Meteor Garden Drabbles: FIREWORKS, NOT SHOOTING STARS: The Vignettes

title QING TIAN (One Fine Day)
author huamulan03
fandom Meteor Garden/Hana Yori Dango
pairing Rui X Tsukushi or HZL X SC. If you 'ship otherwise, I suggest you bail NOW.
summary/spoilers SC POV, companion to next-to-be-posted Ke Shi Wo Ai Ta (But I Love Her), part of huamulan03's Fireworks, Not Shooting Stars universe. Story-wise, departs for parts unknown three-quarters through MGII EP28.
disclaimer/acknowledgments I don't own HYD or LXHY/MG (I and II) -- Kamio Yoko-sensei and Angie Tsai do. Don't own any of the F4 songs I used either; they're copyrighted by their respective owners. No infringement intended, no profit made.

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Shan Cai, return with me to Japan...

Shan Cai absently watched Changi International Airport come into view as the China Airlines flight she was on banked in preparation for descent. Along with the runway lights, an island-worth of night lamps twinkled, a dreamlike welcoming committee making a tentative bid for attention.

But she didn't notice.

Refused to notice or appreciate would be more like it, an inner voice noted sarcastically and Shan Cai -- similarly -- paid her conscience no heed. She HAD seen them but there were other things to think about.

You understand what I'm saying?

As her talkative conscience very well knew...

The unsettling memory replaying in her mind and striking an uneasy chord in her heart, Shan Cai rethought her earlier dismissal and silently demanded, what of it? Why do I have to waste time on things that SHOULD be there? she grumbled.

She ignored the appeasing comeback as her conscience made a play for reason. 'They're just lights,' my foot! Shan Cai mentally snorted even as she traced the evolution of why she was being so stingy with regard and appreciation.

At this point in her life, Shan Cai tended to mistrust any thing that illuminated the night sky, including those that were manmade in her sweeping condemnation. City lights, stars, meteor showers -- take your pick; no difference existed between them.

Night lights never boded good for her, regardless of the breath-stealing happiness they brought in the beginning.

And she would rather be oblivious throughout, heart-whole in the end, protected by a hard-won indifference.

And speaking of indifference...

Shan Cai, return with me to Japan. You understand what I'm saying?

Her thoughts coming back full circle, she opted to interrogate Lei's memory-self flippantly: OH-kay. Who ARE you and what have you done with Hua Ze Lei? It was a weak offense but in her present denial mode, it was the floundering best she could do.

She suspected that that turning point in their relationship would forever have the power to unsettle her. For the foundation of that seemingly simple request had been...bewildering.

And later, when she realized the irony of it all --

-- heart-wrenching.

Damn, but fate -- ming yun -- had it in for her.

As had been proven conclusively to Shan Cai over the past year, a lucid memory was a bane, not a blessing. She remembered -- with photographic sharpness -- just how serious Lei had been when he'd extended that invitation; his seriousness, his gravity, had come as a surprise, even to herself. And to think, she'd already considered that his normal bearing elevated solemnity to a whole new level.

But what had been more surprising was the sense of urgency (and something she'd dared not name then) lacing his voice when, in follow-up, he'd asked if she'd grasped the real significance of what he was demanding of her.

Lei. Mr. Wo-dui-bie-ren-de-shi-mei-qing-xu, I-could-care-less-about-other-people had sounded -- and acted -- like a world depended on her answer.

And she couldn't give it.

Not then.

Not with the same relative ease with which she'd responded to his preceding, "Let's go back to Taipei" offer. THAT she'd immediately answered with, "Tomorrow," albeit resignedly.

You don't need to rush. You know I'll wait.

Now, more that ninety tomorrows after, he had her reply: she'd left home, left Taipei for who knew how long, and was about to set foot on a strange land, another strange airport. How she ended up southwest of Taiwan, near the equator, when the original plan was to head northeast -- to Tokyo -- continued to bemuse her.

It was the whole Hawaii thing again, she reflected, drawing her own personal analogy. Many, many new moons ago, she'd told her childhood friend Qing He that she wanted to visit that idyllic island, even just once in her lifetime. Of course, they hadn't been able to figure out then how she was gonna reach the beaches of Waikiki when a simple holiday in Kenting already stretched her financial resources; they'd been evading goons hell-bent on bullying at the time...

Regardless of money constraints, the point remained the same though, Shan Cai conceded on a sigh. In the overall scheme of destiny, she could wish...and wish...and wish... and still come no closer to having her dreams fulfilled. In her own estimation, she was cursed. For as certain as the sun rose in the east (and as borne out by her recent past), some kind of force always ended up diverting her from her course.

Furthermore, migrating to Singapore wasn't as out there as she was making it out to be, she mused. Didn't the Chinese naturally gravitate towards the south, following the orientation of the compass they'd invented? That must be it, she decided gratefully; Shan Cai was as Chinese as they came, so south seeking must come as a matter of course.

Instinctive migratory patterns, however, still didn't explain why, of late, a lot of her milestones took place in or around airports, a wisecracking voice piped up. Gee, stupid much? She nearly smacked the smart aleck that resembled her cow hand puppet for going down that route. She managed not to. Barely. And that only because people would think her a loony if she started whapping herself upside the head.

Becoming fast friends with the jet-setting F4 would make hanging around airports a logical outcome, she told the cow and herself on a duh-you're-so-dumb note. She unconsciously echoed the ghost of a familiar complaint -- ben nu ren! -- and a routine ache made itself felt with her reproach.

Most of the time, she, living up to that stupid woman tag, was never the one leaving, Shan Cai went on doggedly, trying to tame the escalating pain. She was the one more frequently left behind; left to watch planes take off for parts unknown...

Except...

There had been two, count 'em, TWO, times when she hadn't been one of those tearfully waving bye-bye. First had been that holiday in Okinawa. The second was when she'd vacationed in Barcelona.

Ouch. She downplayed the stab that aimed for her heart and struck bull's eye.

More than the thought of shooting stars and surprising invites, recalling Barcelona brought a pain verging on agonizing. Don't go there, she lectured herself sternly. To punctuate her order, she took a deep, bracing breath, her eyelids fluttering close.

Self-preservation alone should've kept her -- literally and figuratively -- away from the place responsible for her heart having gotten irrevocably broken, she complained while grabbing for some sort of saving distance. Because Shan Cai sure as heck wasn't ever returning to the capital of Catalunya.

Japan though. Japan was another matter altogether. Okinawa, however bittersweet, was a good memory. And who knew, maybe next time, she could replace the poignant with an uncomplicated happy?

She opened her eyes, striking a deal with herself. She would save up half her salary every month -- that is if she could keep the job magnanimously offered her and which, considering her shaky mastery of the English language, was another question mark -- and eventually make her way back to Japan.

In the meantime, she also promised that she would make every conceivable effort not to be a stranger in a strange land, to create a new, albeit temporary, home for herself in Singapore. She even vowed to drum up some unconditional enthusiasm for her first sight of the place, once she was back on firm ground.

For now though... She fumbled with her seat belt. This being only her fifth time on a plane, she wanted to make sure she hadn't forgotten to fasten it securely. As if someone read her mind, a melodious voice reminded passengers over the PA system to keep cell phones switched off and seat belts fastened.

Cool hands nudged hers away from the metal clasp she was fiddling with, arranging them decorously on her lap. The person responsible gave her hands a squeeze, a thumb caressing the flower tattooed on her right hand, before announcing in a soft voice, "It's okay as it is."

Her gaze swiveled towards the man seated beside her. Her stomach dipped and not because the plane nosed another several hundred feet down as it made a beeline for the runway.

He always knew how and when to reassure her, Shan Cai marveled, her awe and gratitude mingling. Even without her having to utter a word. She regretted her earlier episodes of doubt. She blinked away the misty sheen she knew would be obvious in her gaze, her lips curling upwards; her smile elicited one to match -- all the more precious for being rare -- from her male companion.

Every second, there's a story that ends...and another one begins.

Well, I'm not headed for Japan today, she repeated to herself.

But at least, wherever I'm going, I'm going there with...Lei.

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Wo kan ze na pian qing tian
Yong ni he wo de zuo tian
Feng man man chui
Chui gan lian shang de yu shui
Wo zou zai na pian qing tian
Ba ni zai hao hao xiang yi bian
Wo sheng bian wen nuan de gan jue
Mei gai bian
Zai yao yuan
Zai duo bian
Ni de ai
Yi zhi gen ze wo
Zai wo de er duo xiao sheng shuo ni ai wo

-- Ken Zhu (F4), Qing Tian (One Fine Day) from the album Fantasy 4ever. Hanyu Pinyin lyrics c/o Faithful 4ever

English lyrics translated by Kristi & Yih, from the F4 FantasyLand site (I seem to have lost the url):

I'm looking at that fine day
Using our yesterdays
Wind blows slowly
Dries the rain on the face
Walking under the fine day
Thinking about you once more
Next to me
The feeling of warmth still hasn't changed
No matter how far, no matter how much changes
Your love will always follow me
Next to my heart, a hushed voice says, "I love you"

credits

Thanks to Lise of F.4.N.T.A.S.Y. for some of the show quotes; to Mandy for her astounding work on translating MGII; to Faithful 4ever and Kristi & Yih, from the F4 FantasyLand site for the song lyrics; and ecinaj0823 for beta'ing this. You guys all rock!

author's note I wrote this way back in the summer of 2003 and thought to dust it off to commemorate the kickoff on March 22 of the F4 Forever Four 2006 Concert Tour in Hong Kong.

I don't speak Chinese with any degree of fluency so apologies in advance, k? (Here's hoping y'all don't subscribe to DMS' "daoqian you yong de hua..." Thanks for hounding me 'bout this fic: Jen, Stacey, Greenie, and Emi.

While feedback is much appreciated, please don't tell me I'm wasting my time; as another fanfic writer, WR of the Roswell fandom, once sed, "It's my time to waste."