"Yo Mirna, there will soon be new fries in the lab. Wanna come over and see if you can baby talk with them?" Micah's jest could be heard across the short line of students queuing for hot ramen at the main cafe.

Ballqis, Iqball and Molly were waiting for Aga at the nearby table when they heard their senior's voice.

Mirna played dumb and walked away with her hot ramen.

With a nod from Iqball, Ballqis hailed the red head. As if they could read each other's mind, Ballqis knew Iqball was saying 'we should rescue her' with the nod. And Iqball seemed to sense the sympathy in Ballqis' stare at the girl who had wisely avoided more of Micah's silly cracks by feigning ignorance.

Grateful to see familiar faces waving her an invite, Mirna plonked next to Molly with a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness I'm not in your faculty. If he gets on my nerve like this, come enough times I would have severed a particular limb that that guy doesn't need," she vented.

Molly introduced herself before the Balls could get a word in.

"Nice to meet you too, Molly," Mirna said, her grey demeanour lit up at the offer of friendship.

"Any friend of Ballqis is a friend of mine," Molly said. "Plus Micah is in one of my classes, he's a genius but I hate him for egging me about Aga," she added.

Ballqis could not help but ask.

"Is he telling you things like Aga likes you... and such? Because he's doing the same thing to Aga."

Molly nodded miserably.

"He's always insinuating that I am unavailable because Micah is waiting for me on the dais or something along that line. I wouldn't be so mad if he hadn't said it in front of this gorgeous exchange student from Russia who has green eyes," griped Molly.

"Ooh, Lev! He's in my Project Management class!" Mirna caught on.

"That's right! Lev Boyko. He's so pretty!" Molly agreed, leaving Iqball and Ballqis wondering how come she had never once mentioned this.

The exchange students group did visit the fish lab but there were 12 of them, all equally attractive. Ballqis did not see anyone particularly prettier than the rest, let alone noticing a boy with green eyes.

"But Molly I thought you like the other Moscow boy, Andrei?" Iqball said.

Molly scrunched her face.

"You like an Andrei too?" Ballqis asked, amused.

"Yeah, yeah, thanks Iqball for not telling everyone that I nearly hit the water fountain while gawking at that Russian," Molly chided.

"I kept that part of the secret safe," Iqbal replied with a guffaw.

"You almost dived into the water fountain?" Mirna repeated as if once wasn't enough.

They all laughed hard, even Molly joined in after a couple of seconds.

"Well all the Russian boys are pretty," Molly conceded.

"So are the girls..." Iqball said, nudging Ballqis.

Ballqis had only a second to feel the sting if jealousy but it disappeared at the sight she caught right after.

Aga came, arms swinging with an especially hot looking student by his side.

"Hey everyone. This is Nastia. She's my new fish lab partner," he introduced.

The girl happily inquired everyone's names and Aga pulled a chair for her to sit. He then squeezed between Molly and the newcomer.

"What happened to your old lab partner?" Mirna asked after she was introduced to Aga as a former volunteer.

"Oh, Kerry will churn numbers on Saturdays with Micah," Aga explained.

Only Ballqis noticed that Molly was not her talkative self as the conversation at the table move from fish to classes to Samara, Nastia's birthplace.

***

"I wonder if Molly likes Aga, but just didn't know it yet," she mused as Iqball kept her company during her brisk walk on the beach several days after.

"Is that possible? To like someone but not realise it?" he threw a rethorical question.

Ballqis was huffing but she smiled.

"Well I think I even like you a lot back when we were still in school but I've come to realise that only recently, when you offered me a bite of your pizza. Even back in school you've always been generous," she noted.

Iqball's heart was flung into the sky for a short spell.

"Really? So had I said something to you about my crush, you wouldn't likely to turn me down?"

"My life would have changed so much had you given me even a minute of interest," she said easily, noticing that she no longer regretted her past.

Groaning, Iqball jumped a few times like a parkour athlete.

"What's all that about?" Ballqis asked, surprised. She even stopped walking.

Iqball cringed a little.

"Just me kicking myself for not admitting my feelings earlier," he said in earnest.

She wanted to laugh but seeing how regretful he looked, she decided to hold out a hand his way instead.

He quickly took it.

Their palms were both sweating from the walk, but Ballqis held on.

"I'm putting my past behind and moving on, so I'd like to invite you to come with me," she said.

Iqball's jaw dropped. Just like that, the bitterness he tasted a few seconds ago evaporated.

"Let's go," he accepted it.

They brisk walked all the way to the same spot they had their first date, and sank their bottoms onto the sandy beach.

"So Molly and Aga... What do you think is happening?" Ballqis rehashed the question as she rest.

Iqball smiled at the thought of Molly eyeing Andrei.

"I think Molly is attracted to quite a few guys at the moment. I caught the strap of her leather bag just in time to stop her from dunking straight into the fountain at Mid Square."

He chuckled at the memory.

"But she seemed quite down at the sight of Aga and Nastia yesterday. And Aga has been acting a little strange each time I mention Molly these days. It's either Micah's doing or that blue dress Molly was wearing at the opera house," Ballqis noted.

Something sparked inside Iqball's head.

"The dress. The jacket. They were blue. They took a photo together. Thay must have been the photo Aga was staring at when I caught him daydreaming at the library last week!" Iqball said.

He didn't mean to sneak a peak but as he had come from behind, his eyes caught a picture Aga was looking at with grave concentration. Aga had zoomed in the screen the moment he felt Iqball tapping his back.

"They did look real good together that day," Ballqis admitted.

"Too bad Nastia is getting in their way. She seemed too follow Aga around quite diligently for the last couple of days," Iqball said, having seen the duo going to classes, having meals and going to shops together.

Reminded of a little gut warning she felt when Nastia first came into the group, Ballqis kept to herself a comment she felt she should not say to Iqball, despite really wanting to share it.

There's something a little off about that girl.

"What do you mean you think there's something off about her?" asked Iqball, as if he had heard her said something out loud.

Ballqis' jaw dropped. The sand under her palms felt rougher, and she realized that she had gripped a handful of it.

"Iqball... How did you know... But I didn't say anything?"

Iqball stilled. Even the noisy gulls on the beach were unable to distract him.

"What do you mean? I heard you loud and clear."

"I didn't say anything about Nastia, Iqball. What do you mean, you could hear me loud and clear?"

"I thought I heard you say, 'There's something a little off about that girl.' Or was I hallucinating?"

Oh no. The girl I like is going to think I'm crazy. Please don't say goodbye to me! His fear spurred an irrational train of thoughts.

"No I don't think you're crazy, Iqball. But I think something is happening," Ballqis quickly soothed him.

A few seconds passed before they both became aware that they have just read each other's thoughts.

Then, "Argh!"

The seagulls flew away. A couple of joggers with earphones on could hear it. The two teens kept screaming, fearfully and excitedly.