Nathan arrived at the train station ten minutes early. Even so, he was greeted by four of his classmates—Stacy, Joy, Curtis, and Ellis.

“You’re early,” Nathan said calmly.

“So are you,” replied Curtis. He was taller than Nathan and pretty muscular for his age. He was the only person that Nathan had acknowledged in his class.

“What’s with that backpack?” Stacy asked in her typical bitchy tone. Nathan was surprised she had even decided to come on a hiking trip. She most likely just wanted to spend time with Curtis.

“I had a hunch that you wouldn’t bring all the necessities, so I took the liberty of bringing them myself. I hope you don’t mind, m’lady,” Nathan smirked. Even though he liked talking with some of his classmates, others were still a pain in his butt.

“Hey! Stop talking to me like I’m stupid or somethin’.”

Yeah, Stacy. Or somethin’. Nathan laughed inwardly at the irony but decided not to voice his thoughts. “Who else is coming?” he asked instead.

“I think that the degenerates are coming. And other than that, I think that’s it.”

By “degenerates,” Curtis meant the three inseparable oddballs of the class—MC, JC, and, DC. They were well known for their idiosyncrasies. Nathan wasn’t sure how he felt about them joining the group, but at least the trip wouldn’t be so dull.

“There’s one more person coming.” Nathan pointed behind the group of four. As they all turned, Nathan noticed that Stacy’s shoulders had dropped.

“You’ve got to be fucking kiddin’ me!” she shouted. “What’s that bitch doing here?”

“That bitch,” Nathan said, stepping closer to Stacy, “was invited by me. If you’ve got a problem with that, I’m happy to listen.”

As much as Stacy hated Roy, she didn’t dare argue with Nathan. Whether that was due to his physical build or the fact that her last argument with him had resulted in her being mocked in front of the class, it was tough to tell.

Nathan scoffed and walked towards Roy. “Who dropped you off?”

“Dayla did.” Roy moved in closer. “I told her to not come with me. I didn’t want her to embarrass me,” he whispered.

“Understandable.”

“What’s that bitch’s problem? I still haven’t repaid her for giving you my number. How did you do that, by the way?”

“I just told her that I wanted to make fun of you because your father died.”

“Hey! That’s fucking brutal!”

“I knew she hated you. She was happy to give it to me.”

“You could’ve asked someone else.”

“I’m sorry to say this, Roy, but she’s the only one who has your number. Everyone else either deleted it or never had it in the first place. You were working on some group project, apparently, and she kept your number for malicious purposes.”

Roy didn’t seem to know how to respond. Luckily for him, Ellis interrupted.

“What’s up with you two?” he shouted. “Ya best buddies now, or what?”

“Definitely better buddies than with you. At least Roy here isn’t shouting at me all the time.”

“Yoooo, that was kinda harsh, don’t ya think?”

“Your primitive means of expressing your thoughts never ceases to amaze me,” Nathan smiled.

“Hol’ up… primitive what? What’s he sayin’, Curtis?”

“He’s saying you’re an idiot for speaking like a moron. Now shut up. People are looking at us.”

Well said, Nathan thought.

Nathan re-joined the group. There seemed to be some lingering tension between Roy and the others. They most likely still thought he was protecting Roy—he would have to clear up that misunderstanding. But was it really a misunderstanding at this point?

“Ah, here they come,” Joy said happily, looking at the approaching trio.

Nathan had always wondered how these three could be best friends with their conflicting personalities.

“Is that all of us?” Curtis asked. He seemed to have taken the lead for the trip.

“Yes, it seems so,” Nathan replied.

“Great! Let’s go. The train is leaving in twenty minutes.”

***

The ride was mostly uneventful. Roy barely talked with anyone. Joy tried a few times to strike up a conversation with him, but he froze every time she asked him anything. The three degenerates lived up to their standards—MC, the aspiring rapper, spoke only when he could find a suitable rhyme; JC, the chess player, challenged anyone to a game of chess if they had a disagreement (even over minor things, such as the time); and DC would abide by all the rules, even the most obscure ones, and pester others who didn’t do the same.

Nathan was starting to regret coming, but his goal kept him going.

After they walked out of the train station, they found themselves in the small village Nathan used to visit with his father when he was younger. From there, the group planned to walk three kilometres to the nearest hiking path, and from there they would start a ten-kilometre hike. Nathan was a little worried about how Roy would handle so much walking, but he would have to manage.

“So how much will we need to walk?” Stacy already looked annoyed after the first two kilometres. Nathan ignored her, even though he was the only one who knew exactly how far they had to go.

“Hellooo,” Stacy persisted. “Can anyone answer me?”

“A lot, Stacy,” Nathan spat. “And if you don’t stop bitching about it, I’ll make sure to ignore all the shortcuts and take the longest route possible.”

Roy broke into a grin. “You sure do know how to handle that harpy,” he said, edging closer to Nathan.

“She’s pretty annoying, but it wasn’t my choice to invite her.” Nathan looked back at Joy, who had struck up a conversation with Stacy. “I still don’t understand how they can be friends.”

“Yeah, me neither.”

The group continued with Nathan and Roy leading the expedition. Curtis, Ellis, Joy, and Stacy were a few metres behind them, and the three degenerates were in the back.

Nathan and Roy kept surprisingly quiet. Nathan didn’t feel the need to make conversation, and Roy was so anxious about the trip that seemed to have forgotten how to speak.

The second cluster of teenagers more than compensated for their silence. Their shouts and laughter resonated throughout the forest. They were oblivious to the quiet ogling of the degenerates behind them.

“Hey, you two! Wait a second,” Curtis eventually called out.

Nathan stopped and looked behind him, noticing for the first time that he and Roy were quite far ahead of the others. He looked over at Roy, who was out of breath but surprisingly still keeping up.

“Do you have engines. . . in your legs. . . or what?” Curtis said between breaths, supporting his body against a nearby tree.

“Sorry, didn’t realise how fast I was going. Do you want to take a break?”

“That would be good.” Curtis looked behind him. “I think the rest. . . would appreciate that, as well.”

“Sure. We can either do it here, standing, or a few meters down the road there’s actually a place where we can sit.”

“I think we can go with option B.”

“Sure. It’s like five hundred meters from here.”

“Great. I’ll go and let the others know,” he said, turning back to tell the group.

Nathan turned to Roy, who was sweating profusely. “Are you alright?” he asked.

“Kinda. . . I think. . .” He straightened his back. The oversized backpack he was carrying wasn’t making things any easier for him. Nathan had to admit to himself that he was impressed. Roy hadn’t complained once during the whole ascent.

“Do you want me to take some stuff from you?” he offered. “I’ve still got some space in my backpack.”

“Y—you would? That would be a lot of help.” Roy put down his backpack and transferred the heaviest things he could find.

“That’s already a lot better,” he said, strapping up again. “Thanks, Nathan.”

“Yeah, I don’t want you dying here. I’d have to carry you down, and that’s even more of a hassle.”

The others caught up just as Nathan replaced his backpack. “Can we continue?” he asked.

“Yo, Nate, let’s go to the place you know, where we can sit and eat.” Nathan had to will his fist not to collide with MC’s jaw.

“Lord have mercy,” Nathan muttered as he started walking.

***

The ten-minute rest had been extended to an hour after Stacy had demanded more time, but Nathan was unruffled. It hadn’t interfered with his plans. With Roy, he resumed his position in the lead. But this time, their solitude was short-lived.

“Slow down, you two,” yelled Curtis, who was approaching from behind with Joy. Nathan had been pretending not to notice them.

“Yes?”

“Just wanted to talk. Or rather, we wanted to leave those two alone.” Curtis pointed at Ellis and Stacy. “Don’t tell this to anyone, especially Stacy, but Ellis is crazy about her. I dunno what he sees in her.”

“Hey!” Joy smacked him on the shoulder.

“Sorry! Just chill. Jeez.”

“Yeah, I know you don’t like Stacy, but you don’t need to badmouth her.”

“Sure. So, tell us about how the two of you started being best buddies,” Curtis said, gesturing to Nathan and Roy.

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Joy chimed in.

“It’s a complicated story. But for simplicity’s sake, let’s just say that I helped him get out of some trouble and we became friends. Right, Roy?”

“Y—yeah. . . ” Roy looked down. Nathan had a hunch as to why, but he decided to keep that for later. His plan had just gotten even better.

“What kind of trouble did you get into, Roy?” asked Curtis, genuinely curious.

“Well. . . it’s hard to explain, honestly. It was family business, I suppose. . .”

“Something to do with your dad?”

“HEY!” Joy smacked Curtis on the head. “That was really cruel, you jerk. Apologise!”

“I’m sorry,” Curtis said, massaging the spot that Joy had hit.

“I—it’s all right.”

Joy stepped closer to Roy and gave him an encouraging smile. “You sure you’re fine with that? I can smack him for you, if you want.”

“Haha, it’s fine. I swear.” Roy laughed nervously.

“Okay,” Joy grinned.

“So, Joy. . .” Nathan began. “I heard you like tea a lot?”

“Yeah, I do! Where did you hear that?”

“Doesn’t really matter.”

“Well, I guess it doesn’t.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Do you like tea?”

“It’s not really my thing. . . but Roy here, on the other hand, loves tea. Right?”

Roy’s head snapped around. I’ll kill you, his eyes said.

Nathan smiled and winked. “Is it true, Roy? I never thought you’d be the tea type.”

“Well, yeah. I honestly don’t know how my obsession started, but I love tea, I guess. . .”

“Oh, cool! What’s your favourite tea?” Joy started jumping around Roy, who sweated faster and faster.

Nathan chuckled and looked at Curtis, who was also amused.

“Want to go ahead?” Nathan asked.

“Sure, let’s leave them to it.”

“How did you know about Joy’s love for tea?” Curtis asked, when they were about twenty metres away. “I don’t believe anyone told you about that. Only a few people know, and you’re not talking with any of them regularly.”

“When she opened her bag during the train ride, I noticed two different types of tea. If she’d only had one, I’d think she wanted to bring it in case she wanted tea. But nobody would bring two different types of tea with them unless they loved it.”

“Wow! I didn’t even notice she opened her bag. Yet you figured all that out. Amazing!”

“It’s nothing, really. I’m just paying more attention than others. Anyone can do that.” There was no pride in Nathan’s voice—he was stating facts.

Curtis walked in silence for a while. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at the sight of Roy and Joy chatting.

“You did it on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Did what?”

“Don’t act stupid. You know what I mean,” Curtis laughed.

Nathan just smiled.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Take it as you will, but the only thing that you can say with certainty is that I asked Joy about her love for tea.”

“That’s true, I suppose.”

The silence returned, but neither of the boys seemed to pay it any mind.

Nathan looked behind him occasionally, delighted to see Roy smiling and speaking almost normally. Everything was working out as planned.

“So, Nathan. . . tell me something about your family,” Curtis said, breaking the silence.

“The only family I have is my father,” Nathan responded.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Curtis said. “Do you have a good relationship with him?”

Nathan hadn’t been sad to state the truth, but apparently Curtis had misunderstood. “For the most part, yes. We’re very close, but there are some ups and downs.”

“I see. I’m kind of envious.” Curtis sighed and dropped his shoulders. “I just feel like my father is so distant. We were pretty close when I was younger, but after he changed professions we grew apart.”

“What does your father do?”

“He’s a judge. A really important judge. He’s one of the eight judges that have immunity against any assassination attempts. So yeah, pretty important. . .”

“A judge? Actually, my father was looking for a judge!”

“Really? Why’s that?”

“No idea. I just know that he talked about it on the phone with someone. Do you think you could give me your father’s number? If I give it to my father, I can save him some time and maybe I’ll be able to see him more. We haven’t been able to spend much time together recently.” This time, Nathan’s shoulders dropped.

“Sure! If it’ll help you get closer to your father, it’s the least I can do.” Curtis smiled and reached for his phone.

“Thank you!” Nathan was ecstatic.

After saving the number, he pocketed his phone and looked behind him again. Roy and Joy were still chatting away, as were Ellis and Stacy. Nathan’s eyes landed on the three degenerates, and he decided to ask the question he’d been pondering for a while.

“Curtis?”

“Yeah?”

“How did the three degenerates get their nickname? Both the collective one and the individual ones, I mean. I think I have a general idea, but I just wanted to confirm it.”

“You really haven’t been paying any attention to what’s been going on in class, have you?”

“No,” Nathan said shamelessly.

“Pretty surprising from someone who notices tea in a girls bag,” Curtis jabbed with a smile. “Anyways, I think it would be easier to start with their individual nicknames. JC got his from his initials. His full name is Jucel Christopher.”

“His surname is Christopher?”

“Yeah. I was kinda surprised as well, when I first found out.”

“What about MC? His first name is Miles. Does his last name begin with a C, too?”

“Nah, man. It’s this bullshit that rappers call each other. MC this and MC that.” Curtis threw some hand signs and spoke in a deep voice. “I’m sure you know how the bullshit goes. He’s so bloody annoying. I honestly have no problems with JC and DC, but MC is a real pain in the ass. A total cringe-fest.”

“Yeah.”

“And DC is based on a novel he once read. There was this thing called ‘Disciplinary Committee’ in there. And he just started calling himself that, so it kinda stuck and he became DC. It’s a funny coincidence, don’t you think?”

“The three C’s?”

“What?”

“All of their nicknames end with a C. DC, MC, JC.”

“Oh yeah, right. That’s what I mean.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s funny, per se. More like the three events wouldn’t have occurred if the three degenerates hadn’t been related to each other. In other words, the creation of the first nickname was random. The second one was influenced by the first one, but to a certain extent still random. The third one, however, was not a coincidence at all. It was a result of the two of them looking for something that they could abbreviate into a two-letter nickname with ‘C’ as the second letter.”

“Okay, you lost me at the second ‘random’.” Curtis scratched his head.

“Ah. . . sorry. I got carried away.”

“No, it’s totally fine. I mean, it’s pretty astonishing. Even though I didn’t understand half of what you said, it still sounded pretty. . . smart. If you get what I mean.”

“Yeah, thank you.”

Curtis waited for a while before he spoke again. “I always considered myself pretty smart. But perhaps I just wasn’t comparing myself with the right people.”

“Well, even a turd that has been on the ground long enough would be considered a rocket scientist when compared to them.” Nathan looked over his shoulder. “Well, most of them.”

Curtis’ laugh resonated through the whole forest. “You really do know how to crack a joke.”

“That wasn’t a joke, unfortunately.”

***

When the hikers reached their destination, Curtis took charge and delegated jobs. Roy and Joy went to gather wood, chatting all the way; Curtis and Nathan started the fire; Ellis and Stacy prepared the food; and the degenerates set up the tents. Privately, Nathan hoped his wouldn’t collapse and squash him.

When the campsite was set up, Roy plopped down on a log beside Nathan. He popped open a can of soda and sighed. At long last, he had a chance to rest. He took a sip.

“So, how long have you had a crush on Joy?”

Roy spewed his drink. All heads snapped around to look at him. Apparently, they hadn’t heard.

“What the hell?” Roy whispered. “What do you mean by ‘crush’? There’s no such thing, you idiot.”

“I’ll ignore the fact that your statement could easily be demolished by saying that having a crush is a real thing. . . “

“What?”

“Never mind. But you do have a crush. There’s no need to hide it.”

“I don’t.”

“You do.”

“I told you, I don’t have a fucking crush on—”

Roy stopped talking as Joy walked past them. She hadn’t heard anything. . . or at least, she acted like she hadn’t.

“Yeah. . . you don’t. Sure,” Nathan laughed.

“Okay. Let’s say I have a small crush. Like a really tiny one. How the hell did you know? And more importantly, do you think she knows?” Roy said anxiously.

“It was really hard to deduce. I started by slowly inspecting your physical state any time she got inside a ten-meter radius of you. When I noticed that you started sweating and shaking like an epileptic attending a laser show, I assumed that there was something going on there. So I did some closer research and found out that if you weren’t monitoring what the ants below your feet were doing, you were looking at her. And I kind of assumed that you weren’t looking for differences between Joy and the ants.”

“Haha, very funny. Was it that fucking obvious?” Roy reddened. If this went on, Nathan figured he could stick a Ferrari logo on his forehead and sell him for a lot of money. “Do you think she noticed?” Roy repeated.

“Do you want the bad news or the good news?”

“Can you merge them? I don’t like waiting.”

“Sure. She didn’t notice because she has a crush on me.”

“WHAT?” Roy shot out of his seat. Once again, everyone looked at him.

“Yo, what you two discussin’?” Ellis shouted. “Something spicy?”

“Yeah, jalapenos and hot peppers,” Nathan replied.

“That’s not spicy at all, you idiot.” Stacy said, offering her intelligent opinion.

“Sorry, Stacy, but I’ll have to concede. I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.”

“Eh?” She looked at Nathan as if he were an idiot. “Yeah. Whatever.”

Nathan turned back to Roy.

“I think it would be best not to shout if you want to keep this a secret. I don’t mean to be bitchy, but right now you’re attracting a lot more attention than I am.”

“You think I don’t know that, you moron?”

“You get real snappy when you’re nervous, you know that?”

“Anyways, as for your question, I don’t think she knows any of what I’ve said. She has no idea that I know about her crush, and she also has no idea about you having a crush on her. At least, she’s not showing any signs of it.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Her body language. I used Stacy to establish a baseline. Based on how she acted with her, I compared that with how she acted with other people. Her behaviour was the same around all people except me.” Nathan sighed. “I honestly hadn’t been noticing this at all until you mentioned girls being interested in me. I decided to pay more attention to the people around me.”

“So you’re saying that she has a crush on you and that she doesn’t know about any of what you’ve just said, all based on the way she acts when she’s around you? I’m calling bull.”

“I correctly assumed that you had a crush on her. Why would I be mistaken in this case?”

“You’re biased.”

“I’m honestly surprised you even know what that means,” Nathan mocked. “But seriously though, I’m definitely not biased. I’m not interested in dating anyone. I’ve got enough troubles as it stands. Don’t need more.”

“Hey! She’s not trouble!” Roy reprimanded.

“I’m not talking about her. More like dating in general. I don’t think it would work well with my profession.”

“Ah, I see. So what should I do?” Roy’s shoulders dropped. “If she’s interested in guys like you, I’ve got no chance.”

“Nah, I wouldn’t say that. I think you’ve got a lot going for you, Roy. Just believe in yourself. Didn’t you spend the whole trip talking to her?”

“But that was just talking.”

“It always starts as ‘just talking’. You should believe in yourself more.”

“I guess. . . thanks.”

“Well, Curtis and Joy are alone, so I’ll go and grab Curtis. You go talk with Joy.”

“O—okay.”

***

Roy woke up in the middle of the night to pee. He slowly lurked out of the tent, trying not to wake Nathan. Roy wondered why Nathan slept like a corpse in a coffin, but he didn’t have much time to ponder his friend’s stiff sleeping habits.

Roy knew it probably wasn’t the best idea to relieve himself near the camp, so he walked out a little further. As he went, he recalled the events of the day. He had talked with Joy about a lot of stuff. He’d found out that they actually had a lot in common—much more than just tea. Joy apparently loved reading manga, as well. Unsurprisingly, most of their discussion was about that.

As Roy prepared to head back, he heard a rustle of leaves behind him. “Is that you, Nathan?” he asked, turning around.

The last thing that echoed in the forest was a piercing scream.