Chapter 7.0: Secrecy
He sat in his car, confused and startled by the occurrence that had just took place. He didn't meant to act that way, not at his Shan Chai, but he doesn't know what has triggered him to do so. One thing for sure, he was feeling a bit frustrated.
'I've waited for her and in return, she hang out with Jing and F3? Smiling and playfully punching Ah Si as if she had known him for so long. Didn't she hate him? What changed her mind? Is that why she neatly dressed up and wore the dress I gave her? For them? Since when did they become friends? How did that happen? When did they start to blend together? If she starts to hang out with us, how should I interact with her? As a new friend? Just a friend? How about our secrets and memories together? Has she forgotten all about it? What if Ah Si finally melt her down?'
"Arrggghhh!!!" He hit the steering wheel in aggravation. There are too many questions in his head that he has no answer to. But, he's certainly not going to let Ah Si hurt his Shan Chai and take her away from him. He has lost one, he's not losing another. Not to another friend! Absolutely not if it meant that she's going to be suffering from it!
He was just about to start the engine when he saw F3, Jing and Shan Chai came out from the café and heading towards their cars. To his surprised, Ah Si was holding onto Shan Chai's hand and she was actually okay with it. 'BACHI! Ah Si, you are fast! Shan Chai, how could you?' he cursed in silence.
Getting out of the car, he slammed shut the door hard. Everyone looked at him, startled by the sudden bang.
"Yo, Lei! You're still here. Thought you've gone off. Decide to join us?" called out Mei Zhuo, walking towards him.
He brushed past by Mei Zhuo, which stunned Mei Zhuo in the process. Right now, his only target was Ah Si. He stood in front of him, staring straight into his eyes. "Lei." aghast Jing slowly.
"I need to talk to you," he said, firmly. He looked down at the held hands and up again to meet Shan Chai's shocked gaze before he looked back at Ah Si. "Alone!"
"What for?" asked Ah Si, frivolously. Shan Chai squirmed her hand free from Ah Si's and looked at Lei's face. Even the whole lot was looking at him, disbelieved by his change of attitude.
Ignoring Ah Si's answer, he walked towards his car, 8 meters away and waited for him. Ah Si snorted, infuriated by Lei's behavior. 'He would surely be mad at me, but I'm not going to back out. F4 is dear to me but, I will not lose Shan Chai and let her be hurt by you, Ah Si.'
"Well, what do you want?" uttered Ah Si once he stood in front of him, looking furious.
"I want Shan Chai, so, let the best man win." Looking stunned, Ah Si shout out, "WHAT??"
The others looked at them, wondering what was the conversation between them that made Ah Si cried out that loud.
"I have said what I want to say. Let's make a deal. If I win her heart, you are going to leave her alone. No more revenge and you lose the bet. If you win, and I mean if, I would stay out of your business. You may do whatever you wish and I would keep shut about it. This deal is just between the two of us. No one should need to know about it, not even Xi Men, Mei Zhuo and Jing. Especially, not the bet herself. Do we have a deal?" explained Lei, holding out his hand.
"Tell me again why I should make a deal with you?" asked Ah Si uninterested by the whole pact.
"Are you afraid I'll win? Not confident enough of yourself, Ah Si?"
"In your dreams, Lei. You have a deal. you asked for it now, so don't back out of it when you're losing," Ah Si agreed, shaking Lei's hand as a gesture of agreement.
Nodding, Lei let go and walked over to the others, followed by Ah Si with his folded hands and frowned face. Standing in front of Shan Chai, he smiled slightly.
"Aren't you going to introduce us properly, Jing?" he asked without moving his eyes of off Shan Chai. Shan Chai looked at him in disbelief. 'She must have a lot of questions about all of this. All will be answered, dear Shan Chai.'
"Huh? Oh! Sorry. This is Shan Chai. Shan Chai, this is Hua Zhe Lei. She's my grooming student. I've made a point to the other students that she's stunning in her own way, so, I'm helping her to be one. The others have agreed to help me out as the judge to her transformation. How about you?"
Still smiling, he nodded. 'Oh, that is how she met the others. through Jing. How shallow am I.' he realized. "Would you care to go to Ah Si's house with me?" he asked, holding out his hand to her and bowed, acted like a gentleman.
Looking up, he saw that the others were shocked by his reaction. 'Hehehe. they sure are shocked by my sudden changed,' he chuckled to himself.
"HEY! She's supposed to go with me. Get out of the way, Lei," shouted Ah Si, shoving Lei aside and grabbed Shan Chai's hand.
"Oww! You're hurting me! Let go. It's up to me who I wished to go with and I want to go with Lei. Who are you to tell me with whom I could or couldn't go with?" argued Shan Chai, pulling her hand from Ah Si's. Taking Lei's hand, Shan Chai said, "Let's go, Lei."
'Never had I felt as special as now.' Holding tight to Shan Chai's hand, they walked to his car.
"What the heck happen to Lei? That's not like him at all. Going for a girl? Not his style before, so, what with the sudden change? Ah Si, what did he said to you just now? Did he say something about his change?" queried Mei Zhuo, watching the two drove by them.
"Is he trying to grab away your girl, Ah Si?" asked Xi Men, confused. "SHUT UP! I'm not in the mood for questions. Let's go or I'll leave you," shouted Ah Si, furiously and stomped off.
"What happened to the both of them? One suddenly turned so friendly and the other turned to be a grouch. Urrgghhh. I have a feeling things are going to turned pretty ugly," muttered Xi Men, whispered to Jing and Mei Zhuo. The two of them just nodded. They too confused by the difference in attitude of the two of them.
~~~
She broke the silence between them with the questions that kept popping through her mind. "What was that all about? Why are you acting as if you don't even know me? What have I done to deserve that kind of attitude from you?"
"I was waiting for that question to be asked by you. Well, I had better explain it to you then.you deserve it." There was silent for a while before he continued.
"Seeing you with them at the cafeteria really frustrates me. I was waiting for you at the roof and yet I saw you were having fun with them, ignoring me. How do you think I felt? Wearing the dress that I gave you and made up your hair nicely.furthermore, I thought you hated them? I thought you had it all planned out to be close with them and played me a fool." trailed off Lei.
"But, I never." cut off Shan Chai.
"Please, let me finished. okay, Shan Chai?" he asked, looking at her with a sad and gloomy look.
"Ehmm." nodded Shan Chai slowly, still searching for the way to comfort Lei. She doesn't like him to be that way, though she was a bit mad by his accusation of her.
"Despite of just being frustrated by it all, I felt a sting of jealousy. I don't want to share you with them. I want you to be happy just with me.you meant a lot to me, Shan Chai. You made me feel like I could be the real me, and I don't want to lose that. Well, there's more than just that. I was worried too. The others have no idea that I befriended you. We're good friends ever since we were little kids.if they knew I had been lying to them all this time, it would surely broke their heart and trust."
Stopping to clear his throat, he continued, "I was confused, Shan Chai. I don't know what to do. acting to not knowing you seemed like a good choice at that particular time. Well, I know now that you never intended to hang around them. It was Jing. I should've known. She was always so friendly and kind with others. Could you forgive me, Shan Chai? For doubting you? For thinking bad of you? For confusing you? I am so sorry.truly sorry," ended Lei with an apology, still looking straight at the road.
'I have never seen him this open about his feelings before. He must've been really mixed up with his feelings, till he can't really think straight and made all the assumptions in his head. My dear Lei, I didn't mean to make you feel like this.you don't know how special you're to me too, Lei,' she said to herself, looking caringly at Lei.
Trying to comfort Lei, she put her hand on his when he changed the gear. Lei turned his head towards her. She squeezed his hand and said, "You meant a lot to me too, Lei. After yesterday, I promised myself to cherished and hold on tight to our special friendship. I don't want to let anything come between us but, today, without me knowing it, I did it again. I am so sorry, Lei. Sumimasen. did I pronounce that correctly?"
Smiling, Lei let go of the gear and hold her hand. "You pronounce it like a true Japanese. Where did you learn it? Anyway, that is a formal way of saying sorry. Among friends, you could just say 'Gomen nasai'."
"When I got to know that you knew Japanese, I surf the internet and learn it through the free Japanese lesson program online."
"If you are interested in the language, I'd be happy to give free lessons to you too."
"I want to learn it by myself first, but surely I'll ask for your tutoring once in awhile. Lei. I really am sorry for today. I wanted to see you but Miss Jing held me back. See, I even wore the dress that you gave me. Oh! By the way, you only threw away one set of clothes, why do you substitute it with two? Here, this is the other clothes. I'll take just this one, thank you," told Shan Chai while taking out the plastic bag containing the other apparels from her bag and put it at the back seat.
"Shan Chai will always be Shan Chai." Lei said while caresses Shan Chai's head, with her giggling away.
~~~
"Where are they? They were ahead of us and they are still not here!" questioned Ah Si to the others. He walked back and forth in front of them, who sat lazily on the white leather sofa. Xi Men who started to get dizzy by Ah Si's act, picked up a magazine and read.
"Ah Si, will you calmed down? She's with Lei, okay. Nothing will happen to them. He'll take care of her. You're starting to get to my nerve," advised Mei Zhuo.
"That's the problem! She's with Lei!! Why did she picked him over me? What does he have that I don't? I'm more than he is. That Lei! If he's not here with her in 5 minutes time, I'm going out to look for them," grumbled Ah Si, pounding his fist to his open hand.
Mei Zhuo just shook his head and sighed. Looking at Jing, who sat next to him, he nudged her to say something to Ah Si, to calm him down. He has a feeling Lei would be in big trouble unless somebody calmed the angry beast within Ah Si before he arrived.
"Ah Si, please relaxed. She'd be here. Please sit down and read a magazine. I think, they must've stopped somewhere, maybe the petrol station. Stop worrying." pleaded Jing.
Hearing Jing's plead, Ah Si finally stopped and sat. Mei Zhuo and Jing smiled. Even Xi Men took a peak from the magazine he's reading and sighed with relieved.
Just then, they heard Lei's car arrived at the front porch. Ah Si stood up instantly and walked towards the main door.
"Well, look who finally decides to join us," said Ah Si satirically.
"Sorry we are late. We dropped by the Giordano boutique and bought a new outfit for her. What do you think about this, Jing?" apologized Lei. Ignoring Ah Si, he pulled Shan Chai along to gave Jing the outfit Shan Chai had just returned to him. Shan Chai looked at Lei, disbelieved by his action.
He sat in his car, confused and startled by the occurrence that had just took place. He didn't meant to act that way, not at his Shan Chai, but he doesn't know what has triggered him to do so. One thing for sure, he was feeling a bit frustrated.
'I've waited for her and in return, she hang out with Jing and F3? Smiling and playfully punching Ah Si as if she had known him for so long. Didn't she hate him? What changed her mind? Is that why she neatly dressed up and wore the dress I gave her? For them? Since when did they become friends? How did that happen? When did they start to blend together? If she starts to hang out with us, how should I interact with her? As a new friend? Just a friend? How about our secrets and memories together? Has she forgotten all about it? What if Ah Si finally melt her down?'
"Arrggghhh!!!" He hit the steering wheel in aggravation. There are too many questions in his head that he has no answer to. But, he's certainly not going to let Ah Si hurt his Shan Chai and take her away from him. He has lost one, he's not losing another. Not to another friend! Absolutely not if it meant that she's going to be suffering from it!
He was just about to start the engine when he saw F3, Jing and Shan Chai came out from the café and heading towards their cars. To his surprised, Ah Si was holding onto Shan Chai's hand and she was actually okay with it. 'BACHI! Ah Si, you are fast! Shan Chai, how could you?' he cursed in silence.
Getting out of the car, he slammed shut the door hard. Everyone looked at him, startled by the sudden bang.
"Yo, Lei! You're still here. Thought you've gone off. Decide to join us?" called out Mei Zhuo, walking towards him.
He brushed past by Mei Zhuo, which stunned Mei Zhuo in the process. Right now, his only target was Ah Si. He stood in front of him, staring straight into his eyes. "Lei." aghast Jing slowly.
"I need to talk to you," he said, firmly. He looked down at the held hands and up again to meet Shan Chai's shocked gaze before he looked back at Ah Si. "Alone!"
"What for?" asked Ah Si, frivolously. Shan Chai squirmed her hand free from Ah Si's and looked at Lei's face. Even the whole lot was looking at him, disbelieved by his change of attitude.
Ignoring Ah Si's answer, he walked towards his car, 8 meters away and waited for him. Ah Si snorted, infuriated by Lei's behavior. 'He would surely be mad at me, but I'm not going to back out. F4 is dear to me but, I will not lose Shan Chai and let her be hurt by you, Ah Si.'
"Well, what do you want?" uttered Ah Si once he stood in front of him, looking furious.
"I want Shan Chai, so, let the best man win." Looking stunned, Ah Si shout out, "WHAT??"
The others looked at them, wondering what was the conversation between them that made Ah Si cried out that loud.
"I have said what I want to say. Let's make a deal. If I win her heart, you are going to leave her alone. No more revenge and you lose the bet. If you win, and I mean if, I would stay out of your business. You may do whatever you wish and I would keep shut about it. This deal is just between the two of us. No one should need to know about it, not even Xi Men, Mei Zhuo and Jing. Especially, not the bet herself. Do we have a deal?" explained Lei, holding out his hand.
"Tell me again why I should make a deal with you?" asked Ah Si uninterested by the whole pact.
"Are you afraid I'll win? Not confident enough of yourself, Ah Si?"
"In your dreams, Lei. You have a deal. you asked for it now, so don't back out of it when you're losing," Ah Si agreed, shaking Lei's hand as a gesture of agreement.
Nodding, Lei let go and walked over to the others, followed by Ah Si with his folded hands and frowned face. Standing in front of Shan Chai, he smiled slightly.
"Aren't you going to introduce us properly, Jing?" he asked without moving his eyes of off Shan Chai. Shan Chai looked at him in disbelief. 'She must have a lot of questions about all of this. All will be answered, dear Shan Chai.'
"Huh? Oh! Sorry. This is Shan Chai. Shan Chai, this is Hua Zhe Lei. She's my grooming student. I've made a point to the other students that she's stunning in her own way, so, I'm helping her to be one. The others have agreed to help me out as the judge to her transformation. How about you?"
Still smiling, he nodded. 'Oh, that is how she met the others. through Jing. How shallow am I.' he realized. "Would you care to go to Ah Si's house with me?" he asked, holding out his hand to her and bowed, acted like a gentleman.
Looking up, he saw that the others were shocked by his reaction. 'Hehehe. they sure are shocked by my sudden changed,' he chuckled to himself.
"HEY! She's supposed to go with me. Get out of the way, Lei," shouted Ah Si, shoving Lei aside and grabbed Shan Chai's hand.
"Oww! You're hurting me! Let go. It's up to me who I wished to go with and I want to go with Lei. Who are you to tell me with whom I could or couldn't go with?" argued Shan Chai, pulling her hand from Ah Si's. Taking Lei's hand, Shan Chai said, "Let's go, Lei."
'Never had I felt as special as now.' Holding tight to Shan Chai's hand, they walked to his car.
"What the heck happen to Lei? That's not like him at all. Going for a girl? Not his style before, so, what with the sudden change? Ah Si, what did he said to you just now? Did he say something about his change?" queried Mei Zhuo, watching the two drove by them.
"Is he trying to grab away your girl, Ah Si?" asked Xi Men, confused. "SHUT UP! I'm not in the mood for questions. Let's go or I'll leave you," shouted Ah Si, furiously and stomped off.
"What happened to the both of them? One suddenly turned so friendly and the other turned to be a grouch. Urrgghhh. I have a feeling things are going to turned pretty ugly," muttered Xi Men, whispered to Jing and Mei Zhuo. The two of them just nodded. They too confused by the difference in attitude of the two of them.
~~~
She broke the silence between them with the questions that kept popping through her mind. "What was that all about? Why are you acting as if you don't even know me? What have I done to deserve that kind of attitude from you?"
"I was waiting for that question to be asked by you. Well, I had better explain it to you then.you deserve it." There was silent for a while before he continued.
"Seeing you with them at the cafeteria really frustrates me. I was waiting for you at the roof and yet I saw you were having fun with them, ignoring me. How do you think I felt? Wearing the dress that I gave you and made up your hair nicely.furthermore, I thought you hated them? I thought you had it all planned out to be close with them and played me a fool." trailed off Lei.
"But, I never." cut off Shan Chai.
"Please, let me finished. okay, Shan Chai?" he asked, looking at her with a sad and gloomy look.
"Ehmm." nodded Shan Chai slowly, still searching for the way to comfort Lei. She doesn't like him to be that way, though she was a bit mad by his accusation of her.
"Despite of just being frustrated by it all, I felt a sting of jealousy. I don't want to share you with them. I want you to be happy just with me.you meant a lot to me, Shan Chai. You made me feel like I could be the real me, and I don't want to lose that. Well, there's more than just that. I was worried too. The others have no idea that I befriended you. We're good friends ever since we were little kids.if they knew I had been lying to them all this time, it would surely broke their heart and trust."
Stopping to clear his throat, he continued, "I was confused, Shan Chai. I don't know what to do. acting to not knowing you seemed like a good choice at that particular time. Well, I know now that you never intended to hang around them. It was Jing. I should've known. She was always so friendly and kind with others. Could you forgive me, Shan Chai? For doubting you? For thinking bad of you? For confusing you? I am so sorry.truly sorry," ended Lei with an apology, still looking straight at the road.
'I have never seen him this open about his feelings before. He must've been really mixed up with his feelings, till he can't really think straight and made all the assumptions in his head. My dear Lei, I didn't mean to make you feel like this.you don't know how special you're to me too, Lei,' she said to herself, looking caringly at Lei.
Trying to comfort Lei, she put her hand on his when he changed the gear. Lei turned his head towards her. She squeezed his hand and said, "You meant a lot to me too, Lei. After yesterday, I promised myself to cherished and hold on tight to our special friendship. I don't want to let anything come between us but, today, without me knowing it, I did it again. I am so sorry, Lei. Sumimasen. did I pronounce that correctly?"
Smiling, Lei let go of the gear and hold her hand. "You pronounce it like a true Japanese. Where did you learn it? Anyway, that is a formal way of saying sorry. Among friends, you could just say 'Gomen nasai'."
"When I got to know that you knew Japanese, I surf the internet and learn it through the free Japanese lesson program online."
"If you are interested in the language, I'd be happy to give free lessons to you too."
"I want to learn it by myself first, but surely I'll ask for your tutoring once in awhile. Lei. I really am sorry for today. I wanted to see you but Miss Jing held me back. See, I even wore the dress that you gave me. Oh! By the way, you only threw away one set of clothes, why do you substitute it with two? Here, this is the other clothes. I'll take just this one, thank you," told Shan Chai while taking out the plastic bag containing the other apparels from her bag and put it at the back seat.
"Shan Chai will always be Shan Chai." Lei said while caresses Shan Chai's head, with her giggling away.
~~~
"Where are they? They were ahead of us and they are still not here!" questioned Ah Si to the others. He walked back and forth in front of them, who sat lazily on the white leather sofa. Xi Men who started to get dizzy by Ah Si's act, picked up a magazine and read.
"Ah Si, will you calmed down? She's with Lei, okay. Nothing will happen to them. He'll take care of her. You're starting to get to my nerve," advised Mei Zhuo.
"That's the problem! She's with Lei!! Why did she picked him over me? What does he have that I don't? I'm more than he is. That Lei! If he's not here with her in 5 minutes time, I'm going out to look for them," grumbled Ah Si, pounding his fist to his open hand.
Mei Zhuo just shook his head and sighed. Looking at Jing, who sat next to him, he nudged her to say something to Ah Si, to calm him down. He has a feeling Lei would be in big trouble unless somebody calmed the angry beast within Ah Si before he arrived.
"Ah Si, please relaxed. She'd be here. Please sit down and read a magazine. I think, they must've stopped somewhere, maybe the petrol station. Stop worrying." pleaded Jing.
Hearing Jing's plead, Ah Si finally stopped and sat. Mei Zhuo and Jing smiled. Even Xi Men took a peak from the magazine he's reading and sighed with relieved.
Just then, they heard Lei's car arrived at the front porch. Ah Si stood up instantly and walked towards the main door.
"Well, look who finally decides to join us," said Ah Si satirically.
"Sorry we are late. We dropped by the Giordano boutique and bought a new outfit for her. What do you think about this, Jing?" apologized Lei. Ignoring Ah Si, he pulled Shan Chai along to gave Jing the outfit Shan Chai had just returned to him. Shan Chai looked at Lei, disbelieved by his action.