Vic's POV:

“Is that Alysha?” Ken asked, curiously.

Adi nodded her head slowly. It has to be her. “How do you know?” Ken asked Adi, doubting Adi’s nod. Adi shifted her gaze from the sticker to Ken.

“I just know,” she answered Ken flatly. “Of course it’s Alysha. Whose photo would Vic keep if it’s not Alysha’s?”

Still laughing and holding to his aching stomach, Vanness took the hand phone from Adi’s hand. “Let me see,” he said.

“No, don’t!” Adi protested. She tried to snatch the hand phone back from Vanness but Vanness has advantages over her – he was quicker in his moves and he was two heads taller than Adi.

“Vanness, don’t! Vic will not like it,” Adi whined after she failed to match Vanness’s quick moves. Adi looked at Jerry and Ken for help but Ken had joined Vanness mischiefs and Jerry only shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t own these two circus clowns,” came out the simple answer from Jerry, to get him off the hook. He started to eat, ignoring the two chuckling guys and one irritated girl. It was the truth; he has no say when the two of them, and three if Vic was included, were acting naughty. He preferred to be a by-stander, not because he didn’t care but because he loved seeing them enjoying themselves like that.

Adi darted a few glances in the direction of the toilet as she fidgeted on her spot. What if Vic came out and saw them? It was her fault. She showed those two lunatic guys the neon sticker, hence initiating their teases of Vic. Stretching her hand to reach the hand phone that Vanness was holding a hand length away above his head, Adi finally gave up when her efforts failed miserably.

“If Vic asked me anything, I’ll say I don’t know any of you two,” mumbled Adi as she joined Jerry on the table.

“Whatever,” said Vanness, uninterested in Adi but very interested in Vic’s hand phone. He had just discovered more than the neon sticker. While browsing Vic’s hand phone, Vanness saw photos of the same girl in the neon sticker.

“Ken!” Vanness shouted Ken’s name in alarm. “Look!” continued Vanness, sounding very mischievous.

Jerry looked up at Adi with his infamous toothy grin. “Guilty?” he asked teasingly.

“Only a little,” answered Adi after a long pause, scooping more green veggies for herself.

Ken laughed and whistled, prompting Adi and Jerry to turn their head towards Vanness and him. “Zai Zai landed himself on a very pretty girl,” he commented.

Vanness nodded his head, agreeing with Ken. “How fast can you pack your bag?” asked Vanness.

Knowing what Vanness meant by that, Ken chuckled. “Faster than the flight from Taipei to Tokyo,” replied Ken. Rubbing his palms together, he eagerly looked at the screen again. “Let’s go to Japan. Japanese girls are very good looking,” Ken commented again.

Sitting on the chair next to Adi, Vanness pushed Ken aside to let Adi see the screen of the hand phone. Adi took the opportunity to snatch the hand phone back from Vanness. “Ay!” Vanness screamed, protesting. He failed to get the hand phone as Adi had her grip on it and hid it under the table.

Ken took one of the two vacant chairs and tilted his head towards the hand phone. “The naughty Zai Zai didn’t tell us he has a pretty girl in Tokyo,” he said.

Curious with Ken’s statement and the exchange of words between Vanness and Ken just now, Adi took the hand she was hiding from under the table. She loosened her grip over Vic’s hand phone once she placed it on the table. Jerry also stretched his head to know what was on the screen that caused such a fuss from Ken and Vanness.

Frowning and turning towards Adi, Jerry asked, “This is Alysha too?” in low tone. Adi turned the hand phone around and stared at the neon sticker again. Comparing the neon sticker and the photo on the screen, Adi nodded her head. “This is Alysha too. But this is more recent than the sticker. Her hair is longer in this photo,” Adi said.

“There is another photo,” Ken butted in. “She..” Ken’s voice trailed. He saw Vic coming out from the toilet. Stuffing a spoonful of rice into his mouth, he tried to attack Adi’s attention. He knocked his spoon on the table, gesturing Adi to left the hand phone alone.

“Here’s the other one,” Adi said, showing the screen to Jerry. “She’s so pretty. Look at her smile,” said Adi excitedly, looking at Alysha’s photo and hence didn’t notice Ken’s warning.

“Ahem..” Ken cleared his throat, trying to gain Adi’s attention again. Jerry and Adi had their full attention to Vic’s hand phone, with their head almost touching as they looked through the photos. Ken was very sure, even if a bomb dropped on the table, they wouldn’t even notice it.

Upon hearing Ken, Vanness turned around and saw Vic. He flashed Vic his award winning grin, waving him to come over to the table and joined them. Turning to Ken after that, Vanness tilted his head at Adi and making a gesture, slashing his spoon horizontally in front of his throat. “Adi is so dead,” he mouthed to Ken and chuckled.

Oblivious to them, Adi alternating between the two photos in Vic’s hand phone. “This is obviously a candid. She looks so stunned,” said Adi, followed by a giggle. “Ken, if you want to see pretty girls, just flew over to Malaysia. After all, I’m a pretty Malaysian girl and so is Alysha,” she said with her chin high up in the air.

As he walked to the table, Vic’s forehead wrinkled at the mentioning of Alysha’s name. His frown deepened when he noticed Jerry and Adi’s interest on something placed on the dinner table. When he reached the table, Vic lowered his head to join Adi and Jerry. He almost gasped but managed to put up a straight face when he realized they were actually browsing through his hand phone.

Ken raised his eyebrow at Vic. “Adi seems to like your girl so much,” Ken said, tilting his head at Adi.

Adi, who was very shocked to see Vic, almost jumped on her chair. She spontaneously dropped the hand phone on the table. Staring at Ken with wide eyes, she pretended to be eating, as if nothing had happened just awhile before. She silently cursed Ken for implying she was the bad person between the four of them. Jerry took the hand phone and handed it over to Vic.

Vic grabbed the phone.  Still frowning, he put the hand phone in his pocket. Jerry noticed Vic’s face was a bit panicky and pale. He turned his attention towards his dinner, pretending not to notice Vic’s expression, yet waiting for the incoming teases from Ken and Vanness, which he was very sure was what they would do.

“How dare you guys started the dinner without me...” Vic whined, hoping to avoid the incoming teases.  He knew all of them too well to realize what would be coming out from their mouth, especially from Vanness and Ken’s. He inhaled and smiled. “Smell nice,” Vic commented and took his seat.

Smiling and grinning like his jaw has a loose screw, Vanness nudged Vic as soon as Vic settled down on the chair next to his. “That’s Alysha, right?” Vanness teased Vic. “I haven’t really looked at the photo as Adi was having your hand phone to herself but she said Alysha is very pretty. Is she?” he added.

Vic only stared at Vanness with his blurry expression as his hand pulled the plate of fried chicken nearer to him.

“Vanness!” Adi screamed, warning Vanness to shut his mouth. Quickly, Adi turned to Vic. “I only picked your hand phone from the floor when I dropped it. That was when I noticed the sticker. It was Vanness who looked through your hand phone and found the photos…”

Acting dumb and deaf towards Adi’s effort in defending herself, Vanness tilted his head towards Ken. “Ken heard her too, right Ken?”

Ken nodded, “Adi says Alysha is pretty.” He chuckled. “I’m not surprise if you like her but why didn’t you share the photos with us? It’s the same girl, right, in the sticker and the photo?  Adi said so herself,” Ken explained, adding to his previous sentence and tilted his head at Adi before he continued, “You should hear Adi praising her.”

By this time, Adi gave up on Ken and Vanness. In her head, she was planning a revengeful, cunning plan to get back to them for putting the blame on her alone.

Jerry was only curious and didn’t mean to tease Vic when he asked him, “Are you still in touch with her? She looks like a nice girl.”

Vic felt like he chocked on the chicken that he bit. Everyone was teasing him about Alysha! He stuttered when he tried to defend himself. “She.. Alysha..” Vic rolled his eyes when the 4 pairs of eyes were staring at him fixedly, waiting with interest for him to say something. He groaned and put down his spoon on the plate.

Ken grinned. “Say it, Zai Zai. Don’t be shy. There are only us here and no one else to tease you,” he said, playfully.

“I found the sticker on the floor after the change. Alysha already left so I took it,” he explained, trying to ignore them and took another bite of the fried chicken. He couldn’t enjoy his favourite dish with so many eyes staring at him. He groaned again. Looking up at them, Vic knew they were waiting for him to explain about the photos next.

“Adi,” said Vic as he turned to Adi. Adi pointed to herself and looked at him with huge eyes, eager to know what Vic was about to say to her. “I forgot to show you the photos. Alysha wanted me to take them and show them to you,” said Vic. After a brief pause, he added, “Alysha says hi to you.”

Jerry really didn’t mean to tease Vic further. Still curious, he asked, “The photos look like candid photos… She doesn’t look like she’s posing to be snapped at.”

“I was hurrying to the airport!” Vic glared at Jerry. Above all people, he didn’t expect the teases to come from Jerry! “I was... I was late... And she has to go... Not everyone is like Vanness,” said Vic, turning his gaze at Vanness.

Vanness pointed at himself with his spoon, “What? Me?”

Vic bobbed his head. “You immediately pose when you see a camera.”

Vanness, still grinning broadly, answered back with another come back question, “How can you rush to the airport and at the same time watched her leave before picking up the sticker on the floor?”  Vic was clueless and speechless.  He didn’t know how to reply back and came up with a good defense.

 Adi scooped a spoonful of rice into everyone’s plate, prompting them to look at her in surprise. “Enough talk,” she warned, like a mother scolding her four boys who misbehaved at the dinner table.

“Eat and finish up everything on the table.  Don’t leave anything behind.  I spent many hours slaving to cook all of this, not mentioning to repair the modification made by our film-chef!” uttered Adi, glaring at Jerry.

Everyone laughed at her snide remarks of Jerry and that ended the teasing.  Because of that, Vic was very grateful to Adi for it.

~~~*~~~*~~~

After the dinner and hanging out at Adi’s place until an hour before midnight, he excused himself to go home since he’s having an interview and photo shoot with one of the top entertainment magazine, V Mag, the next morning at 9.  He needed his sleep. 

Lying on his bed flat straight, he tried to close his eyes and welcome the dream world but unfortunately, Alysha’s face came to his mind.  The event at Adi’s house, the tease, the questions, made him remembered back all the memories of Alysha.  Even though only for a short time his meeting with her, but he just can’t stop to think of her.

‘Why didn’t she call or message me?  She doesn’t want to be my friend?  Does she hate me?  Am I too annoying?  Does she felt offended by the pictures I took?’ questions by questions came running through his thought.

He took his phone from the side table and looked at it, searching for Adi’s number.  Looking at Adi’s number, he didn’t know exactly how to get her to give him Alysha’s phone number.  People might think he would have her number by now since he did exchanged phones with her but he didn’t know how exactly to check her number from the phone.  That is why he gave her the message with his number. 

Taking the pillow and hit it to his head, he regretted for not asking Alysha her number.  After thinking and came up with so many lame, detectable excuses, he cancelled his idea to call Adi.

“She would obviously detect the main reason of all the excuses I give her and tease me about Alysha.  I just hope Alysha noticed the two messages and find in her heart to reply me back.  It would be nice to have a normal friend, someone who doesn’t treat me as a star, apart from F3 and Adi,” said Vic out loud to himself, putting back the phone on the table and laid back again on his bed with a pillow over his face.

~~~*~~~*~~~

Alysha's POV:

Like every other night, Alysha sat at her table, doing her revision. She got bored and lonely and was thinking about going to bed early. She was revising her Japanese, polishing her language skill so that she could really have a conversation with her Japanese friends without having grammar mistakes and loss of nouns. Sometimes, she felt awkward when she listened to them talking as she felt her Japanese sounded so foreign and formal compared to them.

“Toki is when.  Example, hima na toki, itsu mo nani o shimasuka?  Ehmm… that would mean, when you’re free, what do you usually do?  So, how to answer that?  Let’s see, I usually read books.  In Japanese, watashi wa taitei hon o yomimasu.  Yes! That’s correct,” smiled Alysha, satisfied with her right answer when she referred it to the book.

Having finished her lesson for the night, closing her book, she took her favorite storybook, the Harry Potter: Chambers of secrets.  Even though she’s already in her twenties, 21 to be exact, she still loves Harry Potter books.  She has been reading the books repeatedly.  Never once she felt bored reading it.  The book she took was actually the 3^rd time she had reread it. 

She was a softie and childish at heart.  Cartoons were her favorite as well, including manga and animes.  Yet, the funny part was she could easily cry especially when she read books and watching movies, even if it was cartoons and comedies.  If they have any sad part, she would cry.  She was exactly like her mother.  When she’s at Malaysia, she would watch movies with her mother and they would wipe each other’s tears.

Shaking her head, trying to throw away the sadness she felt when thinking about her mother, she opened up the Harry Potter book and start to read it. Glancing to her right, she looked at her mobile phone.  She wanted to call her mother but she was afraid her mother would be worried since she already called her three hour before. 

Picking up the phone she went through the menu.  Alysha suddenly remembered someone.  Someone who was also interested in learning Japanese, well, that was what he told her. Vic... She got up from the floor to lie on the futon. Alysha left her book on the table.  Holding her hand phone above her head, she smiled. The video streaming message was playing again.

“We can be pen-pal or phone-pal. You can teach me Japanese and English.”

With a fixed smile on her face, Alysha replayed that part a few more times. She liked Vic’s accent and grin. She put down her hands and placed her hand phone beside her. Should she contact him? She has reason and that reason was to teach him Japanese. He did say he wanted to learn Japanese. After debating with herself, Alysha finally decided to send Vic a short SMS.

She typed, ‘Hello, Vic.  Alysha here.  Just want to reply back your message.  My name is Alysha but my mother calls me Chibi chan.  Meaning little one.  Here’s your first Japanese lesson.  Good Morning, in Japanese is Ohayou Gozaimasu.  Till next time.  Bye.  P/S: I’m half Malay and half Japanese.’

Scanning the message again, to check the spelling and wording, she clicked the ‘send’ button.  Smiling, she switched the phone off and put it under her pillow before switching off the light and closed her eyes to sleep.