One step before fate
“Growth of a product is determined by this ratio…” He wrote down the notes in his notebook, even though not even a word is getting in his brain. But he can study at home with the help of these notes.
He looked around the class to see some students writing in their notebooks while others were looking towards the board where the professor was explaining about the topic. Sleeping late at night was a terrible idea, now he has understood it. His brain is still in sleeping mode but he tries to scrabble everything the professor was teaching to study them later.While putting the things in his bag after the class has ended, “Hey, Ren…” An unfamiliar noise makes him turn his head towards the direction of the voice. A girl standing beside him, not from his class, must be from some other class. Her fingers fidgeting among themselves, eyes beaming with some strange excitement and a wide nervous smile on her face.
“Yeah…” He straightened himself, closing the zip of his back, turning his body to face her.
She opens her mouth and closes it before turning back and turning again to face him. “Uhh…I saw you at the cafeteria some days ago.” He nods his head indicating her to continue speaking. “Well, I thought…maybe I could get your number, so we can be good friends. To stay in touch…you know.” She let out a breath and started looking at his face to see his expressions.“Umm…I don't think we have any reason to be in touch. Also I don't use my phone that much,” he says with a straight face, hanging the bag over his shoulders. Giving her a small apologetic smile, he walks out of the class. He took a glance at his watch, he has an hour before his next class begins so he makes his way towards the cafeteria to have something.
The college cafeteria buzzed with chatter as students filled every table. He found his friends sitting there while having their lunch, he went towards them and greeted them.The first was Kaito.
The loudest student in the entire class.
Always joking.
Always smiling.
If there was silence anywhere, Kaito would somehow find a way to destroy it.
Next stood Akira.
The sharp-minded one.
Calm, sarcastic, and impossible to fool.
Whenever Kaito caused trouble, Akira was the first to roast him for it.
The last was Yuto.
The kind-hearted peacemaker.
Friendly to everyone.
The one who somehow managed to keep Kaito and Akira from arguing every single day.
“You don't have any classes?” He asks them to make their heads look up to him.
“Nahh…just got done with all our classes for today. What about you?” akira said.
“I have a class, my last class for today after one hour.”
All three of them nod their heads in acknowledgment.
He went to get his food towards the food counter. After getting his food, he looks for a place to sit. He looks where his friends were sitting but doesn't find any empty spot.After some time, he spots an empty chair in the corner of the cafeteria and walks toward it.
He sat down, put his plate on the table and quietly ate his lunch while reading a book.
His friends were sitting a few tables away from him and were watching him, having no care of the world in front of him. sighed dramatically. Kaito says “Don't you guys think Ren's always alone?"
Akira immediately smacked him on the back of the head.
"Ow! What was that for?" he says while rubbing his head.
"You idiot.”
"We're with him every day."
He sighs tiredly, rolling his eyes. "I didn't mean that kind of alone."
Then yuto grinned. "He means girlfriend-alone."
The three looked towards Ren who was eating peacefully, completely unaware of the conversation.
Akira rubbed his chin.
"You know..."
"The girl who was talking to him earlier..." Kaito said, remembering the moment when they went to Ren's class to take him to the cafeteria to have their lunch together.The others looked at him.
"I think she actually likes him."
"Should we help her?” yuto says, wiggling his eyebrows, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
A mischievous smile spread across all three faces.
"Oh...I like this idea."
A few minutes later...
Kaito walked over to the girl while the other two followed him, keeping some distance.
"Hey."
She looked surprised.
"Y-Yes?"
"You were talking to Ren this morning, right?"
Her cheek turned pink.
"U-Um...So..."
"Do you like him?"
She froze.
"I...Uhh...Y-Yeah..." the girl says.
The three friends exchanged victorious looks.
"I knew it!"
"But..." Her expression became gloomy. "He didn't give me his number." She looked down sadly. "I guess he wasn't interested.”Akira burst into laughter. "That's just how Ren is. He doesn't give his number to people he doesn't know that easily."
She nodded quietly. "I figured..."
The other two friends came and stood beside kaito, he leaned closer towards the girl with a grin plastered over his face. "But...You can still get his number."
Her eyes widened. "Really? How?"
All three friends proudly pointed at themselves. "We're his best friends."
"If anyone has his number...It's us."
Yuto pulled out his phone.
"Here."
She looked at the number on the screen.
Her face immediately brightened.
"R-Really? Thank you so much!"
She bowed happily before hurrying away.
As she left, all three of them folded their arms in sync, proudly.
"Mission accomplished," they all say at the same time before bursting into a laugh.
"Either Ren will thank us someday..."
"...or he kills us," Yuto says after a few minutes.
The three looked toward Ren.
He was still eating peacefully…completely unaware that his friends had just changed the course of his life.
Being done with all his classes, he went to the bus stand and stood there, waiting for his bus to come. He looked around to find a seat but couldn't find it as there were many people waiting in line to get into the bus.
As soon as the bus came into sight, all the people waiting there stood up and even before the bus stopped, they all started to push each other just to get into the bus. He was used to all this as this was his daily routine. He makes his way among the crowd to get on the bus and as he is about to step onto the bus, he hears a loud shout, making his steps come to a halt.
