Chapter 11
The next morning at Urumiqui Peng and Dave sat for breakfast together in the dining hall of the hotel they had spent the night.
"You know with what rice porridge tastes great?" Peng asked looking at the adult, who looked forward at the boy while taking the full spoon into his mouth. "With cinnamon"
"I guess that is your favorite topping too, right?"
"Yeah, but my mother doesn't let me add cinnamon to my breakfast, because it would have more calories than it has normally,"
"She just means it well. She doesn't want you to end up sick from too much sweet"
"I know, my cousin Jin does the same to me when I'm at his parent's house. I've got a little bit too much weight on my body. You've probably see it too"
"You practice basketball. As long as you practice regularly sports you won't increase your weight. You shouldn't also exaggerate on eating sweet food. Once in a while it doesn't hurt though" The man explained earning a nod from the boy followed by him taking another spoon into his mouth.
"How many hours is our next ride Dave?" Peng questioned taking a big spoon of rice and shove it into his mouth. "Will it be longer, because of being a conventional route?" The boy added looking up at the adult, which started to think about his question, then shrugged his shoulders.
"It's hard to say" Dave admitted unsure about what to answer to the boy. "3-4 days are most likely to be in front of us since we have to stop and overnight because there's no night train on our route"
"Are there other hotels too?"
"Sure, if not, there are other options we can check"
"Okay" Peng said, then watched Dave take out his smartphone to check out on the internet for information for their ride and the boy looked down at his backpack, where he had Jin's smartphone in the net pocket for water bottles, afterward he took the smartphone out to check the display seeing, that it was 8:24. Peng unlocked Jin's smartphone and opened the messages from his cousin to look at the message he sent the last day to see it had been read, but he didn't have an answer. Peng sighed at not having heard anything from Yi and placed the smartphone on the table.
"In twenty minutes there's a train. If we leave now we will make it in time" Dave mentioned looking at Peng, which listened to him.
"I will go to the toilet then before we leave"
"Sure I'll bring my plate away" The adult noted. "I'll wait for you on the front of the restrooms"
"Okay, I'll bring my plate too. I'm done" Peng mentioned picking up his plate along with his drink and the cutlery, waiting for Dave, then Peng moved forward crossing the room, followed by Dave, who before they left picked up Peng's backpack, so they could leave without having to go back again.
It's almost 10 O'clock Jin, Yi and Kai were inside a booked hotel room still sleeping. Jin lied covered with the bedcovers alone in his bed, while on the other bed beside him lied Yi with Kai, which lied in front of her feet. Jin groaned slowly crawling out of the bed while stretching his arms, then he looked at Yi, while scratching his neck with the knuckles of his fingers, then he looked over at Yi seeing her sleeping. Jin smiled enchanted at the sight of the raven-haired girl sleeping, then sat up on the bed placing his legs out of the bed and observed the girl again, then noted Kai lifting his head up yawing loud, then he looked around to see Jin was already awake, then Kai got down on the floor, going towards Jin to greet him.
"Hey boy" Jin greeted the mixed breed, which sniffed Jin on his hands, then licked them up. Jin looked at the night table between the bed of him and Yi, and he got up to press on the home button to see the time and widen his eyes in shock. "10:07?" Jin asked looking at the shepherd mix, which licked himself on the nose and the teen looked over at Yi, which was lying in the bed. Jin bend down on his knees in front of Yi and placed his hand on her shoulder, moving her gently back and forth.
"Yi wake up" Jin said while he was waking her up carefully. "We missed breakfast time" Jin warned seeing Yi open her eyes slowly and roll them up at the boy.
"Jin?"
"We woke up late" Jin mentioned. "It's already 10 am"
"Oh crap, did we really sleep that long?" Yi asked picking her smartphone to see the time.
"I think we have here another time" Jin guessed. "What does your smartphone tell, if you set Urumiqui on the world time app?"
"I don't have this city added, but I see if I can find it here….I've got it and there are two hours of difference," Yi said sitting up on the bed, then saw Kai place his paws beside her sniffing her on the belly. "I know I smell a little sweaty boy"
"Shall I borrow you one of my shirts?" Jin offered raising his right eyebrow up looking at Yi, which shook her head.
"No, it's alright. Next time"
"More like next time I should have borrowed you something else to sleep"
"If you don't mind. I could sleep without a problem in my underwear"
"You did?" Jin asked surprised, then closed his eyes in shock making Yi roll her eyes amused by his reaction.
"Don't worry, I'm still under the covers and I don't find it bad if you catch me like that….only if you would stare at me like a creep"
"I wouldn't do the latter though, hey can I check, where Peng is at the moment?" The Chinese boy questioned, then felt Yi press her smartphone against his chest, then he slowly palpated around himself until he reached with his hand on Yi's to grab the smartphone.
"Open your eyes, I'm covered by the duvet" Yi warned and Jin opened his eyes to see Yi had put the bedcover around her waist covering her whole legs. "I'll be dressing up in the bathroom" The raven-haired girl noticed walking away picking her clothes, that lied on a small couch and walked towards a brown door, opening it back afterward she closed it after entering the room.
Jin in the meanwhile added on the tracking app his phone number and pressed on the update button to look for the actual location Peng was and it appeared about a centimeter away from a red circle, which marked his and Yi's location.
"Peng's here!" Jin extolled jumping up while Kai gave out a bark at Jin's reaction. Jin ran at the door of the bathroom knocking on it waiting for an answer from the girl.
"Do you need to go?" Yi asked.
"Peng's in the same hotel as us" Jin urged. "I need to catch him before he leaves Yi"
"Will you go down right now?" The girl questioned.
"I'm going to change my clothes right now and head down. Hopefully I won't be late" Jin mentioned pushing his pajama pants down to his suitcase, that was placed beside the chair Yi had her clothes on and opened the suitcase taking out the same shirt and trousers he wore along their trip, then he sat down on the bed putting his pants on, afterward he pulled off his head the pajama shirt and put his checkered dress shirt on and buttoned it up. He picked up his shoes and ran back to the bathroom door and while putting them on he knocked on the door again.
"I'll be going down right now, I'll meet you there," Jin said and ran at the exit along the corridor. Jin ran along the corridor at the stairwell, running the next three levels down and leaving at the hall, which leads to the exit of the hotel and the restaurant. Jin went into the restaurant to catch a few waiter and waitresses preparing the tables for the lunch. Jin looked back at Yi's smartphone to see he was still a few centimeters away from the red dot, but the image was the exact same one from before, then he pressed on the update button and waited for it to update, then it showed him, that the smartphone was now far away again, near a railway and Jin zoomed back seeing the distance wasn't as big as it were the other days.
"Don't worry little cuz, I will find you," Jin said looking away from the smartphone towards the dining hall as beside him passed a waitress watching down at him.
"Can I help you?" The woman asked and Jin looked up at her.
"It's alright, the issue got solved" Jin mentioned earning a nod from the woman, which continued her way to the next table adding serviettes on it.
Peng and Dave sat in their next train heading to the destination of its route. Dave was solving a crossword puzzle while Peng was reading a comic book. Peng wide his eyes from it and started to chuckle, then he looked down at his backpack, that lied beneath his feet and he looked on the side of the backpack, where the bottle pockets are and put his hand inside is and took his hand out looking at his hand noticing, that something had gone missing.
"Huh?" Peng continued putting his other hand on the other pocket to encounter nothing again. Peng then used both hands trying to find what he was looking for, but he couldn't. He then opened the top of the backpack to only find Mr. Burnish's urn in there and he closed the backpack again. "Dave, have you got my smartphone?" The boy asked and Dave looked at the boy.
"Didn't you have it before?" Dave questioned the child, which shook his head.
"I did, but I haven't used it and now as I wanted to take a picture I discovered, that it's not here anymore"
"Didn't you eventually forgot it back in the restaurant?" The man asked making the boy shake his head.
"No I think not, cause I had it there in my backpack. But maybe I have forgotten it on the table?"
"Are you sure?" Dave asked. "After we left on our table only the decoration and the orange juice was left,"
"Do you think someone stole it?"
"I don't believe someone would just steal there a phone from another table, maybe they kept it in the lost and found office?"
"Or I lost it before we got to the train. I mean I didn't really check when it was the last time I saw Jin's smartphone"
"If you know the phone number we could find it with an app" The adult suggested. "Do you per coincidence know the phone number?" The man asked seeing Peng shake his head.
"No"
"Bummer, we could at least figure out, where it was," Dave said watching Peng get sad. Dave sank his head down and placed his arm behind Peng's head pulling him closer to him. "Don't worry Peng, I can get your cousin a new one…...or even Miss Burnish, she said in case something gets broken or lost during our trip she wouldn't mind replacing it"
"She's very nice Dave"
"Yeah, she's just like Mr. Burnish was before. The reason Mr. Burnish had changed over the years was because of the work. He was so possessed in finding a yeti that….well he forgot many important things in his life and he got colder with the time. Until you three kids showed up with helping Everest back home and he started to realize why he should get back" Dave explained to Peng, which listened to the adult.
"Is it true, that Mr. Burnish had an important person in his life like a girlfriend?" Peng asked seeing Dave roll his eyes up thinking about the question.
"I'm not sure, but I think he was engaged and at some point his fiancé dissolved their engagement due to him being busy all the time"
"That's sad"
"I know" Dave agreed. Both were quiet for a while, then Dave looked down at Peng and spoke to him again. "Do you have a thing for a certain girl?" Dave asked making Peng look at him in shock.
"No!" Peng shouted making Dave laugh.
"Alright, I'm just kidding. I know you're not on the exact age for that"
"I know a little bit about love….but my older cousin Jin is in love"
"With who?" Dave asked. "Yi?" The man asked making Peng furrow his eyebrows in confusion.
"How did you know?"
"Lucky shot" Dave answered. "Aren't they best friends or something?"
"They've been friends since pre-school or I think they even knew each other from Yi's birth. At least I heard Jin's mother talking once about being with Jin on Yi's day of birth at the hospital together and Jin even got the chance to hold her in his arms along with his mother"
"Now that's what I call friends for life"
"They have always been good friends. Only in that space of time as Yi's father had passed away, their friendship had been on a thin thread, but after Everest both had reconciled and are now the same friends from before, maybe there's something different about it"
Dave smirked at the explanation of the boy and placed his arm behind the boy.
"You know in most of the friendships between girls and boys there's always this moment, where one of them or even both of them start to feel attracted to their friend. For some it's awful for others it's great. Some find it great, cause it's their best friend and they know each other well, awful it's when they know each other well and they or one of them is afraid, that the relationship doesn't work out and they lose their friendship"
"Jin told me last time he has no chance with Yi, cause she sees him as a brother"
"Typical" Dave jested. "She might not be interested in Jin at the moment. Or she could be interested, but she's on denial"
"What's that?"
"This means she's in love with him, but she avoids to show or reveal them because she doesn't want that to happen"
"But why wouldn't she?"
"We don't know if that's the case." The Chinese man warned. "She could be in love with him but waits for him to do the first step. Maybe she just sees him as a good friend and wants to keep it that way. Maybe if he confesses to her, she'll be like what? We're best friends, we can't do that"
"That one would hurt Jin really bad. I think he already feels hurt in being called a brother"
"Yes, rejections can hurt, but you never know you will be rejected if you declare yourself to your crush. I know many in Jin's place spend their days thinking of ways to confess to their crush otherwise on how they get rejected. But you shouldn't think about that. You just need to do it. How are you going to know, she's going to reject you if you don't talk to her at all? Would you want to think for the rest of your life, what could have been, if you said it or not?"
"You know so much about love Dave. You probably were not afraid to ask girls out, right?" Peng questioned with a smile.
"I actually never asked a girl out. The woman I married asked me out and I said yes" Dave mentioned seeing Peng drop his smile at that surprise.
"Oh..."
"Well, that's a funny story. I could tell you that another time, if you want" Dave said looking at his crosswords book again picking the pen he had left on the book, therefore Peng looked out off the window seeing the green hills far away at the background, then he looked down at his comic to continue the story.