It was a late afternoon until the Manager dropped by; she was there to deliver a message to the employees.

“Hi guys, I got some sad news and some good news”

“Which one do you want to hear first? Good or bad?”

“I say good news!” Rainie voted

“Anything is fine” Hebe answered

“Okay, well the good news is that we’re invited to a formal party that the company is planning for the 20th anniversary”

“Oh wow!! I can’t wait, when is it?” Rainie said jumping up and down

“It’s not until the end of the month, so you can settle Rainie” the manager said with a smile

“Aww”

“What’s the bad news?” Hebe asked.

“Well, you know our two newest employees? It seems that they have given up on coffee making. Aaron the trainee felt that the job wasn’t right for him. While Ella was offered another job, so they both left. They said goodbye to you two though”

“Aww Nooo, I’ll really miss them” Rainie said feeling down at the same time

“What a coincident” Hebe commented

“Yeah, well it was great while they were here. Okay you guys can get on with your job”

“I rather quit too” Rainie mumbled.

“What did you say Rainie?” the manager asked

“Nothing, I better get going”

Hebe laughed at Rainie’s silliness and went back to her original place where she left off. Hebe wondered to herself, it was strange how the two off them left at the same time; can it be such a coincidence? Maybe it happens, who knows.

Ella however didn’t bother herself within the memories of the past experiences at coffee. She went straight back to her original position and attended to her duties. But there was a certain unease feeling that kept her from being her normal self. She felt like she was missing something, she couldn’t figure out what it was. It been 2 weeks since she had gotten back into work, she figured if she tried harder she would be able to make the feeling go away, but it didn’t seem to work.

“Hello? Its Ella” she said after answering the call

“Hi, its mum, I’m ringing up to tell you that there’s the 20th anniversary party for Coffee, you have to go. Its in about 2 weeks, remember okay? I’ll be there to see you”

“No mum, I don’t want to go to those useless parties”

“You better or else I’ll come back there to give you a good lesson”

“Okay, okay I’ll go but I’m not making any promises” Ella said afraid of her mum’s threat. Ella’s mum was a real mother who would literally give lectures, flying from anywhere in the world to just give Ella a face to face lecture. When Ella was little, she remembered when she got into a fight because of some bullies her mother flew all the way from America to give Ella a 4 hours long lecture on how it was wrong to use violence to solve problems. For the whole week Ella was grounded and locked up in her room.

Now that she grown up, she is still scared of her mother but she still does things her mother doesn’t like. But luckily those things are kept away from her mother’s ears.

“Take care now, I got a meeting” and then she hung up

“Argg just great another damn party”

“Assistant cheng, please come in” Ella said though the phone

“Yes Miss Chen?”

“I need you to cancel the plans I have on the 30th and note down Coffee’s anniversary party”

“Okay done” He said rewriting the schedule through his GPS

“Thank you, you can go back to work now”
Assistant Cheng then exited through the door and went back to his duties.

“I need a break, hmmm”
Ella drove herself to the place she hadn’t been since her last mission. She entered the crowded room, there were people cheering and drinking and some were swearing at the fight on stage. Ella loved illegal fighting battles, it was like a sport to her, it’s where she could relieve stress and find entertainment. She was observing the fight from afar, it wasn’t any typical fight. There was a thin person head locking the buff guy, he looked like he was about to give up. The buff guy freed himself from the head lock but then was dragged onto the ground with one flip. He was out!

“Woot! Woot!”

“Yeah!”

The crowd shouted, with excitement, the non stop noise was exploding from every direction.

Ella made her way to the queue where her friend was working.
“Hey Chun, who’s in the battle, looks like the skinny one had been beating a lot of people”

“Oh Hey Ella, Long time no see!” Chun was surprised to see Ella for such a long time.

“Yeah, some power that one has”

“I’m feeling itchy; I need to relieve some stress”

“Queue me up next” Ella said. Ella was well known competitor in the fight till death area, it was her field. But this looked challenging too, so she wanted to try out.

“Okay, I bet some bucks on you, so you better not lose”

“As if, you watch”

Ella took off her leather jacket and pulled up her long sleeves and took her black leather shoes off too, to get ready for the fight. The bell rang, that meant break time was over. Ella climbed on the stage. But it was more than a surprise to Ella who the person was; she stared at her face to face without blinking.

Ding ding ding! The bell sounded again, the battle began

Before Ella knew it, she received the first punch in the face, which usually never happens. Ella wasn’t focused on the fight; she was distracted by the appearance of the person in front of her. The girl hair was tied up in a pony tail and her hands were strapped with cloths, she wore shorts that showed her long legs and a tight T-Shirt, which was covered in sweat. Another sudden punch was placed on Ella’s right cheek. This time it hurt, and thanks to that one it woke Ella from her thoughts.

“Game on girl”

“About time” the girl said

Ella started moving around in circles and made her first move, she tackle the girl with her head lock. But she ended up with a forward flip landing her self hard on the ground. Ella quickly got up for the next move.

“I didn’t know you were into these things”

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know how about me”

“Well, I guess you’re not the Hebe I thought you were”

“I guess so” Hebe ended and forwarded herself for a direct shot at Ella’s face again but this time she missed.

“You’re good”

“Your nod bad your self” Hebe commented

“Well let’s see about that” Ella said as she leaned forward to deliver her punches which were defended by Hebe fast reflexes.

Ella did that on purposes to distract Hebe’s standing position; Ella quickly took her chance to grab onto Hebe’s waist and slid her hand across her to do a giant flip for revenge.

“Argg, You, you, ert” Hebe said as she got back up

“Hahaha”

Hebe stepped forward but accidentally slip because of the over used stage, it was slippery and greasy because of sweat. Ella was fast enough to catch Hebe on time but without knowing Hebe found her balance again and was retracting into her standing position. However Ella accidentally grabbed Hebe’s s, which got the crowd going wild. Ella quickly moved her hands and stood awkwardly, not knowing what to say or do. Though Hebe knew exactly what to do, she slapped Ella across the face leaving a red hand print on Ella’s face.

“Owww” Ella exclaimed

“I forfeit” Hebe announced and she jumped off the stage.

Ella ran after Hebe for she didn’t care less about the crowd or the fight. Ella followed Hebe to the rest room, where Hebe left her clothes.

“Hey waited up!” Ella said as loud as possible

“Stop following me”

“Stop running then”

Hebe ran into the toilet cubicle but she wasn’t fast enough, Ella held the door with her hand and stopped Hebe from closing it.

“What do you want?”

“I’m sorry” Ella said finally

“Sorry? I don’t think so”

“I’m serious, I’m sorry” Ella repeated her apology

“I don’t care okay?”

“Then why are you acting like this?” Ella questioned

“Like what?” Hebe asked angrily

“Like this” Ella said impersonating Hebe’s angry tone

“Because you’re blocking my door!” Hebe answered

“Oh I’m sorry” Ella said letting go

“Hey about before I’m sorry it was an accident”

“As if, I’m your hand is as ert as your mind”

Ella was still standing in front of the cubicle Hebe went in, and talking through the door.
Hebe took about 5 minutes to change before she exited the cubicle without saying another word.
Ella kept following Hebe until she was outside where the bus stop was.

“Hey I’ll take you home” Ella offered

“I can go home by myself”

“Come on!” There was no stopping Ella, she dragged Hebe by the wrist to her car which was only meters away, where she parked beforehand.

“Hey let me go!” Hebe said resisting through Ella’s pull

“Don’t be stubborn” Ella said as she opened the passenger’s door to forced Hebe to stayed seat in. Ella then quickly ran to the diver’s side before Hebe got out. In no time they were on the road, Ella was cheerfully driving, she even wondered to herself why she was so happy.

“Hey where are you going?”

“Give me a minute” Ella ran into the convenient store and came back out quickly with a plastic bag

“Here, you’ll need it” Ella said handing Hebe the bag

“What is it?” Hebe asked as she looked through the bag, there was a first aid kit.

“For your wounds, you wouldn’t want scars now would you?”

“Thanks”

Somehow Hebe felt her angrier being swallowed by the affection Ella was showing. It made her become calm and relaxed again. Hebe suddenly noticed a scratch on Ella’s arm, it was bleeding a bit, she dug in the kit and found a bandage, and Hebe pilled it carefully and placed it over the scratch on Ella’s arm. Ella stared Hebe’s serious face; she was the Hebe she first knew again. Hebe caught Ella’s stared on her as she looked up, there was a silent moment of awkwardness.

“Oh hey, I’ve got to go home; I got some things to do”

“Ha yeah, I better get you home” Ella said as she divert her gaze back onto the road.

As they arrived at Hebe’s house Ella stopped at the front and allow Hebe to get out of the car.

“Thanks for the ride and the first aid kit” Hebe said and closed the car’s door

“No problem” Ella yelled out after winding down the window, just loud enough for Hebe to hear.

After arriving home Ella was feeling really enthusiastic and cheerful she leaped onto the coach like a kid would have done.

“Miss Chen you home” The assistant greeted as he walked towards Ella

“Hello Mr. Cheng”

“You seem odd today”

“Odd? What is so odd?” Ella asked with a full grin

“Exceptionally happy, and that grin is scaring me, are you up to something?”

“Hahaha” Ella burst into laughter

“I’m fine don’t worry” Ella finally said after laughing

“Okay.. I’ll leave you to it” Assistant Cheng said and left the living room

Ella got up and made her way to the mirror on the cabinet and she examined her face.
“Wow, that is pretty odd” Ella complimented herself.