Disclaimer: I do not own MG/HYD or its characters, but I wouldn't mind if I
did. : P
Chapter 3: Seeing ghosts
Life moved on and soon the memory of that night was distorted or faded in the minds of F4. Perhaps it really was all a dream for the minds can play tricks on you when you least expect it. Who would believe their story either? With their reputations and status, F4 vowed a code of silence because pursuing such a wild story would be completely unacceptable. The only solace they could seek was in the fellow F3 in an attempt to find some sort of reasoning or answer behind it all, but they never did. Frustration was the only thing they came upon in their search for the truth. In the end, they promised to never mention that night again or did fate have something else in mind?
**** Three years later ****
"Ah Si, Wait up!" a girl screamed wildly waving her arms running through the streets.
Dao Ming Si stopped mid step in his fast paced stride. He turned around with a fierce scowl on his face and ran his fingers through the pile of messy curls on his head in frustration. The young boy was now a man and grown into himself. Although he exhibited all the fine features of a man, his attitude still resembled that of the child he refused to let die within. He stood tall now with broad shoulders and a finely chiseled body. On the exterior, all the teenage awkwardness had vanished to be replaced by a mature confidence bordering on arrogance. That was who Dao Ming Si had grown up to be. Through the years he maintained his title as ruler of Ying De terrorizing the university students with threats of red tagging. He was rather simple minded, in retrospect, allowing his emotions to rule his every action. To him there were only two things that mattered to him, pride and F4.
The girl came to a crashing halt in front of Dao Ming Si. She reached down and grabbed her swollen feet from running after him the last five blocks. She cocked her head back up tossing back her short brown hair. She smoothed out the wrinkles in her lavender silk skirt muttering to herself about ruining her outfit. She looked up at Dao Ming Si who had finally stopped and smiled revealing a childlike whimsicalness in her. Her eyes exposed an unbounded energy that could never be contained and a fierce determination to have her way. For the last two years her life had been like this, chasing after Dao Ming Si every Saturday on their appointed meeting day. Most girls would have given up the first month, but she refused to. The growling, rude persona that usually frightened most women away intrigued her. She knew he had the potential to be so much more and that if she waited long enough he would one day return her feelings. In a way, it was a sick love hate relationship they shared, but knowing Dao Ming Si did he know any other way to love?
"We've been doing this for the past two years. Can't you at least slow down and hold my hand like normal couples?" she whined. She weakly limped forward wincing in pain form running in heels.
"Stop following me around!" he boomed sending the innocent pedestrians flying off the sidewalk for shelter. "Just because we're engaged Xiao Zi doesn't mean I have to act like your boyfriend. This engagement is all a business deal between our parents!" He turned around and began to storm off at full speed once again.
Xiao Zi could feel the tears beginning to stream down her face. Pathetically, she began to limp away barefoot carrying her shoes in her hands. Her muffled sobs were faint at first, but soon they rose to new decibels echoing through the streets. The passer bys all stopped at whispered amongst them selves pointing at cruel man that had so viciously rebuked the poor, frail girl.
"Dammit."
Dao Ming Si slumped his shoulder down in defeat. He wasn't completely heartless as most people saw him as. His face turned red at all the stares coming from the elderly women on the street whispering behind his back. He could feel their stares like daggers of guilt piercing through him. He threw his hands up in the air in defeat. He ran towards Xiao Zi and grabbed her hand from behind.
"Come on and stop crying already. Everyone's looking at us," he muttered under his breath.
Like the clever nymph she was she wiped away the tears and her face lit up in a smile. "So where are we going on our date today?" she laughed.
Thus, concluded the intricate dance that Xiao Zi and Dao Ming Si played every Saturday. Of course, Xiao Zi was always the one to take the lead. It was the same routine like clockwork. She would always find some way to cause a scene to publicly humiliate him forcing him to take her on a date out of guilt. For two years it went this way.
"Let's go in here!" he barked pulling her into the nearby café.
He turned away and smiled a little to himself laughing at how after two years she was still clever enough to trick him. Dao Ming Si knew how she felt about him, and in some minute aspect she had managed to chip away a little at him. It's not that he hated or anything, but he refused to fall into the trap his sister had gotten herself into. Marriages were all matter of business, nothing more nothing less. Even after two years and her persistence, the only feelings that had managed to emerge from him were merely platonic. They had grown into a strange comfort with each other that was utterly unexplainable. Could it even be construed as friendship?
They sat at a secluded table in the corner besides the large glass window overlooking the street. Dao Ming Si stirred his cappuccino lost in the view while Xiao Zi talked his head off about every asinine detail of her daily life. He would only acknowledge her every once in a while with a slight nod of his head or a mutter of "uh huh". His mind was no longer with the woman that sat across from his struggling to make small talk. He was lost in the lives of the people outside. He watched them intently running back and forth through the streets absorbed in their own mundane actions. The crowds passed by in droves so quickly they appeared as blurs running by.
Suddenly, a crack in the stream of blurs opened up. Dao Ming Si narrowed his eyes making sure he was not seeing things. It seemed like everything had gone into slow motion. Through the blurs of people passing by he something familiar. Haphazardly, he pushed the seat back sending it flying backwards with a crash.
"Ah Si?! What's wrong?!" Xiao Zi screamed after a retreating Dao Ming Si running out the door.
He ran as fast as he could pushing through the crowds of people blocking his path. He didn't notice their screams in protest of being rudely and forcefully thrown to the side. He scanned ran down the street making sure to keep track of the top of her head through the crowd. Although there were so many people bustling around him yelling and scolding him from all directions, he could make out the faint sound of that song he had heard so long ago in what seemed like a dream.
Come with me.
Come with me.
Return to me love, return to the sea.
The echoing of that sweet melody through the air only fueled his desire to catch up with her. The answer that he had been searching for so long was now only a few feet away. She moved swiftly through the crowds maneuvering her way stealthily. She swerved and drifted amongst the people almost as if she was floating through them. DMS reached out a hand to touch her shoulder. She quickly spun her head around stopping him dead in his tracks. Those mesmerizing eyes sent chills down his spine. She raised her face to look him straight on and smiled a mischievous child like smile.
Dao Ming Si was swept away by the crowd now pulling him in the other direction before he knew what was going on. The girl broke away from his grip laughing and quickly turned into a narrow alleyway.
"I can't lose her now," he scolded himself. He broke free from the throng and pushed his way against eh tide of people forcing him back. Struggling he finally sharply turned around the corner only to find to his surprise a dead end. Where could she have gone, he wondered. I saw her turn into here. It's a dead end. She couldn't have left without me seeing her. A hand tapped him on the shoulder from behind and he jumped back. He turned around to see the hand that had just touched him
"Xiao Zi!" he sighed.
"Ah Si, what's wrong? I've been chasing after you for the last ten minutes. You scared me running out of the café as if you had seen a ghost or something."
He firmly gripped Xiao Zi's shoulders shaking her. "Didn't you see her? There was a girl that was right her before! I stopped her for a second, but then she ran off!"
She shook her head afraid to say anything to the intense looking Dao Ming Si in front of her. She had never seen him react to anything this way. The thought of him chasing after another girl bothered her exciting a pang of jealousy, but it was the truth. She had not seen any girl. She had closely chased after him for the last ten minutes and she saw no girl he had stopped. "I didn't see any girl? I don't know what you are talking about?! Can you let go of me? You're hurting my arm."
Dao Ming Si dropped his hands to his side. He let his eyes survey the alleyway for any clue to how she might have eluded him. Nothing. There was no possible way she could have escaped. He felt his body go cold and he began to tremble.
Xiao Zi grabbed onto the distraught man's arm. With a worried look on her face she firmly held onto his arm not wanting to let go of him in this state. "Come on. I'll take you home. You don't look like you're feeling very well."
He nodded his head in agreement and allowed Xiao Zi to take him to her car. They drove in silence the entire trip as Ah Si stared aimlessly out the window lost in his own world. Xiao Zi couldn't help but stare at him through the trip wondering who he thought he had seen to make him react in such a way, but she knew he would never tell her.
He walked out the car, through the house, and straight to his room ignoring the strange looks from his servants. Xiao Zi ran after him, but before she could make it he slammed the door in her face locking it.
Xiao Zi stared at the door in front of her with her hand raised contemplating whether or not to intrude on his solitude. She hesitantly pushed her knuckles to the door, but quickly withdrew her hand deciding not to pry into his business. What business was it of hers anyway? She was only his fiancée.
Dao Ming Si let his heavy body fall to the soft cushioning of his bed. He lay there staring into ceiling. Pulling out his cell phone from his pocket, he scrolled down the list of names debating whether or not he should call F3 to tell him about today. He tossed the phone away thinking, it might be better not to say anything. Why dredge up something they had given up on so long ago? He remembered back to the arguments they got into trying to track down that girl. In the end, they decided it would be better for their friendship to forget about her and that night. They had each gone on with their lives and pretended as if she never existed never mentioning her again. Forget about her was what they had agreed upon.
Rolling onto his side, he opened the drawer to his nightstand and pulled out something. After three years he had never found the courage to throw away this insignificant piece of cloth. He would never admit to his friends he had held onto it. He held it up to his chest and closed his eyes. "Today I saw a ghost."
Chapter 3: Seeing ghosts
Life moved on and soon the memory of that night was distorted or faded in the minds of F4. Perhaps it really was all a dream for the minds can play tricks on you when you least expect it. Who would believe their story either? With their reputations and status, F4 vowed a code of silence because pursuing such a wild story would be completely unacceptable. The only solace they could seek was in the fellow F3 in an attempt to find some sort of reasoning or answer behind it all, but they never did. Frustration was the only thing they came upon in their search for the truth. In the end, they promised to never mention that night again or did fate have something else in mind?
**** Three years later ****
"Ah Si, Wait up!" a girl screamed wildly waving her arms running through the streets.
Dao Ming Si stopped mid step in his fast paced stride. He turned around with a fierce scowl on his face and ran his fingers through the pile of messy curls on his head in frustration. The young boy was now a man and grown into himself. Although he exhibited all the fine features of a man, his attitude still resembled that of the child he refused to let die within. He stood tall now with broad shoulders and a finely chiseled body. On the exterior, all the teenage awkwardness had vanished to be replaced by a mature confidence bordering on arrogance. That was who Dao Ming Si had grown up to be. Through the years he maintained his title as ruler of Ying De terrorizing the university students with threats of red tagging. He was rather simple minded, in retrospect, allowing his emotions to rule his every action. To him there were only two things that mattered to him, pride and F4.
The girl came to a crashing halt in front of Dao Ming Si. She reached down and grabbed her swollen feet from running after him the last five blocks. She cocked her head back up tossing back her short brown hair. She smoothed out the wrinkles in her lavender silk skirt muttering to herself about ruining her outfit. She looked up at Dao Ming Si who had finally stopped and smiled revealing a childlike whimsicalness in her. Her eyes exposed an unbounded energy that could never be contained and a fierce determination to have her way. For the last two years her life had been like this, chasing after Dao Ming Si every Saturday on their appointed meeting day. Most girls would have given up the first month, but she refused to. The growling, rude persona that usually frightened most women away intrigued her. She knew he had the potential to be so much more and that if she waited long enough he would one day return her feelings. In a way, it was a sick love hate relationship they shared, but knowing Dao Ming Si did he know any other way to love?
"We've been doing this for the past two years. Can't you at least slow down and hold my hand like normal couples?" she whined. She weakly limped forward wincing in pain form running in heels.
"Stop following me around!" he boomed sending the innocent pedestrians flying off the sidewalk for shelter. "Just because we're engaged Xiao Zi doesn't mean I have to act like your boyfriend. This engagement is all a business deal between our parents!" He turned around and began to storm off at full speed once again.
Xiao Zi could feel the tears beginning to stream down her face. Pathetically, she began to limp away barefoot carrying her shoes in her hands. Her muffled sobs were faint at first, but soon they rose to new decibels echoing through the streets. The passer bys all stopped at whispered amongst them selves pointing at cruel man that had so viciously rebuked the poor, frail girl.
"Dammit."
Dao Ming Si slumped his shoulder down in defeat. He wasn't completely heartless as most people saw him as. His face turned red at all the stares coming from the elderly women on the street whispering behind his back. He could feel their stares like daggers of guilt piercing through him. He threw his hands up in the air in defeat. He ran towards Xiao Zi and grabbed her hand from behind.
"Come on and stop crying already. Everyone's looking at us," he muttered under his breath.
Like the clever nymph she was she wiped away the tears and her face lit up in a smile. "So where are we going on our date today?" she laughed.
Thus, concluded the intricate dance that Xiao Zi and Dao Ming Si played every Saturday. Of course, Xiao Zi was always the one to take the lead. It was the same routine like clockwork. She would always find some way to cause a scene to publicly humiliate him forcing him to take her on a date out of guilt. For two years it went this way.
"Let's go in here!" he barked pulling her into the nearby café.
He turned away and smiled a little to himself laughing at how after two years she was still clever enough to trick him. Dao Ming Si knew how she felt about him, and in some minute aspect she had managed to chip away a little at him. It's not that he hated or anything, but he refused to fall into the trap his sister had gotten herself into. Marriages were all matter of business, nothing more nothing less. Even after two years and her persistence, the only feelings that had managed to emerge from him were merely platonic. They had grown into a strange comfort with each other that was utterly unexplainable. Could it even be construed as friendship?
They sat at a secluded table in the corner besides the large glass window overlooking the street. Dao Ming Si stirred his cappuccino lost in the view while Xiao Zi talked his head off about every asinine detail of her daily life. He would only acknowledge her every once in a while with a slight nod of his head or a mutter of "uh huh". His mind was no longer with the woman that sat across from his struggling to make small talk. He was lost in the lives of the people outside. He watched them intently running back and forth through the streets absorbed in their own mundane actions. The crowds passed by in droves so quickly they appeared as blurs running by.
Suddenly, a crack in the stream of blurs opened up. Dao Ming Si narrowed his eyes making sure he was not seeing things. It seemed like everything had gone into slow motion. Through the blurs of people passing by he something familiar. Haphazardly, he pushed the seat back sending it flying backwards with a crash.
"Ah Si?! What's wrong?!" Xiao Zi screamed after a retreating Dao Ming Si running out the door.
He ran as fast as he could pushing through the crowds of people blocking his path. He didn't notice their screams in protest of being rudely and forcefully thrown to the side. He scanned ran down the street making sure to keep track of the top of her head through the crowd. Although there were so many people bustling around him yelling and scolding him from all directions, he could make out the faint sound of that song he had heard so long ago in what seemed like a dream.
Come with me.
Come with me.
Return to me love, return to the sea.
The echoing of that sweet melody through the air only fueled his desire to catch up with her. The answer that he had been searching for so long was now only a few feet away. She moved swiftly through the crowds maneuvering her way stealthily. She swerved and drifted amongst the people almost as if she was floating through them. DMS reached out a hand to touch her shoulder. She quickly spun her head around stopping him dead in his tracks. Those mesmerizing eyes sent chills down his spine. She raised her face to look him straight on and smiled a mischievous child like smile.
Dao Ming Si was swept away by the crowd now pulling him in the other direction before he knew what was going on. The girl broke away from his grip laughing and quickly turned into a narrow alleyway.
"I can't lose her now," he scolded himself. He broke free from the throng and pushed his way against eh tide of people forcing him back. Struggling he finally sharply turned around the corner only to find to his surprise a dead end. Where could she have gone, he wondered. I saw her turn into here. It's a dead end. She couldn't have left without me seeing her. A hand tapped him on the shoulder from behind and he jumped back. He turned around to see the hand that had just touched him
"Xiao Zi!" he sighed.
"Ah Si, what's wrong? I've been chasing after you for the last ten minutes. You scared me running out of the café as if you had seen a ghost or something."
He firmly gripped Xiao Zi's shoulders shaking her. "Didn't you see her? There was a girl that was right her before! I stopped her for a second, but then she ran off!"
She shook her head afraid to say anything to the intense looking Dao Ming Si in front of her. She had never seen him react to anything this way. The thought of him chasing after another girl bothered her exciting a pang of jealousy, but it was the truth. She had not seen any girl. She had closely chased after him for the last ten minutes and she saw no girl he had stopped. "I didn't see any girl? I don't know what you are talking about?! Can you let go of me? You're hurting my arm."
Dao Ming Si dropped his hands to his side. He let his eyes survey the alleyway for any clue to how she might have eluded him. Nothing. There was no possible way she could have escaped. He felt his body go cold and he began to tremble.
Xiao Zi grabbed onto the distraught man's arm. With a worried look on her face she firmly held onto his arm not wanting to let go of him in this state. "Come on. I'll take you home. You don't look like you're feeling very well."
He nodded his head in agreement and allowed Xiao Zi to take him to her car. They drove in silence the entire trip as Ah Si stared aimlessly out the window lost in his own world. Xiao Zi couldn't help but stare at him through the trip wondering who he thought he had seen to make him react in such a way, but she knew he would never tell her.
He walked out the car, through the house, and straight to his room ignoring the strange looks from his servants. Xiao Zi ran after him, but before she could make it he slammed the door in her face locking it.
Xiao Zi stared at the door in front of her with her hand raised contemplating whether or not to intrude on his solitude. She hesitantly pushed her knuckles to the door, but quickly withdrew her hand deciding not to pry into his business. What business was it of hers anyway? She was only his fiancée.
Dao Ming Si let his heavy body fall to the soft cushioning of his bed. He lay there staring into ceiling. Pulling out his cell phone from his pocket, he scrolled down the list of names debating whether or not he should call F3 to tell him about today. He tossed the phone away thinking, it might be better not to say anything. Why dredge up something they had given up on so long ago? He remembered back to the arguments they got into trying to track down that girl. In the end, they decided it would be better for their friendship to forget about her and that night. They had each gone on with their lives and pretended as if she never existed never mentioning her again. Forget about her was what they had agreed upon.
Rolling onto his side, he opened the drawer to his nightstand and pulled out something. After three years he had never found the courage to throw away this insignificant piece of cloth. He would never admit to his friends he had held onto it. He held it up to his chest and closed his eyes. "Today I saw a ghost."
