Shame On Me!

Written under pseudonym ANN-LEIGH.

ㅤ ㅤ “Waarom heb je me niet wakker gemaakt?!”

ㅤ ㅤ (Why didn’t you wake me up?)

ㅤ ㅤ “Ik heb je wakker gemaakt, maar je blijft maar zeggen dat je vanmorgen geen les hebt.”

(I woke you up but you keep saying that this morning you have no class.)

ㅤ ㅤ “Shit, ik ben bijna laat.”

ㅤ ㅤ (Shit, I almost late.)

ㅤ ㅤ “Je moet je haasten.”

ㅤ ㅤ (You gotta hurry.)

ㅤ ㅤ I ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face after my roommate said goodbye to me. The clock is ticking. I have to prepared rapidly. Considering I still need an extra energy this morning to run to my class. With a yellow short dress, a khaki bag made of waterproof leather, and a pair of sneakers whose color is no longer pure white, I stepped into the classroom which was already filled with the other students including the lecturer who now saw my presence.

ㅤ ㅤ “Je bent laat.”

ㅤ ㅤ (You are late.)

ㅤ ㅤ Felt the suddenly become awkward just like that, I reflexively swallowed my own saliva. What Mr. Hugo said was enough to make all the students in the room turn their eyes to me. There are no other words I can say but my apologies to everyone. Then I sat in the last row of other students and tried to promise that my existence in that class would not interfere anymore.

ㅤㅤ After undergoing several tens of boring minutes, I finally had the opportunity to fill my empty stomach. I felt hungry after I realizing I didn’t eat anything since I woke up in the morning and chased my tough morning. I brought myself to the canteen where it could currently be called as a sea of ​​people. Expectedly, I’m not the only one who feels hungry. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a big deal. My hungry tummy deserves anything to fill. Like the other student, I enjoyed myself standing in a not-so-long queue for getting a drink. And when it came to my turn, I ordered myself a glass of iced coffee instead. Just typical. Pretty sure that Dad will scold me if he finds out about this. No reason except drinking coffee with empty stomach. He will definitely give me fourty five mins lecture about how it might danger my stomach.

ㅤㅤ I chuckled. Even so, I still took a sip of it as an exchange for my-almost-lost breakfast. I was busy thinking about the chronicle between Dad and coffee while I walked to the class. But I didn’t notice when my shoelaces were untied until someone yelled at me. I don’t care anyway. I’m sure that he was just idly saying stuffs like that to get my attention like the other boys do.

ㅤ ㅤ “Je schoenveters zitten los.”

ㅤ ㅤ (Your shoelaces are loose.)

ㅤ ㅤ There was something inscrutable about this man who stood in front of me after yelled at me if I’m loosing my shoelaces until it sounds like they might harm my balance when walking. I couldn’t easily tell from his expression or tone of voice what he was thinking or feeling. He appeared to derive a good deal of pleasure from keeping others guessing. Mentally, he was very quick, that was for certain. He was the type of man who had his own sense of logic and reached his own conclusions without regard to the opinions of others. That’s what I know for sure when he bends his lower body so that his hands can grab my shoelaces which are untied from the knots.

ㅤ ㅤ “Je moet dat niet doen. Ik kan het zelf knopen.”

ㅤ ㅤ (You shouldn’t do that. I can tie it by myself.)

ㅤ ㅤ “Geen probleem. Ik haat het neer als je je drankje op de grond morst, alleen maar omdat je struikelde over je eigen veters.”
(No problem. I hate it more if you spill your drink on the floor just because you tripped over your own laces.)

ㅤ ㅤ He stood on his feet again, staring at me intensely as if he wanted to know about what happened inside of my head which — of course — had gone awry. Meanwhile, I still can’t believe what he just did to me. I don’t even recognized him. I don’t even know his name. His existence to me just started minutes ago when he yelled at me when I was in the mood for having my not-really breakfast, but now we are surrounded by the strange curious gazes from people around us who saw what he did earlier. What a shame. My eyes can’t even stop looking at those people. This is terrible. I hate this kind of situation.

ㅤ ㅤ “Kok diam saja? Kenapa? Ada yang salah?” He said, interupting my reverie. I was shocked with the fact that he spoke in a language that I use to know. How can he know? My mind has gone wild with a lot of questions. “You may not know me but I do know you after doing a little research about you, so — ”

ㅤ ㅤ “wait, WHAT? RESEARCH?!” I yelled back at him. Unconsciously, my hand released the grip on a glass of drink that contained my struggle to endure hunger and the queue of people in front of me. Now the brown liquid has managed to stain the white canvas of our shoes and the floor around where we stood, plus half of the people at the canteen were looking at us. This all happened because of the human in front of me.

ㅤ ㅤ “Oh dear, I told you I hate to see spilled drink on the floor. But since this is happened because of me, then I’ll help you to clean the mess. Sorry jongens! dit is niets, jullie kunnen terug naar je eigen zaken!”

(Sorry, guys! This is nothing, you guys can back to your own business!)

ㅤ ㅤ “Argh! What a day! I should’ve use my lucky ripped jeans instead. Shame on me!”

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ㅤ ──────── FINISH.

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