IV
Black Soda DrinkYixing was buried back home, near the gravesite of my grandparents on my father’s side. Everything had gone by quickly and I stayed with my parents for a while before telling them that I had to leave. I reassured them that their daughter was safe and that I had a plan in my head.
I was going to pursue my dream and make a career for myself. College was a place where I made a bunch of connections and I hoped that they would help me. But first, I needed to say hello to Kris again.
The spare keys he had given me on my first night jingled in my purse. When I opened the door, the living room was lit but empty. Was Kris home right now?
I tossed some of the crushed soda cans into the recycling, reminding myself that I should tell Kris to cut back on drinking so much.
I sat on the couch and pursed my lips. It would be improper to go straight to the bedroom without him at home. I wondered how he had fared in the past two weeks. As for me, I was a blubbering mess for most of my trip home but I wasn’t going to admit that.
A door opened behind me and I turned around.
Oh. My. God.
“Kris!”
I covered my eyes, but not before getting an eyeful of his chest, still shining from his shower. His hair was pointing in all directions and there was only a towel around his waist to cover himself.
He didn’t even bother covering himself.
“Oh, you’re back,” he said as if I hadn’t just seen him half-clothed.
His footsteps went towards the kitchen and I peered through my fingers. Good, he’s out of sight. “Y-yeah, I’m back. I thought I sent you a text.”
“Sorry, I didn’t check my phone,” he replied like it was no big deal. Then, “What do you want to eat? We can order Chinese food.”
“O-okay.”
His voice came closer and I looked down at my hands on my lap. “This place is closer but the dumplings here are really good. Or if you’re not too tired, we could go out for BBQ at the restaurant across the road but…” he trailed off. “You okay?”
“Uh, yeah. We can go anywhere you want.” My face was getting hot. Yixing used to walk around the apartment without a shirt on all the time. Why couldn’t I just it up and talk to Kris properly?
There was a chuckle behind me and I heard his footsteps receding. “Okay, just give me a minute.”
The minute turned out to be ten minutes, but it was worth it. Kris looked really good in just a plain t-shirt and faded jeans. I looked down at myself and realized I was wearing almost the same things but didn’t look nearly as good. I had dressed for comfort on the airplane today, not a dinner date.
Wait, was this a date?
I shook my head as I trailed behind him out to the street. We crossed the road in silence and the uncle working at the restaurant seemed to know Kris as they greeted each other cheerfully.
I asked Kris about the soups as we took a seat. He gave a shrug and said, “I’ve never tried them.”
I ordered a tofu soup for myself while Kris ordered the grilled meat for the two of us. When the food arrived, I wondered how we were going to eat so much and instantly regretted ordering the soup.
We barely spoke as the meat sizzled on the grill. It was a few minutes of really awkward water sipping. I doubted either of us wanted to bring up the topic of my brother, but there was no other connection between us.
“I’m looking for a job these days,” I started and turned over a clove of garlic on the grill. “Where do you work?”
“Bank,” he said simply.
“Really?” He didn’t strike me as a math-y guy who was good with finances. But then again, I couldn’t even recognize when my own brother wasn’t feeling well. “Financial advisor? Chartered accountant?”
He shook his head and gave a small laugh. “No, I’m only a teller.”
My head tilted to the side. “Do you like the job?”
He shrugged, keeping his eyes on the food. “I get paid a bit more than the others because I can speak a bunch of languages, but it gets annoying.”
I didn’t know that. Kris was always a quiet guy; I couldn’t imagine him handling phone calls and clients. “How many languages can you speak?”
“English, Mandarin, Korean, and Cantonese. But Cantonese is only a dialect.”
He spoke as if speaking four languages was an everyday thing that anybody could do. “Wow…”
“Here, eat.” He cut a piece of cooked meat and put it on my plate.
“Thank you.” How come Yixing never told me about how talented his friend was? “You didn’t dream of being a bank teller, did you?”
He laughed and gave me a curious glance. “Who dreams of being a bank teller? I wanted to be a basketball player.”
My eyebrows shot up and I nodded eagerly. “You’re so tall! It shouldn’t be hard to be a basketball player.”
“Never made it to the NBA, so that dream is useless.” He took a sip of my soup but I didn’t protest. “How about you? What did you want to be?”
“I’ve always wanted to be a writer.”
“But I thought you studied sciences.” He took another spoonful of soup and looked like he liked it.
“Yeah, that’s what my parents wanted me to do. Yixing went into dancing but…” Talking about my brother was going to take some getting used to. “My parents didn’t like the fact that he danced. They kept doubting him until he managed to make a living off of it.”
“Is that why he lived here by himself?” Kris asked quietly.
I nodded.
“Do you want something to drink?” I looked up and saw that he was about to raise his hand. “I’m going to ask for some Coke.”
“You drink a lot of that. We have water here.”
After a few moments, Kris turned back to his food and mumbled, “Yeah, I do.”
I poured a cup of water for him. “So what are you doing now?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re not going to be a bank teller for the rest of your life, are you?”
He ate and drank, for which I was glad. At least he wasn’t drinking sugary soda this time. “What else can I do?”
I ducked my head and picked at the tofu in my soup. “I don’t know. You could model, I guess?”
I didn’t dare look up, in case he was laughing at me. It was a simple compliment, right? I wasn’t saying flat-out that I thought he looked like a Greek God.
Okay, maybe I was.
“I mean, you’re tall enough for it.” I tried to cover myself up. “And you’re pretty skinny.”
He stole the tofu that I was poking at and popped it in his mouth. My head jerked up and I saw that he had a smile playing on his lips. “I don’t know about modeling, but I’ve thought about acting before.”
My eyes widened as an idea came to my head. “Really?”
“Yeah, I’ve always wanted to try it. It doesn’t matter what role I get but it sounds fun.”
I reached behind me for my bag before I realized I didn’t bring it. “You should audition for this project I’m working on!”
“Hmm?”
“I’m building a script for this movie that my friend got the rights to. She’s going to be directing it and I think you should totally try out for a part!”
“I thought you wanted to be a writer, not a director.” He took another drink of my soup and I saw that it was already half finished.
“A screenwriter. I want to write scripts. I used to do it as a hobby but I’m out of college now and I can finally put more time into it. Plus, I can help you tap into the characters so you’ll have an advantage over the other actors.”
He gave me a shrug and said, “Sure,” but I knew he wasn’t sure about it. He thought I was joking.
I let him think that.
Just like I let him eat most of the dinner that we ordered, including my soup.
---
crying because I really want to see Kris in a drama but I'd be so conflicted if he has to get together with a girl in the story ;;;;;;;;;;
anyway, this week has been super busy but I recently put up a cover of miss A's Hush so if you guys haven't seen it yet, please check it out! I'm doing Fei's part and it'd really make my day if you guys gave it a thumbs up ;u; have a great week everybody!
Comments