| Fan Fiction |
by DTLCT
Apparently, they didn’t just keep it from the others that Jacky’s back again just for a night, but for one more day and night. They spent the whole day on Sunday doing major cleaning instead of hanging out with the others so the others couldn’t detect either. Of course their little match has been postponed – yet again. Another week wouldn’t kill since 'it’s just a game after all'. And also to Johnny’s relief, Ehlo and Wallace didn’t talk about ‘The Mystical Forest’ or mentioned Xiao Ling Ling again the whole day yesterday. Maybe it’s because Jacky’s back so they’re more curious about his journey and other possible future plans. Jacky’s back to save the day like always, Johnny thought – a little too dramatically. Or maybe he just had it with Ehlo and Wallace’s debates that he’s just looking for any explanation to end that particular ongoing conversation.
As Ehlo steps in to join Jacky at the counter, the other two opens the fridge to find some food. They managed to send Wallace out for grocery shopping while they were finishing up with cleaning yesterday afternoon.
“So much for buddies,” Ehlo said, sitting down. “You didn’t wait for us.”
Jacky shrugs his shoulders. “Can’t. Need to get started early. I was gone for a while, okay? Have to report to the station and explain.”
Johnny sits down next to Ehlo. “Don’t worry. They won’t fire you. They were going bananas when you were gone.”
“Still…”
“You want us to go with you and explain?” Wallace asked.
“Are you kidding me?” He has on his amused look.
Ehlo looks at Wallace. “Over-killed, buddy. Zhu Fan Gang doesn’t need anyone to defend him. He’s invincible.”
“If you’re trying to scare him, it’s not working. Stop exaggerating already. From now on, no more horsing around in front of the others, okay?”
Ehlo turns back to Jacky. “What are you talking about?”
“To avoid from being misunderstood in the future, let’s just drop all the side talks and codes in front of the others. And stop saying how madly in love I am with Sonia. It’s not funny anymore. I’ll knock if off with teasing you and Qiao too if it helps.”
“How boring.”
Jacky shrugs his shoulders. “It’s for the best. At least, I want you guys to do me a favor and not make me look suspicious anymore. You can do whatever you want with your matters.”
Johnny nods. “It’s a good idea.”
“Thanks.”
“So…” Wallace began.
The others turn to him.
“Nothing.”
“What?” Ehlo said, slightly irritated. “No more secrets, remember?”
“No. I was just wondering how is it going to be with you…” He turns to look at Jacky. “…and Sonia now.”
“We’ll see,” Jacky said. “I guess just keep a distance from her and stop messing with her unless we have to interact because of work. I can’t afford to go through another misunderstanding anymore. And it’s not because I’m scare. I’m just tired of all these useless assumptions.”
Ehlo nods. “Sounds good. Staying out of trouble.”
Jacky gets up at that time and goes to the living room. He turns back to the others after retrieving his cell phone from the coffee table. “I’ll see you guys later.”
“Okay,” The others managed to mutter out.
“He’s back,” Wallace mumbled after Jacky’s gone.
“What are you talking about?” Ehlo asked, confused.
“No. It seems like he’s going back to his past self. Don’t you guys see?”
“No fun!” Ehlo looks alarmed. “That means he’s going to look morbid and unhappy all over again?”
“Not unhappy,” Johnny corrected him. “Just more calm.”
“Still adds to boring. Great. So much for coming out in the open again.” Ehlo leaves the kitchen after that – possibly heading back to his room.
Wallace turns to look at Johnny.
“Don’t ask me,” Johnny said, trying to edge out of the situation. “You know how Ehlo is.”
“I don’t know if this all for the good or we’re just walking into another obstacle.” He gets up and goes to his room also.
So much for things being back to normal again.
*****
Jacky steps out of Producer Lin’s office, feeling relief since he managed to get past that one. Luckily, he never pulled anything like that in the past before or it would be his last straw by now. He makes his way out of the station, heading towards his car. He has only one mission now – finding some inspirations for tomorrow’s show.
*****
As Sonia’s in a meeting with Angela, Sam, and several other co-workers, she hears the conference room’s door being opened. She looks up from her paper to see Producer Lin walking in.
“Change of plans, everyone,” Producer Lin announced. “Jacky’s back. He’s going on air again tomorrow morning.”
Angela and Sam turn to look at Sonia.
“Jacky’s back?” Sonia repeated, still looking at Producer Lin.
“I’m not lying,” Producer said in a serious tone. “He was just in my office. He left already to prepare for tomorrow’s show. Sonia, you will have to switch back to your regular time and Sam….” He turns to look at Sam. “…you’re back at night with Angela. We’ll change it like that for tomorrow. I’ll come up with a better schedule by tomorrow night, All right?”
Everyone in the room nods.
“All right. Let’s get this going, everyone.” He leaves after giving them an encouraging smile.
Angela turns to Sonia. “You want to stop the meeting and catch up with him…”
Sonia scans the room briefly with her eyes before answering. “No. We should take care of the situation at hand first.”
They go back to continue their meeting after that. But this time, they have to improvise with the new information Producer Lin just gave them.
Although Sonia’s actively talking to the others, but Angela could see that Sonia’s quite disturbed or at least she’s quite anxious. After another half an hour, they’re finally finished with their meeting. Everyone piles out of the room readily and goes back to their office and/or work area. Angela and Sam are the only ones remaining in the room with Sonia.
“Do you want to…” Angela asked.
Sonia turns to Angela. “I’m fine. I need to take care of some paperwork first.”
“Are you sure? I can…”
Sonia shakes her heads. “We’re not doing that good this past week. I should get this in first before anything else goes wrong.”
“All right. I’m heading out to search for materials for tomorrow’s segment then.”
Sonia smiles at her one last time before Angela heads to the door.
Angela turns around again. “Coming, Sam?”
“Uh…I’ll just go later,” Sam said. “We’ll meet back here after lunch?”
“Sure.” She leaves for real this time.
Sonia gets up from her seat and leaves also.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go see him now?” Sam asked.
“I can go later,” Sonia said.
She exits the room, leaving Sam there thinking to himself.
*****
Angela bumps into Ray at the entrance of the station.
“You see Jacky anywhere?”Angela asked, trying to maintain her calmness.
“Yea,” Ray answered. “He left about 15 minutes back already. Why?”
“Nothing. Uh…did he say where he was going?”
Ray shakes his head. “No. Only that he has a mission to carry out aka searching for material for his returning segment of course.”
Angela nods. “Okay. Thanks. I’m heading out also.”
Ray waves a goodbye her way and heads inside again.
Angela walks out towards the street and tries to haul a Taxi. She has to wait five minutes before one comes her way. She guesses she just has to go on her “mission” first before searching for Jacky again.
****
Jacky parks across the streets like he always does before making his way towards Orchids Agency. He stops briefly at the door, looking through the glass window and observing the scene inside. They’re at their desks, working away like always. Nothing has changed since he left. Or so he thought. He finally grabs hold of the handle and opens the door.
As soon as they hear the door being opened, everyone looks up. Qiao Qiao’s expression turns from tiresome to excitement. She jumps up from her seat and runs to Jacky.
“Jacky ge!” Qiao Qiao exclaimed out.
Jacky couldn’t help but smile at her cheerful gestures. Before he could say anything, Qiao Qiao pulls him into a hug.
Jacky hugs her back lightly. “I missed you too.”
The others are getting up from their seat now – excluding Simon. They wait patiently for Qiao Qiao to let go of Jacky and steps back to stand among them as well before anyone speaks up.
“So…how have you all been?” Jacky asked casually.
“It’s been dreadful seeing someone yawn and sigh all the time,” Chen Yi admitted.
Qiao Qiao turns to Chen Yi. “Hey!”
Chen Yi smiles. “Just kidding.”
“I guess everyone’s still the same.”
Qiao Qiao turns back to Jacky. “Of course!”
Jacky finally realizes the strange thing that he couldn’t figured out before. “And…why are you wearing skirts? Getting ready for some party again?”
“Uh…” She has on this nervous look that it seems impossible on her face.
“No need to explain, we know you need to impress someone.” He looks towards Chen Yi. “You two…”
Before Jacky could finish, Qiao Qiao pulls Jacky aside to a corner of the room.
“What’s going on here?” He asked.
“Stop trying to match-make me with Chen Yi or I’ll beat you up – you and Wallace,” She blurted out in one breath.
“What?!” It’s his turn to display a puzzled expression that shouldn’t be present on his face.
“I don’t want Chen Yi to misunderstand like in the past. I know I’ve been doing a poor job of stopping the rumors in the past. But I have to be more careful and serious now. So could you at least help me out by not make things worse?”
Jacky studies Qiao Qiao intently. “So that means…Ehlo won?”
Although he promised Ehlo earlier to not tease them anymore, but he missed some stuffs while he was gone. He has to know for sure about this. Besides, no one is listening in right now.
She wrinkles her face. “Ehlo? What are you talking about?”
“Then…”
“Stop being nosy.”
“I’m trying to straighten things out here.”
“I’ll tell you later then. Just help me with this one, will you?”
“All right. I guess I shouldn’t tease you and the other guys either, huh?”
Qiao Qiao nods.
“Okay then.”
They make their way back to the others again.
“Are we done now?” Wallace asked. “I thought no more secrets.”
Qiao Qiao turns to Wallace. “It’s personal!”
Wallace puts his hands up to shield himself. “All right. I wouldn’t want to interfere.”
Qiao Qiao turns back to Jacky, gesturing her hand. “So…what have you been up to since…”
“I’m just visiting a bit today, then I need to head out to search around for material for tomorrow’s show. We can get together later and I’ll fill you all in on it, deal?”
Qiao Qiao looks somewhat reluctant but nods her head in agreement.
Jacky stays with them for a while to talk randomly and catch up with what’s going on with them while he was gone before heading back out again – to search for his inspirations.
*****
Angela’s finally done with her research around lunch time and feels somewhat satisfied with what she finds out so far. Hopefully, Sam has something impressive also so they could combine notes and come up with something good for the show.
She decides that she should resume her search for Jacky again. Besides, she doesn’t have to meet with Sam until after lunch. First stop? Her best shot should be Orchids Agency. After all, Jacky spends half of his time there anyway. At least, he does that a lot recently – before his disappearance. It’s worth a try.
*****
Sonia completes the last bit of the paperwork after 2 hours. She gets up from her desk and stretches a bit before straightening up her workspace. She looks at her watch briefly to see that it’s lunchtime already. Perfect timing, she thought. She grabs her handbag before heading for the door. She locks her office before heading towards the entrance of the station. Hopefully, she can catch a Taxi at this hour. Lucky for her, someone gets off at the station so she gets into that Taxi. She gives the driver the location before sitting back. She wonders if the others would know where Jacky is. She fishes out her cell phone and dials Wallace’s number. Who better to ask than his roommate, right?
“Hello?” Wallace answered.
“It’s Sonia,” Sonia said.
“I know.”
“Uh…do you happen to know where Jacky is?”
“Not really. But he just left about half an hour or so. Why? What happened?”
“No. Just want to talk to him about something.”
“Oh. Okay. About the radio station? Or…”
“Half and half.”
“Oh. Okay. He’s getting quite popular – as he always is.”
“Joking around again?”
“No. I meant Angela was here earlier looking for him too.”
“She was?”
“Yea. And we told her the same thing, no clue where he’s heading. He just said something about searching for inspirations for tomorrow’s show.”
“Oh. Okay. Thanks anyway.”
“All right. Good luck looking for him. And…you might want to call him first though.”
“It’s all right. I’ll manage. Thanks, Wallace.”
“All right. I’m getting back to work now.”
“Okay, bye.”
Sonia hangs up after that, trying to figure out where he could possibly be. She wanders around town endlessly, causing the Taxi driver to get impatient. Something finally snaps into her mind along the way. She tells the driver to turn back. She gets off five minutes later, walking around. She’s not sure he would be there, but he did mention of this place in the past as one of his favorite hide-outs. Whether he was joking or not, it’s her chance to find out now. She smiles as she could see a familiar car parked up ahead next to a tree.
*****
As Jacky stands there – enjoying the sun and breeze, he hears someone calling his name. He turns around to see Angela walking towards him.
“Nice day, huh?” Jacky said with a casual smile. “Going out for a walk?”
“Actually,” Angela began with an equally smile to match her tone. “I’m here to apologize for my wrong-doing. You know, stubbornness mixed in with paranoid.”
Jacky smiles. “No need. What are you talking about? I thought it’s all sorted out. Ehlo and Johnny filled me in with what happened.”
“Still…I want to say it to you personally. After all, I had the nerve to go around and conspire against you. At least, have the courage to face the consequences, right?” She smiles. “Yes, Ehlo’s words.”
Jacky shakes his head. “You guys are too strange.”
“ Oh come on now, what do you expect?” Angela said with a mischievous expression on her face. “I can’t just make up a speech out of nowhere. I have to go by something, right?”
Jacky smiles. “All right. If you say so, Miss Chang.”
Angela gestures her hand towards him. “So…we’re good?”
Jacky nods. “Of course.”
Angela smiles. “That’s good then.” She still has this hesitant look on. “Are you sure? ‘Cause if you want to…”
“We’re friends, right? And I admit that I’m annoying too. So, peace?” He extends his hand out to her.
Angela shakes his hand. “No more secrets from now on, okay?”
“I can’t promise on that, but I promise I won’t be sneaky anymore.”
She smiles. “All right then. I’m leaving now. Enjoy the breeze.”
“All right. See you.”
Jacky watches as she disappears around the bend before turning back towards the sea ahead.
*****
Angela walks away, feeling much more relief than before. She knows she can’t change anything or pull the distance between them any closer, but she knows she has the courage to apologize for her wrong-doing. Bianca would be proud. As she’s thinking and smiling to herself, she spots Sonia walking towards her.
“Hey!” Angela called out.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” Sonia asked, a bit taken aback.
Angela smiles. “Just talked to Jacky. He’s fine now. Are you looking for him too?”
Sonia nods. “I want to apologize to him officially.”
“I just did.”
Sonia smiles also. “Really? So you guys aren’t at odds anymore?”
“I guess I’m too paranoid for my own good after all.”
Sonia takes a quick look behind Angela. “Is he still around?”
“He should be.” She puts a hand on Sonia’s shoulder. “Good luck.”
Sonia smiles and they part ways after that.
Sonia begins to make her way towards the sea area, wondering if she’s too late since he could have left by the other side. She walks past the sandy area and towards the shed nearby, beating herself up for not asking Angela more specifically about his whereabouts earlier. She continues to make her way around the area, looking in every direction and shielding her eyes from the bright sun.
She finally finds Jacky standing next to the seaside looking out towards the water ahead – just like Angela said he would be. He has a peaceful expression on his face. She’s relief to know that he looks somewhat normal again. She takes in a deep breath and steps towards him.
“Jacky…” She called out nervously.
Jacky finally turns around to face her. He smiles at her. “What brought you here today, Miss Sui?”
“I heard the others say that you’re back.”
“It appears to be so,” He teased.
Sonia smiles. “I want to talk to you about something.”
Jacky gestures towards her with his sunglasses. “What’s going on? Asking for compensation?”
Sonia wrinkles her face. “What?!”
Jacky smiles. “Your transportation fee and other expenses for going through all the trouble of finding me.”
“Oh. No.”
“What’s wrong? You’re not advancing forward to hit my shoulder anymore? I’m not use to this quiet treatment.”
Sonia clears her throat. “Actually, I want to apologize for…”
Jacky raises his hand up to stop her. “Don’t say anymore. We were all blamed, remember? If I haven’t act so suspicious half of the time, things wouldn’t turn out that way.”
“No. That’s not it. Because you don’t want me to worry or get paranoid about the situation, right? So you hired the P.I. to check things out. That was why you had to keep it from us. You have to make sure before you would tell, right? It’s our fault we didn’t trust you enough.”
Jacky takes a step forward towards Sonia, but stops himself. He nods. “Yes. I saw the strange white substance on the key and thought it’s too strange. I heard about people making a duplicate of the key by pasting it on some sort of clay or whatever and then taking it to a shop to get it done. But I wasn’t sure and it was too bizarre to jump to such conclusions just because of the little white substance. I need proofs. So I kept the key. I didn’t realize it would lead to such suspicions. I didn’t hire the P.I. until I verified with the locksmith and some others about what the substance is. I heard about the police investigating the shop so I became more suspicious of them. I thought after we figure it out, it would be better to explain since there’s not much to go on at first. Just bits and pieces here and there. Besides, we weren’t sure if those people took your car, so the police wouldn’t go to the extreme of telling you those confidential stuffs unless you’re directly involved.”
“We know now.”
Jacky nods, smiling. “Of course.”
“But I still want…”
Jacky puts his hand up to stop her again. “It’s not necessary. What has passed already passed.”
“Even if you don’t want to hear anymore of the apology, how about a ‘thank you’?”
Jacky smiles. “Don’t mention it. We’re co-workers after all. And not to mention friends-slash-enemies.”
Sonia looks somewhat disappointed look. “That’s it?”
“What else do you want it to be?” He looks at his watch briefly. “I better head back and write up stuffs for my returning segment. See you around?”
He walks away after that, leaving Sonia standing there. She turns around to look at him one last time as he’s walking further and further away from her. A lump begins to form in her throat. Just as she’s about to follow him, he turns around abruptly. He takes his sunglasses off to face her again. She smiles at him, feeling hopeful. She could see him reaching into his pants pocket with his right hand. After a bit of fidgeting around, he finally finds it. He hands the item to her. She extends her hand out to receive it. When he removes his hand from hers, she could see it’s a hairclip. Confused, she looks up at him for an explanation.
“I forgot to give it back to you at the party after we left that night. I left it on my night stand but kept forgetting to take it with me so I could return it to you. Finally…” He gestures towards the hairclip in her hand. “…it’s back to its owner. Good day.”
He turns around again to continue on his way. She looks after him silently, feeling a hollowness creeping up from within. She swallows back the bitterness in her and blinks several times, trying to stop her tears from forming as she watches him disappears from view.
As Jacky’s making his way back to town, he couldn’t help but feel a bit of emptiness coming from within – his eyes full of sadness. Then he sighs out, putting on a smile. He reminds himself that he already promised “three angels” that he will be happy no matter whatever happens in the future. After all, he can’t control everything going on around him. He could only do his best and hope for it to pull through in the end.
© Sunday, July 27th, 2008