Chapter 11
The young German yawned to herself. She had just woken up from a nice long sleep, having been woken up by the two children that were eagerly playing with their two Nintendo or Sony handhelds (she never could tell the difference with those) in the seat beside hers, their mother looking apologetic and telling them to be quiet. She smiled and waved, signaling that it was ok.
Hitomi stifled another yawn and checked the clock on her wrist. The flight was about eleven hours long, give or take, and it seemed she still had an hour and a half to go. She thought about trying to get back to sleep for that little bit of time, but decided against it and stretched herself a little.
What she wouldn't give for a little training right now. Putting a hand on the back of her neck she twisted her head a little to the side until the stiffness was gone.
She grabbed the pair of head phones lying over her lap and put them on. Might as well just watch something. The movie that was currently on was half way finished, but it would keep her occupied enough.
Or not. She practically tossed them away when she noticed that it was some stupid flick about vampires and werewolves combined with some real shoddy romance.
This was one of the parts of traveling by plane that she didn't like. At least on a boat she could get some training in. I'll just train later she decided and looked out of the window, watching the Chinese landscape.
She had been busier than she had liked this week, due to more students applying for courses; it didn't surprise Hitomi that most of them were teenage boys, who probably only wanted to take a look at "the hot babe that was teaching there", or at least that's what Viktor had said when she told him about it. She couldn't deny it.
With so many students she had been thinking of canceling the trip to help her father, but he'd practically thrown her out of the door saying he could deal with a bunch of teenagers with the other instructors and wished her a nice vacation. Somehow she had the feeling he was glad that she'd be gone so that the students weren't too busy looking at her and might actually got the basics down.
Luckily Leifang hadn't been there to pay the dojo a visit, or else they might have gone into overdrive. The Chinese definitely looked better than her, with those long legs and silken hair. Or at least it was Hitomi's opinion.
And after having boarded the plane she was more than glad her father did it, realizing only then how stressed out she was.
Sighing she pulled out a magazine and decided to do a crossword puzzle to kill some time. She'd try her hand at Sudoku but try as she might she never was good at number riddles.
She was about to write down one of the last words when the flight attendant announced that they would be arriving soon. A quick look out of the window gave her a nice view over Lantau Island, where the Hong Kong International Airport was located, her eyes stopping directly at Disneyland Hong Kong. She made a mental note for Leifang and her to visit it during her time here.
After they landed she walked through the sea of people inside the Terminal, looking around to try and catch a glimpse of her friend.
"Ah! Sorry!" Hitomi apologized herself when she collided with someone. The man shouted at her in Chinese, grabbing her by her denim jacket. Just before he could do something else the Karateka grabbed his arm and wrenched it away, her strength clearly surprising him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt with both hands, lifting him up a little.
"I am very sorry." She said to him, emphasizing on every word and smiling before letting go of him. He simply stumbled away. Whistling a melody she took her traveling case and continued walking. The other people didn't even notice this little exchange.
It didn't take her too long to get to the part of the terminal where people carried signs with names written on them, and there she was, holding a sign with her name written on it in Japanese writing, though she wasn't sure if 'Buchfink' was spelled correctly.
"Bukufuinku?" she mumbled to herself. Was it really written like that? It was times like these that made her wish she wasn't so lousy in Katakana.
"Leifang!" she called and waved towards her friend to get her attention, walking towards her.
"Hey." Leifang engulfed her friend in a short hug. "You look good."
"No, you look good." Hitomi said, giving her friend a glance over. The Chinese was dressed in a simple loose white blouse and black shorts. On her feet she wore elegant black heels and expensive looking armlets on her wrist. Also, she noted, her nails were freshly done.
"Flatterer. So how was your flight?"
"Long and I'm glad to have solid ground under my feet again. I'm never gonna get used to flying" They both chuckled at that.
"Well, I have a taxi waiting outside. So I say let's get going." Hitomi followed her friend outside where a red taxi was waiting. Leifang talked with the driver in Chinese, who nodded and helped the brunette with her case, before getting back into the driver's seat. Both women sat in the back of the car. "Sorry, it's gonna take a bit until we're there."
"It's alright, after 11 hours on a plane this is a piece of cake. Besides this way we can catch up." She pointed with her thumb towards the door. "And I can open a window, that's an improvement."
She did exactly that as they drove onto the main street leading to the mainland. Leifang gave the taxi driver instructions and faced her friend.
"How are you?"
"A bit stressed. First my finals and then the increase of students in the dojo had me pretty busy. I tried to get some sleep on the plane, but got maybe an hour or two tops before I woke up again." She stifled a yawn. "I could just lie down and sleep some more. Uh, what time is it anyway?"
"Ah wait." Leifang checked her wrist. "11:30. so if you want you can take a nap when we get back."
"Only a short one or I'll be awake the whole night. So what's on the agenda?"
"For today? Nothing really. I was thinking we should take it slow today and have fun tomorrow. I can show you around town."
"Ok, I'm just the tourist here so whatever you decide to do is fine by me. Though," she lifted her pointer. "I do have one place I want to go to. But that's not on my immediate list."
"Well I know of this one place that you might like..."
They spent the rest of the way with idle chit-chat.
"Welcome to the Gāo residence." Leifang flourished her arm in a wide arc as they stepped into the Chinese's apartment. Hitomi's eyes widened in awe. She didn't think her friend's apartment would be this big.
Is that a set of stairs I see there?! She closed her eyes in bewilderment and when she opened them they were still there. "Wow." She said simply. The interior consisted of largely modern furniture mixed with a little Chinese traditionalism. Forgetting her case at the door the German walked towards the large window in the living room, putting her hands carefully against the glass as she took in the panorama before her. It reminded her of home in a way, as seen only from a place that was very special to her.
"Impressive, huh?" Leifang joined her at the window; the brunette looked at her and shared a smile. Her friend turned her head so that she was looking over her shoulder, saying something in Chinese. Hitomi turned and saw a woman in her thirties who bowed to Leifang, then turned to Hitomi and did it again. The Karateka managed to bow in greeting as well before the woman turned around to fetch her case.
"This is Jin Zhen. My housekeeper." She explained her. "I will introduce you two later. Are you hungry? She told me there is some food in the kitchen."
"Yeah, that'll be great. Plane food is terrible."
While they ate a light meal the woman named Zhen approached Leifang, telling her something in Mandarin, she could see her eyebrow furrowing as she listened and nodded. After a short moment she smiled and pointed at Hitomi, telling the woman something in her native tongue, and then effortlessly switched back to Japanese. "Hitomi meet Jin Zhen."
"Nice to meet you." She said smiling, which Leifang promptly translated. The woman gave a small smile and took her leave. Leifang pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing in annoyance.
"What's wrong?"
"While we were away my mother called, and Zhen told her I was gone to pick you up. She wants me to call her back and I can already tell what it will be about." She let out another sigh then smiled. "No helping it now. Why don't you go and take that nap and I'll tell you what's up later?"
She wanted to protest, but a yawn made any resistance futile, so she decided to just give in. It's not like it was anything important after all.
They walked back into the living room, Leifang leading Hitomi to the base of the stairs as she spoke. "The guest room is up the stairs and to the left. Bathroom is on the right beside it and the room after that is mine."
"Thanks." Hitomi said gratefully and went up into the guest room. While it wasn't as fancy as the rest of the apartment it still held a certain charm for Hitomi. She noted that Zhen had already stored away her clothes.
Laying down on the bed she exhaled in exhaustion, closed her eyes and simply let herself drift into sleep.
When she awoke later that day she felt a lot better and, while not in tip top shape, would manage until it was a more suitable time to sleep. Looking out of the window she saw the sun high above the sky line, indicating that it was still afternoon.
Licking her dry lips to moisten them, she got off the bed and slapped her cheeks two times to dissipate the last bits of sleep before walking out of the door and down the stairs of the living room where her friend was sitting on the sofa, currently engaged in what seemed to be a mildly heated argument, if what little she knew of Mandarin was any indication.
She watched her for a few more minutes until Leifang seemed to have come to a close, hung up and let herself sink back into the sofa, closing her eyes and sighing as if she had just ran in a marathon. When she opened them again she locked gazes with Hitomi.
"We've been invited to dine at my parents' estate." she said simply, rubbing her left temple with index and middle-finger. For a moment it looked like she wanted to say more.
"You don't sound excited." Hitomi stated.
"I'm not, I had hoped to at least wait a few days before I sprung them on you, but that's not possible anymore. I tried to explain my mother that we would come over another day but she was adamant that it would be today, because father would leave for another trip." she told her friend, tapping her knee with her fingernails. "And blowing her off after that would've just been rude."
"Ok. I don't mind, really. It's just dinner."
"Yeah." her friend conceded. "I don't know why I'm making such a fuss about it either."
"Sooooo." Hitomi leaned forward, resting her chin on the palm of her hands, a toothy grin on her face. "Guess I finally meet the parents."
The Chinese couldn't help but giggle at that. "That just sounded wrong."
"Huh?" Hitomi blinked.
Leifang just waved her off. "Nevermind."
"Ok whatever you say, I think. Ah! Should I dress in something more fancy?" she asked. She was still wearing her usual combo of jeans and tank top.
"No. And if they got something to say I'm just gonna point out that it's their fault for springing this on us so suddenly. Hmm," she rubbed her chin. "You might want to do something about your hair though. Looks like a bird's nest."
Hitomi's hand rose to her head and sure enough her hair was all over the place. She just wanted to ask if she could use the bathroom to freshen up when Leifang beat her to the punch. "Go ahead, we still have some time until my father's driver is picking us up. Use whatever you like"
"Thanks." She got up from the sofa and went into the bathroom, a small part of her excited about meeting her friend's parents as if she was meeting those of her boyfriend.
Chuckling to herself she turned on the tap to gather some water in her hands and splashed her face. Silly you she thought, watching the droplets as they fell from her face.
Ohohoho, Hitomi how forward. Already meetin' the parents, eh?Seriously though it's good to know that underneath all that money Leifang still has nosy parents. I think some of us can relate to that.
And yeah I think Hitomi is the kind of girl that would like Disneyland.
