Leon's family, like most things, takes the news rather well at the dinner table.
"So he really said he'd go?" Mei squeals. "That's so cute! I can imagine it now: you'll pull up in a fancy limo with a sleek black tuxedo with an oriental red silk tie, and, and—! You'll have these seamless, wrinkle-free pants to match, and real leather shoes with reinforced heels so you won't trip on the dance floor, and—"
"Mei," Leon grimaces, "don't you think you're talking about my clothes more than the actual night?"
"Oh, it's not just going to be your clothes, Leon," she smiles. "Emil said he doesn't have a suit, right? When he comes over, I can just take his measurements and fit him with a nice ivory-white suit. His tie should match his eyes." She swoons. "They're like a mix of lavender and lilac. Such a nice color…Do you think he'll look better with white shoes or black? Or maybe mahogany red—"
"Mei, I think we can decide what they're going to wear some time besides at the dinner table," Cheng butts in with a businesslike smile.
It's not as if Leon's cousin can help it, though. Being a graduate of Eliatha University's fashion design class, she looks for inspiration and flare wherever she can find it. There were many times when she requested Emil or even his brother, Lukas, be brought into her studio for modeling, but both brothers refused. Now, however, with Emil in need of a suit, Leon can imagine how elated she must be to get his measurements.
"Leon, if I may be so inclined to ask," Cheng continues to speak, "did you get Emil's full consent before confirming he's going to the senior ball with you?"
"Sure, I did." It's a bit of a stretch since Emil didn't want to go, but he has his confirmation. As far as Leon is concerned, a "Yes" is good enough for him.
"That's good," Cheng smiles. "It'd be a shame if Emil didn't want to go. But I'm happy for the two of you, as well. It's your final year of high school so it's only understandable that you should do something memorable."
"Right?" Leon smirks and helps himself to a steamed dumpling. "Anyways—"
"Anyway, Leon," his spectacle-donning cousin corrects him. "Anyway."
"Anyway, how's Yao doing overseas? You know when he's coming back?"
Cheng sets down his teacup before speaking. "He said he's going to be back before graduation so you'll see him then."
Leon utters a low swear. "Of course he'd be back by then."
"Leon, you're the last one in our family to graduate from high school, to go to college, even," Mei reminds him. "Think of this as his dusk age where he's going to realize he doesn't have many years left."
Cheng cannot help cracking an amused smile. "I don't think that's what he's going to be thinking, Mei. He still has a while to go before he hits retirement age."
"If you say so," Leon laughs.
-
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Emil is at home eating leftovers all by himself. With his parents always working odd hours, and his brother off in medical school, there is no one but his stuffed puffin to converse with.
Imagine his surprise when he first paid Leon and his family a visit. The noise and attention were overwhelming. Yao showered him with food, drinks, and questions about his grades, his parents' jobs, and where he wanted to go to school. It was then that Leon had to kick him out of the house to go buy some milk (oddly not a commonly used item in their house) in order to prevent the poor boy from overloading with embarrassment.
Then there was Mei, Leon's second oldest cousin. While not as nosy and loud as Yao, she tended to do a lot of talking—mainly about herself. Emil recalls getting dragged to her room and being strung with measuring tape until he looked like a fashion mummy. Leon had to save him before the stripping stage.
Cheng, on the other hand, was refreshingly level-headed. Polite and intelligent, he was the ideal brother and father figure to Leon, being a little too old to be his brother, but too young to be his father. He served Emil tea at the beginning of dinnertime and made sure he had enough to eat. He didn't intrude into Emil's personal life, rather asking him if Leon was giving him any trouble or if Lukas was doing well in his studies. In a way, Emil almost feels jealous that someone like him ended up under the same household as Leon. It's impossible, but he occasionally finds himself wishing Cheng and Lukas switched places for a week. Perhaps then Leon will not be strung on his high horse so often.
Gotta give Leon credit, though, Emil sighs when he finishes his premade meal. He cannot remember the last time his mother made him something fresh. He's really got his hands full with those three.
After cleaning his plate and washing his dishes in the sink, Emil gets his routinely phone call. Today is Friday, one of three days when Lukas has the time to contact him and check up on his daily life. He is used to this by now and blandly answers the phone after three precise rings.
"What's up, Lukas?" he answers.
To his irritation, a teasing voice speaks through the other line. "Who are you, and what have you done with my precious little brother?"
"What's up, Brother?" the little brother practically growls through his teeth.
"Just checking in on my one and only little brother." His ghostly voice is so disgustingly tender that Emil can feel his intestinal walls melting. "How's school going for you?"
"Fine," he grumbles. "That's what you always ask me. Can't you ask me something else?"
There's nothing but white noise in the receiver for about three seconds before Lukas asks, "So how's your sex life?"
"What?"
"Judging from your tone of voice, I'd say it's not going so well."
"How can you say that so calmly?!"
"I did an entire course on the extraction of STDs, little brother," Lukas calmly says. "I'm just looking out for you."
"I'm not a child anymore, Lu—Brother. You don't have to look out for me every step of the way. What's going to happen when I go to college?"
"It will be wonderful." Emil can hear the biting venom in his voice. Like Leon, Lukas takes great pleasure in squeezing the frustration out of his pale, scrawny body. It's perhaps the only level the two connect on. "You know, since you're going to E.U., we're going to be closer together. I'll only be a few blocks away. I can make time out of my schedule to visit you every day if you want—"
"Pass," he quickly cuts him off. "I'm going to be a legal adult in summer, L—Brother. I'll be able to take care of myself by then."
"You sure? I can always make arrangements for us to live together throughout your undergrad years."
"No," Emil firmly states. "That's final." He mumbles a few curses away from the phone before deciding to end the conversation. "Listen, I have to get some things ready for tomorrow. I'll talk to you later."
His brother doesn't sound too pleased that the conversation is cut short, but he has things of his own to attend. "Alright, then. Goodnight, little brother."
Emil knows he cannot hang up until he returns the ending phrase. If he fails to say goodbye, his brother will call him again and again until either his cellphone battery dies or his parents return to stop the calls.
"Goodnight, Brother," he ends off with and gratefully hangs up the phone.
-
The next day at school, Emil and Leon meet up at homeroom at the back of the classroom like clockwork. It appears to be a normal day at Academy W seeing as how Leon promised he wouldn't tell anyone about them going to senior ball together.
"Morning, Ice," Leon greets him as he takes his seat by the window. "Didja tell your parents about you-know-what?"
"No," he frowns. "I went to bed before they came home. We still have, what? Two weeks before it happens? I think I'll be able to tell them by then. What about you? Did you tell Cheng? You tell him pretty much everything."
"I told them at dinner."
"Them?" Emil repeats with an uneasy feeling. "You mean Mei and Yao, too?"
"Nah, my old man's overseas. Just Cheng and Mei."
Groaning, the embarrassed teen buries his head into his arms, muffling his sounds on his desk. "Leon, you ass. Mei's going to take my measurements, isn't she?"
"So?" he smirks. "Free suit, right? She's doing this out of kindness, you know. She'd charge you an arm and a leg if you were a real client."
"I'm sure she would." He comes off as sarcastic, but he knows Mei doesn't have to go out of her way to provide a suit for him. If anything, judging by her designs and portfolios, she will do a decent job on his suit—assuming the outfit she'll give him even is a suit.
School plays out as any normal day consists of: lectures, quizzes, lunch, lectures, quizzes, and the last bell.
Unlike sophomore year, Leon and Emil do not have the same schedules and instead meet each other at the front gate after the last bell. The day goes by surprisingly quickly as Leon proposes they walk to his house for lessons and measurements. Mei will be home for the next few days, and it is imperative that she gets his measurements as soon as possible so she may begin the designing and tailoring processes.
"I can't believe I'm actually doing this…" Emil grumbles when they approach the Wang residence. He notices that there is only one car in the driveway, a white Nissan with a pink car freshener dangling from the rearview mirror. It must be Mei's car. That would mean Yao is still overseas, and Cheng is still at work.
Leon opens the door with his key and lets himself inside. Emil is courteous to take off his shoes, though the practice is also done in his house. It's only polite when entering an Asian household.
Immediately after entering the house, he can already smell the familiar, savory scents of steamed rice, mysterious marinated meat, and a recognizable aroma of stir-fried onions. The smells are different whenever he comes over, but he never minds them. It means he will get to eat with individuals other than his stuffed puffin.
"Mm, smells like chow fun," Leon assumes as he leads Emil to the kitchen. "Aaaand, I'm right. Hi, Mei."
His cousin turns to face him and his friend. She greets them with a bright, heart-warming smile as they come into view. On the stove is a steaming pan of flat noodles, chow fun as Leon mentioned earlier. Sitting on the corner of the countertop is an electronic rice cooker that's steaming from its vent. Everything smells delicious.
"Hi, Emil!" she beams at him. "Are you here to practice your dance lessons with Leon?"
He bats his eyelashes, embarrassed. "You know about that?"
"Word gets around with Leon," she giggles as she tilts the pan full of fried noodles, bean sprouts, onions, and beef.
"Oh, I can only imagine it does," he sarcastically responds.
When Mei finishes the preparations, she urges the boys to go upstairs and wash up before their afternoon meal. Emil promptly follows his friend to his room where he sets down his book bag and jacket.
"Why do you guys have a separate meal from lunch and dinner?" he asks as he heads to the bathroom.
Leon shrugs and turns on the sink faucet. "I just get hungry after school. It's no big deal for me, but I think if you ate four meals a day, you'd get a little fat."
"Shut up," Emil flatly grunts while he waits for him to wash his hands. "If you didn't put so much grease in your food, it wouldn't be such a concern."
"I think it's because you never work out. Even if your food is 'healthy,' I can tell you're never going to get any muscles eating just fish and potatoes. That reminds me: when we go to E.U., we're going to work out, okay?"
"I'll think about it," is all he replies with and dries his clean hands off with a hand towel.
Back downstairs, Mei has finished preparing all of the dishes on the dining table. Even though there are only four people living in the house, the dining table looks big enough to fit a decent party of sixteen. Maybe even twenty if they conserved space.
But, despite the space, Leon insists that Emil sits next to him, a common practice in his routine as he watches his exotic Icelandic companion fumble with his chopsticks.
"You really like watching me suffer, don't you?" he growls as the noodles slip from his chopsticks for the fifth time.
"Ith not my faul' you suck ad usin' cho'ick," Leon teases him with his mouth full of chow fun-which he then helped himself to more without fumbling once.
Mei wrinkles her brow. "If Cheng was here, he'd tell you not to talk with your mouth full, Leon."
Leon swallows. "Yeah, well he's not here," he says with clear comprehension. "Did he say he was going to be working late?"
"I don't think so. I think he's going to be back before Emil's even done here."
Oh great, Emil thinks. That means Cheng's going to watch us practice, too?
"Emil, do you want me to get you a fork?" Mei offers. "We have some, you know."
"No, I'm fine, thank you," he declines. "I need to practice. I should be able to use them by now. You know…since I come to your house a lot."
An odd exchange of eye contact triggers between Mei and Leon for a quick moment, and then, it vanishes as quick as it comes.
What was that all about?
After watching Leon use his chopsticks a few times, Emil realizes his friend is holding them as special way on purpose. He faintly recalls Cheng scolding him for deceiving his friend, as the way Leon holds his chopsticks is only for experts.
"You're supposed to hold them like you would a pencil," Mei explains.
"But how can I do that and move the chopsticks at the same time?" He looks over at Leon who is effortlessly picking small clumps of steamed rice out of his bowl with his unique chopstick hold. Next to slippery soup noodles, rice may just be the most difficult of foods to pick up with the little sticks.
"Just practice," Mei giggles. "You're sure you don't want a fork?"
"I'm sure."
"Done," Leon suddenly says as he gets up from his chair and collects his bowl. "Thanks for the food, Mei."
"You're welcome," she smiles.
It takes Emil another few tries before he finally finishes his food. Everything was delicious, but he wishes he could have enjoyed it without having to struggle with it. Right after he places his bowl in the sink, the front door opens, and Cheng enters the dining area.
"Hello, Emil," he greets him with a polite smile. "How are you doing today?"
"Fine, thank you," he says.
"Leon's not giving you any trouble, is he?"
"No. Not really." He wants to complain about Leon teasing him with his chopsticks and talking with his mouth full. Oddly enough, Cheng is the only person who gets Leon to listen to him. But, Emil assumes his friend's cousin had a busy day and leaves his answer the way it stands.
"Well then, make yourself at home, Emil. If you need anything, just let us know."
"Thanks," he says before he goes upstairs to Leon's room.
Sitting at his desk, Leon is occupied with his laptop, replying to online forums, chats, and other various social networking sites. How he manages to keep up with his online friends and distant relatives is amazing to Emil. He only has one older brother, and even he is too annoying to handle or keep track of.
"Hey, Ice. You ready to start?"
"Leon, we just ate."
"Yeah, but the first steps are going to be slow. You don't have to worry."
Emil creases his eyebrows. "Wait, so it's going to go fast? What kind of dance are we doing again?"
His friend looks at him with a sparkle in his amber eyes. "You'll find out after we finish our practice."
Please don't let this be a dirty dance, Emil pleads in his head. We'll get kicked out before we can even say "Eliatha University."
"Cheng" is my unofficial human name for Macau.
