Alysha's POV:

A few heartbeats later, Alysha found her voice back. "I don't know you... But I think you must be Vic's friend, Jerry, right?" she asked uncertainly with a courteous and sheepish smile for the stranger. Suppressing a laugh upon seeing the person's eyes bulged a little with surprise, she continued shyly, "Adi described you as 'really handsome' but she doesn't say anything about your dimple."

Jerry blushed a bit at the mentioned of his dimple. His dimple was always the first feature about him that most people noticed of at first meet. But what surprised him was the fact that Alysha didn't know him. Not that he bragged or being as proud as a peacock with F4's fame, but surely she have heard of F4. Putting aside his curiosity, Jerry tried to cover his bashfulness. Smiling, Jerry said, "You look prettier in person than in photos. Those photos don't do justice to you."

Surprised that Jerry had seen her photos, she stared at him with half opened mouth. "You've seen my photos?" she asked directly, confused and shocked at the same time.

Upon seeing the baffled look on Alysha's face, Jerry lengthened his introduction to avoid misunderstandings. "I am Jerry, Vic's friend. In case you are still wondering how I recognised you, that's because I've seen your photos. The one Vic took of you during his last visit here. You are Alysha, right?"

Bobbing her head slowly, Alysha curved a smile again, remembering the last event took placed before Vic left to the airport. "Yes, I am Alysha. Nice meeting you, Jerry."

He looked around them and took Alysha by her elbow, taking the lead to where he thought the exit would be. "Shouldn't we get out from the airport first?" he asked, looking a bit agitated as his eyeballs darted everywhere around the airport.

Although Alysha found his behaviour was a little bit strange, she joked with him lightly. "You are not running away from the Yakuza, right?" She smiled and motioned Jerry to go to the opposite way because he was heading to the wrong direction. "The exit is over there," she added.

The truth was, while waiting for Alysha just now, Jerry noticed a few people staring and whispering when they saw him. He merely smiled at them politely. Although he never declined a fan who wanted a photo taken with him or an autograph from him, he still felt uncomfortable and self conscious to be the centre of attraction.

Mistaking Jerry's silence as confusion, Alysha explained to him that Yakuza was the Japanese equivalent to Italian's Mafia. "You look like you want to run away from someone," she said.

"I like to be in low profile when I'm not working," he mumbled softly. Four years of fame hasn't changed him much. He's still the shy, self-cautious person he was before the fames struck on him.

Nodding her head confoundedly, and even though the last statement made by Jerry had her labelled him as weird, she waved at a taxi outside the airport. "Did you book yourself a hotel?"

Shaking his head, Jerry explained, "I was hoping I could crash in with Zai Zai, I mean Vic. I'm used to call him by his childhood name, sorry. But since he's working, I guess I could get another room at the same hotel."

After getting the full story from Jerry, she smiled and nodded, "Well, in that case, we'll go over to his hotel and get you check in first." Then she looked over at her wristwatch as a taxi stopped in front of them. "I can't take you to see Vic because he's away on business and I don't know where it is exactly. However, I'm meeting him for dinner. You can come with me and surprise him tonight. By the way, thank you for telling me his childhood name is Zai Zai. I'm going to with that tonight."

Alysha ushered Jerry to get in the taxi before her. Baffled, Jerry forgot the 'ladies first' rule and concurred with her. Business? He wanted to ask Alysha whether she meant shooting but Alysha was talking to the cab driver in Japanese. "Vic no hoteru ikimasu ne," she turned to confirmed it with Jerry. Seeing Jerry's mouth cracked into a thin smile and his eyes widened a little, Alysha chuckled. "Sorry. It's hard to keep tuning your language every time you converse with different people. We are going over to Vic's hotel, right?" she repeated her question.

Nodding in agreement with Alysha, he smiled. Alysha confirmed the information to the cab driver. "Hai, arigato," Alysha thanked the cab driver before she leaned her back on the seat.

"I know 'arigato' is thank you," Jerry told Alysha with a grin. "I was in Japan last year and learnt some Japanese words. But since I don't speak the language, I have forgotten most of them," Jerry laughed softly.

"You are doing business in Japan too? Must be a worth merger because Japanese are as good as the American in doing business. When it comes to technology, Japanese are advanced in almost everything. They're very innovative," she told Jerry. "But they still refuse to talk in English. They are too proud of their language, just like the French," added Alysha with laugh.

Smiling, Jerry watched Alysha laughed with more and more questions popping in his head. "Taiwan does a lot of merging with Japan lately," Jerry constructed his sentence carefully while still staring at Alysha. "In quite almost everything. Not only trading. Even in the music and movie industries, it's worth learning the technology from Japan."

"I agree with you. That's why I'm here. I'm interested in their telecommunication technology. I'll come to the hotel later to pick you up before Vic's back. Just make sure you don't contact him first. Let's make it a surprise. I'm sure Vic will be ecstatic to see you." Alysha's eyebrows curved when she warned Jerry, "It's a late dinner though."

Although he was a bit lost in this conversation, Jerry gave her his dimpled smile. "I'll have more time to rest then," he said, choosing to save the questions in his head for Vic later.

After Jerry checked in and they agreed on what time Alysha should come and pick him up, Alysha left the hotel to distribute her questionnaires. Alysha surprised herself as she was never babbly with strangers before but Vic's friend, Jerry, has an aura of easiness that made her felt comfortable with him although they've only met for the first time.

Feeling anxious about the dinner tonight, she really looked forward to meet Vic again and surprised him with Jerry's presence. Maybe it was the smile that fixed itself on Alysha's face when she was thinking about Vic and the dinner or maybe the street was really busy with people today, but Alysha did has a lot of students responding to her questionnaires.

~~*~~*~~*~~

Vic's POV:

Vic glanced at his wristwatch for the hundredth time since he arrived at the garden. Alysha wasn't late. He was early. He couldn't just sit in the hotel room after he got ready for the so called dinner date, waiting eagerly desirous for the time to leave. Vic got restless sitting on the bed and checking the time every two minutes, hence he decided to leave earlier.

Looking around the garden as equally as the time he glanced at his wristwatch, Vic heaved a sigh of frustration as he leaned his back against the back of the bench. Vic took out his hand phone and scrolled the address book for Alysha's number. The last time he remembered messaging Alysha was that they had promised to meet at the garden at 10.15 tonight but Vic feared she have forgotten about the date since it was set too late at night and probably she had fell asleep.

As they walked towards the garden, Jerry asked Alysha for a few simple greetings in Japanese so that he could use them with the hotel personnel later.

Alysha was fixing the collar of her jacket that wrapped around her neck when her hand phone rang. Knowing it was Vic after his caller ID appeared on the screen, she nudged Jerry who was talking to her and showed him the screen. "Don't say a word," she told him.

Assenting to her request, Jerry made a horizontal gesture on his lips, his way of telling Alysha that he would zip his mouth. As they walked towards the garden, Jerry distanced himself a little from Alysha, fearing that Alysha wanted a private conversation with Vic.

"Moshi moshi," Alysha greeted Vic and at the same time looked at Jerry with puckered brows, wondering why he was suddenly a hand length away from her.

"Moshi moshi. Alysha, sorry to call you this late... But you do remember that we are meeting for dinner, right?"

Hearing Vic sounding unsure and hesitating now and then, Alysha faked a gasp. "Vic! Sorry!" She apologized and tried to hid her chuckle. "I'm with someone and..." Alysha purposely let her voice trailed with guilt.

Vic slumped his shoulders in disappointment when he heard Alysha's apology. He then threw his head backward and slowly let a groan escaped. "It's OK..." he said softly. 'No, it isn't OK.' Vic told himself. 'It's unfair. She promised me....'

"Hello? Vic?" Alysha called out his name when the line was quiet. "Where are you now?" she asked.

"Uumm... At the garden. At the bench..." answered Vic, totally losing his earlier eagerness.

From afar, Alysha saw a slouched figure on their bench. Waving Jerry to come near her, she gestured at the bench by tilting her chin at the direction when Jerry complied with her request. She covered the mouth piece with her hand after she told Vic, "Wait for me, I'll rush there," and told Jerry, "That's him."

With a giggle threatening to escape her and a grin as huge as her excitement, Alysha urged Jerry to hurry up and half ran to the bench herself.

"No, it's OK. You don't have to come. It's late.. Anyway, you are with someone else..." Vic said. 'Please come...' he begged in silence. As much as he wanted to see her, Vic felt it would be unfair to force Alysha to come. Especially when she was occupied with someone else. With a sudden pang of jealousy, Vic wondered who the person was.

As they neared the bench, Alysha pushed Jerry to step further without her. With his eyes widened, he glanced at Alysha and wondering why a small surprise such as this excite the girl this much.

"OK, I'll not come then. Sorry, Vic," Alysha said before she ended her call.

"Wait!" Vic screamed at the dead line. He slowly lowered his head and held it in his hands, groaning. "I should have asked her to come," regretted Vic.

Grinning, Jerry cleared his throat as he stood behind the bench, watching Vic getting frustrated for nothing. "Did someone stood you up?" he asked, chuckling after the sentence.

Vic was so shocked to hear Jerry's voice behind him and he was even more shock to see the Jerry in person was there when he turned around. Vic's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He stood up and faced Jerry.

"I'm with him and he's here to surprise you," Alysha said with twinkling eyes as she came near the two guys.

Moving his gaze from Jerry to Alysha, Vic was still speechless to say anything.

Jerry patted Vic's back. "The dinner is still on but you'll have to let me tag along with you and Alysha."


With Alysha's help in reading and translating the menu, Jerry and Vic made their order to the pretty Japanese waitress who was dressed in what looked like a modern version of kimono. While waiting for the food to arrive, Alysha told Vic about Adi's phone call. With a mental note to scold Adi for troubling Alysha picking Jerry up from the airport, he asked, "Did you recognize Jerry instantly?"

Alysha thought the question was weird, just like Adi thought Alysha should know how Jerry looked like but she answered Vic anyway. "No, he was the one who recognized me." She looked at Vic, challenging Vic to tell her that he showed her photos to Jerry.

Vic instantly understood her look. With an innocence smile, Vic denied her. "It was Adi who showed him your photos," he said, briefly. He stretched his hand to answer his ringing hand phone while at the same time saying to Alysha, "I don't even know she's doing that until it was too late." It was a call from his personal assistant. 'She must be wondering where I am,' Vic thought with a sigh. He excused himself to answer the call.

"Are you two partners?" she asked after Vic left. Feeling relieved that Vic has someone in helping him to handle his business in Japan, she hoped Vic wouldn't be too busy until he has to be off early and coming back late from his work.

"There are four of us, if you don't know us..." said Jerry but was interrupted by Alysha.

"Four? Then why is Vic here, alone?" Realising that her reaction to the statement was too strong, Alysha calmed herself. "I mean, if your company have four partners, it must be a big business, right? Someone should help Vic here. He had breakfast at 4.30 this morning because he has to rush somewhere. And dinner at this hour. Imagine his work load in between those hours..."

Jerry was very quiet. Alysha turned to him. "I'm sorry," she quickly apologized. "I shouldn't have said that. I don't know what kind of business you are doing and I don't know how it works. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions."

Jerry's POV:

"Vic never told you what we do?" asked Jerry, perplexed, when Alysha showed no sign of knowing F4. Alysha, shaking her head, explained everything to Jerry. In the short time Jerry knew Alysha, he was now convinced that Alysha never heard of F4 before. 'Weird,' he thought to himself, 'She has known Vic for sometime now and yet she didn't have a single clue about F4.'

"I never asked," Alysha added quickly upon seeing the blank look on Jerry's face. "Vic has a nice bunch of friends," commented Alysha, shyly. "You and Adi. He's lucky."

Vic came back after Alysha and Jerry exchanged a few more words about Vic. He stared at the both of them, questioningly. As he pulled out his chair and sat down, Vic said, "It's not nice talking bad about someone behind his back." Darting Jerry an accusing stare, Vic hoped Jerry didn't say anything about him being here for MARS filming.

As if he could read Vic's mind, Jerry slowly shook his head a little. "I didn't tell Alysha any of your dark secrets..."

"I don't have any dark secrets, Jerry," Vic cut in, staring at Alysha to convince her. "I do have secrets, I mean who doesn't, but not as dark as Jerry put it," he continued, accusing Jerry of bad mouthing him.

Jerry chuckled, causing Vic to glare at him sharply, warning him. Putting both hands on the air as a give up gesture, Jerry sipped a drink from his glass.

Alysha noticed the awkward exchanges between the two friends. Smiling teasingly, she turned her attention to Vic. "You have secrets? Interesting. What is it?" What Alysha got for an answer was Vic's blank innocent look. She chuckled at the cute look he gave her.

"I'll tell you when I remember," Vic made a half hearted promise.

Shaking her head, Alysha said, "You don't have to tell. It's your secret anyway," as if Vic's secret didn't bother her at all.

At that moment, the waitress returned with their food and the subject was never mentioned up again.