disclaimer: if i wished upon star, would you believe if i said they were?... Maybe?
warnings: possible OOCs, definite grammar problems, pet shop AU, some vocabularies might be wrong.
notes:
- inspired by a Nyo!HongSey fic named "Ever Blue" by xkaiistarx. She made me ship HongSey! (*cough* but HongIce always comes forth *cough*)
- whether this fic is romance or platonic, it's up to you guys.
- this fic isn't as good as others, because i write while taking photoes of my cat. Seychelles (or Michelle), in every possible way, must be somewhat connected to the sea. But look at what I've done, it's clearly the sky!
- first person is hard to write.
please excuse me!
I hope you enjoy this fics.
HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!
"And like a colorful bloom of temporary lights in the sky, you will shine."
― Chad Sugg
New Year greets the city with its cool, persistent rain, and the latter part is annoying. The only good thing from it is that I and Michelle– my female co-worker in this pet supplies shop – can have a little chat. We watch people in raincoat hurriedly go across the street, see the supermarket opposite decorated with artificial snowflakes and red lights, the music can be heard from the distance. Michelle has told me to buy more ribbons and banners to decorate the shop, but the humidity makes me too lazy to do anything. She doesn't seem to mind, though, as she hums happily some melodies that I don't recognize.
"I wish it'd rain forever." I mutter under my breath.
"Absolute not. There will be no customer."
"It isn't important, we still get salary."
"You know I don't work for money."
"Yes, right." I nod, leaning against the window. We don't talk anymore, she's enjoying the music, and I'm listening to her humming. She will flush if I tell her this.
Rain brings memories, they say, and as I observe watch her arrange the food, I recall the day she appeared in front of the shop (again).
She came here every Friday, standing in front of the shop in strange Gothic-style clothes, hair tied into pigtails with red ribbons. I would have forgotten her and let her do whatever she wanted had she not come into the shop one day. It was raining, so I guessed she was hesitant to stand outside. She wandered around, picked up the things one by one and placed them down. I followed suit, advertising with words that I had learnt by heart, but I could tell that she didn't pay attention. As we reached the categories for cat supplies, she stopped, turning to face me:
"Do you need more employees?"
My amazement faded away quickly and annoyance started to build up. If it was her goal, she should have told me in the first place. But then, it was hard to stay mad when a pair of large, chocolate brown eyes blinked at you.
"I don't know. The owner is my brother." And Yao, despite his good-natured personality, is extremely picky when it comes to hiring employees. "If you want to work, you'll have to wait until he comes back from vacation."
"May you ask him now? Tell him that I don't need salary! And I can work three afternoons a week!"
"Don't need salary?" I tried my best to gape at her.
"I have already memorized the lists of supplies for the pets! I know what the customers want!"
How could I make up my mind? She was just a random stranger, coming here with a strange request. Had I mentioned that this shop was my brother's?
She continued with too much enthusiasm for my liking. "I want to work, really! I can try until your brother comes back!"
"I…"
"Please." She blinked her eyes. "Please consider it."
I was a gentleman.
The first month, no salary, she happily skipped away when Yao gave me mine. At the end of the second month, Yao fixed her with a stern look and forced her to accept, saying that he'd been receiving positive comments from customers. She awkwardly accepted it, and then dragged me to go out for ice cream.
"It's my thank you." She said, smiling brightly.
Free food, I wasn't in the position to refuse.
We have a day off on Sunday. I have the habit of staying awake through Saturday night to play video games and sleeping all Sunday. Even Yao can't fix that, but ever since I knew Michelle, she has been making sure that he has 'healthy routine', (he doubts that Yao tells her to do that). The first time she came was to borrow CDs, I told her to wait in the living room and literally blown up my drawer. I thought she'd get annoyed. But no, when I ran down, she was playing with Orange. Orange is the cat that Yao brought home as my birthday gift. When I saw her, I was drinking orange juice. Well, you get the idea.
Michelle appeared to adore my fat cat. She didn't even notice I'd been watching her for a good five minutes. She was kneeling down, stroking Orange's fur, whispering something in his ears ('Boy, your eyes have the colour of the sea.') and laughing. I cleared my throat awkwardly, not liking the word 'stalker' in my head at all. She startled as if being caught doing something illegal. Weird girl, like always. Afterwards, she visits every Sunday to give me the cakes she's baked, or to show me about the CDs she's bought. If I have to finish my homework, she'll wait while playing with Orange, humming some weird songs. Orange likes her very much to the point that he follows her until she walks out of our house.
But this Sunday, she doesn't ring my bell, and I come to her house.
"Is that alright with your parents?" I've asked.
"Oh, they're out all the times. Even if they're home, they'll like you. Everyone likes Jia Long." Her 'everyone' means my older brother, few customers and herself.
Don't misunderstand, I'm not nervous. There's nothing to be nervous about a simple visit. Yao snickered when he thought I wasn't looking, but I didn't bother to correct him. It'd lead to inconvenient problems.
Her house is empty, I notice, but full of life as the doors are open and music resounding everywhere. Michelle's room is on the second floor with white wall and blue things. To be frankly, the only thing isn't blue is her wall and her hair and her clothes. Even the window is coloured blue with white clouds pattern.
"I painted it," She says, notices my gaze. "to see the sky even when the window is close. Especially in stormy days, you can still look at the blue sky, as if you were living under nice weather." Her explanation makes me smile. "What?"
"Nothing." Behind the stubborn nature and the strange Gothic style clothes, she's such a dreamer.
"And this." She points at the ground. "Is the sea."
"I'm surprised that you, like, haven't drowned yourself yet."
"Shut up!"
In her bookshelf, I find an album (with blue cover) featuring Michelle from her kindergarten days to high school. She wore a blue dress when she was small, she went to the park with her father, she played with a fat, white cat. Michelle tells me that the cat, Sea, was her childhood friend.
"If you like cat that much, why don't you raise one?"
She almost drops her book, staring at me with startled and sad eyes before saying:
"Taking care of someone, even a cat, takes a great deal of time. It's too complicated and difficult."
"Orange has been living with me for three years, everything is okay."
"I don't have enough time."
I open my mouth to retort (because she works without needing salary for the shop, three afternoons a week, mind you) but she's abruptly stood up and dragged me to the garden, where we can enjoy the tea. Her tea is sweeter than Yao, that's probably why it tastes strange in my mouth. But it doesn't matter anymore (the truth is, nothing matters)
Finally, the rain has stopped and the city is covered in fresh sunshine. The shop suddenly gets more customers, and I like to think that it's because of the mixture light of green and red that Michelle has decorated.
However, the odd never cease to happen. Sometimes, a few of customers stand in front of the shop, hesitantly to come in. They don't seem to look for anything, just watch and walk away. The images almost (I repeat, almost) remind me of Michelle months ago. I tell myself to be welcome and friendly. But how will you act if half of those customers come in and turn on their heels without buying anything and don't even bother to answer when you ask?
"Maybe they miss their pets. Maybe their pets were gone. And for some reason, they can't bring themselves to look after another one."
Michelle makes a theory when I mutter in annoyance about such customers.
"How can you know?"
She doesn't look at me when answering:
"Because I used to be like that when Sea died."
"The cat in the album?"
"Yes. I didn't take a good care of her. All I knew was that I loved her very much, but I didn't understand anything." She blinks her eyes furiously, holding back her tears.
If there is one thing Yao doesn't teach me, it's how to comfort crying girl.
"But…" I choose my word carefully. "It happened long time ago, right? I think you're ready to have another cat. He or she can play with Orange. Not everyone knows how to calm cats or feed them properly like you do." Even Orange likes it when Michelle feeds him.
A pause of silence between us before she speaks: "Seeing a part of my life leave is a terrible thing. It'd better if I don't look after or get attached to someone or something."
I think I can understand her hesitation when she looked into the shop, her startle as I saw her playing with Orange, the moment she suddenly got sad as I asked about Sea.
Afterwards, we somehow get closer. Maybe, when we're close enough, she'll let me know more of her secret (namely, Sea's story). The city still welcomes sunshine those days, and I keep visiting her on sundays. This time, however, I decide to do something different. After persuading Yao to buy me an orange-fur cat (as orange as Orange can get), I bring her to Michelle, telling her that I want her to take care of the cat.
As I guess, the girl hesitates, taking a step backwards.
"Jia Long, you know I can't -"
I shove the cat into her arms.
"Give it a try." I tell her firmly. "And if you don't want her, I'll give her to someone else, but I don't think they can truly love her."
She looks at her arm, and the cat looks up at her with big blue eyes – lighter than the blue of Orange's eyes, the colour of sky. As she speaks, her voice is trembling, but there is a steely determination in it:
"I'll try."
"That's Michelle I know."
She smiles.
As I have some club activities to do, I can't stay with her until noon as usual. I spend the whole afternoon making posters and missing the taste of her tea. Too many posters to do, I groan in my head. Throwing myself on my bed, I decide to text her.
"Have you had dinner?"
"No. I'm preparing. Been busy with cat. Are you free tomorrow?" The reply is immediate. I wonder how she can type those letters that fast.
"Monday? I have the afternoon. You need something?"
"I want to buy some Ping-Pong ball, a small bowl, and perhaps a cat nest."
"How about a ghost-house-looking nest?"
"Stop joking, Jia Long. Sky will be scared."
"Okay. You named her Sky?"
"Because of her eyes, yes."
Not waiting for her to reply, I take my bike and start heading to her house, ignoring Yao's question.
And my mobile is still ringing with a new message:
"From now on, I won't sit alone to watch the sky on my window anymore! Because I want to look at the real sky, even if it's stormy. I want to watch it with Sky, with you, Jia Long."
Does anyone notice that a boy is grinning as he speeds up?
author notes: so, what do you think? is it platonic? or is it romantic? it's hard for me to decide.
please don't favorite without reviewing, thank you.
please, do enjoy your reading time.