-Lucas-

Lucas stared at his parents in disbelief. "What did you just say?"

"I know you heard us clearly, Lucas,” Lucas could hear the hesitation in his father’s voice. Mr. Wong didn’t even put an effort to hide his nervousness from his son. Mr. Wong opened his mouth, then closed it before he nudged Mrs. Wong on her shoulder, giving her signals to tell their oldest son their news.

“Lucas,” Mrs. Huang began slowly. Lucas noticed his mother gave his father a quick glare. Her voice became suspiciously low. He knew he would not like whatever news his parents are going to give him. “We went to see your coach…” he knew it “and we requested him to pull you out from your basketball training camp. We are sending both you and Hendery over to your grandparents.”

“Why can’t you go with him?” Lucas argued. He couldn’t believe his parents pulled him out of the training camp to spend his entire summer with his grandparents. “Why me? Why can’t one of you go instead?”

“Your mother and I need to go to Beijing for conferences and trainings,” Mr. Wong answered while rubbing his foreheads with his finger. Lucas knew his parents saw this coming, and he also knew whatever he said will potentially tempt his father to lose his temper, but he didn’t care. His parents are being unreasonable. They can’t just pull him out of the camp just so he could be his 30 mins younger fraternal twin brother’s playmate for the whole summer.

“Lucas, listen to me,” Mrs. Wong began softly. Lucas felt his mother was trying to ease the fire burning inside him by placing her hand on his broad shoulder, and it worked. “Your father and I went to meet your coach. We asked if it it’s ok for you to miss this training camp, and your coach agrees. He told us he plans to concentrate on your seniors so they can have their final games before they graduate.”

“And I know your school’s basketball reputation, Lucas,” his father interrupted. “This is the reason why I enrolled you into this school in the first place. I also did my fair of research, so don’t you dare say ‘my team needs me’, because it won’t work on us.”

Lucas was stumped. He did not expect his parents and coach would gang up on him. He needed a plan, any plan to not go to the village. He could not let his teammates know he spend his summer in the village farming, feeding the animals, chop firewood, doing kitchen work, and worse, babysitting his brother. Alright, he knew he was being dramatic. The actual fact was, he was ashamed to tell his friends that he had to skip training camp just to accompany his brother.

His mind was clouded with thoughts that he did not hear his mother called his name. “Lucas Wong Xuxi!” His father’s thunderous voice had successfully pulled him back to reality. He glanced up at his parents, “they’ll tease me…” was the only word he could say at that moment.

“What?” Mr. and Mrs. Wong stared at their oldest son with unreadable expressions.

“I say they’ll tease me. My teammates, they’ll tease me,” Lucas answered, now angry because he knew his parents had won, but he didn’t want to give up yet.
Mrs. Wong sighed. She was getting tired of Lucas’ stubbornness. “Lucas, I know you are upset, but we need you to be there with your brother, and I don’t think your friends will tease you just because of him…”

“You do not understand my friends…”

“I have enough of this conversation, Lucas,” Mr. Wong interrupted Lucas. “Either you go to your grandparents, or I will pull you out of your basketball team for good!”

~~~~
“Xuxi,” Lucas felt someone hands grabbing his arm and shook him. “We’re almost there! They say our stop is the next stop!”

Lucas grunted. He was annoyed that the person woke him up just to tell him they’re almost there. Why can’t he let him sleep until they’re actually at their stop. He pried that person’s hand away before he looked at his analogue watch. “4:20pm” he sighed. He realised he had slept for at least 3 hours of his bus journey.

“Xuxi,” he grunted again. He didn’t have the mood to talk to anyone, let alone him. He was still sour over his argument with his parents the previous day.

“Xuxi… Xuxi… Lucas… Gege…”

Feeling annoyed, he turned to the person behind him. “What?” he hissed.

“Finally,” the person giggled. “I almost thought I was alone.”

Lucas didn’t laugh. Ironically, he does wish this person would be alone, but he decided to keep his feelings to himself. He inhaled deeply, and exhaled all his anger out before he turned to person next to him and asked what does he want.

“Can you buy me a cup of milk tea please?”

Lucas’s eyebrow twitched, his patience running thin. He nearly yelled, but decided to hold his tongue. He just shifted his position and stared at the window opposite him, avoiding that person at all cost. He was grateful the seats beside him were empty. No one would judge him if he’s staring at the window for a very long time. He felt this person kept tapping his shoulder, shaking his hand, and trying to get his attention, but he remained still. To him, this person was the sole reason why he misses his training camp. This person is his brother, Hendery.