Chapter 12

“You softly shine, I’m shaking – Say Wow”

The girl worked too damn hard.

And if I can get my way, I’d hit the heads of those two household pets with something hard.

It was probably Young K’s fiftieth time having internal tirades with himself.

He would like to hit Momo on the head too for taking too much upon herself at the centre.

She was everywhere.

From attending to the customers to keeping track of centre records to putting away paraphernalias to cleaning the tobagon treks.

If Young K thought band practice and appearances were tiring, then he did not know what chasing after Momo was.

All he knew was that he was glad he was around.

After just two days learning the ropes from the girl, he basically knew what needed to be done.

And the bulk was trying to take as much weight away from Momo herself.

The other two so-called colleagues be damned.

They were too busy looking pretty while doing nothing.

Anyways, let them be, I’ll get to them when I can, he thought to himself.

In fact, he wanted to hit his own head with something hard too, for keeping Momo up with their nightly chats before.

She should have slept as and when she could.

But apart from that, he really enjoyed the time spent with Momo, working out in the open and appreciating the beautiful landscape.

***
 

“Come on, this way,” she called out to him.

Momo was leading him up a beat up trek before they started tobagon collecting again.

Young K followed her from behind, keeping up with her brisk pace.

Where does this girl get her energy from, he shook his head.

“This where I found you,” Momo suddenly stopped.

“Oh? It doesn’t look familiar at all.”

“No, I spoke to some truck drivers here. There are only two. They come here to clear fallen logs, and sell in Tokyo. So, I think you follow one.”

“Yeah, roughly I remember leaving the love motel and hitching a ride in a truck. I didn’t think the truck would come all the way here, though.”

“Love motel?”

Momo looked horrified at the mention of the love motel.

What was he doing at a love motel, Momo thought to herself, suddenly getting visions of her guest all and having fun in a gaudy room.

She shook her head trying to clear the image away.

“Hey, it’s nothing like that, ok,” Young K saw the expression on Momo’s face and knew she was making her own conclusions. He should have kept his big mouth shut. “I was drugged. Had no control, whatsoever, over what happened.”

Somehow getting Momo to have a good impression of him meant the world at that moment. 

“Who? Who drugged you? And why would they do that?”

“That’s what I want to know myself,” he scowled, kicking the snow in frustration.

“Is that why you’re hiding? Are these bad people?”

“I don’t know if they’re bad or not. It’s just that I think, they want to shame me.”

“Why? Are you famous?”

Momo actually looked angry at the thought of people trying to do him bad. But her on-point deduction was scaring him.

Young K gave her a half smile and patted the pom poms on the her ski cap.

What did I do to deserve this little munchkin, he thought.

“So, I didn’t get to ask before,” Young K started, trying to distract her line of questioning, “how did you get me a job without filling in any papers.”

“I filled in for you. I told Kaicho you don’t read or write kanji, so I write papers for you.”

“Quick thinking.”

“Come, let’s finished work quickly and go home. I very hungry.”

“Kaja,” Young K smiled, obviously his tactic to sway her from the earlier conversation worked.

And going home sounded really good to his ears at the time.