Seeing you wave your hand, asking me to come to your side

That pitiful gaze, the story that is too confusing

                A letter of invitation comes a week later at the Kim Household. An invitation for tea on a Wedsneday, the best day of the week, came from the Lu Residence. The request was written on a rare kind of silk paper embossed with the Lu Family Crest. Min Seok’s aunt thinks this is a special invitation. Not just anyone is given a chance to dine (or in this case have tea) with such a prominent family. But she hasn’t stepped in to the Lu Estate since she was a teenager.

                What the Lu Family needs from them, she doesn’t have an idea. They were old family acquaintances, but the ties were long severed. They have no reason to be friendly towards each other all of a sudden.

                The front door opens revealing her nephew. She looks at him puzzled. “Weren’t you supposed to be at your part-time job today?” she inquired as she meets him at the receiving area.

                “I just left a book that I was supposed to return today… I’ll leave as soon as I get it…”

                She sighs, it’s so easy for the both of them to get into a misunderstanding. Her nephew is a good child, but sometimes she thinks he’s so much like his mother. Niceness is a noble trait, being a push over is a weakness. “Something came in for you today…” she hands him the silk envelope. Her nephew seems to be surprised by the invitation. “Have you been making an acquaintance with the Lu’s?”

                “Not really… Might just be something that has to do with the bookshop. They’ve been donating books lately. So I guess they’ll have invites for the staff…”

                “You’ll tell me if something big happens, right? You won’t be making decisions alone? Promise me that… I know you’re already an adult, but… Inform me, okay? Don’t keep it to yourself…”

                Min Seok looks confused but she thinks it’s not yet time to tell him their family history. There was a bridge that was burned long ago, she doesn’t think it would be fixed. Not even with this invite.

                “Nevermind what I said. Hurry now… You don’t want to be late… You have a ‘Staff of the Month’ reputation you want to keep…”

                Her nephew nods and exists towards  his room. She looks around the house, there’s an ancient heirloom she needs to make sure is well kept.

~o~

                Min Seok rushes towards the second-hand bookshop to look for Yi Xing. He hopes the latter hasn’t gone home yet. He needs someone to share this with. And only Yi Xing is qualified as a listening ear.

                “Oh, Min Seok-ge, you’re in a rush… Your shift doesn’t start until 30 minutes.” His co-worker Chan Yeol greets him from the counter.

                “I’m just… Did Yi Xing leave already?” Min Seok looks around the shop. “Is he in the storage room?”

                “Bingo!”

                “I’ll see you later, Channie…” he pats the tall guy on the shoulder before proceeding towards the backroom.

                “Ge, Xing’s cleaning right now. You might want to put a face mask. The dust is no joke…” Min Seok hears Chan Yeol yell. Why would Yi Xing clean the backroom? That’s Min Seok’s job.

                He opens the door to the backroom to be welcomed by the overwhelming smell of incence. He looks around and there’s no sign of Yi Xing or anyone. “Yi Xing?” he calls out. There was a faint cough and a huge fan being waved around. “Ya, Zhang Yi Xing! What are you doing?” The amount of smoke irritates his eyes and the smell is restricting his breathing. “Are you doing a ritual of some sort?” he asked in between coughs.

                “Ge… I’m here. Don’t come in… I’ll meet you outside…” Yi Xing disappears inside the backroom. How he’s able to stand all that smoke is a puzzle to Min Seok. He immediately closed the door and sat at one of the couches that was placed there for the staff when they want to take a break.

                The smell is still making him dizzy, so he leaned in to the back of the couch and closed his eyes. Breathing in and out to supply more oxygen to his lungs. He feels drowsy all of a sudden and his eyes are figting to be kept closed, he eventually succumbed to the lul of sleep.

                It’s an unfamiliar place, both erie and enchanting. The canopy of plum trees swaying in the breeze. But the odd thing is that Min Seok doesn’t feel the air around him. It seems like everything is at a stand still except for the continous swaying of the branches. He looks around to see if he’d be able to find anyone. How he came to be here is a puzzle. Maybe this is a dream. Though he feels too conscious to be dreaming.

                He hears scrunching of leaves and when he turns around to look, he sees the familiar young man from his previous dream. The reason he keeps seeing this young man eventhough he doesn’t recall ever seeing him in real life alludes him. This person must have a purpose.

                “You’ve received it!” the young man is pointing at the letter in his hand. Is this person someone from the Lu Household? How come he knows about the invitation? “Promise me you’ll go… You have to. I will be there, well not really. But it’s important that you attend the outing. We have the most exquisite tea collection, you won’t be disappointed. I’d be on a journey though, I don’t know when I’d be able to comeback. But I’ll comeback. And you have to come visit me. Bring the book of poems with you… I want you to read it to me. Promise you’ll read it to me…” the person finished in a huff, smile plastered on his face.

                All Min Seok could do is nod. He doesn’t understand any of this. Who this person is and why it is important for him to accept the invitation. The dizziness is claiming him again and the last thing that he sees is the young man’s smiling face.

                “Ge… I’ve been trying to wake you up… If you were that tired you could’ve told me. I can take over your shift for you...” Yi Xing is looking at him with worry. Min Seok doesn’t understand what’s happening to him. But he’s sure that the weird things started when he picked that hong bao. Speaking of hong baos.

                “I’m fine, Yi Xing…” His co-worker doesn’t seem too convinced about it but let it slip. “By the way, I’ve received an invitation from the Lu’s…” he sits up properly and tried to shake off the haziness from his brain.

                “An invitation for?”

                “For tea… That’s safe, right?” he hands the invitation to Yi Xing and the latter opens the envelope for him.

                “Well, it seems like they’re interested…” Seeing the puzzled look on Min Seok’s face, Yi Xing went on to explain. “They want to make your acquaintance. They’re taking you into consideration, ge…”

                “For… for the arrange marriage?”

                “I don’t see any other purpose of the invite, ge… Are you going?”

                “Should I?” Min Seok remembers the young man from his dream. He wants to keep the promise but first he needs to know what Yi Xing thinks about this. He’s the expert.

                “Do you want to? No one’s forcing you…”

                “I think I should, to atleast see what this is all about…” And maybe to bargain a little. To tell the truth he’s curious to see the young man again. He’s sure he’d bump into him at the Lu Estate. The young man did say that he would be there.

                “Just be… Just be observant…” Yi Xing stands up and brushes his jeans from non-existent dirt and helped Min Seok to stand up as well. He’s still a bit dazed, but he’s going to be okay he thinks. Yi Xing looks at him and smiled. “Well, ge… I’m off, I’ll see you Tuesday…”

                “Yeah…” Min Seok was about to turn towards the store’s front when Yi Xing stopped him and adjusted the collar of his shirt. He’s startled by the gesture.

                “When did you start wearing a necklace?” Yi Xing points at the gold chain peeking out of the collar of his button down shirt.

                “Oh this? I’ve been wearing it since my parents--“ Min Seok paused to think. He doesn’t want the conversation to venture into that territory. He doesn’t think he’s ready to share. “ I’ve been wearing it for a long time now…” he takes out the necklace to show a ring. “It’s a ring actually, but I feel uneasy wearing it on my finger so I decided I could just put it on a chain…”

                “Aren’t those the type that  comes with a pair?” Yi Xing inspects the ring. Min Seok doesn’t have an idea about the ring’s history. It was just handed over to him. An heirloom of sorts.  

                “I don’t have the pair, Xing and I don’t know if it really is a part of a pair. You must be tired, or you’ve inhaled too much incense. It’s muddling your usually muddled brain more.” He kids. “Go home and rest… I’ll see ya…”

                “Be careful, ge… I’ll see you…” Yi Xing exits through the backdoor like he always does. This day is getting to be really weird for his liking.