Just as promised, Mei did not have school the next day, and the two of them spent time catching up.

Our roles have reversed, Hangeng thought. Mei has grown up well.

Whenever Hangeng was left alone, he found himself slipping out of reality and back into his thoughts. For some reason, Mei had found it unnerving, as if she was afraid that he would one day slip and she would not be able to save him from the void he had been dragging himself into.

Though Mei had kept her promise that she did not have classes the next day, Hangeng found out that she had things to attend to at school the following Monday. She had left home in her PE uniform, but had come home in a military outfit, which had alarmed him. However, she explained that the outfit was a uniform. She was part of the team that would the flag onto the stage for the seniors' and the grade six students' graduation.

Feeling bad that Hangeng was missing out on a lot, she decided to drag him to her school the next day. Determined not to allow him to relapse into extreme thoughts and possibly bouts of sadness or even depression, she dragged him over to the language faculty and left him in the capable hands of her Chinese teachers.

But it's not enough. He's still very much worried as hell, she thought distractedly as she, and the rest of the group went through the motions once more for the sake of those who were graduating. Due to this,however, she had taken an unnecessary tumble on the stage, leaving her with an awful wrist sprain.

"Great," she muttered in annoyance as the nurse helped her bandage her dominant hand.

"You should've been more careful," the nurse chided her. "It's a good thing it's just a sprain and not a fracture."

"But how are we going to do this now? We don't have enough people!" one of her group mates remarked.

"Chill, I can do it, right nurse? I mean, it's still a week away! My hand ought to be better by then," she said.

"Yes. Your hand will be better by then, but I don't suggest you to use it much for the rest of the week if you want it well enough by next Wednesday."

"Well, that's good," she shrugged.

"What's good? That's not good!" Hangeng remarked, coming up to them with the teacher he had been conversing with, before the tumble occurred, trailing after him. He went up to her and saw her swollen wrist and shot into a lecture in full-on Mandarin, leaving everyone, except the teacher, gaping like fishes.

"Gege, I understand Chinese, but I don't understand rapid-fire Chinese," she whined, causing the teacher to chuckle and Hangeng to flush in embarrassment.

I have to ask, Hangeng thought, slapping himself mentally for the cowardice he was displaying.

The graduations have finished, and Mei was officially free for the summer. Hangeng had wanted to go back home to arrange a couple of things with the company that had signed him in, and he was hoping Mei could tag along.

After much thought, her parents allowed her to go, but she had to check with her elder sister's friend once in a while so that they were sure she was doing well. (It wasn't that they didn't trust Hangeng, it was because they lacked trust that Mei would not find a way to harm herself by tripping over her own feet or otherwise. To them, it was a miracle that she was accepted to be part of the flag team despite her amazing ability to trip herself even on smooth floors.)

Soon, the two of them were on a plane to China.

Whirlwinds later, Hangeng found himself buried in work once again. Mei has tucked herself in a corner, her nose in a book he had gotten for her with her ever handy dictionary beside her.

Trust gege to get me a book in Chinese, she had muttered. But she was grateful for it, anyway. It was her chance to learn to appreciate Chinese literature at its finest, with a brother to explain it to her when she felt like the words were beginning to eat away her sanity.

She'd sneak glances at him once in a while, and every now and then, a tired sigh escaped his lips and a ragged look took over his features. He was getting tired.

It's stupid, isn't it? she wondered when she slipped out of the building one day to grab him a proper meal. Both of us are struggling to stay sane, but we're trying to save each other from ourselves.

Maybe our hearts aren't voids just yet...