Dreams
Chapter 29: Sour yet Sweet
"The director of ALICE Studio told the media yesterday that the new model will be making her debut next month. Her identity is yet to be announced till later, probably when she makes her first debut in our local comedy variety show called Laugh-UpCity. Well, not exactly a debut if you ask me, it's more like a revelation of our long-waited newbie model."
"Are you serious?" Len muttered to himself after listening to the radio. "Is she going to be comedian or something funny?"
"ALICE Studio always gets weird people and makes them do weird stuffs," his passenger commented with a chuckle. "Twenty years ago, the ex-director made a boy-band appear in a travel programme broadcasted live on television. The boys had to travel to Thailand and had some sort of food discovery there. Who knew that they became famous after that?"
Len continued driving as he listened to the funny story. Well, he did not know about that. He was only half a year old at that time.
"Then, there was another girl-band which was formed by the ex-director. He carefully selected five talented female comedians and made them appear as a band in a children's magazine. If I'm not wrong, the girl-band had to cosplay as some magical girls. That was sixteen years ago," the passenger chattered happily and he looked at Len with an excited look. "Nine years ago, a male model from ALICE Studio was forced to make his first appearance in a fantasy movie. Oh, oh, oh, do you know about a model who made her first debut in a beauty contest six years ago? That was the only decent debut I've ever heard of coming from ALICE Studio."
"But this new model, I bet, is going to make a fool out of herself in a comedy whatever show," Len remarked.
"Aww... don't say that."
"I've a bad feeling about this, Sir. I wouldn't be surprised if the model becomes a comedian after her debut." Len looked at the passenger with a cheeky smile. "Isn't that the sole purpose of having her first appearance in the comedy whatever show?"
The male passenger did not say anything but just laughed at his comment. Len joined in the laughter as he drove. He had not seen Rin since the day he had heard that she had passed the audition. Though he could have easily sent her a text message, he thought that she would be busy and had no time for this useless stuff as a model. Hopefully, she was using the handphone, which he had picked out for her after much contemplation, well. Well, orange suited her since she loved orange pudding and had a personality of an orange. Sour yet sweet, hard and strong on the outside yet soft and vulnerable on the inside, and so bright like the promising morning sun.
Her first debut...
How should he support her?
"I'm sorry. I can't make it... for your first debut. Your costume... I'm sorry... I've no time to do it for you at all."
"Len..."
"I'm sorry."
"Liar."
Len's grip tightened around the steering wheel. A part of him wanted to support Rin by taking leave from work on that day of her debut so that he could buy a ticket to watch the variety show first-hand, but another part of him told him not to do it or else, he would hurt her just like how he had hurt someone before in the past.
What should he do?
-:-:-:-
It had been two hectic weeks of school and weird trainings for Rin. Due to her studies during the day, her trainings were all either early in the morning or late at night. Sometimes, her trainings would last till four in the morning and she would have only two to three hours of sleep. Haku promised her that she would not have to live on biscuits and milk each day but because of her tight schedule, she had to consume biscuits and milk for both breakfast and lunch, and eat fruits for dinner. Furthermore, because of the preparation for her examinations, she ended up using her meet-up time with her usual clique as her revision time. So, she had not been meeting her friends for at least more than a week.
As Rin collapsed onto her bed, she held her textbook up high and flipped it open to the page where she had bookmarked. No matter how late it was and how tired she was from school lectures and those training sessions, she wanted to finish memorising the whole textbook before breakfast.
"Rin, I've prepared the bath for you," Haku's voice was heard behind the door.
Rin sat up and shouted in reply, "Thank you! But I'll bathe later."
"But it will turn cold later, Rin." Haku knocked on the door and opened it. "You wouldn't want to catch a cold, would you?"
"I'm fine! I'm fine!"
Haku looked at how exhausted Rin was and then to the textbook she was holding under her arms. She sighed.
"Take a bath first, then do your revision while drying your hair at the same time before going to sleep," Haku said in a serious tone. "We can't have you falling sick."
"But exams..."
"I know, but health is more important, isn't it?"
Rin hung her head low. For the first time in her university life, she actually felt worried about her examinations. And for the first time in her whole schooling life, she actually tried to mug and struggle to pass them. To her, this was ridiculous.
After receiving no response from Rin, Haku cleared her throat and spoke in a monotone, "I'll prepare some hot drink for you."
"Coffee will do."
"Coffee?" Haku stared at her weirdly. "Don't you want to sleep?"
Rin laughed and waved her hand as if to brush her doubt aside. "I can sleep even after I drink coffee. Trust me, I'm a heavy sleeper, even caffeine won't work on me."
Haku narrowed her eyes at her and sighed again. She walked out of the room and carefully closed the door behind her, preparing a cup of hot coffee for her with the trust that she would sleep.
-:-:-:-
It was already six in the morning and Rin was still mugging away with a lit table lamp in front of her in her dark room. Before that, she tried to fall asleep but the caffeine did work on her, unfortunately.
As she flipped to the final chapter of the textbook, she yawned and stretched her stiff back. Feeling a little relief that she managed to cover two chapters within three hours, she decided to give herself a break. Anyway, she knew that she would forget most of the things she went through by morning. A break sounded perfect, of course. Being too stressed would make her forget even more important points, wouldn't it? Having thought of that, she closed the textbook and walked over to her bed.
She slumped on the bed and her hand dug under the pillow, taking out her orange handphone. Although she knew that there was no notification, she just had the urge to look at it. Up till then, she had not given her contact number to anyone, except for Haku. So, her contact list only had two contacts- Haku's and Len's. As weird as it sounded, she only wanted this handphone to be a memory of the man who had helped her to achieve her dream. Without him, she would have already done all kind of stupid things in school and been yelled at by her parents.
Laughing softly to herself, her thumb gently brushed against the dark screen as she began to wonder how Len was doing. Was he still working till so late at night? Did he eat well? How was his mother doing? Why didn't he message her anymore?
Rin scoffed. Of course, he was too busy to give her a text. It was not like she was his girlfriend or anything close like that. But still, friends should at least try to contact one another once in awhile, right?
She hastily unlocked her phone and began writing a text for him: Hey you, how are you? You haven't forgotten me, have you (because as far as I could remember, you're an old man with dementia)? How's your mother? Hope she's fine. By the way, thanks to you, I'm mugging for my examinations and I'm going to have my first debut in two weeks time. It's not like I want you to support me, but if you wish to, please feel free to do so. I don't really care though. -Rin Kagamine
Rin snickered at her message and was about to press the 'send' button but her thumb froze above the button for no reason. She withdrew her hand and clenched her fist tightly.
"Again."
Her index finger rested on the button and held there for a long time without pressing it down.
"Rin, what are you doing?" she murmered to herself. "Press it... Why aren't you pressing it? You do miss him, don't you? You do mis... Argh!"
Without thinking, she cleared the text and threw her handphone aside. She had no idea why she felt so scared and hesitant all of a sudden. It could be due to awkwardness, she tried to convince herself mentally. She picked up her handphone again and stared hard at the dark screen.
"Forget it."
Then, she lifted her pillow up slightly and tossed the orange handphone under it before returning to her desk to continue with her revision.
-:-:-:-
Soft footsteps were heard coming from the living room early in the morning while Len was changing into his uniform. Len raised his eyebrows in curiosity as he headed towards the door with his top fully unbuttoned.
"Mum, where are you going?" he spoke up sternly after seeing his mother quietly opening the front gate.
His mother flinched for a moment before slowly turning around, and grinned weakly at him.
"Hmm... nowhere..."
"Nowhere?" Len repeated after her in suspicion.
"Yeah. Nowhere."
Len narrowed his eyes at her. What was this old woman going to do outside? It was still before six in the morning.
"You're off to work late today," his mother continued with a worried look. "What happened?"
"I woke up late." Len answered and pointed at her clothes. "Wear something thicker if you don't want to catch a cold outside."
"Len..."
He interrupted her, "I'll take you to whatever place you're going. Where are you going?"
She hesitated for awhile and then replied in a soft voice, "To... to the nearby park."
Len tilted his head as he stared hard at her and asked, "Why are you going there so early? It's still quite dark outside."
"Of course, I want to take a stroll. What else can I do besides that? You can't expect me to stay at home everyday, right?"
Len's mother chuckled at her own statement while Len just stood there brushing his fingers across his forehead without making any comment about her weird behaviour.
"I'm leaving now, Len. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Have a nice day ahead," said his mother and she left the house immediately.
After bidding goodbye to her, he also quickly buttoned up his shirt and left the house. On the way to his workplace, his heart was beating strangely fast and an unsettling feeling was habouring within his chest. It was indeed strange and he had no idea what made him feel this way. At first, he merely thought that he was worried for his mother but no matter how much he convinced himself that she would be all right, the feeling was still there.
The strange feeling was like a warning. A sign that he would lose something important to him if he did not do something to it before a big storm arrived.
But what was it?
Hi guys, thanks for reading up to Chapter 29.
Next, I would like to thank those who had reviewed Chapter 28. Thanks for all those encouragements. Hope to hear more from you again! :D
Here are the reviewers:
- WonderRin
- PiscesAquamarine12
- mirrors02
Lastly, I would also like to thank those who had story alerted and favourited this story.
Preview of the next chapter:
Chapter 30: Outfit in Need
"Neru," Haku interjected and smiled coldly at her. "It's normal, isn't it? Your girl didn't have to go through all the humiliation, unlike others do. That doesn't give you the right to question the purpose of the director's doing."
"Oh? So, you don't know anything yet, do you?" The blonde scoffed. "Let me tell you this, Haku. As your friend, I'm going to be very honest and straightforward. Don't blame me."
Haku looked away again.
"The purpose of her appearance in the comedy variety show is to get rid of her."
Upon hearing that, Haku turned her head around and looked at the blonde with wide eyes.
"What do you mean by that?"
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