He wasn’t even sure if Selina heard him because she did not say anything.

“And you don’t…you don’t…do you…” Aaron tried but felt so scared of her answer.

He wanted to ask her if she still felt a cold distance between them, but couldn’t make out the words. Why was he so nervous? They could be friends…but yet…but yet.

“Aaron! Lets go ravin’!” Ah Ken ran over and dragged Aaron to the dance floor where the lights bounced off the floor, to the air, and back to the floor.

Aaron turned helplessly to glance at the drinking Selina as the colored disco lights flashed colors on everyone’s faces.

“Hey Aaron!” someone shouted dragging his attention away.

About 8 minutes later when Aaron was able to set himself free from the clutches of the others he found the table empty. Maybe Selina had gone to the bathroom, he thought as he looked around, so he waited for almost 10 minutes, but still she didn’t come back. Did she leave without even saying goodbye? Why did he have such a big thing about her not saying bye to him? Without thinking much further he walked around in the club, but still no sign of Selina. He even waited 5 minutes in front of the girls’ bathroom before the girls started giving him dirty looks.

“You really wanna look don’t you?” someone had commented as they left the door wide open.

Giving up, Aaron walked away and headed outside-the last place where she might be. The cool breeze under the dark sky blowing east seemed to make things feel much better because Aaron was able to breathe freely instead of inhaling in all the smoke from the cigarettes inside. He walked around the club a bit and found Selina squatting on the ground vomiting. He quickly rushed over and knelt down beside her patting her back.

“Are you ok?!” he questioned.

Selina tried to push his arm off, but gave up after the first try. When she had finished her business she tried to get up, but couldn’t. Aaron grabbed her shoulders to help steady her.

“Where do you live? I’ll take you back,” he offered.

“Call my mom to come get me,” Selina muttered.

“Aren’t they back in Shanghai?” Aaron asked.

Selina moaned as she reached her arm out towards those who walked passed her.

“Take me home. Take me home, oh sweet sweet home.” Selina began singing to herself.

Aaron finally found his car and tried to pull the keys from his pocket, but with Selina pulling made it harder.

Selina laughed when the door finally opened and he tried to get her into the back, “I didn’t cry at all, you. I lied I cried only a week and stopped!”

Aaron stopped and stared at her. What was she talking about?

“I’m strong and better! I can show you!” Selina shouted. “3 years but I can’t even date! No dates! No, no, no!”

After finally getting her into the back Aaron rummaged through her purse for any address of where she was staying but didn’t find anything useful. He closed the door and raced into the driver’s seat. Would he have to take her to his apartment? Without much thinking he stepped in the accelerator and drove away from the noisy club. On the drive to his apartment Aaron listened in on Selina’s laughter and blurred language from the back seat. There was nothing about him.

When entering the building where his apartment was located he ignored the many stares he received from others as he piggy backed her in the elevator. She had become silent as he made his way down the hallway. Each slow breath of hers landed on the side of his face and she reeked of alcohol. As Aaron tried to open his door he dropped his keys suddenly feeling as if he was drunk himself. After closing the door behind him Aaron the lights and dropped her on the bed in his bedroom. He pulled off her heels and covered her with the blanket sitting beside her for some time. Everything about her was still the same. The baby fat in her face…she’d never lost it.

“You don’t feel as if you can’t speak to me anymore, do you?” he asked. “We’re so near each other right now, but the distance is yet still so large.”

Selina slept on without even budging.

“You never say goodbye to me anymore and left me searching frantically for you after graduation. We can’t even be friends now that you’re back?”

The love he had held so dearly in his heart after breaking up with her was the only thing he was able to do for her. Because he figured she’d do the same, but it didn’t seem like it. Maybe she’d gone around telling others that they were nothing more than mere strangers who’d gone to the same school. If he had the courage he’d want to tell her that even though she was hurt, sad, and angered, and wanted to forget everything, he wanted to tell her that he didn’t want her to forget about ‘them‘.

After another five minutes of hesitating about this and that he finally got up, turned off the lights, and went to sleep on the couch.

||||||||

Only a few more hours left of the day before the others came to pressure him about reporting to Mrs. Tian about her twins. Mrs. Tian and her husband’s divorce had become mere publicity after they’d divorced. Even the officers had talked about it non-stop for 3 days before it became a boring subject. Jiro felt sorry for her and her husband, but had there been a need for the divorce?

“Do you want lunch Jiro?”

Jiro shook his head and the officer walked off.

“Boy, is he working hard. It’s almost as if the case was his own.”

Jiro couldn’t understand why the others didn’t want to try harder to find the kidnapper. And why was no one willing to lend him a hand? It wasn’t like him to mope over such a thing, but their personalities and attitudes about being righteous-when it didn’t even exist in the first place-was beginning to get on his nerves. And yet he still wanted to try his best to pave a way to find the twins who could be crying right now. Just thinking that made his heart sink a little deeper.

||||||||

A headache was the first thing Selina was able to identify when her eyes opened. She was in a white bare room with nothing more than a closet and a bathroom. She heard herself moan as she pulled herself up and found that she was lying on a bed. It didn’t strike her at first that maybe she’d been brought to a stranger’s home because she couldn’t even recall where or what she’d been doing last night.

Selina walked toward the door and first thing she noticed when the door opened was someone lying on the couch with his arm over his eyes. An oak coffee table sat in the middle of the room surrounded by two plain couches. To her left was a wide curtain that filled up with wall blocking the sun from shining through. And to her right was the kitchen.

When she was finished looking around Selina stepped out of the room to find her heels neatly placed in front of the door with her bag on the coffee table. She turned to try to identify the man and stopped when she did recognize him. It was then that questions began popping into her head about what had happened and why. Selina rubbed her head to help free herself of the bad headache she was having and grabbed her purse, slipped her shoes on, then left through the door.

As Selina waited for the elevator doors to open she tried to recall what had gone on yesterday night. Suddenly she remembered the club and the team members surrounding her. Maybe she’d gone out with them last night and somehow ended up at Aaron’s place? That didn’t make sense to her at all. Selina shook her head and entered the elevator as it opened.

It wasn’t until she got out onto the street that she turned back to look at the apartment building when the question came to her. Why was Aaron living in an apartment? Where was Hebe and their children?

||||||||

Hebe had sat down in the middle of the afternoon to have a cup of tea, read a book, and fell asleep. She woke up 4 hours later to find that the TV was on. Slightly confused and forgetful about whether she’d left it on she reached for the remote to turn the TV off. She stretched in the recliner and glanced at the picture on the table behind the empty cup of tea she’d had earlier. It had somehow fallen over and Hebe sat it upright again. It was a portrait of the twins when they had turned 7 months. She had always wished to have a family portrait taken, but never gotten to making an appointment for it. The door bell rang so suddenly it startled her.

“I’m coming!” Hebe called as she got off the recliner and headed for the door.

When she opened the door she found a lone officer standing there looking pretty nervous. His hair was so oddly shaped and combed that Hebe found herself staring at his head. He tried to smile, which didn’t captivate her attention. “You’re Mrs. Tian?” he asked.

She could tell that he was certainly nervous.

“Yes,” Hebe said and glanced at his outfit suddenly jumping forward and clasping onto his arm, “has there been news about the twins?! Have you found them?! Where are they?!”

The officer was very silent and bit his bottom lip.

“I…we haven’t been able to find anything about them,” he confessed slowly.

Hebe’s hands dropped from his arm and her face became pale, “Then why’d you come here?! Don’t step on my property if you haven’t found my babies! Go away!”

“I’m truly sorry,” Jiro found himself apologizing.

He wasn’t sure about what to do next. Why had they made him come alone? Usually when reporting to families about an incident two officers would go together. The others were really ill treating him.

“Go find them, please! I really can’t live without them! I need my babies!” she begged grabbing his arms and shaking him with tears slowly making her eyes turn red.

Jiro could feel his heart break from watching her cry.

“I…I haven’t given up yet so I’ll keep trying,” Jiro said trying to make her feel better.

What had he gotten himself into?

||||||||

Aaron’s eyes snapped open as if someone had called his name. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. The curtains were still closed and everything was quiet as it had always been. He got up to find that the purse on the coffee table wasn’t there anymore and got up. The bedroom was empty as if no one had been there in the first place. He let out a sigh. It was just as he expected.

Letting his thoughts go Aaron went into the kitchen to make coffee and toast for breakfast. It was Saturday and he could already feel that it’d be a long weekend.

||||||||

Ella had been sleeping with her legs sprawled about on the bed and her head messily crooked in her sleep when the doorbell began ringing. Ella turned over and turned over again mumbling something that even she didn’t understand. When her eyes opened Ella jumped off of the bed with her messy hair and rushed for the door. Ella found Hebe standing there with wet eyes and immediately Hebe stepped forward to claim a hug from her friend for the least comfort she could receive. Ella suddenly felt lost rewinding everything from opening the door back to her sleep and replayed everything in her head. Was there something she’d missed? Why was Hebe now at her doorstep? Ella thought it’d be better if she didn’t speak and just patted Hebe’s back.

||||||||

“I’m so dead,” Jiro found himself saying that aloud numerous times as he sat in the car staring at the road ahead.

The cars that drove by went by very slow assuming that Jiro was on speed watch patrol-which he was not. Instead of giving up the case like he was supposed to he had told Mrs. Tian that he’d continue the search and give it his all. He’d really receive whipping from the seniors at work…but then maybe not. There was another person who he could talk to other than the chief.

Jiro found himself sitting in a restaurant when the doors opened and Reeve walked in. He waved toward Jiro with a smile and came over to sit down. The restaurant was really big and since they were seated by the window farthest from the front Jiro wasn’t afraid of being overheard. The western cuisine restaurant was really modernized and was made to look like those in the west. The floor carpeted, square windows here and there, squared tables all lined up neatly in rows, and waiters waiting on you. A very high class restaurant Jiro only came to on urgent occasions.

“Suddenly inviting me out for lunch. This is the second time since I’ve worked with you, so what’s up?” he said.

Reeve was a really tall person, taller than Jiro. He was always composed and was very sophisticated looking. A hard working man, an engaged man too.

“Lets order first and talk through the meal. It feels more natural that way,” Jiro told.

“Fine with me.” Reeve replied.

After they ordered and when their food was served Jiro started after taking the 20th sip from his cup of cold water.

“Regarding that case…”Jiro began.