| Fan Fiction |
by DTLCT
“Hurry up, man,” Ray urged. “Mr. Cho’s waiting for us downstairs.”
“Thought he’s waiting for us at the restaurant,” Kevin said, confused.
“No, Jess said that he will wait for us downstairs. Jess will rush us in 5 minutes if we’re not down there.”
“Okay, I’m going.”
Kevin grabs his jacket on the way out and shuts the door behind him. Ray looks at Charmaine and Mandy’s apartment before turning his attention to the hallway and walks towards the elevators with Kevin.
“You’re meeting with Mandy later, right?” Kevin asked casually.
“I don’t have time now,” Ray said. “Might as well ditch her.”
“How come?”
“I don’t know. I have this strange feeling about the meet up.”
Kevin looks at Ray as if seeing him for the first time. “I can’t believe it.”
“What?”
“That you’re scared of a little girl.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then why do you want to hide?”
“I’m just not ready for what she’s going to tell me yet.”
“How would you know what she’s going to tell you though?”
“It’s my gut feeling. And it’s never wrong.”
They step into the elevator on the left. Before the doors are completely closed, they hear a “Wait” from outside. Kevin presses on the “Open” button and sees Mandy, trying to catch her breath.
“Morning,” Kevin mumbled.
“Yea,” Mandy said.
She gets in and looks at Ray as she’s standing at the other side of the elevator.
“So, this is really unavoidable, huh?” Ray asked.
“I’ll have to push our meeting back couple of hours since I have to rush to this one site to check it out before I forget.”
“Fine with me.”
They stay silent after that. Kevin looks at Mandy from time to time, both because he’s checking her out and also to see if she’s okay with the elevator ride.
When they’re down in the lobby, Kevin gets out first and holds the door for the others. Mandy says goodbye to both and heads out of the entrance before the guys could say anything else. But before she could get any further than that, she sees Mr. Cho’s car coming up the street and parks right in front of the building. She stops in her tracks and waits for Mr. Cho to get out.
Mandy takes a deep breath and steps forward. “Morning, Mr. Cho.”
“Morning to you too, Mandy,” Mr. Cho greeted her with a smile. “I heard about what happened last night. Are you feeling okay now?”
“Life goes on.”
“Yes, it does.”
“Well, I have to be going now since I have to look at this one site before the meeting with our client tomorrow.”
“Okay. I’ll see you soon.”
Mandy tries to haul a Taxi but fails since someone nearby gets there before she does. Mr. Cho is about to enter the lobby but he sees what’s going on. He takes a step back towards Cliff, who’s about to enter the car again.
“Cliff, take Mandy,” Mr. Cho instructed.
Mandy turns around to face him again. “But…what about you?”
“I’ll be staying here for a while. I’ll wait until you get back.”
“Are you sure?”
“I insist.”
“Thanks, Mr. Cho.”
Mandy gets in the back seat as Cliff holds the door for her and waves goodbye to Mr. Cho as Cliff pulls out.
Ray looks from inside the lobby at the two interacting, lost in thoughts.
“Are you coming?” Kevin asked. “You rushed me earlier, man.”
Ray snaps back to reality. “Yea.”
Kevin and Ray walk out towards the entrance to greet Mr. Cho.
“Mr. Cho, how are you doing?” Kevin asked politely. “Jessica called Ray last night about your wanting to see us. Is there any problem?”
Mr. Cho chuckles. “Nothing to worry about, my boys. I was just going to stay here until the house is finish since I was just planning on taking a vacation.”
“We’ll work as fast as we can.”
Mr. Cho puts his hand up to stop Kevin. “No rush, my boy. I just have some other matters to take care of too. So take all the time you need.”
“What is the purpose of your visit today then?” Ray asked, his voice a bit cold and distant.
“I just want to visit you all for a while,” Mr. Cho said, still smiling. “I heard about what happened last night this morning. Are you all right?”
“We’re all fine, Mr. Cho,” Kevin answered in Ray’s place, fearing that Ray might sends Mr. Cho another chunks of his icebergs.
“That’s good.” He hesitates a bit upon seeing Ray’s passiveness. “Could I come up to your place and sit for a while?”
Kevin smiles. “We’re glad to have you come and visit us.”
Kevin turns back towards the elevators to lead the way while Mr. Cho follows. Kevin notices Ray’s strange behaviors towards Mr. Cho earlier but wants to ignore it. He couldn’t any longer since Ray seems to be out of it.
Kevin turns around to face Ray again. “Ray? Are you coming?”
Ray snaps out of his trance – yet again. “Ummm…no. I need to go meet someone in half an hour. It’s old friends from school days.” He didn’t look at Kevin or Mr. Cho when he said that.
Kevin knows something’s wrong. He turns to Mr. Cho. “Mr. Cho, you can just go up first, I’ll go up in a few minutes.”
“All right,” Mr. Cho said.
Kevin makes sure Mr. Cho gets into one of the elevators before turning to Ray. “What are you doing, man?”
Ray looks out towards the entrance. “I don’t feel like sucking up to him today, okay?”
Kevin clears his throat. “You were acting like his son last week and now you’re treating him like your enemy?”
“It’s not that.” Ray shrugs his shoulders. “I…I’ll tell you later when I’m done talking to Mandy.”
“Suddenly you’re not scared to go to the meeting anymore?”
“I can’t hide anymore since someone’s here to see that it happens.”
“Who?”
“Never mind that. I’ll see you later.”
“Okay then. But you’re starting to scare me, man.”
“Don’t worry, man. And you’re starting to scare me with all this cheesy moments about ‘caring about me.’” He laughs and heads towards the entrance.
Kevin smiles and shakes his head, knowing Ray could never be that serious for more than 15 minutes.
*****
Ray hauls a Taxi and tells the driver to go to the restaurant by the seaside. He orders a cup of coffee before jumping onto the railings and sits down on it. He loves this place. It’s the place he and Kevin usually go to when they need a break from reality. This is the only time that Kevin isn’t here to make fun of people with him. He feels strange. He has become more suspicious since he found out Mr. Cho might be his father. Also that Mandy might be his sister. After that scene at the entrance of Constant Comfort, his suspicions rise even more. What if they’re in it together? Although he could only catch pieces of the conversation, but they seemed close. Ray couldn’t believe his insecurity and untrusting nature would come out when he mock others for theirs many times before. Is it because he’s in the situation now that he can’t seem to see things clear like he used to?
He stays there until the sun goes above his head. He walks back towards the street areas and decides to walk a bit to clear his head rather than hauling a Taxi to go back to the city. He keeps sighing that some people in the street begin to give him strange looks. Ray ignores them and continues to walk. He doesn’t realize that he walks back into the familiar streets that led to his apartment building until he spots Stan in front of the building. He hesitates whether or not he should go in and face Mr. Cho. Before he could decide, his phone rings. He pulls the phone out of his pants pocket.
“Hello?” Ray said automatically.
“Can you meet me at Dragon Phoenix in 15 minutes?” A girl’s voice asked.
“You took care of business already?”
“Yea.”
Ray sighs. “Mandy, tell me something before I meet you there.”
“What?”
“Did Mr. Cho put you up to this?”
“Put me up to what?”
“You know he’s our father, right?”
Mandy sighs. “I’m not sure. I….I don’t know what to make of this anymore. I just moved here a week and suddenly it seems I found my brother and then my father and …..”
“It’s okay, sis. I trust you.”
“How did you know that I’m your sister? I mean you can’t be sure. I mean what we’re claiming right now might just be a misunderstanding. There are coincidences in life, you know.”
“It’s too much to be a coincidence. Although you just moved here a week, but I know Mr. Cho for a year now or at least I work for him for a while now. I should know. I wasn’t paying attention before, but it’s starting to fit. It’s the only reason why he’s actually hiring us – Kevin and I – to work for him even before we even convince him we could do a good job. I know you’re my sister because you look like Lily Chan. I was young when we first met, but I remember that day clearly. I didn’t say it out or give any indications of that because I don’t want to scare you away. I just want to observe to see how you react when I call you sis. Or when we argue. I know for sure you’re my sister because of what happened that night at Mr. Cho’s birthday party. You need any more convincing than that?”
Mandy doesn’t say anything for a full minute. “Wow.”
“That’s all you can say? ‘Wow?’”
“I never realized you were so observant or how you actually figure all these out although you’re….”
“Although I look like a crazy yo-yo that never stops bouncing around?”
“I wasn’t thinking of it that way.”
“Well, similar to that.” He pauses for a moment. “You know what? Let’s call the meeting off since we already say most of it on the phone. At least I did. You want to come back here and talk about it?” He turns around towards the elevators at that time. “It’ll be easi…”
Ray freezes in mid-word and stares at the person in front of him. That person stops also and stares back at him.
© Thursday, May 17th, 2007
Re-posted: Saturday, October 10th, 2009