Chapter 4 - The First ABIX Outing
Chapter 4: The First ABIX Outing
It began with a simple text from Aleem.
[ABIX Chat]
Aleem: I’m craving roti john.
Crystal: Bro what kind of craving is that at 9PM 💀
Ivan: Can. Add teh peng.
Isabelle: …What’s roti john?
That last message triggered a flurry of shocked emojis.
Crystal: YOU’VE NEVER EATEN ROTI JOHN?!
Ivan: This is an emergency.
Aleem: Al-Azhar. Friday. 7PM. Settled.
Friday came.
The four of them arrived at Al-Azhar in Beauty World in their own styles—Aleem in a plain tee and cargo pants, Crystal in a checkered dress and sneakers, Isabelle with a cardigan despite the heat, and Ivan looking like he came from a startup pitch with his ironed polo and wireless earbuds he wasn’t actually using.
The table filled up quickly—roti john cheese, nasi goreng pattaya, two plates of butter chicken naan, and four cups of teh peng so tall they looked like desserts.
“This is,” Isabelle said slowly, after her first bite, “illegal.”
“You get it now,” Aleem nodded solemnly.
Ivan leaned back with a satisfied sigh. “Nothing bonds people faster than over-ordering and regretting nothing.”
And so they ate.
They talked about classes, their messiest modules, and accidentally called lecturers “mum” (Crystal had done this twice). Isabelle confessed she still didn’t know how to use NTU’s course registration portal properly.
“Every time I log in I feel like I’m trying to defuse a bomb,” she said.
Aleem laughed so hard he nearly choked on his teh peng.
But it was when the topic drifted to family that things got quiet.
“I’m the only child,” Ivan said, poking at the melting ice in his cup. “Sometimes it’s nice. Other times it’s… kind of a lot.”
Crystal leaned her head sideways. “A lot?”
“Pressure,” Ivan shrugged. “To succeed. To not mess up. To carry the family flag, y’know?”
Isabelle nodded slowly. “Yeah. Not being the only child doesn’t really help much either.”
Aleem looked up from his plate. “Same here. Different expectations, same weight.”
There was a short pause—but not the awkward kind. It was the kind that allowed silence to be part of the conversation. Like letting the warmth of a shared table soak in.
Then Crystal grinned. “That’s why we need these nights. Roti john therapy. ABIX tradition.”
“Wait,” Aleem said. “ABIX is officially a thing now?”
“Bro,” Ivan smirked, “you literally named the group chat.”
Aleem opened his mouth, then closed it. “Touché.”
After dinner, they wandered around the area. Crystal, of course, insisted on dessert.
“Let’s get bingsu!”
“It’s like 10pm—”
“BINGSU.”
They eventually found a small Korean dessert café tucked behind the main road. Isabelle chose mango, Crystal picked strawberry cheesecake, Ivan wanted matcha but somehow got overruled, and Aleem ended up footing the bill.
“You all owe me,” he grumbled, though his grin gave him away.
They sat under warm hanging lights, the café playing soft acoustic covers of K-pop hits. Between brain freezes and Crystal trying to teach everyone the dance moves to some viral TikTok song, Isabelle finally asked the question on her mind.
“So… what is ABIX, anyway?”
The others looked at each other. Then at her.
“Aleem,” Crystal pointed.
“Ivan,” Aleem added.
“Isabelle,” Ivan said.
“And me—X for Crystal, lah,” Crystal finished with a proud flip of her hair.
Isabelle raised a brow. “X… for Crystal?”
“C was already taken by Chicken Rice Society,” Crystal deadpanned. “X is cooler. Edgy. Like an anime character’s middle name.”
Aleem nodded. “She’s not wrong. It does sound like a hacker group from the future.”
Ivan smirked. “Except instead of cybercrimes, we commit to good food and mediocre badminton.”
They laughed. Loudly, freely. People at other tables turned, some smiling. But none of them cared.
Because in that moment, something special clicked into place.
They were different—different backgrounds, different childhoods, different ways of seeing the world.
But somehow, it worked.
This wasn’t just four students stuck in a class.
It was ABIX.
And ABIX was the beginning of something lifelong.