Chapter 5
The next Monday morning Jin entered into the kitchen of his parents' house already dressed in his usual day outfit to find in the middle of the dinner tablet a plate with a large pile of scallion pancakes with a note in front of the pancakes in blue ink. Jin took two plates out of the counter leaned on the wall and placed them in front of the chair, then took from the drawer behind him two pairs of chopsticks, then placed them on the table and sat down on his chair picking out with his chopsticks one pancake onto his plate, then rolled it together and looked at the note his mother left.
"I'm with Mrs. Ping. Be back in two hours"
Jin rolled his pancake together then took it with his hand to take a bite of it, then looked at the empty chair beside him, where his younger cousin is supposed to seat. Jin swallowed down the bit of his food, then got up from his chair walking across the living room to a room, where the guest room was for visitors with the door wide open.
"Wake up sleepyhead," Jin said into the darkroom, waiting for him to respond, but he didn't hear anything.
Jin pressed on the light switch to turn the light on to see the bed was covered and Peng was nowhere to be seen.
"Okay?" Jin said to himself turning the light off again walking back passing by his room, then he wide his eyes as he remembered something and entered into the room walking to his bed, where on the night table he had his alarm clock and under it lied a blank sheet.
"Where did I leave that letter again?" Jin asked himself while passing his hand behind his neck looking around his room, then he spotted on his desk across the room the envelope lying on the table, then Jin smiled and walked up to the table and grabbed the envelope to look at it. On the table he had left a sheet with a few sentences on it, then he sat down on the chair to glance at the sentences, that were written by him.
"It only took me seconds to realize I was into you"
Jin shook his head as he read the first sentence of the sheet, that lied in front of his nose.
"Look Jin, what he's doing to that cat" A thirteen-year-old Yi spoke stopping Jin from continuing to walk as she showed Jin another boy around their age pulling on the cat's tail, while the second one held the cat by its legs causing it to whine in pain.
"Why is no one doing anything?" Jin asked looking around to see a few other students present, but no one showing any interest, in what was happening.
"We gotta help the cat," Yi told Jin, which shook his head.
"No, we're going to call a teacher. It's easier" Jin mentioned watching Yi frown and walk towards the two pre-teens. "Yi, no!" The raven-haired boy ordered watching Yi tramp toward the two boys, then she pushed one of the boys, which held the cat on its legs away making him fall down and pulling the cat down behind him. The cat managed to remove one of his paws out of his hands and hit the boy on his face scratching him.
"Ouch!"
"Hey who do you think you are?" The second boy asked looking angrily at Yi.
"You can't treat animals like that" Yi mentioned crossing her arms. "They can feel the pain, didn't you hear the cat crying?"
"Who says that?" The boy asked. "The cat?"
"He was crying"
"He was crying," The boy said with a mocking tone. "Animals can't cry, they're animals.
"Yes they can, you two just don't know it" Yi shouted, then the other boy got up from the ground and confronted Yi, which was scolding his friend.
"Hey get away from here. You're not wanted"
"I'm not going anywhere," Yi noticed looking serious at the group.
"You won't listen hein?" The boy asked glaring at the girl, then pushed her away against the floor.
"Hey!" Yi cried as she fell on Jin's legs as he saw how far Yi's talk has gone.
"Yi are you alright?" Jin asked holding her under her arms, then looked at the two boys, which were laughing. Yi growled and kicked the boy, which pushed her down on the leg, causing him pain. "Yi no!" Jin warned holding the girl back, which wanted to get up.
"We better get going" Jin suggested helping the girl up, then the boy that was hit jumped toward Yi punching her on her right eye, shrieking Jin.
"Hey!" Jin hissed as his friend got hit in the eye by the boy. Yi passed her hand over her eye slowly starting to get tears on her eyes.
"Aww, are you going to cry?" The boy asked while Jin looked sad at Yi's payback, then Jin growled and gazed angrily at the two boys.
"You owe her an apology" Jin mentioned glancing serious at the boys, which started to laugh at Jin's comment.
"Why should I?" The boy asked with a smirk. "She's the one who started it"
"She was doing the right thing. You two should have stopped right away"
"We have stopped. Shouldn't you be happy about it?"
"Apologize her and we're even"
"My face is all scratched up. That's already sufficient enough"
"It's not that hard. Just two words" Jin mentioned. "Come, say it"
"No" The boy responded making Jin furrow his eyebrows annoyed at the boy. "What are you going to do now?" The boy asked watching Jin swing his fist back and hit the boy in the face.
"Jin no!" Yi scolded the friend holding him back from stepping closer to the boy annoyed, then Yi held her index finger in front of Jin to forbid him to approach the boy. "Don't do that or you're worse than him" Yi alerted the raven-haired boy, which took his fist down and looked at Yi.
"I'm sorry" Jin apologized sinking his head down disappointed of the violent act of himself, then the principal of their school appeared glaring at the four kids, which looked up at the principal in shook.
"Is there any problem?" The principal asked, then the other boy, which hadn't got harmed by anyone raised his hand immediately to call the principal's attention.
"Principal, that little girl here hit my friend with her nails and afterward he hit him for not apologizing her when we haven't done anything bad," The boy told the principal, which had a deadpan look on his face at listening to the kids.
"You two are doing a really bad impression on me on your first day of school" The Principal mentioned. "You know all the other school you were suspended before told me about everything you did there and I don't believe a girl like her has nails, that could cut your face like it was done by a cat" The man mentioned as the two boys looked at each other. "You two go immediately back into the school, we're going to have a talk" The Principal warned the two boys, which sighed annoyed and walked away leaving the adult back with Jin and Yi.
"Are you two alright?" The Principal asked as Jin helped Yi up on her feet.
"You're alright Yi?" Jin asked earning a nod from the girl.
"I just wanted to free the cat from them. I'm sorry if I caused any trouble" Yi apologized placing her left hand on the right elbow.
"It's alright, but next time you should call a teacher or even me to solve this situation" The Principal explained.
"Sure, I'll do it next time" Yi promised earning a friendly smile of the man, which walked away leaving the two pre-teens back.
"Everything is fine now"
"Why did you hit that boy on the face?" Yi questioned her friend which thought about it and shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know. I had got angry as he pushed you on the ground nearly causing you to cry" Jin declared passing his hand behind his neck. "It got worse afterward and…..I don't like it to see my friend being hurt by jerks like them," Jin confessed making Yi smile, then it faded away as she noted something about the situation.
"Hey Jin, but you could have got in trouble for hitting them. Did you thought about it before?"
"It's not the first time I have to watch out for you when you're going to do something that either causes you trouble or regret,"
"And sometimes you were the one getting in trouble" Yi mentioned with a giggle, shortly the taller boy joined her chuckling too.
"Yeah" Jin agreed on the true fact of the girl.
"I know you're not obligated to do all that, but I'm thankful for the times you rescued me out of trouble, even if you got grounded by your parents sometimes"
"You're welcome" Jin answered. "That's what friends are for"
"You're the best of all Jin" Yi commented embracing him tightly, while he placed his own arms around her. Jin smiled at his friend's comment, then widened his eyes as the school bell rang to call the students back to the school.
"We've got school again" Jin warned the short girl while removing his arms of her while she did the same.
"Yeah, are you gonna wait for me after school?" Yi questioned the raven-haired boy, which nodded in agreement. "Awesome, see you later," Yi said placing her hands in front of Jin's neck, raising up on her tiptoes to peck the boy on the cheek, surprising him at her deed. Yi then made her way up at the school, leaving a dumbfounded Jin back which slowly passed his hand over the spot he had been kissed. Jin smiled bashfully watching the girl arrive at the entrance of the building, soon he sighed in ecstasy.
Jin crossed out the sentences on the sheet dropping the pen aside falling with his back on the lean of the chair sighing about his flashback.
"Why am I even writing a letter?" Jin asked himself, then dropped the letter back on the table and got away from his desk at his bed, where his night table stood and Jin saw under the alarm clock was a white sheet. Jin widened his eyes as he noticed, that his smartphone was gone and picked up the sheet and saw on the other side a long note for the boy.
"Hey Jin. Sorry, I got fed up about and Yi having disagreed in fulfilling Mr. Burnish's last wish. I took your phone and decided to do it myself. You've got the navigation, the tracking app and everything a scouts boy doesn't have. I'm not going to get lost and as long as I got battery on your smartphone, I can always see, where I am and get out of the situation. (By the way, I took the charger. Yeah I thought about the charger) If I meet Everest at the mountains, I'll greet him from you and Yi. Maybe he has an idea, how I could go back if not, I still have the rest of the summer to find the way back home again with your phone. Don't worry Jin, I'm going to be back, I promise"
"Ugh Peng, I swear if you die I'm going to kill you!" Jin shouted annoyed after discovering, that his phone was taken away by his cousin. Jin ran at the corridor leaving the apartment of his family heading up to the next floor and stopped in front of the apartment of Yi's family, then knocked on the door.
"Yi! Yi!" Jin called in panic, then the door opened up and Yi's mother appeared on the door looking at Jin a little bugged at the boy's wild knocking parade on the door.
"What's going on?" The woman asked looking down at the boy.
"Sorry I didn't want to bother you in any way, I just need to know, if Yi's here"
"I think she went up to the roof a while ago" The raven-haired woman answered. "Did something happen?"
"N….no, nothing happened I just…..wanted to show her something important" Jin mentioned stepping back. "I'm gonna see if she's up there...bye!" Jin bawled running upstair heading to the exit of the building out to the roof, afterward he looked around to encounter Yi in front of the shack adjusting the rope, that held the cover open in front of the entrance and the girl looked back to see Jin standing in front of the door.
"Morning" The friend greeted watching Jin approach her.
"Yi we've got a problem" Jin mentioned watching Yi's friendly look turn curious.
"What's going on?"
"Peng left this note and went on his own to Mount Everest" Jin explained handing the sheet to the girl, which picked it to read.
"What?" Yi asked widening her eyes in shock as she saw the letter of the boy. "But why did he do that?"
"I don't know, he's obviously annoyed with me rejecting the idea to help Miss Burnish out. Now he's somewhere all by himself." Jin mentioned, then warped his face in fright as he had a horrible thought. "If something happens to him I'm dead. I'm responsible for him and if something harms me my mother and his are never going to forgive me" Jin mentioned entering into the shack and sat down on the pipe under the map of China. Yi went down on her knees to see Jin looking down on the ground with a tragic face and she placed her hands on Jin's knees looking up at his maroon eyes.
"Jin don't worry, we're going to get him back" Yi assured her good friend, who rolled his eyes at the girl. "He's got your smartphone, right?" Yi asked earning a nod from the boy. "Why don't we try to track the smartphone to find out, where he is at the moment?"
"Sure, have you got yours here at the moment?" Jin questioned earning a nod from the girl, which took from the back of her pants her smartphone and gave it to Jin. Yi observed Jin waiting for the smartphone to load the site, afterward, a compass appeared tracking down the phone number he had added before, then it showed the phone number along with Jin's name on a part showing it to be on the same spot as them.
"He's here?" Yi asked watching Jin shook his head, then he pressed on a car symbol, which then blended under the map that it was updating to the current location, then the phone was shown on another part of the map, almost 400 miles away from Shanghai.
"Xuangcheng?" Jin asked furrowing his eyebrows surprised. "He's already four hours away from us?"
"Oh boy"
"That's bad" Jin announced as Yi sat beside him on the pipe. "Going to get him back just got harder"
"Don't worry Jin, I have an idea, but I know you're not going to like it" Yi mentioned looking at the boy, which made eye contact with the girl again.
"If you're talking about having to go behind Peng the same way he's going, that's our only option" Jin mentioned earning a nod from Yi.
"Precisely that. It's also our only way thought"
"Good, look if I'm not back the next 24 hours warn my mother about it," Jin said standing up from the pipe, then he felt Yi grab the boy by his hand standing up behind him.
"You're not going alone Jin, I'm coming with you" Yi offered looking at the boy, which dropped his mouth in surprise at the friend's suggestion.
"But…..no you can't go with me. I don't want you to get hurt during the trip if that was the case"
"I'm also not letting my best friend go out there alone meeting eventually the same fate that could happen to me," Yi mentioned crossing her arms with a cheeky smile. "After all, I owe you this, after that time I jumped behind Everest on that boat with you coming behind me," Yi mentioned seeing Jin roll his eyes up as he remembered that evening he ran after Yi to see if she was alright.
"Okay, you've got a point" Jin added. "I think together we can handle it better, than alone, right?" Jin asked earning a nod from the girl. "Great uhm well we're going to need to list down anything, that we should take with us, maybe money and eventually food"
"Good I meet you down at your apartment"
"Sure and on the way, I think we should do Miss Burnish a little visit" Jin pointed out. "I'd love to know, why she did let Peng go all by himself on this trip," The Chinese boy told the girl, which listened to his comment.
"Yes, how could she just give Peng the urn to do this trip on his own. He's just a kid"
"Yeah?" Jin agreed getting out of the shack along with the girl. "This is crazy" The boy admitted walking towards the entrance to the building followed by the girl.