Everybody stared to the person who darted wildly down the narrow gravel road. Some of the children ran themselves to their mother; frightened with the sight. Even everyone along the street quickly emptied the path as the stranger went through it. For some reason, the slum area suddenly turned quiet that morning; the thud of the stranger’s footsteps crunched ferociously, filling the silence around the area with a slight tremor. No one ever dared to ask neither stop the stranger from entering their region. One thing that they sure, the stranger came to find somebody.

            “Open the door!” The people watched the person knocked on the door of one of the houses. The force was too much where everybody started to worry that the shabby house might broke down to pieces.

            “Hongyok open the door!”

After awhile, the door flung open in a sudden gush. The owner was in complete shock with the unwelcomed visit. Everybody saw the teenage girl panted in startled as she stepped right at the door.

            “P’Kim...” The girl looked dumbfounded. She scanned her gaze to the tom from the head to toe. Kim looked exactly like a gangster in her black outfit. The black leather jacket hung on her skinny frame perfectly yet the full – faced helmet covered up her face in mystery. However, her figure was not a complete bizarre to the teenage girl. Hongyok seemed to know every inch of Kim’s figure very well.

            “Where is Pie?” Kim rushed to get into the small house making Hongyok stumbled backward for the sudden move. The girl got a long scratch on her arms as Kim accidently pushed her to the old wooden door.

            “P’Pie is not here.” The girl answered, staring to Kim bewilderedly as the tom wandered around their house, trying to look for her sister.

            “Don’t lie to me. Where is she?” Kim turned around to the teenage girl.

            “She is not here. Don’t you see it’s only me in the house?” Hongyok shrugged. The burning anger of the tom hinted her that something has gone wrong between her sister and also her employer. Kim would never come there for such unimportant purpose.

            “Pie, come out. Don’t hide yourself.” Kim said losing every bit of her patience. The tom went back and forth around the small area indignantly.

            “P’Kim, my sister is not here. The last time I met her was when I came to your house the other day.” The teenage girl informed.

            “Where did she go?” Kim dropped herself to the old couch, sighing hard in frustration.

            “What’s wrong?” Hongyok took a place opposite to the tom.

            “Pie left the house. She is missing.” Kim shed every word carefully to the girl’s hearing. Later, she caught the teenage girl gasped in shock.

            “Are you sure she is missing?” Hongyok queried, lines of worries drawn all over her innocent face.

            “She left me a note with ‘GOODBYE’ message on it.” Kim sighed. Her heart sank at the thought of being betrayed by the girl she valued the most.

            “P’Kim, what is really happening between both of you?” It was such amazement to the tom when the teenage girl could be so calm in the chaos. How could Hongyok possibly not to fret with her sister sudden missing?

Indecision wrapped Kim as she had to choose between keeping her promises to Pie of not exposing their secret to anyone and being honest with the girl’s sister by blood about their relationship. Sooner or later, they could never hold the secret anymore from the teenage girl. Hongyok would figure things out someday; perhaps not too soon but when it came to her knowledge, Kim and Pie might never been exist any longer – separated.

            “We are engaged. She’s my fiancée.” Kim told the girl before she saw Hongyok nodded her understands. Surprisingly, it was not the expected reaction the tom would anticipate to see. The confession didn’t affect that girl that much. She was so calm that nothing has gone wrong with the engagement where she had not been told for the occasion on the first place.

            “I knew it. My sister is never too good in lying.” Hongyok said with a smile. “Please take care of her.” The teenage girl bowed down her head in respect gesture. She was as polite as ever; the thing that always pleased Kim whenever she met the girl.

            “Don’t you feel mad or object this relationship? Don’t you feel upset because Pie kept it off from your knowledge?” Kim asked bewildered with the easy response that the girl showed.

            “I’m glad that P’Pie finally found someone who cares a lot about her. Thank you so much for taking care of my sister.” The girl’s eyes shone with a bright sense of relief.

            “Alright. I’m glad you happy for us but now, you have to help me to look for your sister. She is missing.” Kim started to become panic again. Pie left without a concrete reason and that puzzled her to the worse mess.

            “Well, perhaps you can look for her at Aunty Inn’s place. Who knows she is there.” Hongyok suggested, tapping a finger to her chin as she spoke.

            “Aunty Inn’s place?”

            “Yes. P’Yam is her best friend.” The girl nodded.

            ***************************************************************************************

Meanwhile at the bungalow...

            “Kim! You have to help me.” Pie bellowed from distance. She hurriedly made her steps into the house again from the backyard. She directed her move to the kitchen, anticipating that she could see the tom eating her breakfast at the very moment. She needed the tom’s help for an urgent matter.

            “Kim, please help me.” Pie said catching her breath as soon as she reached the targeted place.

“There’s....”

            “Kim?” She stared to the empty air, disturbed by the tom’s absence. The breakfast which she prepared earlier was left untouched. Shifting her gaze to the spot where Kim always took, she saw Kim’s belongings were there, setting carefully on the empty chair. However, the tom was nowhere to be seen.

            “Where is she?” Pie brought herself to the wide window overlooking the yard. The white Lamborghini was still there, telling her that the tom was not yet left the house.

            “Kimhan Jittaleela, aren’t you going to work?” Pie bellowed from downstairs. She quickly changed her direction to upstairs; she had been taking care of almost everything about Kim. One of them most probably been said as the human alarm clock to the tom. The daily Pie was sort of a giant siren rang to every edge of the house to remind the tom of what time it was and then.

            “Kimhan?” Pie craned her neck through the slightly ajar door. Sadly, Kim was not in the room. Later, she turned around to look for the tom at the other places in the house. Not before she arranged her steps once again, Pie realized that her room was widely open. No; she didn’t leave it that way earlier.

            “Kimhan? Are you in here?” Pie entered her room with the hope to see the tom in there. Again she was disappointed that Kim was still nowhere to be found.

            “Kim, don’t play around. You need to go to the office.” Pie growled when the thought of Kim purposely wanted to came to her mind.

            “Show yourself. I need your help.” Pie said again.

Pie was about to leave the room when her attention was drawn to a piece of paper on the floor. A sudden rush of fear flew through her veins as she quickly picked it up and read the content. At the very moment, she felt that her world had stop spinning and everything seemed to cease from exist.

            “GOODBYE KIM.” The note was a terrible mistake she has ever done and to her worse, Kim had found it before she destroyed the message.

            “God! Kim must have misunderstood this.” Pie cursed herself for such careless deed.

            “Where have she been?” Fright started to envelope her. The cell phone on the table called Pie that the only way to reach the tom was through a phone call. Not to waste her time, she hurriedly grabbed the phone. Again, universe seemed to joke her around when the battery was dead. It was plugged to the charger but to her careless, she didn’t switch it on.

Once the cell phone was connected to its life, it didn’t stop vibrating indicating a lot of notifications were received. “God, Kim must be really mad with me.” Pie felt her life on the hook when it showed 25 missed calls from the tom. Kim must have been worried sick because her own silliness. The tom should have known that she would not leave the house without any concrete reason.

            **********************************************************************************

 Back to the slum area...

            “Have you tried to call her?” Yam asked, shooting a look to the tom as if she was a detective in charge. Kim was being surrounded by the people; Aunty Inn, Hongyok and also P’Boy seated to the chair as if she was a criminal in investigation.

            “It’s only the ing operator who answers me. Pie switched off her phone.” Kim said impatient. She threw the cell phone to the table and Hongyok quickly caught it before it slid down to the floor.

            “What have you done to her? Pie won’t run anywhere if you didn’t do something wrong to her.” It’s P’Boy who came to investigate. From the first time Kim ever met him, he has never changed a bit. Even in his serious condition, he still kept his squid gesture.

            “I didn’t do anything.” Kim mused. The argument they had the night before flashed through her mind. Was it the cause for Pie to run away?

            “Kim, we know you have something with Pie. You better tell us the truth. What have you done to her?” It’s Yam who questioned. Everybody seemed to put the blame on her. Kim was trapped for things she was unsure in which part of it she was utterly wrong. Pie just simply left her without words.

            “I swear I didn’t do anything.” The tom shrugged but then she caught Yam glared to her with a warning look. “Fine, we did have a little fight last night but I don’t think it was the reason for her to leave.”

            “You hurt my sister.” P’Boy landed a smack to the back of Kim’s head. Kim turned a startled look to the guy. No one has ever done it to her.

            “It was complicated.” Kim sighed, losing her way to explain every complicated sequence that ever happened between them. How supposed she told them about the engagement and also the arranged marriage which will soon to occur? No one has ever understood the matter except both of them.

            “It’s doesn’t change the fact that you hurt her.” Another smack landed on the tom’s head again. Kim pouted with sour expression all over her face. There’s no chance for her to win this matter when everybody had already put the blame on her.

            “P’Boy, enough with it.” Hongyok came to rescue. She placed herself in between Kim and P’Boy, separating the two persons apart