| Fan Fiction |
by DTLCT
Ray yawns. “I swear we need to go see a fortune-teller or something.” He rubs his eyes. “We haven’t had any luck since last month.” He turns to Kevin. “We might as well call your aunt and tell her to go see the feng shui of this place too.” He yawns again and closes his eyes for a bit.
Jacky looks at the other guys. Kevin shrugs while Gallen just smile.
“Do we need to take all our birthdates for the fortune-teller to see if we’re actually somehow in some elements that are jinxing each other too?” Kevin teased.
Ray opens his eyes. “Yea. That’s a good idea too.”
“We’re all the same age, except for 'Tim',” Jacky told them.
Ray rubs his eyes again. “Could you please stop putting the emphasis on Tim. I’m sick of it. What’s the big deal anyway? I thought we’re on the same team.”
Jacky smiles. “Okay, I’ll quit.” He sips his coffee. “For the time being.”
“Do whatever, just don’t do it right now. I’m on my last nerves.”
They’re just sitting there sipping coffee and lost in their own thoughts for a few minutes. Then Alice comes out of Gallen’s room, still in PJs and her hair still messed up.
Jacky looks up when he hears footsteps. “Morning, Miss Huo.”
Alice yawns. “I want some coffee too.”
“Coffee isn’t good for a little kid,” Ray teased, his smile equally sly.
“I’m not a little kid.”
“Go brush your teeth first.”
Alice grumbles but goes to the bathroom and brushes her teeth anyway. When Alice’s back, she finds a cup lay out for her but it’s not coffee, it’s milk. She looks up to the guys and finds Ray smiling mischievously. “I’m not a baby, why milk?”
Ray smiles. “It’s good for you.”
While they’re arguing, Jacky gets up to go to the living room. He drapes his jacket on Jan before returning to the kitchen again.
“What are we doing today?” Gallen asked after the other two has quieted down since Jacky poured a cup of coffee for Alice already. “I meant besides from work.”
“You’re not doing anything, go check out the elevators,” Jacky said. “I’ll keep Miss Man safe.”
“How do you know Tim’s not doing anything?” Ray asked, surprised.
“Do you have to ask questions when I suggest something?”
“No, I’m serious. You seem to know a lot and I don’t know what the big deal is here. I mean we’re on the same team so let’s cooperate.”
“You said it yourself earlier that I’m quite knowledgeable so of course I know what Tim’s schedule is like. Unless it changes, which I wouldn’t know about, then we can change our plans also.”
Ray looks convinced so they go back to mapping out their plans. Around 6 am, Wallace wakes up. Alice jumps up to greet him.
“Ge!” Alice greeted him cheerfully.
Wallace rubs his eyes. “What are you doing up so early?”
“The guys are talking so loudly that I couldn’t sleep.”
“Was not!” Ray objected. “We were talking so soft. Just you who woke us up with your ringing tone.”
Alice turns around to face Ray. “What? You’re the loudest here, Mr. Cho!”
“Don’t call me that. Having Jacky calling me Mr. Cho is freaky enough already.”
“Reminds you of your father?”
Ray turns to look at him. “How do you know that?”
“Every time I call you Mr. Cho, you winced.”
“Why you do it then? To inflict pain on me?”
“You rather I call you Wing Lim?”
“No one calls me that. Not even my mom.”
“You’re picky, you know that, right?” Alice asked. “Even more than girls.”
Wallace feels like his head is throbbing with pain so he leaves and goes back to his own apartment.
“Just in case anyone asked, we had a PJ party last night,” Jacky hollered after Wallace.
“Who would believe that though?” Ray asked after Wallace’s gone.
He takes a sip of coffee. “He wouldn’t say that.”
“Then why you say it then?”
Jacky just smiles and drinks his coffee again.
At that time Jan wakes up also. She joins them at the table but excuses herself to go brush her teeth a minute later.
Ray yawns again before getting up to get more coffee.
“Too much coffee isn’t good for you,” Jacky said. “It’s your third cup. How many do you have a day anyway?”
“You’re starting to sound like my mother, which is a scary thought.”He comes back to the table at that time. “Talking about that, I have to go visit her this weekend. She said she has to tell me something but I didn’t get a chance yet with work and all this.”
Gallen has been silent for the majority of the time but now he couldn’t help but speaks up since Ray’s talking about his mother.
“You visit her often before this?” Gallen asked causally.
“Not really either but she visits me more,” Ray revealed. “But I told her not to after these stuffs’ going on. She said she didn’t want to either. That night we had the party for Dad, she was coming but then she changed her mind. I called her later that night but she said she was at a friend’s house and couldn’t make it. But to think back now, remember how Dad said he ran into his wife?” He looks at Kevin. “It must be her. They must had argued or something. He looked kind of sad, which I don’t really feel sorry for that much. The point is, it makes sense now.”
“If you know what’s going on, why didn’t you go check on her before?” Kevin asked. “Stop using work as an excuse, man. Jessica and I can cover for you.”
“I need to sort out my thoughts first, okay? Like how am I going to face her since I already accepted him?”
“You don’t sound like you accepted him though,” Gallen pointed out.
“My,” Ray drawled out sarcastically. “Aren’t you the expert?”
“You’re scary when you just woke up in the morning,” Alice commented.
“Am I? I only got like 5 hours of sleep, okay?”
“Why didn’t you sleep more then?”
“I was busy having things running through my minds.”
“Make those things stop running then.”
“Why don’t you cut out my brain then?”
Alice sticks her tongue out at him.
Jacky smiles at those two. It’s funny how an early morning talk could do to people, he thought. Nothing like random talk to start the day off. But through these talks, he gets to know this group better. Much more valuable than just reading some files or sneaking around and try to gather up some clues about them.
Alice looks towards the living room and then at her watch.
Jacky seems to notice it too. He turns to look around also.
“What?” Ray asked. “A staring contest?”
Gallen realizes it also. “No. Where is Wallace?”
“He’s back in his apartment.”
“No,” Alice said. “I mean how come he’s not back yet?”
“Should he be? Maybe we’re too loud. I saw him tapping on his forehead while he walked out. Maybe he’s just enjoying some time alone in his apartment before work.”
Alice gets up. “I’ll go check on him.”
Jan comes back while Alice’s getting up to leave. She sits down between Jacky and Alice’s empty chair. They’re waiting silently for Alice to return.
© Monday, June 4th, 2007
Re-posted: Sunday, October 11th, 2009