"You brought me food again?" Cayenne asked one time when Seiji invited her for lunch. It's been three weeks since he started to bring food for her. Even when Cayenne has her own food, he would still ask her to eat the food that he and his grandpa has prepared for both of them.
Before, he didn't bother thinking about learning how to cook. Why bother when they have so many chefs at home and his grandpa would always supervise every food he eats? But then, Cayenne came and he thought of taking cooking lesson from his grandpa. He wanted her to eat the food that he prepares specially for her.
Arthur also looked toward Seiji who was holding a huge bento with four food layers. Two of which contained rice and some dried food while the other contained some side dishes and desserts.
"You always eat unhealthy food and grandpa says that it's not good for one's health. Also, I prepared some of the food this morning so, I guarantee that they're clean and healthy." Seiji responded while rubbing the back of his neck. He felt a bit awkward specially that some of their classmates were looking at them.
"That's not even my problem." Cayenne answered with a deep sigh. "Why do you have to bring me food? I can manage to cook my own food and bring it for lunch. I don't need your donation."
"Huh? I am not donating this food and I not pitying you. In fact, I am very amazed that you are so resourceful and flexible when it comes to different things. I am doing this because I don't want your attention to be divided. If you eat more food, you will have more energy to continue studying and do our activities."
Cayenne didn't have anything more to refute and besides, Seiji wasn't really doing anything bad. It's obvious that he wanted to make friend with her among everyone else but at the same time, it felt wrong to be taking food from him when she didn't have anything in return.
"Alright. I'll eat with you. If ever you need help in the future, just let me know. As long as it is within my ability and knowledge, I'll make sure to help you."
"Okay." Seiji accepted her offer happily and the two of them sat down to start devouring the last that he brought.
Arthur was envious that Seiji could do something like that but he, on the other hand, couldn't even bring her food because his mom would always know it and he will receive an earful of scolding.
Because of this, Seiji and Cayenne got even closer and Arthur found himself drifting a little apart from her. Then, Arthur did something to win Cayenne back. He started helping her brothers with their lessons. Seiji was smart. If truth be told, he's smarter than Arthur but Arthur came first every year.
Arthur likes to show to the class that he was the smartest and that makes their classmates less envious of Cayenne because someone could surpass her grade. He didn't want more people to pay attention to Cayenne. At the same time, Seiji has a different reason why he would always come as third in class.
Cayenne needed to stay in the top three of her class to secure the scholarship that she wanted to apply for senior high school. She depended on the scholarship to continue studying. Therefore, Seiji taught her whatever he could and at the same time, make careless mistakes here and there.
And so, every year, Arthur comes first followed by Cayenne and then, Seiji would come third. He wasn't the least bit disappointed because he knew that he's helping Cayenne achieve the things she likes.
In front of Cayenne, he got along so well with Arthur but once Cayenne turns her back on them, they would show their sharp claws and cold stares, baring their fangs against each other.
By the time they became seniors, a woman transferred to their school. Her name was Marian. Since she also experienced poverty, she understood Cayenne so much and became friends with her. The four of them became so close together.
"Yenyen, it's almost your birthday. Do you have anything you wish to do?" Seiji asked her one time. In a month, Cayenne would turn 17 years old and he wanted to do something special for her.
"I don't have any plans and I don't have anything I really want to do. Perhaps, I'd stay at home and just spend time with my family."
"I see but your birthday falls on a weekday. We have a class on that day." Marian commented on the side. The four of them were eating snacks while talking about her birthday.
"Then, I'll just go to class."
Except Cayenne, the trio were looking at each other. They wanted to do something for her but even though they have the same mind, only Marian thought of cooperating with them. Seiji wants to do something for Cayenne. Arthur wanted to do something for Cayenne. Marian wanted to help these two men to do something for Cayenne.
'Sigh. They were very competitive against each other and Cayenne didn't even notice it because she was so busy thinking of ways to help her family.
During his time studying in St. Monica Middle School, Seiji talked about Cayenne all the time to his family. He would call his mother over the weekend and tell her how amazing Cayenne was in answering mathematics or how beautiful her voice was when she sang during their school festival.
His parents didn't need to ask him to know how in love their son was. Before going to school, he'd be thinking about her. And when he comes home from school, he'd be talking about her. You could say that 95% of his brain was occupied with Cayenne while the remaining 5% was shared between his family and business responsibility.
You have read it correctly. As early as high school, Seiji was already learning how to manage the company under his grandfather's guidance. Whenever he comes home at night, after talking to his grandpa of what he has done for the day with Cayenne, he'd be spending his time working from nine in the evening to eleven.
Cayenne, Arthur or anyone from his class didn't know this. They didn't even know that Seiji came from a wealthy family. The last name Sy was very common and they never associated him to the prominent Sy family who was known in Singapore. After all, they never really met his family.