ignored it, choosing to focus on the streaks of sunlight that slowly shifted across his desk.

Towards the end of class, Mrs. Farra closed her attendance book and looked at the class with a more serious expression.

"Before today's class closes, there is an important announcement," said Mrs. Farra, making sure all students were paying attention. "Prepare yourselves well. Starting next week, we will carry out the Mid-Term Examination. This UTS score will be an important indicator for your evaluation in the first semester."

Simultaneous complaints immediately filled the room, replacing their curiosity about Alcel with the academic pressure that suddenly felt so close. In the midst of the mass complaints, Alcel only gave a small nod to himself, registering the information as just a change in schedule in his functional routine.