+++

Selina and Jiro were seated in a high class restaurant with soft orchestra music playing nearby. Selina wasn’t amazed with anything. Since her family was high class too she’d been to dozens of high class restaurants in Hong Kong. They weren’t much different from the ones in Taipei she figured. As their food arrived they began to chat.

“I don’t have any brothers or sisters so I take my mom as a sibling,” Selina told. “My father’s out a lot for business trips and all, but when he can come back home he’d take us all out to have fun.”

“You must miss them right?” Jiro asked.

Selina shrugged, “Well I enjoy my own freedom too so it’s not too bad. What about you?”

“Lets see,” Jiro said, “I had a younger sister, but at the age of ten she passed away from an illness. I was 15 at the time.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Selina sympathized. “You all must have been pretty sad.”

“Yea,” Jiro agreed, “everybody adored her a lot. She was really cute.”

“What about the firm? How did that open up?” questioned Selina.

“My uncle decided we needed to take some risks so he started the business and we hit the jackpot,” Jiro explained. “I’d call us pretty lucky people.”

“I see,” Selina said.

As Jiro went on explaining about the hardships they faced Selina wondered how Chun and Deshi were doing.

+++

Selina unbuckled herself as she began to get out of the car.

“Thanks for the date,” Jiro said with a smile. “Good night.”

“Bye bye,” Selina said and slid out of the car.  

As she headed up the stairs carrying her purse she wondered if Jiro had noticed that she’d been dazing off. When she opened the apartment door Hebe and Ella were already inside enjoying themselves with some pop.

“Selina! You’re always late and missing things,” Hebe loudly said.

“What’d I miss?” Selina asked.

“Tell us where you were first,” Hebe said eyeing Selina closely.

“Having dinner with a guy,” Selina replied.

“What’s his name?” Ella interrogated.

Selina thought for a while then figured she’d forgotten his name.

“I can’t remember,” Selina said with a laugh, “oh my god I’m so bad.”

“What did we expect anyway,” Hebe said rolling her eyes as she turned to Ella.

Ella smiled and patted Selina’s shoulder, “Well it’s alright. My engagement ceremony is at the Maple Hotel three weeks from this Saturday. Make sure you’re free and bring a date.”

“A date?” Selina repeated.

Hebe grabbed Selina’s shoulder and perked her head over them, “Maybe you can bring that nameless guy!”

“Then hook Hebe up with him!” Ella suggested jumping.

Selina laughed jokingly, “Sorry, but he’s reserved for me.”

“Sel!” Ella and Hebe shouted.

“Of course I’m kidding,” Selina told. “I’ll think about it.”

Actually she’d been thinking about bringing Chun along.

+++

The doorbell rang and Chun got up to open the door. Jiro smiled back with some bags of take outs in his hands.

“Dinner?” Jiro questioned.

Chun glared back at him playfully, “Took you long enough. I only have an hour left.”

“Chill Chun, my man!” Jiro said wholeheartedly as he set the bags down on the kitchen table. “I got your faves!”

Chun took out the food quickly and sat down. Jiro invited himself to take a seat and watched quietly.

Chun stopped after finishing his fifth bite and turned to look at Jiro, “What?”

“I’ll talk to you after you finish,” Jiro told.

Chun took another large spoonful of the food and sat the carton down.

“I can’t eat when you’re like that.” Chun said.

“I just wanted to know…” Jiro began then stopped.

“What?” Chun said sounding a little annoyed.

“I just wanted to know…to know if you like Selina,” Jiro asked.

Chun fell silent and felt his heart thumping against his ribs. Why was Jiro asking him that? What did liking her have to do with anything?

Chun laughed, “Of course not. Do you think girls like her would like guys that already have a kid?”

Jiro smiled in reply as Chun kept up his little act of laughing. Jiro knew that Chun didn’t have to hide anything, but why was he lying? Denial? Or what? Jiro disliked it when Chun lied for his sake because in this situation he knew and he didn’t have to be sure that Chun had something for Selina.

“I like her,” Jiro said straightforwardly, “I want to ask her to go out with me.”

Chun’s eyes became dull and seemed sad for a moment then he smiled.

“Go for it,” Chun said, “she’ll definitely like you.”

+++

Selina sat in bed staring at the wall ahead of her. Chun should be heading out for work at this moment or was he staying in with Deshi? She recalled Chun’s cheerful voice when he’d told her and Jiro to have a good time. She guessed he didn’t like her after all. Feeling down for a moment Selina finally lay down on the bed trying to convince herself to forget it. She shouldn’t take it seriously anyway because it wasn’t like Chun had dated her in the first place. She was just playing games with herself.

+++

Jiro stared at Deshi crawling around beside him.

“Your father is such a naïve person,” Jiro commented. “Don’t grow up like him you hear me?”

Deshi crawled away from Jiro toward the sofa pillow.

“He should have known I was just joking,” Jiro told.

He wouldn’t go out with Selina in the first place. Obviously he’d seen her eyes floating away and staring into the streets. She didn’t like him he knew that for sure. If Chun didn’t like her he would definitely pursue her.

+++

“I like her. I want to ask her to go out with me,” Jiro’s words rang in Chun’s head as he started to pick up the heavy metals that were piled up together.

Why did he feel uncomfortable? Like he didn’t want it to happen? As far as he thought he realized that a good girl like Selina shouldn’t be stuck with a person like him. She deserved much better than live a life like his. It’d be hard on her just like how it’d been hard on Ella.

Without realizing he’d lost his grip on the metals and it slipped onto the ground. As Chun bent down to pick it up the other metals that were piled up came crushing on his hand.

+++

Jiro ran rushing through the hallways to the front desk. Getting Chun’s room number Jiro hurried up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. He found Chun sitting on the bed while the nurse wrapped up his hands with elastic cohesive bandage. After taping it down the nurse turned around and Jiro walked over.

“What happened? Are you ok?” Jiro asked worriedly.

“It’s nothing I’m fine,” Chun told. “Just a really bad bruise. I have quick reflexes so I moved my hand before it got worse.”

“You should’ve been more careful,” Jiro told.

“I know,” Chun replied. “Where’s Deshi?”

“I left him with a neighbor,” Jiro replied. “Come on I’ll drive you back. Your hand will probably hurt a lot if you drive.”

With that Chun and Jiro walked out of the hospital.

When they got back to Chun’s apartment Chun finally got Deshi to go to sleep. Jiro returned to his slumber on the sofa, but Chun who felt dead tired just sat on his bed. His head was spinning, his feet were sore; his arms ached from the weight he had to carry every night, Deshi was always crying, he’d never been getting enough sleep, and to conclude it all he just felt so damn tired.

When Jiro left in the morning after feeding Deshi a bottle Chun didn’t hear the door close.  

+++

Selina woke up by herself the next morning and got dressed. That morning she was the one waiting for Hebe. After ten minutes Hebe hurried out and they bid their farewells to Ella.

Selina hurried into the Day Care eager to see Chun, but he wasn’t anywhere.

Finally finding Genie in her office Selina questioned, “Did Deshi arrive yet?”

“I haven’t seen him all morning,” Genie told. “Maybe something came up.”

“Something as in what?” Selina asked.

Genie shrugged, “Maybe he’s sick.”

“Who could be sick?” Selina asked feeling worry overcome her.

“I’m just saying maybe. I don’t know. Chun didn’t call or anything this morning so how would I know?” Genie asked.

“Oh…sorry,” Selina said and walked away from Genie’s office.

She stopped gathering her thoughts together. Even if Genie said maybe what if? What if Chun was sick? Or what if Deshi was sick? Selina quickly walked toward the door waving for a taxi by the street.

Selina hurried up the stairs and down the hallway. She looked for Chun’s door then found out she’d gone in the opposite direction of where Chun’s door actually was. Selina had always heard that when a person panics they lose their mind of concentration and she guessed that was what she was going through. Selina knocked on the door and for a minute no one came to the door.

“Chun? Are you in there?” Selina knocked again.

No answer. Guessing that maybe he was out Selina turned around, but an instinct made her stop. Selina turned around and tried for the doorknob. It was unlocked and she was able to turn it easily. No one was in the living room and Selina felt scared for a minute then she noticed the blanket carefully folded up on the couch. Selina walked in and could hear whimpering from Deshi’s room. He was awake and staring up at the ceiling moving around endlessly. Realizing that if Deshi was in Chun must be around. Selina hurried out and found Chun lying still on his bed, sweat forming on his forehead.

“Chun!” Selina shouted as she felt his hot forehead. “You’re sick!”

Selina placed a wet towel over Chun’s forehead and pulled the blanket over him. Selina stared at him for a bit and got up. She knew she had to attend to Deshi next. The little boy couldn’t take care of himself. Selina changed Deshi and fed him some food she cooked. Afterward she sat on the ground with Deshi playing a board game that she’d found with him.

“No, no not like that,” Selina pouted. “Deshi no don’t eat that. You got it all wrong. Here I’ll help you make the right move.”

Chun’s eyes slowly opened and he looked around the room. The first thing he heard was Selina’s voice. He turned his head to the right and he could slightly see Selina sitting on the ground with Deshi. He felt relief flood through him.

“You like that? You’re lucky I’m going easy on you,” Selina told Deshi as he let out a yelp.

Chun smiled to himself and wondered what game Selina was playing.