Sae treated Deil to a meal to celebrate the end of the school year. At first, it was a bet to see which one of them could sit on the throne reserved for the top scorer. However, both boys stayed at the foot of the podium. Sae wasn’t affected; he did all he could.
And Deil? He never seemed to care about these things in the first place. He was okay with missing first place as long as their food arrangement held.
The two decided to go to the restaurant managed by Teo’s mum.
After getting them seated and taking their order, Teo’s mum departed towards the kitchen. By now, her belly started to show.
Deil bent closer to Sae and asked, “So what’s the situation?”
Sae glanced up. “Teo will have a little sister or brother. I’m not sure about the specifics.”
“Wow.” Deil said, “Is he okay with that?”
“It’s not like he can do anything about it.” Sae let his gaze linger on the other for a few seconds, gauging his reaction. “You don’t have siblings, do you?”
Deil turned quiet.
“You’re far too bratty to have siblings,” Sae concluded, still looking at him.
“Right,” Deil nodded and smirked, “Is that what made you so bratty, then? Cause you don’t have any either.”
Sae didn’t deny being bratty. If Deil really believed that, it was entirely on him. He opened his mouth to say, “I kind of do, though. Emi’s like a little sister.”
Deil kept smiling but didn’t follow up on the topic.
The food arrived soon after, and the two ate for a good while. When they felt too full to swallow another bite, Deil pulled Sae outside for a walk.
The early evening breeze gave the illusion that the temperature hadn’t been over thirty-plus degrees all day long. After a couple of loops around the neighbourhood, Sae led the way to the small plaza. He bought two ice cream bars but had to chase Deil around the trodden path after Deil bit off half of his ice cream and fled.
“There’s a variety of things here I can use as a weapon to attack you,” Sae warned.
“So vicious,” Deil halted his escape a few steps away, “Big words for someone who just got half of his ice cream stolen.”
During the chase, Sae’s glasses slipped down his nose. He adjusted them and said, “I can still stuff this stick down your throat, you know.”
Deil shook his head with a smile and sat down. He took the skeleton of his ice cream bar and poked it into the grass like a flagpole.
Sae gave him a look. “That’s littering.”
“That sentence,” Deil pointed at Sae, “…is your policy-following-heart at its finest.”
Sae didn’t care about the policies of this park – not like there were any – but it pissed him off if someone littered because nothing forbade it.
Deil dragged him down by the arm and pulled the ice cream stick from his mouth. There was no longer any ice cream on it. He poked it in the ground right next to his own, saying, “Good thing it’s biodegradable. I’m also conscious about that stuff.”
“Yes. That stuff.” Sae nodded. He knew Deil was up to his bullshit again but still asked, “Is it littering or recycling?”
“Cycling, of course. Didn’t you know?” Deil shook his head. “You’ll never see anyone be more passionate about cycling than me.”
Sae burst into laughter. He did that more and more often since he began spending time with Deil. It was a thing totally out of his control. Plopping down beside the sticks, he touched one of them with the toe of his shoe. “I figured out what to ask of you.”
“Aha! So this was nothing but a ruse…. a bribe?” Deil’s ironwood eyes glinted, their corners crinkling. He threw grass at Sae, which Sae avoided by leaning back but lost his balance and almost fell.
Kicking out a leg, he stabilised himself. “Excuse me. Have you forgotten that you owe me? We agreed. For what would I need to bribe you, anyway?”
Deil shrugged. He flicked the band on his wrist before asking, “So what do I have to do?”
“Help me move a case tomorrow.”
“A case?”
“Yes, a bookcase. I need a new one for my room.” Sae bent forward and rubbed his palms together. He had leaned on them and now his skin was pressed with the faint outlines of grass and dried pieces of earth. “We only need to move it from the shop to home.”
“Okay,” Deil agreed. “When?”
Sae returned the favour and threw a fistful of grass at Deil. “I’ll text you about the time.”
The bookcase came in two sleek and flat boxes – ready to assemble style. The shop Sae arranged to meet at wasn’t a giant of the furniture world like IKEA, but a small family store not too far from where he lived. By the time Deil arrived, he had already paid and was waiting outside, the boxes propped by his leg.
“Hey,” Deil greeted.
“Hey.” Sae locked his phone, slipping it into his pocket. “How are you doing?”
For some reason, Deil appeared a little excited. “Good. You?”
“I’m okay. I’ve already paid.” Sae looked at the moped Deil was sitting on. “It’s not that far, like only a couple of streets. You didn’t have to...” He wasn’t sure how to follow up on that sentence. Deil obviously brought the moped expecting to put it to use. Otherwise, he could’ve cycled on his bike like he usually did.
“Oh,” Deil got off the vehicle. His eyes scanned the place, and he parked the moped by the roadside. Pointing at the boxes, he asked, “Is that everything?”
Sae stood up, stretching his legs out. “It’s only one case, but it’d be impractical to carry it back by myself.”
“Yea, okay.” Deil walked to the other end of the boxes, crouching down. “Show the way then.”
They hoisted the boxes and set off in the direction of Sae’s home. Sae led at the front while Deil followed. He turned his head to the side and glanced back. “What about the moped?”
Deil seemed unconcerned. “Whatever. I’ll come back for it on the way home.”
“Little Mo won’t care about it?”
“Little Mo?” Deil asked, uncertain, “How does he come into this?”
“Well, I mean, it’s his and all...” Sae mumbled.
Suddenly the boxes got tugged back. Sae stopped and looked over his shoulder. Deil was staring at him without blinking.
“What?” Sae asked.
“The moped is mine,” Deil said, “Why do you think it is Little Mo’s? He has nothing to do with it.”
“Oh...” Sae thought back to the time he witnessed Little Mo handing the bike over to Deil and how, with his brilliant thought process, he concluded that it must be Little Mo’s and not Deil’s. He believed it was a bribe or a part of a payment. Now he felt extremely foolish to think that way.
Sae cleared his throat. “I don’t know why I thought that.”
Deil was still staring at him, gauging his expression. Sae tried to fake casualness about this mini-revelation of his. He toned down the awkwardness and nerves that were about to flood his voice. “Anyway, it’s not far. You can just walk back then.” He nodded to himself.
“Okay,” Deil agreed. They started walking again.
Even though Sae’s home was close, they still worked up a sweat by the time they made it into the apartment complex. Inside the lift, Sae pushed the button with the number fourteen and the doors closed.
Getting the boxes into the house turned out to be tricky. Sae’s home had a small anteroom with a separate sliding door leading to the hallway. The entrance and the anteroom’s door stood diagonally. There was also a cabinet in the way. These boxes were too long to rotate. When upright, they stood even taller than the door.
“Okay. Slip past it and I’ll take over,” Sae instructed.
Deil pressed his back to the side of the sliding door. He stepped into the hallway.
Sae put the boxes on the floor and pushed them inside. As he straightened up, he almost headbutted Deil.
“Sorry,” Deil said from twenty centimetres away, “I couldn’t change my shoes.”
Sae started laughing. “What the? I don’t care if you stand in the hall for half a minute with your shoes on. I almost hit your face. Step back.”
They manoeuvred around each other so Deil could take off his shoes. “Where do you want to put it?” he asked with a glance at the boxes.
“In my room,” Sae took two pairs of slippers and gave one to Deil. He slipped into the other pair. “It’s the first door on the left, but there’s not much space. We can leave it here for now.”
After carrying the boxes under the scorching sun, it felt much more refreshing inside. Sweat had gathered at the side of Sae’s face, slipping down his jawline. He dabbed at it with the back of his hand and headed to the kitchen. Deil followed behind him.
“Do you want something to drink? Is water alright or…” Sae glanced over his shoulder as they walked through the hallway, “Tea?”
“You want to make tea in this heatwave?” Deil asked with apprehension.
“Well, yeah.” Sae nodded and washed his hands. For a few moments, he kept his wrists under the water and enjoyed the chill. While he dried his hands, he looked at Deil standing at the entrance of the kitchen. “Come wash your hands, then sit down. Sit. You know, having cold drinks will only make you sweat more.”
Deil shrugged. He never seemed to care about specifics like that but agreed with an Okay.
Sae filled the kettle with water and took two tall mugs from the drain rack overhead. He stepped to the fridge and threw a few ice cubes into the mugs so they wouldn’t have to wait so long for the tea to cool down. Pulling a container full of different kinds of tea from the cabinet, he put it on the table. “What kind do you want?”
Deil kept looking around and pressing his palms together after washing them. “Uh, I don’t mind. Whatever you’re having is fine.”
Sae nodded and chose two teabags. “Are you hungry? We could eat stupidly spicy things and see whoever cries first?”
Deil didn’t respond. Sae’s eyebrows arched, dragging the outer corners of his eyes up. “Deil, what is it? You keep looking around like someone will jump you at any minute. You know, you can sit down. I’ll join you after making tea.”
The water started to boil, so Sae divided it into the mugs.
Deil leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Is your mum home? Maybe I should just... greet her or something.” His tone dipped so low all Sae could hear was a jumble of words rushing with the exhale escaping his mouth.
“Huh? Mum’s not home. And you don’t–– you don’t have to greet her. She’s nice to all of my friends.” He put the steaming mug on the table, indicating that Deil should sit there.
The boy let out a breath which made Sae chuckle. “What the hell? I’ve never seen you so flustered. Loosen up.”
Deil nodded and peered at the mug. “What flavour?”
“What flavour?!” Sae repeated with a snicker. “You said it doesn’t matter.”
Deil shook his head and chuckled. He pointed at the boxes left in the hallway. “Do you know how to assemble that?”
Sae filled another glass with water and handed it to Deil. “Probably. I mean, there must be a user guide there somewhere. It can’t be that hard.” He went to drag the boxes into the living room. He pushed the low table to the side, making enough space for them between the TV and the sofa. He sat down and unpacked everything.
They assembled the bookcase without reading its printed instructions. Once they understood the general idea of how this piece of furniture would look and function, a few glances at its drawing were all they needed.
Sae measured the completed bookcase, planning out how they would transfer it into his room. He walked to the door of his room and measured that too. The height of the bookcase was perfect; the door frame was ten centimetres higher.
Deil stayed sitting cross-legged on the floor, sipping his now tepid tea. “You know, I looked for you on the last day of school. You weren’t in class.”
“You came to our class?” Sae asked and padded back to the living room. “When was that?”
“Before the second to last lesson,” Deil replied.
“Ah, we ditched the last two lessons,” Sae said. He moved around some stuff, clearing the way to his room.
“What?!” Deil sprang up, sputtering, “Did I hear that right? Hoh Saering cut class? In this life and universe, you cut class?”
Sae chuckled. “What does that supposed to mean? In this universe?”
All of Deil’s attention was on him. He blinked in exaggeration. “Yeah, well. Maybe in a parallel one you cut class all the time.”
Sae shook his head. “Come one. Help me move this thing.”
The space was limited, but they made it work. Sae’s room had the basic furniture: his bed, desk, and a dresser with a built-in closet. He had planned to put the bookcase in the corner at the head of his bed.
“Why is all your stuff in heaps on the floor?” Deil asked. The only bit of free space was by the window at the end of the room. Everywhere else, books, boxes and clothes cluttered all available surfaces. Deil let his eyes take in the mess. “Is that a purple megaphone?”
“What? Yeah, it was a present from Teo.” Sae said, distracted. He had to walk backwards without seeing what Deil meant. He couldn’t turn his head and hold the bookcase up in his current position.
“Did you really cut class that day?” Deil seemed unable to drop it. “Where did you go?”
“Tilt it a bit towards you,” Sae said. He almost tripped, but in the end, they managed to put the case down in front of the window. Now he only had to turn it into its final position.
Sae let out a breath. “I wouldn’t call that ditching. It was more of an early leave, if anything. Come on. It was the last day. That hardly counts.”
“You’re so bold all of a sudden; I like it. Never would’ve expected the honour student to descend to an ‘early leave’ by his own accord.” Deil made hand signals around the phrase early leave. “Maybe in the future, I can even persuade you to skip with me. You’ll become a troublemaker!”
“Do you know what per cent you have to be absent to make it into trouble territory?” Sae corrected himself, “On second thought, of course you know. You make a career out of walking that fine line.”
Deil leaned back onto Sae’s desk, shaking his head. “I don’t. Believe it or not, I don’t skip school anymore.”
Sae gave him a look that said, If you were me, would you believe what came out of your mouth?
“As you’ve put it ‘leaving class early’, yes. Occasionally I do that, but that’s it.” Deil started to move things around to his liking.
Sae let him explore; he hardly kept any secrets in his room. While pushing back the bookcase to its place, he heard Deil speak up, “So what is it?”
“You mean the limit?”
“Yeah.”
So Deil didn’t know after all. Sae chuckled. “Ten per cent of being absent without leave. Isn’t that the way in all schools?”
Deil shrugged. “I don’t know. In junior high – I mean before I transferred – I was so over that ten per cent that my dad had to come up with ways to make the head teacher believe he knew where I was but forgot to call in.”
“And they let you off with that?” Sae cocked an eyebrow with a flare of arbitrary vibe.
“Sure they did.” Deil let out a disdainful, mocking laugh. “I guess a lot of things can be overlooked if you bring in enough achievements. They turn a blind eye to keep what’s deemed an asset.”
Sae couldn’t argue with that.
Deil leafed through the papers on the desk. “I like this one,” he pointed out one of the notebooks Sae only used at home. “Did you draw it?”
“Mnm,” Sae sounded. Whenever he took a break from studying, he doodled silly pictures in that notebook. He pulled closer one of the boxes on the floor, looking through it. Thankfully, Deil understood that he didn’t want to talk about it and let it go.
“Will it be all books?” Deil asked, jumping from the table. His feet thumped on the floor so hard all the neighbours below could hear it.
“If anyone comes to complain about the noise, I’m sending you out.” Sae lifted his head and shot Deil a look. “And no, it’s not just books, but there are boxes with only books in them. If you find one, feel free to pile everything onto the shelves.”
They first filled the upper half of the bookcase with books then went through everything else left in the boxes. After a while, Sae ordered some food. Keeping Deil behind to work without feeding him would be a shitty thing to do.
When he returned from the kitchen, Deil looked up from the floor. “What did you buy?”
“Chicken and pizza. I don’t know whether there’s anything you don’t eat, so I’m giving you two choices. Kind, aren’t I?” Sae plopped down on his bed. There was enough space for him to lean back, so he did and looked around the room. The already emptied and flattened-out boxes were propped to the wall. Sae had been putting off sorting through his things for a long time, so his room became cluttered with all kinds of random stuff.
Out of the blue, a CD landed on his stomach.
“Lykke Li? Seriously?” Deil asked. “And it’s a physical copy too.”
“Something wrong with that? I like to actually own things.” Sae took the CD and went to put it on the most crammed shelf of the bookcase.
“Nothing,” Deil replied. “I didn’t peg you as a Lykke Li fan with physical copies lying around your room.”
Sae snorted at that. “Against all odds, here I am.”
Following Deil’s comment, he heard the other mumble something under his breath. Sae stilled his movements, listening.
“Hands down, I'm too proud for love, But with eyes shut, It's you I'm thinking of...” Deil sang under his breath.
“If we’re already sharing, let me tell you that I didn’t peg you as someone who knows who Lykke Li is.” Sae would’ve never guessed that Deil not only knew who the artist was, but even knew a few lines of her song. “You don’t seem too...”
“Keen on music?” Deil finished for him.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It’s okay. I know what I know.” Deil made his eyebrows jump up and down. “How about I’ll let you see my physical copies so we can cross reference?”
Sae looked back at him and, after a minute, nodded. Deil acted like such a nerd sometimes; it surprised him.
“Also...” Deil cleared his throat and reached behind him. In front of Sae’s eyes, he produced a silver plaque with the Youtube Play logo on it. “What’s this?”
Sae’s whole being paused. He didn’t show a ripple in his expression, but his voice turned wary and measured. “That is… a Youtube creator award that you somehow found in my closet.”
Deil shook his head. “Nope, I didn’t find it in the closet. It was in one of the boxes.”
“In a box?” Sae repeated. “Which box? How did it make it into a box?”
“Should I know the answer to that question, or you’re trying to confuse me?” Deil didn’t back down at all. “You have a Youtube channel.”
Sae nodded.
“One that has more than a hundred thousand subscribers?” Deil asked.
Sae nodded again.
“Can you show me?”
Sae took some things and arranged them on one of the shelves. “Why do I have to show you? You already saw the channel’s name.”
“I’ve already looked it up too.” Deil waved his phone around. “Actually, I was thinking–– that time you bought the tickets for Emi’s birthday, I thought, how come he has so much money?”
“Buying two tickets means I have a lot of money?” Sae turned away so Deil couldn’t see the corner of his lips curling up, but his voice returned to that easy-going and comfortable tone they had been using. “Aren’t you the rich brat here? Why care about my money?”
“I don’t care about your money. It was a stray thought, that’s all. Besides, I give lessons for tutoring. I have money I work for,” said Deil.
“But your dad’s quite well off,” Sae countered. “Even without the tutoring, you’d still probably get all you want, no?”
His question didn’t receive an answer. Deil seemed to mull over what to say.
Sae turned back with his eyebrows raised. “Hm?”
After the prodding, Deil nodded, “You’re right; I would. Even more so now that I don’t skip class. Not like some other people I know...”
Sae smiled at Deil. “Shut up.”
Deil helped organise Sae’s stuff while keeping him company. He asked silly questions if something caught his attention and listened to Sae trying to fool him with equally silly stories. By the time the food arrived, it was almost three in the afternoon.
Sae ordered two choices, but it didn’t make a difference because Deil ate both the pizza and the chicken. He wasn’t picky at all. With a slice in hand, he asked, “How many times a month do you upload videos?”
“Twice,” Sae gave a straight-up answer. “Sometimes three times. I shoot more when it’s close to exam time. Those are the days I study more, so it makes sense to record while I toil away. I’m doing it already, so what does a camera matter?”
Deil whistled. “I’ve never met anyone who actually made money this way. It seems easy and fun. When I looked up the channel name and clicked on the first video, it felt like having an insider look into some famous person’s life. I’m right where the magic happens.” He leaned back and propped his elbow on the sofa. “You don’t show much of your room.”
“Why would I show more of it? That’s not the point. If it’s too flashy, then it’s distracting. The point isn’t me or my room.” Sae explained, “If I wanted to show my room, I could make vlogs or whatever. But honestly, I can’t be bothered.”
“No.” Deil pretended to turn solemn. “Your interest lies in studying. That’s why only your hands show up.”
“And look at that,” Sae said, “For some, that’s enough.”
Deil took a crispy wing into his hand. “What’s your most viewed video?”
“Me, studying.”
“Oh god, I meant the number of views.”
“Over three million,” Sae answered. “Three million, some hundred thousand.”
“Can, uh…” Deil swallowed. “Could you call me next time you’re recording?”
Sae blinked at him. It was an interesting question to ask, unexpected too. “You want to watch me study?”
“Yes–– no. Hmm, if I were close to someone so focused, it’d help me study more effectively.” Deil cleaned off the wing with two bites and continued, “Libraries don’t work; I get distracted. But if it’s just you... I mean, I’m sure I won’t get distracted by you. Plus I can’t make much noise if you’re recording.”
“Okay, I’ll let you know,” Sae promised, “Next year.”
It took a hot minute for Deil to find out why Sae said next year. “Fuck. I forgot we’re already on break. No studying for a while then.” Deil hummed, “Hmm, but people can have exams while on break too. Not every school follows the same system.”
“I plan to upload some even in the upcoming weeks, but I can’t call you over for those,” Sae said.
“Why not?”
Sae turned to stare at the boy with a fixed look. “Do you want to study while on break?”
“Oh...” Deil wobbled his head and plastered a grin on his face. “You’re right. I’d never, not in a million years, do that.”
At that moment, the doorbell rang. Deil and Sae looked up at the intercom screen at the same time.
“It’s my mum,” Sae stood to open the door.
Deil stayed sitting on the carpet for a second before hastily standing up. He grabbed the food boxes and plates, taking them to the kitchen table.
“You can leave them,” Sae said as he walked into the hallway.
“Lucky that you’re home,” His mum said at the door. “My hands were full, but then I remembered you said something about assembling a bookcase, so I tried. Are you all done?”
They returned to the living room, Sae holding a shopping bag and two delivery packages. His mum stopped when her eyes landed on Deil. “Oh, hey there.” She turned to Sae, “A friend? Classmate?”
“Hello. Nice to meet you,” Deil greeted before Sae could squeeze in a word.
“Yes.” Sae put everything down to make introductions. “Mum, he’s Deil. We’re in the same year. He helped me today.”
Deil introduced himself. “Shum Deil. Thank you for having me.”
Sae’s mum smiled. “Oh, don’t mention it. You helped Sae. You’re welcome here anytime. It’s nice meeting you.”
Deil smiled then stood there like a breadstick.
“So, is the thing finished? Is it standing?” Sae’s mum turned aside. “Can you finally tidy up all that mess?”
“I won’t make promises.” Sae pointed at his door, “It’s already in my room.”
His mum ventured into the room, and Sae went to showcase their hard work. Before he followed, though, he turned to look back at Deil.
Deil rubbed his palms on his jeans and let go of an exhale.
Sae sent him a funny look. Their eyes met, and the corners of his mouth lifted. Deil expression was comical. Sae had never before seen such an awkward look on his face. It almost made him burst into laughter again.
