这一刻发觉太偏差-I realise the difference now,
Get Over You
“Hey Linda, I finally found you!”
“What’s wrong? And why are you so late?”
“Sorry,” Niki pouted, seeing that she had something to explain Linda said
“Just tell me, don’t worry about being late, the others aren’t here yet,”
“How can customers mistake me for Yoyo… he left his passport with her and thought that I was the one who took it!” She sighed her anger which was bottling up and could not escape, Linda watched her friend release all her steam through one spout like an over-boiling kettle. She patted her friend without words, acknowledging her pain silently; each pat had embraced Niki with comfort,
“These things happen; it’s a part of life, you have to pass through many hurdles to reach the end of the race you know,” Linda sighed
“Linda, at least you have been through love before, I am just a newborn to the realm of love and its storybook of fantasy. I haven’t been through any relationship before, it’s pretty fail, you know? I just wish that…” Niki stopped abruptly as she heard the summons of her other two best friends out of the venture down the river of truthfulness towards her feelings,
“Linda!!!”
“Guess what?” Janice followed Fala
“Don’t tell me my friends have to shower me with complaints as well?”
“No, but guess what?”
“You just said that,” Linda laughed
“Just don’t freak out alright?”
“Alright, just tell me already!”
Fala promptly nodded “FFFFF…” everyone focused on what Fala was going to say until she slammed their curiosity right back to the ground after lifting their excitement high in the sky.
“Janice!” she squealed “I can’t bring myself to tell her”
“How hard is it?” Janice asked as she attempted, “Fung… is back” Janice said hurriedly however calm. Linda wiped her thoughts clear for a few seconds retracing the words which had just come out of Janice’s mouth, emotionless reaction lead to the constant woe of her friends. Thoughts just started flying back to her like a boomerang that had been thrown and had returned after a long disappearance.
“But,” Janice added,
“There’s something else to it, you remember our trip to Taipei?”
“Don’t tell me that…” Niki stared at her friends, who nodded with hesitation and regret. Linda continued to circle her thoughts.
“How did you know?” Linda managed to ask. The girls motioned in the direction of the noticeboard where all the rosters were.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t meet him, it shows that our fate had officially ended around two months ago?”
“Linda, although you are saying that, you can’t get over him right? We can tell, just stop denying your own feelings!” her friends desperately tried to reason.
“I doubt the path will continue, not unless that he was the one who found my bracelet the fourth time, but was just hiding it,”
“Linda, you really need to rethink about it, you are pushing too hard on yourself”
“I’m not; I’m just…simply testing our fate,”
“But it was fate all along ever since that first time he picked it up…
[Flashback lobby, CX city]
“Where’s my bracelet?” Linda panicked after realising that it was not s around her wrist,
“I told you to wear it properly,” Fala warned
“I still had it during our flight, take off and everything.” She automatically broke into a run with her suitcase left behind with her friends, her heels making a rhythmic ostinato. In her mind was to impossibly search on the plane again. As she raced her worries, she bumped into a guy who was walking along talking with his friends, as she apologised and looked up, his reply was unexpected,
“Oh, you’re Linda right?” the young pilot scanned her emotions, and sensed her panic, without letting her reply,
“You guys go first,” he motioned to his friends who watched him suspiciously, as he saw them turn the corner, he said calmly,
“I have something of yours,” he said with a charming smile, which had not affected Linda, he took her wrist and opened her fist dropping the bracelet in her palm in a fashion that she could see what was the surprise,
“You might be the owner of this,”
“How did you know though?”
“You were the one who served us today remember?”
“I don’t know how to thank you…”
“There’s no need, besides I can tell it’s pretty important by the four leaf clover,”
“You know about them?”
“I believe in them,” Linda was astonished at his remark, but was interrupted by the calling of her friends who was trying to chase after her sudden disappearance,
“Well, I guess I’ll see you around,” he said casually after glimpsing over to her friends and turning away to walk back into the cafe with Linda waving him off politely with gratitude. Without realising, she was revealing a smile as sweet as cotton candy.
[End flashback]
“I didn’t remember that until you brought it up,”
“But after you guys dated you found it very coincidental, even believing that it was a part of fate,
“Now I realise that losing something you love and having someone else find it is pretty common, take Niki for an example.”
“But, Linda all those things was found by the same person…”Fala said and turned to Janice nodding
“KEVIN” the chorused, Niki was silent, surprised yet blushing and giving the girls a death glare struggling to find a way to defend herself, she just leaned forward in her chair in attempt to hit the two girls,
“But you can’t deny the second time,” Janice said, catching glimpses of Niki too who felt like she was a victim to this talk as well.
“It was the night after how you won that watch for Janice’s birthday”
[Flashback]
“Janice, Happy birthday” Linda spread her arms as she entered the apartment with a bag dangling off her wrist
“You made it girl, I thought you were in Japan,”
“How can I miss my best friend’s birthday?” handing Janice her gift
“Oh my gosh, you actually won it?!”
“You will have to find Raymond as well, if it weren’t for him, I would be in the library all night trying to solve the quiz.
“Then where is he?”
“You guys must have had a sweet time,” Fala teased causing for Linda’s cheeks to change into a brighter shade,
“You’re not a butterfly Linda! Why are you trying to camouflage into the pink decoration in our apartment?” Niki laughed
“Niki, you better watch out, oh by the way I don’t know where he went I thought he was with us all along but…” she sighed her heart being squeezed together, with slight disappointment as she reminisced her racing heart as he watched his caring side while looking for clues in the library, she looked down at her wrist thinking about how he had found her bracelet a while ago,
“Oh no, where is my bracelet?”
“Again, Linda did you lose it on purpose so that ‘he’ could find it?” Fala asked as Linda guiltily scanned the ground for her bracelet that resembled their sisterhood. Her heart quickened pulsing in her cheeks was her worry. Then the guys who were hanging around the drinks table had gathered around…
“Who’s the he that our Fala is talking about?” Kenneth smirked jokingly
**
[Two days later…Hong Kong airport]
“Hi,” she strode up to him without energy after searching the library for the whole day yesterday, yet maintaining her sweet smile for him
“Oh hi Linda, good to see you again, were you sick yesterday?” at Raymond’s reply, Linda’s thoughts trailed off and her heartbeat quickened with a growing mass of butterflies in her stomach, she curled her toes, but looked down once again remembering that she hadn’t found her treasure.
“I guess, you didn’t want to see me,” Raymond said playfully acting disappointed
“Don’t think that way please…” she desperately said watching him giggle cutely
“I was joking,” he changed to a more serious tone and followed her gaze which dropped to the floor in embarrassment, asking as he bent lower so that she could see him
“Did you happen to drop something?”
“How did you…”
“Here you go, I found it in the book I borrowed, weird isn’t it?” he smiled as he dangled the bracelet in front of her face as she slowly looked up. Lost for words once again her smile melted the thin ice that had once covered her face a few moments ago, she thanked him having the urge to peck him on the cheek but was restrained with the fact that she thought he was too popular to like a girl like her. He smiled at her cuteness, at how her old self was magically returned. They stared at each other for a few seconds, until her friends called her.
She left with her friends as his friends joined him, she followed his presence until he turned back and saw that she was looking back as well, they both quickly diverted their attention elsewhere, slightly blushing as her friends started questioning her. In her heart, she never thought that he could be so charming.
[End flashback]
“You only found out that he noticed it was missing and had drove back to the library to search for it,”
“I don’t know how to tell the difference between truths and lies now,” pain surfaced to Linda’s face as tears gathered inside her eyes, threatening to fall out…
“Linda, why don’t you try to find out the truth about the Mavis Pan scandal?”
“I agree, it seems unrealistic”
“Exactly my point, why would he be the type to betray you,” her friends had reasoned,
“Maybe he was hiding his real identity all along?” Linda sighed.
[CX city café]
“Hey Raymond,” Ron cried
“Yeah what’s up?”
“We’ve got news that you might be concerned about.” Kevin started but was interrupted by Kenneth who was correcting him
“As a matter of fact, it concerns your present and future,”
“What’s so important?”
“Remember our Taipei flight?”
“Was there a bomb on it that I was not informed about?” He laughed jokingly
“JUST LISTEN,” as Bosco got impatient
“Linda was flying on that flight too,”
Raymond hesitated for a long moment with the same expressionless feeling towards the news just like Linda, except the guilt took over
“Apparently the girls were wandering in the same mall as well,”
“But the truth is I didn’t see her although we were so close,”
“Bro, what exactly happened between you and Mavis?”
“I’m not so sure either,”
“But you have to remember for the sake for Linda, you remember how much you did for her, to an extent you got us to spend our time searching for something instead of attending Janice’s birthday party?” Ron complained, “I wanted to confess to her…”he mumbled
“What did you say?” Only to see that he had shook his head, “I only feel that I betrayed Linda”
[Flashback]
Inside the lift, Linda and Raymond had met with his friends in the lobby, finding it difficult to get closer with Linda, as they reached her level and the door opened, Raymond saw that her wrist was bare, missing the presence of her friendship charm, he wanted to tell her he would be leaving first but, she was too busy congratulating Janice. So headed off urgently back to the CX library,
As he was driving, he received a call from Ron,
“Hey bro, are you at the party yet? I am just about to head off,”
“Wait, Ron can you please come to the library with me?”
“But…” Raymond couldn’t sense the urgency in Ron as he was too focused on finding the bracelet, waiting for a decent reply
“Fine I’ll come, but why does our Mr Lam want to go to the library at this hour?
“Lost something” he plainly said
“Is it your girlfriend’s property?” Ron teased without knowing that he was close to scoring the truth
“Just be there,”
[CX city]
“Dude, we’ve been searching for half an hour already,” Ron complained
“I know we should be at the party but this is important, sorry and thanks bro,” Raymond replied ignoring the wincing of Ron who was desperate to be at the party, he felt the jewellery box in his coat pocket, with regret, but watched the concentrated face of Raymond, breaking into a smile, looks too important, I guess mates come first, Ron thought to himself.
“Can you really find something so small in a place like this?”
“someone told me once that if you just have faith you can find it and achieve what you hoped for,” flashing a picture of Linda saying that to him while scanning the book for clues, her face was angelic.
“Doesn’t sound like our Fung,” Ron teased as Raymond reached under the shelf to check if it was there,
“I finally found it!” Raymond shouted with triumph
“How are you going to return this nice bracelet?” Ron whispered at a soft tone after complaints from the librarian. Raymond stared at Ron as if asking him “how do you know I need to return it?”
“I’ll have my ways” he left swiftly
“But in the end, we didn’t meet for the entire journey,”
“What does that prove?”
“That our timing is not correct, give some more patience,”
“Think about it bro, she’s the best sister in law I can hope for,” Kenneth said
“Niki is not bad too as a sister in law you know, Kevin?” Ron stated and turned to Kevin who had overreacted
“Dude, mind your own business and finish your drink, you have to fly with me today.
[Festive walk shopping centre, Kowloon Tong,]
Linda walked into the air-conditioned area escaping the taunting humid autumn weather. She remembered her purpose here, her friends told her to take a break and walk around thinking clearly about what might’ve happened, and reminded her that her pain was a result of the remainder of the love she had left for him after the equation of the division of the relationship. It was exactly like a math problem. The remainder just couldn’t make a whole.
Walking into a shoe shop, she was greeted by the sales assistants,
[Flashback]
“These ones match well, their flat so I can hold your hand easier,”
“But I want to be taller”
“Trust me, it’s impossible that you will be taller than me” trying to prove him wrong, Linda pulled on a pair of stilettoes and questioningly looked at Raymond for an answer, who tipped on his toes and smiled at her shaking his head. Linda pouted and pulled him over to the bench, seating him
“Now I am officially taller than you” Linda laughed holding both Raymond’s shoulders restraining him from standing up. He smiled at her cuteness,
“Not anymore…” he poked her on the hip making her squeal and sit down straight away, laughing.
[Langham place, Mongkok]
Raymond sighed as he walked into this haven which had contained many of the memories with Linda. Looking directly into the florist as he walked past,
[Flashback]
“Sir, Miss may I help you?”
“Its fine, we just want to look around,”
“Thank you” Linda said to the assistant who had turned away to walk around
“Looks like she is depressed”
“It’s because a hot guy like me just rejected her assistance.” Linda playfully hit him on the arm and rested her head onto his shoulder
“What flowers do you want?” Linda thought for a moment finding it hard to answer,
“To be honest, I like the fragrance of frangipanis and oriental lilies, I like the colours of those sunflower like flowers, I love the Sakura (cherry blossoms) about how delicate it is, shy and only shows in the spring, it reminds me of how carefree the day of your confession was, just watching it float in the Spring breeze, takes me back to the beach scenery in Phuket.”
“But what if you had to just pick one?”
“I would choose the Dutch rose,”
“You didn’t mention it earlier, why though?”
“Because of its fragrance, although it is pretty, it is so fragile that it needs to be protecting itself from being hurt with its thorns.”
“I hope you won’t need to be a Dutch rose who needs to use its thorns,” he smiled as he pinched her softly on the nose.
[Festive walk]
“Wow these shops are still here!” Linda gasped at the presence of the shop which once played their melody of love, she walked into the piano shop and started playing a solo of the song “loving you”, a tear escaped the corner of her eye without warning as she released the last chord, steps came up to her
“What a lonely tune, Linda it has been a while” Vivian was standing in front of Linda who smiled and once again lost herself in her memory
[Flashback]
“Can we please go in?” Linda clung onto his arm and pulled him inside the store without waiting for a reply.
“Vivian?” Linda gasped and hugged her childhood friend
“Long time no sees, Linda” Raymond was left confused until Linda seized the opportunity to introduce,
“Can we please play?”
“Sure, I’m pretty sure you’ll attract many customers”
“I’m scared I’ll just scare them away,”
“Don’t be so modest, Linda,”
She started playing her tune with a melodic introduction, suddenly joined by a pair of gentle hands, making her stop abruptly gasping,
“You can play?”
“I am the son to a karaoke company owner,” Raymond smiled and signalled her to continue,
In complete harmony, they moved the fingers up and down the keys, as they opened the mouths to sing their tune; they showered the place with an angelic and heavenly duet that could not be matched
Loving you, is easy ‘coz you’re beautiful
Loving you is all I wanna do
Loving you is more than just a dream come true
And everything that I do is out of loving you…
Lalalalala, lalalalala, lalalalalalalalala, doodoodooodooodoodooo yeah……
Ending their short performance at a perfect note, although short, their short encounter had attracted passers-by to stop and crowd in the shop leaving the couple embarrassed with the amount of applause they received.
[end flashback]
Wiping her tears off her face, Linda greeted her friend.
“You can tell that it’s missing feeling right?”
“We connected through music when we were little Linda, that wasn’t lacking feeling it was just lonely and sorrowful, missing a part to it.” Linda forced a smile as she hugged her friend, relieved that someone could feel how she felt at the moment. Through the music she had shared the connection with her childhood music buddy.
[Langham place Mongkok]
Is there such a big difference that she makes to my life? Raymond whispered to himself. He paused his thoughts as the glaring light of a jewellery store finds him.
[Flashback]
“I want the white one,” Linda said cutely
“It’s not that good!” Raymond retorted
“But it’s a couple watch, we can wear it together”
“Do you want to reveal our relationship so fast?”
“I think the time is right, because before, my friends weren’t comfortable with you guys, like after Bosco got rejected by Janice, but it’s fine now since Myolie is married,” Raymond kept staring at Linda with the are-you-serious? Face. Linda turned around thinking that he did not want to show their love, pouting her lips. Raymond took her hand and led her inside without a word.
Inside the store, the sale assistants immediately greeted the couple. To Linda’s surprise, the sales assistant returned from behind the display cabinet with two boxes.
“Please check if the product satisfies our order,” and she left them to their own discussion.
As Raymond opened the box to a pair of watches, Linda was peering over his shoulder with curiosity building up. Her hand was clasped straight over in utter disbelief,
“You like it?” Raymond asked confidently. Linda observed the design, it was the same watch in the front display, and however, something special was on the face of the watch it said in letters ‘Rayda’ in silver letters.
Her face quickly transformed from a little girl seeing candy to a cool and disappointed face, asking seriously
“No I don’t Raymond Lam, who do you think I am?”
“What?” Raymond gasped taken aback.
“I wanted to say I love it!” quickly pecking him on his cheek and blushing
[End flashback]
He looked down at his wrist, watchless again, he stared at his hand and graped the air as if to test if Linda was there. His spirits and hopes plummeted, he smirked at himself, what was I thinking?
[Cinema]
“Here’s your ticket and you will be in cinema 3”
“Thank you” Linda absent minded said and walked quietly into the cinema as she sat down she stared into the spare seat next to her, she was once again dragged into her past
[Flashback]
“Can we please watch Harry Potter?”
“But I want to watch a comedy”
“Harry Potter”
“Comedy”
“Harry Potter,”
“Fine, I’ll get the tickets and you can go and grab the snacks, deal?”
“She is such a kid,” Raymond whispered turning away shaking his head
“What? Why are there so many snacks?”
“Why are there so many tickets?”
“I knew you were going to buy to sessions,”
“Do you believe in telepathy?”
“No but I believe in my trust in you”
[Cinema]
Raymond reached over the arm chair and wiped away the tear on Linda’s face with his thumb. He held out his hand for her, she took it, slowly they connected their sadness and watched the movies together
“I love you as much as the general loved the princess in the Jade and Pearl”
“But I don’t believe that we’ll get separated like that,” Linda said confidently
“Of course, we are different, nothing can separate us,” he reassured her by patting her head and reached for his remainder of the whipped cream on top of his iced coffee and dapped some on Linda’s nose,
[End flashback, Mongkok cinema]
Raymond looked empty minded into the seat beside him, he was about to pass his drink to the next seat, inside the storm of memories was causing a tear pool to collect like a gushing tap. He looked up at the cinema screen; the funny parts of the exact same movie were not funny at all. He could not laugh at this point not even when his friends snuck up into the cinema and tickled him with feathers. He thought of her pure smile, her cute laugh, her clear eyes and most of all, her love. He knew that she loved him a lot, he could still feel it. But did he love her enough? Did he deserve to meet such an angel? What happened that night?
Linda passes little Italy and reminisces the tem she was here last with Raymond, once again.
“What dessert do you want?”
“I didn’t think that you would need any since you’re a flight attendant and you should be conscious of your body image,” Raymond teased
“Oh so you are implying that pilots should be aware of their diet and lifestyle too to remain cool? I don’t want an unhealthy partner!” Linda pouted and folded her arms across her chest looking away pretending to be angry once again.
“Partner? I want you to be my wife”
“Excuse me,” he waved to the closest waitress and asked her playfully
“Will you be my wife?” Linda and the waitress gaped until Linda bursts into a giggle, hitting him playfully on the arm
“Stop it, you’re scaring her”
“No I was actually asking you,” as he turned his vision towards her.
“I think you two have got the wrong idea, I actually waved to you miss, to ask for a Mango Lassi and a slice of tiramisu,” the waitress quickly turned away on the spot at an incredible speed and blushed.
“Should we go there? Linda pointed to the closest picture of Rome”
“It’s as enchanting as it looks” As Raymond returned his focus on Linda, Linda had dabbed some mascarpone cheese on his cheek.
He picked up fork in return pretending to feed her in apology for his teasing, but directly the corner of .
“You clumsy girl, you have to be careful, watch your etiquette and image as a flight attendant girl!” Linda glared at him,
“But…” He added, “I still love you no matter how you look, because you are my Linda,”
Linda mocked him and pretended to throw up
“stop joking, can you keep your promise?”
Picking up her fork to eat her dessert, Linda could no longer taste the sweetness to the loveable dessert, instead she could only feel the overpowering bitterness of the coffee powder and cocoa.
“Is it just his sweet talk? Could it be him teasing me? Why did I fall in love with him again? Would everything be different if I didn’t bump into him the first day my heart started beating for him on its own accord? What would she be like now if she continued to hate him as the rich personality he seemed to be?” but after those long minutes over repeated questioning, she knew one thing for sure,
“I really feel the difference now.”
[Langham place, shine café]
Raymond picked up his coffee after adding his sweeteners to the liquid. He smelt the tempting aroma of brewing coffee flowing freely throughout the place, embedding its arms into the noses of passers-by and customers not letting them leave. After the coffee came in contact with his tongue, it hit him. The bitterness of flowed from his tongue all throughout the body. Looking down at the packets of sugar that were added, he was sure he had already exceeding his limit in sugar.
“I guess I found my answer… maybe the difference that she makes tells me that life is meaningless without her.”
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