[Special Appearance]
Chris Lai Lok Yi – Chris

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After Bosco's departure from the warehouse, Chris took nearly the whole night to clean up the mess left behind by his mysterious attacker. The last pieces of the storage items were finally put away; or so he thought...

His eyes came upon an inanimate object placed strikingly out of place on the floor by the exit, much to his surprise. It was an area he had cleared already, he was sure of it. In fact, it was even the very exact spot he commenced his task with.

The object turned out to be a frame of some sort he recognized from Bosco's collection. “Weird. We must have forgotten to put it back in the cardboard box after he examined his things.” With the frame in hand, he flipped it around to look at the painting on the front side, but once he did, he immediately dropped it out of fear at the shocking portrait...

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A curious expression bore on Kevin's face as he carried his sister's belongings up the arched grand staircase of their mansion. It was a building constructed by their ancestors and passed down the generations. Yet despite its age, frequent renewals and renovations have kept its state to what outsiders would term a modern historical site.

Could Kevin and Myolie have been separated for so long that he could no longer tell whether she was mad at him or not? Instead of yelling or physically attacking him like she once did when she was a spoiled child, Myolie didn't make a sound since she and Kevin found each other by the front gate of their estate.

There were no friendly hugs, no sibling bonds, no greetings, no nothings.

An uncomfortable Sammul tried to break the ice by being the middle person between the two. After all, it was his first time meeting Kevin anyway. The last thing he wanted was to start off on a bad note with his potential future brother-in-law. "Uh, Kevin, would you like me to help you take one of the suitcases?" The sight of Kevin wearing a hand-carry bag on his back like a backpack, with two suitcases, one in each hand, looked amusing yet painful.

"That's alright, I think Myolie would prefer it if I carried these by myself," Kevin replied and sneaked a peek at his sister's reaction. He knew quite well this was one of the ways that would make Myolie feel better, and make him feel less guilty. "By the way, Sammul, your room is the second one on the left."

While the two men stopped at the guest bedroom, Myolie continued down the familiar carpeted hallway she once pranced down while still a child. As soon as she reached her own room, she pushed opened the door and screamed.

"What's the matter?" The men went running up to her with Kevin nearly tripping over one of the suitcases he threw to one side upon Myolie's cry.

An irritated Bosco appeared out of the room with his hands covering his ears. “What?” He asked Myolie with an annoyed look.

“What?!” She reiterated in disbelief, then turned to Kevin in the most bewildered and exasperated expression. "What is snob-face doing in my room?!"

Kevin waved his hands in an up-and-down motion in hopes to calm his sister down upon seeing her face turn red. He displayed a childish grin and walked up to Bosco's side with an arm around his shoulder. "You see,” He started out uneasily and could find no other way to explain things but to tell her the truth, “Bosco moved in here 4 years ago and-"

"But this is my room," Myolie wasn't interested in any detail concerning Bosco or his life. All she wanted was to defend her territory and drive him out. “How could you let him take my room?”

"It's not like you were living here anyway," Bosco voiced in an indifferent tone. It was apparent the two had some history with each other that have yet to be resolved. "But you can chillax, I'm not staying in your room. Purple's not my colour."

In a matter of seconds, Kevin heaved a deep sigh and jumped into the middle of the two. "Myolie, you didn't let me finish. I just wanted to say that Bosco was helping me clean the dust in your room because it's been left unoccupied for so long."

"Hmph," Myolie turned away from them and folded her arms, "Well I'm not comfortable with having another man living here in our mansion."

Bosco laughed sarcastically and pointed to Sammul, "And your boyfriend's not a man?"

"Okay, enough!" Kevin reached a point of intolerance and changed his tone to a more serious one. Being the eldest and the older brother gave him the advantage of making everyone listen and respect his words - most of the time. "It's late. College grads, I'm sure you two are exhausted from a long plane ride. There are 8 bathrooms in the house, just pick one each, shower, then head to bed." He then turned to face Bosco with a demanding stare for him to cooperate with him. "You, we're going down to the basement to sort through our inventory."

No one protested to Kevin's words, and within a matter of seconds, everyone went their own ways to mind their own business.

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Feeling slightly uneasy about her decision to call Bernice over as her babysitter, Tavia sat on the plaid sofa inside her cramped apartment unit rested on the second floor of an old grungy building. She lived in a part of town that aside from the other poor locals, no one else dared to visit due to the high crime rates.

Bernice had been through so much recently, and as her best friend, Tavia naturally felt troubled and concerned. Moses and Bernice had been engaged and set to wed in just a month's time when a tragic air crash occurred to take his life.

A part of Tavia truly didn't want to burden Bernice by making her babysit. Yet at the same time, without anything to do, Bernice would just stay home alone and dwell in depression. When the doorbell finally rang to stir Tavia from her thoughts, she quickly sprang from her seat to greet her visitor.

“Bernice! Thank you so much for the favour. I know it's short notice, but the hospital's really short staffed lately."

With a sweet smile on her face, Bernice shook her head and reassured her friend. “You know I don't mind spending time with my god-son. By the way, last time I visited I saw you were low on diapers, so Moses went to go get some.”

“Moses?” Tavia turned to face Bernice with a bewildered and worried look.

It didn't take long for Bernice to correct herself as she went on to explain, “Before the incident occurred. You don't mind, right? There was a sale and...”

Tavia patted Bernice gently on the shoulder, “Don't worry, diapers don't really expire. You can store them for a really long time. Are you sure you're okay with this? I could always call for a babysitter if not-”

“Really,” A confident Bernice emphasized, “It's all good. And don't forget about your financial situation. Don't spend on unnecessary expenses, okay?” She made way to the apartment door and opened it for Tavia. “Now hurry to your on-call shift to earn more money. Jacky's safe with us.”

For a moment, Tavia paused to recount Bernice's words. Unless her ears were playing tricks on her, she could have sworn she heard Bernice say “us”. Yet before she had a chance to clarify, Bernice practically shoved her out the door with her purse. Laughing off her suspicions, Tavia heaved a sigh as she reached the stairway. “Poor Bernice, she must still be having a hard time accepting Moses' death if she keeps thinking he's still around...”

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A frustrated Bosco scrunched his face as he recounted the pieces of antiques taken out from the cardboard box he brought back from Chris' warehouse. "...Nine, ten, eleven... We're missing a piece."

"No we're not," Kevin assured confidently, thinking that Bosco's constant paranoia and suspicions must have been inherited from his mother. "We have the china vase, a scarab, which I don't know why you got, and...” After peering over the pile of inventory they set out on the marble counter of the basement lounge, something didn't seem right. “Hey, where's that painting you paid a fortune on?"

Without answering, Bosco simply gave his friend a displeased look, wondering why he even bothered asking when the answer was so obvious. Finally, he repeated again dramatically, "We're missing a piece."

Kevin let out an embarrassed laugh and shrugged, "Maybe Chris forgot to pack it in. We'll go to the warehouse again tomorrow and ask him for it." He reached out to clean up the scraps of newspapers and plastic wrappings that came with their stock.

"I'm going to give him a call to make sure he knows where it is," Bosco pushed himself up off the stool and picked up the portable phone by the mini bar. "Kev, he's not picking up," He noted, impatiently tapping his fingers on the wall as the phone continued to pulse.

"He's probably asleep," Answered Kevin with his eyes wandering around the room for that clock they misplaced somewhere along the many cupboards and shelves.

Unconvinced, Bosco persisted and added, "No, the line just went dead."

"Then maybe because he was asleep and you woke him up, so he got angry and cut you off the line," Kevin chuckled and stuck out his tongue. He loved bugging his younger friend at times like these. "Why are you so worried about this? Did you seriously pay a fortune on that painting?"

"Yeah, I paid a few thousand for this painting of a famous guy with a mustache." Bosco admitted before adding with a snicker, “But to me, it's just pocket change.”

Kevin laughed out loud and tossed some garbage into the trash can by the stairs leading back up to the main floor, "I finally understand why my sister's so stereotypical. You rich people give her reasons to support her opinion with."

Grinning proudly, Bosco didn't mind Kevin teasing him this way and followed him up the stairs. It was one of those things that they both liked doing to each other, something that their strong friendship supported. "Can you walk a little faster up the stairs? You're mooning me right now!"

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Running like there was no tomorrow, Chris tripped over his own foot and landed right by the side of his car door. Urgently, he got up on his shaky knees and anxiously looked for the right key among the half dozen he had all on one key chain.

"Bosco, I have to find Bosco..." His heart raced as he murmured. Finally, he found the key he had been searching for and unlocked the car door.

In such a panicked state, it seemed like a miracle he managed to start his car immediately. But perhaps he had been too scared... So scared that he backed up without looking and carelessly hit something as he pulled out the driveway.

He stomped on his brakes upon impact and turned his body around. With widened eyes, he was mumbled in utter shock. "Oh my gosh... No..." Without further hesitation, he pumped on the gas pedal once again and continued to move along, fearing for his life.

"Bosco and Kevin, you two have to help me..."

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