A few nights later, Ara messaged Kim and told her that she has already selected out photos. She decided to do an essay homework as she waited for a reply.

After a while, she heard the doorbell ring. She opened it to find a gorgeous girl and realized that it looked like the girl on Kim’s profile photo. Underneath her jacket was a shimmery gold dress that seemed to glow when she moved. Her makeup wasn’t heavy but went well with the dress. Even more than she was pretty, the girl commanded such a captivating aura.

“Is Clarissa around?” Ara opened the door wider and the girl easily let herself in. She took off her high heeled sandals and opened the side cabinet and put on a pair of slippers which Ara thought were guest slippers as it didn’t seem to belong to Clarissa. Now she knew better. “You must be Ara, I’m Kim.” She held out her hands with perfectly manicured nails and Ara shook it.

“Nice to meet you in person, Kim.” They both let go. “Clarissa’s in her room, she was doing something on her computer.”

“I see, let’s not bother her. So, can I see the photos?”

“Yes. I’ll just go get them.” Ara said as Kim took a laptop and set it on the same island kitchen counter Clarissa usually worked on. Ara went to her room and came back with the SD card. “Here they are.”

Kim took it, put it on a slot and they looked at the photos together.

“Not gonna lie, I think they look great.”

“Thank you very much.”

They went over the shots of Jules when Kim chuckled.

“That’s why Clarissa was so happy when she told me about you.” She giggled some more. “That’s actually pretty amazing, Ara.” Kim nodded and was impressed and it made Ara flustered. She didn’t think so.

“Ah no, I think I’m nowhere near good yet. I still have a lot to learn but thank you very much.”

They looked at a couple more photos. At a photo of Reo, Kim paused scrolling and tapped a finger on the counter a couple of times.

“I’ve been thinking of doing a single account for all of them, just like their other social profiles on others like on FB, but now that I’ve seen a bit of your photos, I think that maybe having each of them have an account of their own would be great too, don’t you think so?”

Ara didn’t really know much about social media. Even though she did photography, she didn’t have an Instagram account and looked at photo collection books and blogs instead. She didn’t really feel the need to post her photos, after all.

To her, the camera was really nothing more than a tool to help her see the world and people better.

“I guess one account would let them look like one band, while having individual accounts will make fans feel closer to each member.” She offered.

“Right? Guess I’ll talk to Clarissa about this too. I think I’m leaning towards individual, how about you? It means more work for the both of us though.”

“I don’t mind.”

“You’re a pretty hard-working gal, I don’t dislike that.” Kim stood up and knocked on Clarissa’s room. Maybe she’s been here a lot, she seemed more at home than Ara was with the place.

“Hey there, Kim. Seems like you were out having some fun time, what brought you here?” Clarissa complimented her hoop earrings and approved noddingly at her get-up.

“I was out with some girlfriends, but I wasn’t really feeling it. Just didn’t know what else to. That’s when Ara saved me with her message and so I just had to come.” Kim smiled at her that revealed a left dimple.

“Ara saved the day, huh?”

“You could say that. Good timing too, some boring guy was starting to talk to me then, too.”

Clarissa and Kim ended up having a lengthy discussion about the accounts and they told Ara that she can leave them be. She took her leave, went back to her room and ended up creating an account on Instagram. She thought it would be like Facebook full of classmates’ countless selfies but found that there were a lot of photographers on it too.

She wondered how the band’s profile would look like with her photos. For sure, Lily would be following them right away. She realized that she’s never showed Lily her photos unless they were ones that featured Lily herself. Would Lily be surprised and glad for her friend?

 

***

 

The next night, Ara has just sat down and about to eat her dinner on the kitchen counter when the door opened. Clarissa was on her room, so it couldn’t have been her. She stood up to check who it might be when it opened by itself.

“Ara?” Reo popped up and entered with his slippers. Vince was behind him. And Dominic. And Jules.

“Hello Reo, oh hello, everyone.”

“Like I told you, we shouldn’t bother her. Let’s go back.” Jules seemed irritated. Or was it more embarrassment?

“Ara, is it true that you cook breakfast for Jules? That’s unfair, I want to taste your cooking too.” Reo spotted the food beside her and looked excited. Jules was positively both furious and embarrassed.

“Are you only about to have dinner?” Vince looked at the food with an expression that was hard to read. Did he like or hate the dish?

“I haven’t had dinner yet.” Reo said.

“We haven’t had dinner yet.” Vince echoed.

“No dinner yet?” Ara asked. It was already half past eight PM. She only ended up cooking late since she got stuck trying to finish a homework that she didn’t notice the time until she was done.

“Yup, we kinda ended up practicing a lot today.” Dominic chimed in and sat on the couch. “I already ordered some pizza a while ago, so have some later too.”

Ara always felt like she forgot something whenever she saw Dominic. She never remembered so she never called out to him. Now that she did, she realized it with horror.

“Dominic, I have to tell you something.” The air turned tense and all eyes were on her.

“What’s wrong? It sounds serious.” Dominic sat up straighter on the couch.

“Ah, it’s nothing bad. Sorry about being so late. But I just realized I never got to thank you properly for telling Clarissa about me. Thank you so much for that.” Ara said politely and Dominic laughed.

“You sounded so worried, Ara.” Reo said and chuckled too. “That was cute.” Reo was the cute one, Ara did not understand what made Reo think she was.

“Then I have a brilliant idea of how you can make it up to me.” Dominic stood up.

“She doesn’t owe you anything for something like that.” Jules said.

“That’s right.” Vince backed up.

“It’s none of your business. Anyway Ara, why don’t you cook something for me sometime?”

“Wow, I kinda want some too.” Reo looked a tiny bit jealously at Dominic.

“Sure thing, I’m sure Ara can cook for the two of us.” Dominic assured him.

“I would love to cook for you, tomorrow.” Ara said but nobody heard her.

“What about me?” Vince appeared kind of sad which surprised Ara. He always looked so detached from the world around him.

“You went against me earlier, but fine, you can have some too. Jules can’t though.” Reo said.

“Ha? Why am I the only one left out?” Jules burst out.

“You already ate a lot of her cooking. You’re the one most unfair here.” Dominic countered.

“That’s right, keeping Ara to yourself like that.” Reo was a team with Dominic.

“What’s going on here?” Clarissa went out of her room and found her living room lively. “Oh, what are you guys doing here? Is Ram out?”

“Ara’s going to be cooking for us three.” Dominic motioned to himself and to Vince and Reo.

“Ara cooks?” Clarissa saw her meal and clapped. “Are you going to start cooking for us?”

“Not for you, for us.” Dominic went against his older sister bravely.

“But we don’t even have a rice cooker, oh where’d you get these pots?” Clarissa found and went to hold and inspect them.

“Jules lent it to me.”

“They’re Ram’s.” Jules informed.

“Oh no, I thought they were yours. Doesn’t Ram want them back?” Ara didn’t want to trouble Ram.

“Hmm, I know what to do, let’s buy you these cooking stuff then so we can give these back to Ram.” Clarissa offered.

“You don’t have to do that! I can bring some from home once I come back from there.” Ara didn’t want to trouble Clarissa as well.

“But your brother probably uses those and needs them too, right? Hmm, how about think of this way Ara, it’s a little reward for those photos you’ve given us. Kim and I had a lot of new ideas because of them last night.”

Dominic smiled at his sister’s words.

“You’ve done a great job, after all. And it must be pretty hard to cook rice without a rice cooker, right?” Dominic supported. It was a rare sight to see the siblings agree on anything.

“I want to taste this, can I have some, Ara?” Reo pointed to the dish plate.

“Me too.” Vince added.

“Ara?” Reo pressed.

“Yes!” She suddenly said out of the overwhelming situation. Clarissa and Dominic looked expectantly too. “Yes, I would love to cook for you tomorrow.” She repeated what she said earlier.

“That settles it, that means we’ll buy you your own stuff.” Dominic patted Ara’s shoulder.

“Yes, that’s right. Ram might be needing his things after all.” Clarissa patted her other shoulder. The siblings looked pleased with themselves.

“Yes, I should give them back to him soon.” Ara said.

“Wow, this tastes great Ara. Here you go, you should eat it before it’s cold.” Reo first rinsed the spoon that was originally hers anyway and put it in her hand. He also took the fork from Vince’s hand, rinsed it as well and gave it back to her.

“Yes, I should.”

Dominic’s phone chimed and he answered the call. He went outside and no sooner came back with some drinks and a delivery man who carried boxes of pizza behind him. They placed it on the rarely used for eating dining table. Clarissa escorted the delivery man, thanked him and gave a tip.

“Let’s dig in, then. You go ahead with yours too Ara, I’ll personally deliver a plate to you, don’t worry.” Dominic assured.

“As if she needs you to do that for her.” Jules remarked as he took a slice.

“Thanks for getting the biggest slice for me Jules, how kind of you.” Dominic took Jules’ pizza and took a bite before he could get it back.

For the first time since Ara moved in, Clarissa’s place was lively and packed with people, though comfortably so. Outside, it was a clear night and Ara saw a bit of the moon from a window.

 

***

 

Early on a Saturday morning, the whole band and Ara sat in the same car as before on the way to the mall. Clarissa didn’t accompany them. Ara was surprised to see Ram joined them too.

She was able to return the pots and other stuff Jules lent her to Ram last night. She was very nervous as Ram took some of the things that were about to fall off and opened the door to let her in. However, he turned to be chill about the whole thing.

“It’s not your fault.” He said as they entered the unit together towards their kitchen. “It’s Jules though.”

“Oh no, please don’t be mad at him too.”

“I’m not really mad at him. I already have a lot of other things to be mad about.” Ram pointed out where some of the stuff went and put the others back in their places as well.

“You do?”

“Yeah. Looks like that’s all of it.” Ram stated and thus ended their brief conversation.

Shockingly, it was silent inside the car. Everyone looked tired. Ara found the silence preferable but felt bad for them too. That silence was shattered by her own phone ringing, however. Everyone bolted from the sound. She must have forgotten to mute it after her brother called the other night.

“I’m very sorry.” She said as she quickly opened her bag to find it.

“No problem, go ahead and answer.” Dominic told her. Ara got her phone and saw that the caller was Lily. Usually, Lily and Ara only messaged each other. She answered the call.

“Ara? You there?”

“Yes. Good morning, Lily.”

“Yes, morning. Is it morning already? Anyway Ara, hear this! They revealed another member today, and you won’t believe who it is.” In the silence, Lily’s voice could be heard even if it wasn’t on speaker.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Abram! Our actual classmate, Abram. The snobbish, delinquent-looking one who was rude to me on the stairs the other day? He’s going by Ram, and he’s actually on the guitar and vocals. Wait, you met them already, right? That means you knew about this. OMG, Ara.” The other guys stared hard at Ram.

“Yes, that’s Ram.” She glanced at Ram who was on the right end of the back seat. Dominic and Jules were in front and turned back to look at them as well. She was at the far left beside Reo and Vince.

“Ram is Abram?”

“Yes, Ram is Abram.” Ara confirmed.

“Oh my goodness Ara, I don’t know what to feel about this band anymore. I shouldn’t drop it just because one guy’s awful, right?”

“Awful? No, I guess you shouldn’t drop it based on that.” Ara wondered what was wrong with what she said since the other members tried hard to hold back their laughter.

“This was such a surprise too, they said the next face reveal was on Monday.” Lily seemed disappointed, though Ara imagined from her voice that she must have been so excited to read about the reveal only to see a certain Abram as Ram. Ara also wondered if that really was a surprise reveal or something Clarissa just forgot until now. “Okay, that’s enough call for me today. Why are calls so unexplainably taxing, Ara?”

“I don’t know Lily.”

“Man, Ara. I still can’t believe Ram’s in SBC. I don’t like this. Oh, but we did see Dom in school too. You think Jules goes to our school as well? No, actually don’t answer that. I’ll probably find out soon. Anyways, bye Ara.”

“Goodbye Lily.” The moment the call dropped, laughter erupted in what used to be a hushed car.

“Delinquent! And she just called you awful too, Ram.” Dominic and the others teased.

“Shut up, you suck at the guitar, you can’t tell me I’m awful. You need to practice more.” He tried to come back but this only made Dominic and the other laugh even more.

“I’m main vocals though. And I do practice. But delinquent Ram, she summed you up so perfectly.” Ram’s face turned red. He looked angry and embarrassed. Ara couldn’t understand why, but the first thought that came to mind at this sight of Ram was ‘cute.’

 

***

 

“We’re here, boys.” The driver looked back at them.

Ara has never heard his voice before. It was surprisingly deep and full. It reminded her of her dad and their countless drives together before.

“Thanks, Pops.” Dominic said as he opened the door and went out.

“Sure.” The driver replied.

“See you later, Pops.” Reo said as well as they left. The others also thanked the man. The driver replied to each one.

“Thank you, sir.” Ara thought it might seem rude to be the only one to not do it. And she was truly thankful for driving them after all, and so safely.

“You’re very welcome.” The driver acknowledged her and Ara gratefully smiled.

“Now then, let’s go shopping.” Dominic led the way.

“I’m going somewhere else, bye.” Ram said and took off just like that.

“Bye.” Jules didn’t even explain and just left as well.

It was a lot more relaxed with just the three around. They went right into the department store, however, they ended up looking at clothes first. Dominic and Reo picked up and tried some interesting-looking tops for themselves while Ara and Vince waited for them.

“You don’t like clothes, Vince?” Ara tried to start.

“I already have enough.” He simply said and thus ended the conversation.

 

After Dominic and Reo finished and paid up, they got held up looking at accessories, gadgets, and even checked out some furniture first before they finally made it to the section for kitchen tools.

There, Dominic led them and tried his best to help out.

“We need this too, right?” Dominic held up a fancy accessory Ara didn’t even know what it was used for.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“How about this one?” Dominic pointed to a chopping board. “Oh wow, that’s heavy.” He said as he picked it up.

“I think this would be enough.” Ara chose a lighter one and when Dominic nodded, she put it on their basket.

“That would have been too heavy for Ara, Domi.” Reo added.

“True.”

After that, Dominic went faster and simply took whatever seemed essential while Ara went through what he put in the cart. She carefully checked what they were, their prices, and put back what wasn’t needed or switched out the outrageously expensive ones he picked up for similar lesser-priced ones. A salesman and saleslady thankfully helped her out.

“This has to be the one, Ara.” Dominic pointed at a large rice cooker that was very costly as well.

“This much is fine though.” Ara stood by a model that was slightly smaller.

“We have this brand in our house too.” Reo looked at the other displays in the brand Ara has chosen.

“Alright fine, that one, but do you have a bigger size for it?” He asked the salespeople who nodded and placed it in their basket. This would have to do as a compromise.

Once they got all that they needed and guiltily more, they went to the counter to pay. Ara was shocked to see what it all amounted to.

She got worried for a heartbeat when realized that it wasn’t going be hers after all. It was Clarissa’s apartment and Clarissa’s money, so she was the one who actually owned these things. The thought relaxed her a lot. She smiled at the thought that she was able to help her get the best deals. Her kitchen was going to be actually functional now.

 

***

 

By the time they finished, it was a little over noon. Dominic called the driver and after they loaded the things they bought onto the back of the car, Ara was surprised as she followed them back in the mall.

“I’m hungry.” Dominic said.

“Me too.” Reo agreed.

“How about that place?” Vince pointed at what looked like an Italian-themed restaurant that served only pizza and pasta.

“Pizza?” Ara asked. They just had pizza last night.

“Why not?” Dominic agreed with Vince’s suggestion.

“Let’s go, I’ll call Ram and Jules as well.” Reo said. It looked like it was pizza again for brunch today. She decided that she’ll have some pasta, maybe carbonara.

Ram and Jules turned up shortly after they were seated. They must be hungry as well. Ara questioned but easily accepted that the boys were just huge fans of pizza.

It was a lively lunch with so many people. Ara happily ate her pasta and even had a slice of pizza as she listened to Dominic recalling funny stories, mostly about the rest of the members. He had a lot and the guys laughed when it was not about them, at least it was mostly Reo and Vince who joined in.

After pizzas, they decided to walk off for a bit before going home so that they wouldn’t be so uncomfortably full on the ride home.

It was actually Ara’s first time to this particular mall, but it gave an ambience that was familiar and had a layout that was easy to understand as well so it didn’t feel daunting. Soon, they passed by a well-known camera store and Ara had the slightest urge to check it out but didn’t want to stall them.

“Do you want to check it out?” Dominic must have noticed as they walked beside each other while the others were ahead.

“Oh no, it’s fine. Let’s just walk.” Ara politely refused.

“I wanted some ice cream from that stall, anyway. Pretty sure the other guys want some too.” Dominic said, though Ara still looked uncertain.

“It’s okay, rea–” Ara started although Dominic already moved forward.

“Don’t take too long, though.”

“I won’t.” Ara finally agreed.

“Man, I want some ice cream now.” Dominic pointed the ice cream stall to the other guys.

“Do you have a vacuum for a stomach?”

“I want one too.”

“That’s why you sing so horribly.”

“Maybe he has four stomachs like a goat.”

Their voices carried on as Ara went inside the shop. She went straight for the one that caught her eye, the one that she’s been saving up for. Before she got the job, she thought that she’ll probably get to buy this at some faraway point in the future that by the time it happened, there’d be other newer models out then. But now that Clarissa has taken her under her wing, it wouldn’t be so long.

Even though she’s already seen it before and read reviews about it online as well, it was still a different kind of exciting to see things in person with one’s own eyes.

After she looked at the other cameras on display for a while, she left the store and went to where the others ate their ice cream. They looked like some sort of models advertising for ice cream. Not that ice creams really needed models or advertising. She walked to the counter and looked at the flavors when Jules stood beside her.

“I’ll have one cup of strawberry please.” She told the booth’s lady vendor.

“Sure thing.” She answered.

“Strawberry?” Jules said and shook his head. “It doesn’t even taste like real ones.”

“I guess that’s true. I think it still tastes good in its own way, though.” She said and took her purse out of her bag.

“My treat.” Jules put money on the counter before Ara could.

“Hmm? But why? What is it for?” She didn’t even get to contribute to their brunch earlier too.

Jules avoided her gaze and seemed embarrassed. He stalled and the vendor gave Ara her ice cream. The vendor was about to take the money but Ara held onto it.

“Please wait.” The vendor seemed displeased. Ara changed her mind, she could just pay Jules back after all. “Sorry.” She let go of the bill and handed it back to her. They left the counter and stopped on the way to where the others sat on an indoor bench.

“An apology.” He finally managed to get out as Ara took her wallet out.

“But you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“It’s my fault you got into this mess all because I blurted out that your beef dish the other day was really good.”

“That’s nothing to be faulted for. Actually, I have a lot to thank you for.” She said.

“Ara! Jules! Come here already.” Reo called them over. Jules wanted to know what she could possibly be thankful for.

“Wh–”

“Coming.” Ara said and walked before he could ask. “Did you say something, Jules?” She turned back at him.

“Nothing.” He shook his head and they walked to the rest of the group.

It was the first time Ara ate ice cream with this many people in such a long time. She couldn’t even remember when the last time was, but it must have been a long time ago with her family. Maybe that time when she still had three brothers and two parents. Ara could barely remember.