Morning sunlight filtered through the classroom windows, warm but too bright.
Mivan barely heard the teacher's voice. His mind was still drifting back to the conversations from the previous days.
He wasn't thinking about anything too serious.
Actually, he was feeling strangely happy.
There was something new in his life.
Something he couldn't quite explain yet.
A small smile appeared on his face.
Sandeep, who was sitting nearby, noticed immediately.
After class, he walked over and casually put a hand on Mivan's shoulder.
"Oi. Why are you so happy?"
Mivan looked at him.
"Huh? Me?"
"Yes, you. Who else?"
Mivan laughed and rubbed the back of his head.
"Nothing, man."
Sandeep narrowed his eyes.
"Nothing?"
"Nothing."
Sandeep suddenly glanced at the phone in Mivan's hand.
Then his expression changed.
"Wait..."
He looked at Mivan.
Then at the phone.
Then back at Mivan.
"Don't tell me you got yourself a girlfriend."
Mivan almost dropped his phone.
"What?! No, bro! Why would I get a girlfriend?"
Sandeep raised an eyebrow.
"Then why are you smiling like that?"
Mivan shrugged.
"Even if I wanted one, where would I find the time? I'm busy living my own life."
Sandeep stared at him for a moment.
"Hmm..."
He nodded slowly.
"Young man... I understand."
Mivan frowned.
"Understand what?"
"I understand what you're thinking."
"What am I thinking?"
Sandeep reached for Mivan's phone.
"Let me check."
"Hey!"
Before Mivan could stop him, Sandeep looked at the screen.
He froze.
The Facebook feed was almost completely different.
Posts.
Comments.
Suggested friends.
Everything seemed to be coming from Cambodia.
And most of the posts were written in Cambodian.
Sandeep scrolled.
Another Cambodian post.
Scroll.
Another one.
Scroll.
Another one.
The only thing that seemed completely normal was the reels appearing in a language Mivan could actually understand.
Sandeep stared at the screen.
"Bro..."
Mivan tried not to laugh.
Sandeep continued scrolling.
"And these?"
Several friend requests from Cambodian girls were sitting in Mivan's notifications.
A few had already been accepted.
Mivan had even exchanged a few simple messages with some of them.
Nothing complicated.
Just:
Hello.
Hi.
How are you?
I'm fine.
Where are you from?
Simple conversations that slowly turned into casual online friendships.
Sandeep slowly looked up.
"Hmm."
Mivan waited.
Sandeep gave him a suspicious look.
"Boy, instead of living your life, you're busy becoming a playboy."
Mivan immediately put his hand behind his head.
"Hey, it's not like that!"
Sandeep laughed.
"Sure."
"I'm just making friends."
"With how many?"
Mivan looked at his phone.
"...I don't know."
Sandeep shook his head.
"You've completely changed your Facebook."
Mivan laughed.
"If you want, I can make a group and add you too."
Sandeep stared at him.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"Fine. Do it."
Mivan laughed.
"Okay, okay."
---
That evening, after returning home, Mivan opened Facebook again.
By now, he already had a small circle of Cambodian friends online.
There was one girl he had known for a little longer.
Her name was Sichu.
She was one of the people Mivan talked to more often.
There were also several other girls he had become friends with through Facebook.
Most of their conversations were completely random.
Sometimes they talked about daily life.
Sometimes they joked around.
Sometimes nobody understood what the other person was saying.
And somehow, that made it even funnier.
Mivan already had small group chats with some of them.
Most of the people he regularly talked to there were girls.
His male friends were still around, of course, but somehow his online conversations had slowly become much more active with his Cambodian female friends.
That evening, Mivan sent a message.
Mivan: "Guys, let's talk on call."
A few minutes later, one of the girls added him to another group.
Sichu was there too.
Mivan stared at the group.
"Oh..."
There were several girls already waiting.
Then someone started the group call.
Mivan hesitated.
"Okay..."
He joined.
The moment his camera connected, the girls immediately covered their faces with their hands.
Mivan froze.
"...What?"
One girl laughed.
Another hid her face even more.
Sichu was laughing too.
Mivan suddenly became embarrassed himself.
"Why are you all hiding your faces?!"
Nobody answered properly.
They were laughing too much.
Mivan covered his own face.
"This is embarrassing..."
Someone in the group said something in broken English.
Mivan tried to understand.
"What?"
The girl repeated herself.
Mivan still didn't understand.
"...What?"
Everyone laughed again.
Mivan finally gave up.
"Okay, okay!"
He covered his face completely.
Then he turned his camera off.
Sichu laughed even harder.
"Why camera off?"
Mivan answered in broken English.
"Because... everyone shy!"
Another girl replied with equally broken English.
"You also shy!"
Mivan paused.
"...Yes."
Everyone laughed again.
At that moment, Mivan's phone received another notification.
Sandeep had joined.
Mivan immediately laughed.
"Ah! My friend!"
Sandeep appeared in the group call.
He looked at the screen.
Then at Mivan.
Then at all the girls.
There was a long silence.
Sandeep finally said:
"Bro..."
Mivan already knew what was coming.
"What?"
Sandeep smiled.
"So this is your life now?"
Mivan laughed.
"Shut up!"
The conversation continued.
But communicating was harder than expected.
Mivan's English wasn't perfect.
Sandeep's English wasn't perfect.
The girls' English wasn't perfect either.
Sometimes one person would say something.
Someone else would misunderstand it.
Then another person would try to explain it.
And somehow the explanation became even more confusing.
"Wait, wait, wait..."
Mivan laughed.
"I don't understand!"
Sandeep tried to help.
"I understand!"
Mivan looked at him.
"You understand?"
Sandeep nodded confidently.
"Yes."
A few seconds later, he turned toward Mivan.
"...Actually, no."
Mivan burst out laughing.
The girls laughed too.
The language difference made the entire call chaotic.
Nobody could speak perfect English.
Nobody could understand perfect English.
But somehow, everyone was still having fun.
Sichu kept trying to explain things to Mivan.
Mivan kept asking her to repeat herself.
Sandeep kept making jokes.
The girls kept laughing whenever someone misunderstood something.
For a while, the distance between their countries didn't really matter.
They were just a group of young people sitting behind their screens, trying to understand each other.
And Mivan was enjoying it.
He wasn't thinking about tomorrow.
He wasn't thinking about hospitals.
He wasn't thinking about anything complicated.
For once, he was simply laughing.
After the call finally ended, Mivan looked at his phone.
The screen went quiet.
He smiled.
"That was fun."
He leaned back in his chair.
Somewhere across the distance, there were people he had never met in person.
People who spoke a different language.
People who lived in a completely different country.
And yet, somehow, they had become part of his everyday life.
Mivan opened Facebook again.
His eyes moved through the endless Cambodian posts filling his feed.
He smiled.
He had no idea where these new friendships would lead him.
He only knew that his world had suddenly become a little bigger.
And somewhere inside that strange new world...
A girl named Miu was still waiting to become part of his story.
The chapter/story has ended, but we'll remember it someday from another corner of a new universe.