Vic's POV:

He stared at the phone in his uplifted left hand in front of him while the right hand tucked underneath his head on the bed. Turning it around, he saw a neon sticker picture of a girl at its back.  Looking carefully at the picture, he recalled the incident in front of the park earlier that night.

‘I must’ve given her my hand phone and taken hers by mistake.  Should I call her?  What if she speaks Japanese?  I don’t know any.  Even my English is not that good.  I can understand but to speak back… Argghh! This is so hard!’ he thought, considering what his next move should be in order to get back his phone.

Being bored, he sat up on his hotel bed and went through the content of the phone.  As he was going through the game menu, the phone rang.  He accidentally dropped the phone on his bed because of the sudden shock.  Looking numbly at the phone, he stared at it, unknowing of what he should do.  Forwarding towards the phone to get a closer look on the number of the phone, he noticed something familiar about the number shown on the screen.

‘There’s no name only numbers.  This caller most probably is not the girl’s friend but the numbers looked so familiar.  O16612… wait a minute!  This is Vanness’s number!’

“Hello? Vanness?” he asked, cautiously, just in case if it wasn’t his friend as he thought it was. 

“Zai Zai!  Hey!  You’ve been away for two days and you already changed phone with a Japanese girl?  You are supposed to play a little bit hard to get!” exclaimed Vanness from the other side of the line, laughing aloud.

Hearing his friend’s voice made him feel really glad.  He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to contact them anymore.  However, recalling the sentences Vanness has said, he was confused. 

‘How did he know this number and about the changed of phones, with a Japanese girl?’ Vic thought.

“How did you know this number?  And what do you know about the Japanese girl?” Vic asked curiously.

His questions were answered by laughter and he noticed that there are more voices than Vanness at the background.

“Vanness!  Why are you laughing?  Let me talk to Vic!  Ken… look at Vanness.  He won’t let me talk to Vic!”

“Okay, there!  I’ve looked.  There’s nothing different about him from the past 30 seconds.  Oww!”

He smiled.  He recognized the background voices.  It was Adi and Ken.  He knew Adi was already at Taiwan since she called him on a day before he flew to Japan, telling him she’s going back to Taiwan for a whole month to work on the SARS project she was assigned to by her boss.

“Zai Zai, someone wanted to talk to you.  I have to give the phone to her.  She’s holding a deadly looking pillow and threatens to hit me with it if I don’t hand her the phone,” told Vanness, still laughing wildly, enjoyed teasing Adi.

Vic laughed quietly.  He could imagine the situation at the other end.  A whacking sound was heard before Adi spoke to him.  That sound would only means that Adi had whacked Vanness on the head with the pillow regarding of what she had threatened Vanness.

“Vic!  It’s so nice to hear your voice!  We were worried sick when we didn’t get a call from you for two whole days!  We were more shock when a girl answered your phone.  You must see Vanness’s face when she picked up with a Japanese hello greeting.  It was so funny.  Do you know who she was?  She said you bumped into her tonight and mistakenly got your phone and vice versa.  Did you know she’s also from Malaysia?  She’s a half Japanese.  Currently she’s doing her Master there, at Japan.  She’s really nice on the phone.  Is she pretty?” blabbered Adi talkatively and continuously.

“Give him a chance to talk, Adi.  You talk too much!” spoke Ken, at the back.

“Well, it’s not my fault.  He’s not talking, anyway,” answered back Adi to Ken before continuing, “Back to the girl.  Her name is Alysha.  She’s the one who gave us her number so that we could contact you.  Call her up and make a date to change back the phones by tomorrow because you’re leaving Japan on the next day.”

“You are taking on Ken’s ‘mother’ act now,” pointed out Vic and laughed.

“I am not like Ken!  He’s more talkative and motherly than me!” protested Adi, pinching Ken by her side on the arm.

“Oww!  Why did you do that for?” squealed Ken.

“Okay, okay.  I’ll give her a call tomorrow morning.  It is already too late now.  Well, I have to go now.  I have a morning photo shoot tomorrow.  The background is the sky when the sun is rising.  We have to get ready by 4.30 am.  I’ll call you guys tomorrow.”

“Vic, don’t forget to say hi to her for me when you meet her.  Good night and sweet dream.  Don’t let the bed bug bites,” said Adi, bidding him good night before hanging up.

 Still holding on the phone, Vic looked at the girl’s picture for a while before switching it off and put it on the side table.  He yawned and not long after resting his head on the pillow, he fell asleep.

~~*~~*~~

During his break at about half an hour after eight, in the morning, he took out the mobile phone from his backpack.  Recalling back the girl’s name, from his conversation with Adi yesterday night, he dialed his own phone number.  Knowing that the girl was not really Japanese, eases a bit his nervous, fast thumping heart.  Even though his English was not that good, he would still be able to communicate with her rather than speaking Japanese.

He waited for sometime before someone picked up the other line and that had given him enough time to put aside his uneasiness.  The girl was really taking her time to pick up her hand phone... His hand phone, he corrected himself. His hand phone, which was in her hand now.

“Hello?” he asked when the ringing finally stopped.

“You’re, Vic?” asked a female voice on the hand phone.

The voice was exactly like what he had heard yesterday when the girl scolded him for bumping her and thanked him for saving her life.

‘This must be the girl.  I still recognize her voice,’ he told himself.

“Yes.  Alysha?” asked Vic, sipping a hot green tea served by his personal assistant. 

“Emm… sorry.  But I’m a bit busy right now.  Do you mind if I call you after this with your phone?”

“I’m busy too right now.  Are you free around one o’clock?  We could meet and change phones.  At the park? Okay?” asked Vic, wanting to change the phone as quick as possible. 

There was silence for a while before the girl spoke, “I can’t.  How about six?”

Vic closed the phone mouth and asked his personal assistant his schedule.  After being acknowledged that he has no other appointment after five thirty, he replied, “Okay.  See you there. Bye.”

Shortly after ended the call, Vic regretted for not asking Alysha what she would be wearing that afternoon.  It would be easier to spot her in the crowd if he knew what color to look out for.  Vic smiled as he twirled the mobile around his fingers.  Why did he sound like he was going for a blind date?

‘I’ll remember how she looks like,’ he said to himself, smiling.

Vic stopped twirling the hand phone with the neon sticker facing him.  He stared at the neon sticker for a long time.  Alysha… The name and the picture rhymed.  She wasn’t exactly a head turner because she doesn’t have the model drop-dead attractiveness quality.  But if you bumped into her once to many time down on the street, you would positively bound to notice her.  She was a pretty girl with huge sparkling eyes, small button nose and curvy lips that would melt hearts when she smiles.

‘I’ll remember how she looks like,’ confirmed Vic, still with his eye on the sticker before switching the hand phone off and put it away again in his back pack.

~~*~~*~~

Alysha's POV:

Alysha hoped she wasn’t late.  She was supposed to meet the owner of the hand phone at six, right?  Alysha lifted her left hand to read the time showed on her wristwatch.  It was only 17 minutes past six.  Surely the guy were waiting for her at that moment.  It was her fault.  She was lost in her assignment that she had totally forgotten the time.

She was running to the park when she got off the densha or electric train.  Suddenly, Alysha came to a sudden halt.  ‘In the park?’ The question popped out from her mind.   Where in the park she should be meeting him?  The park was huge.  Alysha looked at her surrounding with a blank expression.

‘Where... Where should I meet him?’ Alysha asked herself.

She stood there static; resembling a statue that made a few pairs of eyes stared.  A pretty girl, panting for breath and looking so lost in the middle of the park was not a normal scenario.

‘At the place where we bumped?’ she asked herself. 

She turned around hastily to head towards the spot where the incident took place yesterday night.  Luckily she knows the park.  The night and the daylight view was a bit different.  It would take her more time to find the spot if she wasn’t familiar with them, and she was already late.

Vic sat on the bench comfortably.  He had his back against the back of the bench and his elbows rested at it too.  Vic tilted his head up to stare at the falling sakura.  

‘I love Japan! Vic Zhou of F4 doesn’t exist here. There’s only Yu Min,’ Vic smiled at himself.

He closed his eyes tight and inhaled the smell of sakura and his temporary freedom.

Alysha walked towards the spot where she bumped with the Taiwanese guy.  Just like yesterday, people were walking with friends or their family in the park.  Once again, she was hit by loneliness.  She silently longed to belong with the crowd.  She walked passed the sakura tree with falling sakura.  Without noticed, she also walked passed by a bench occupied by a guy before arriving at the particular spot.

‘There’s no one here.’

Alysha turned around. There was no one there but herself. She took out his hand phone and started to dial her own number.

‘Now I know why Jerry loves Japan,’ he agreed silently to himself. 

Vic smiled again. His thought was interrupted by a ring tone. He jerked and searched for the phone.

“Hello?” he greeted the caller excitedly.

She was finally there after he waited for almost half an hour.

“Zai Zai? It really is you. I thought Ken is trying to fool me with his story,” said a familiar voice.

“You are fated to live for another 100 years,” Vic said and chuckled, “I was just thinking about you, Jerry.”

Alysha sighed, showing her frustration. Her hand phone couldn’t get through.  It was engaged. The guy, Vic, must be making a call with her mobile at this moment. Alysha moved closer to stand under a sakura tree. She decided to wait there a little bit longer before she tried calling him again.  On the bench, not very far away from the sakura tree where she was standing, a guy was chatting merrily on a hand phone.