Chapter 02 - Student Emotions on Collision Course (Part 5)

The date is 20th May 2007, 4:55 pm.

The minute he reaches Bedok Bus Interchange, he alights from the bus and made this his final stop to collect donations before heading back to New Hope Polytechnic to hand over his donation can. For the next 30 minutes, he stood there silently, hoping for people to donate into his can. But the people there are either too busy doing their own thing at where they are or they are in a rush going home via the public transport services in the Bus Interchange as well as the Bedok MRT Station nearby to even notice him.

“Looks like when the evening rush hour is approaching, only the food outlets and shops are the only ones busy at this time. No one would even bother to do anything else rather than eat, shop, or making their way home......”

By 5:30 pm he decided to give up without having a single coin inside his donation can for that period of time and head towards the Bedok Station and takes the MRT train back to Clementi Station where he can catch a bus back to New Hope Polytechnic.

“I don't know whether I can make it in time to return the items that were issued to me this morning...... Hope they don't close out on me......”

The date is 20th May 2007, 5:10 pm.

While Chengyu is standing at Bedok Bus Interchange waiting for donations, Reika and Lina made it back to New Hope Polytechnic in time for the collection of the donation cans to commence. It is stipulated in the licence that donation collections cease at 5:00 pm for all students, and the students can start making their way back to the Polytechnic to return their donation cans as well as their licences and sticker sheets at the Convention Centre.

Upon receiving the cans from the students. The staff there will seal up the coin slots in each of the cans while asking them to fill up the paperwork required for the students to hand over the donation cans, licences and sticker sheets properly as stipulated by the relevant Government regulations pertaining to donation collections before they are allowed to leave for home.

Reika and Lina also lined up to do the same, and once they have completed the paperwork and was allowed to leave the Convention Centre and head together for home. But it was at this time Reika saw a familiar figure approaching her.

(Note: Dialogue shown here that are spoken in languages other than English are marked with the language spoken in brackets.)

“(Japanese) Reika!”

“(Japanese) Kentaro-san!”

Reika rushes to meet her childhood friend.

“(Japanese) How are you doing in this school?”

“(Japanese) Still trying to get used to the pace here, I think...?”

“(Japanese) Oh? You found a friend so early in school here?”

“(Japanese) Yeah. She's the friend that I met on the internet half a year ago. I've never believed that I could meet her in the flesh and study in the same Polytechnic as her! Let me introduce you to my friend, Lina Tam-san.”

Lina brightly extends her hand.

“Nice to meet you, I'm Lina Tam.”

Kentaro immediately switches his dialogue to English.

“Oh, nice to meet you, Lina-chan! My name is Kentaro Matsumoto.”

But this makes Lina shocked, then annoyed.

“Why did you add a 'chan' to my name for no reason!?”

“Sorry, Lina-san. That's Kentaro-san's bad habit.”

“This is crazy! Adding suffixes to people's names as and when they want is so rude, you know!?”

“Yes, yes. I'm very sorry for the un~courteous behaviour, satisfied?”

Lina glances at Kentaro with sharp eyes.

“One look and he is a sure womaniser...! Good thing Reika doesn't go out with him now. Otherwise she'll be the one that will be hurt the most in the end...!”

Reika then resumes her conversation with Kentaro in Japanese.

“(Japanese) Kentaro-san, are you also finished with the donations already and returned the items to the committee?”

“(Japanese) I just returned those items a few minutes ago.”

“(Japanese) That's a relief... Anyway, we need to make our way home now since we have also returned ours as well.”

“(Japanese) Aren't you going anywhere else after this? Like going to places to know more about Singapore and such.”

“(Japanese) My parents and myself haven't completed all our arrangements in our new residence, so that'll have to wait for a while.”

“(Japanese) I see... Well, we'll keep in touch then. If you need anything, just let me know, okay?”

“(Japanese) Okay!”

“(Japanese) Bye then. See you in school tomorrow morning!”

“(Japanese) You too, goodbye!”

Kentaro went ahead of the two girls on his own, and Lina now turns to Reika.

“I thought you have rejected that Kentaro's advances, why do you still talk to him?”

“Well, since we've known each other since childhood. We can still talk to each other. Despite me rejecting his advances, we still agreed to remain good friends after that, so he shouldn't stand a chance this time. Kentaro-san has also said that he will support anyone who is successful in going out with me whether he is in Japan or here, so I don't worry about those things at all.”

“That's good for you, though. But I don't really like the way he looks. He really looks like a womaniser who likes to flirt around among women.”

“Well, you can't judge him just by his looks. Once he is committed to a relationship, it is very hard to pull himself out from it. He had been on two relationships back in Japan, but those relationships ended in less than a year. Later I realised that the so-called 'girlfriends' of his are even bothered to sleep around with rich old men just for financial gain. What a shame that he fell for those kind of girls. The second one was extremely infuriating for Kentaro-san as he found out that she is already pregnant with the child of a middle-aged man who is the owner of a large company there. That really broke his heart completely.”

“Does that happen before or after his confession to you?”

“That happened nearly a year before he confessed to me.”

“That must hurt a lot for that Kentaro though...”

“You're right. That's precisely the reason he wants to look for romance here instead, because other than me, he can't trust any other Japanese woman to go out with him after all that has happened to him before.”

“Hmm... that's not going to be easy for him though......”

“Why is that so?”

“I guess you didn't know how materialistic Singaporean women are until you really meet with one. They can be much worse, if not as worse, than the two Japanese women you told me about earlier.” Lina says while sighing. “I see too many Singaporean women liking only rich foreigners that owns more than a landed property or a company or their sons so much so that if they were to choose between a good-natured, good-looking, but not-as-rich Singaporean or a rich foreign expatriate's son, they'll definitely choose the latter without even thinking. Because in their eyes it is not easy to go by without a lot of money, that's why I fell ashamed of our own women here! They value their own social and financial status more than anything else in their lives. Even older women were willing to have May-September Romances^[2] with ones much younger than them as long as he has millions in his bank account or is the son of a magnate tycoon. Finding a really good soul-mate for him is far harder than finding a needle made of gold in the Pacific Ocean.”

“So, is it really impossible to find a suitable girlfriend for Kentaro-san?”

“It should be pretty obvious, Reika. But anyway, we should get back home now.”

“Okay. We'll part our ways at the bus stop outside the campus, because we're taking different bus services home.”

“Okay!”

After the girls reached the bus stop, they parted ways when the bus service that Reika was supposed to take arrived at the bus stop. Lina also boarded the service she takes to go home when it arrived.

The date is 20th May 2007, 6:20 pm.

Chengyu finally arrived at the Convention Centre in New Hope Polytechnic after almost an hour of MRT train rides and a short bus trip here.

As he entered the hall inside where the donation cans are collected, he was asked to hand over the can as well as the licence and the sticker sheets followed by filling up the paperwork to hand over those things properly. Chengyu didn't utter anything during the entire process. And the queueing crowd at this time has been reduced to a sparingly few students doing their paperwork there, meaning that almost all of the students have already handed in their items and have returned home.

“It's finally over, isn't it......”

After the paperwork have been completed and was released from the Convention Centre, Chengyu walks towards the bus stop outside the Polytechnic all alone and boarded the bus that he uses to take him home. Throughout the journey, Chengyu thinks about the people he meets today, and how these meetings could impact the future days of his life in this Polytechnic. Thinking that he might need the experiences now in the future when he does his final-year project two years from now, he took out his notebook computer to run using its own battery power, opened up a word processor and started documenting his experiences that he faced today, starting with the headline: “Student Emotions on Collision Course”.

He documented the day's happenings that he faced throughout the bus journey until he got back to his home in Sengkang and saved it into the hard drive before keeping it back into his notebook computer bag.

“I hope what I have experienced today may be able to become useful information when I get to do my final-year project in the future......”

The date is 20th May 2007, 11:20 pm.

Chengyu, who is back at home and typing away in his notebook computer, continues documenting his journey in the same file that he has saved earlier.

“Documenting all these happenings today into a journal-style essay is not an easy task... but I feel that I have to start somewhere because I knew very well the precise reason that I enrolled into the Multimedia & Animation Course in this Polytechnic......”

Chengyu reminds himself of the decision he made before he enrols into a Polytechnic. His L1R5 total of 17 points for his 'O' Level examinations is good enough for him to get into a neighbourhood Junior College, and that seems to be a faster-track to get into University to study the course he wants.

However, after tours to a neighbourhood Junior College and a Polytechnic subsequently during his last year in secondary school forced him to re-think about whether he wants to take a fast-track 2-year course in Junior College and then to University to study the course he likes just based on his 'A' Level results after he completes his National Service which will commence as soon as he receives his 'A' Level Certificate; or start learning the very basics of the ingredients and skills he needs to achieve this immediate goal of creating an animation that negatively portrays the impression of bullying and keeping potential gang members away from the street gangs that used to proliferate his old secondary school, which will be the perfect answer to those bullies as well as the schools who are too lax on tackling the bullying problem in their own compounds.

“During the tour to a neighbourhood Junior College shows me the immense depth of the teaching abilities of those staff, but there I unwittingly became witness to a serious assault incident involving half a dozen second-year Junior College students beating up a first-year student. One of them was even wearing a prefect's tie while assaulting the young student. That incident reminded me of myself in that old secondary school when I was assaulted in school and was hospitalized. That student had absolutely no defences or weapons to protect himself, and was already bleeding very profusely. The students who were around didn't even lend a helping hand for fear of reprisals from both fellow students and staff, especially when potential students of that cursed school like us were visiting this place. My fellow students that are part of the group were too busy knowing the good aspects of this Junior College to even see this atrocious case of bullying and I was extremely unfortunate to be the only witness to see this taking place. I was thinking then that other than trying to make it to a school that can help me realise this ideal via making the 2D Animation that can spread the message far and wide, I also have to start learning defensive martial arts, something I can defend myself with in the event that I became a victim of bullying all over again. People like that Zhiwei won't be around to save me every time I meet with those kind of bullies, so if I manage to learn those techniques that are strong and powerful enough to be of a deterrence to those morons, they'll definitely think twice before even trying to take me down. That is the only way I can protect myself if the staff are too powerless to stop them because if these things happen, I won't be defenceless anymore, just like those in my old secondary school where the police have to be involved in the matter before the matter is considered closed.”

As he continues typing, he is reminded of the black-haired girl named Reika that he has helped on that day, as well as her friend Lina.

“I don't know what that Japanese girl is up to by offering to help me, but why is that I don't seem to sense any unpleasant kind of energy around her......? As for that Lina, I also don't sense too much unpleasant energy around her despite her attitude towards me earlier...... I really don't have any answer to those, and until I find out the reason why, I won't have any reason to trust any one of them!”

Chengyu continues to enter in more details of the day's happenings for another hour before he completes the data and switched off his notebook computer and goes to sleep.

“Counselling will start in 10 days' time, and I don't know if I'm even prepared to talk about my own past to more strangers and not get damage to my heart at the same time...... I'm personally hoping for the best outcome, but also be prepared for the worst thing that'll happen. I sincerely hope that I would not need to use the set of powerful martial arts skills I've learnt over the past 15 months on anyone in this new school......”

Author's Notes:

[2]	May-September Romances are relationships in a way that the female is much older than their male partners. Usually the age gap of those romances are of at least 10 years and above and the female party is at least 35 years old can be considered as a May-September Romance.

Chapter 02 - Student Emotions on Collision Course (Part 4)

The date is 20th May 2007, 2:30 pm.

15 minutes after Chengyu has passed by the MRT entrance in the basement and went up to the mall on the ground level, two girls came out of the same entrance having boarded a train to this MRT Station.

“The mall upstairs should be a good place to start collecting donations again, maybe we should try to aim for the eateries on the first level, don't you think?”

“Umm... okay.”

Lina and Reika went up the escalator and started collecting donations on the first level while not knowing that the person that Lina hates so much is actually in the same mall as them! And it is quite obvious that Chengyu himself isn't aware of the existence of those two despite having heightened senses while heading for the third level of the mall.

The game of hide-and-seek lasted for more than 30 minutes before there are traces that both sides start to notice.

“Please wait here while I go to the ladies, okay?”

“Okay.”

Lina walked towards the female toilet at the ground level and was passing by the entrance when she backtracks herself back to the entrance of the mall to find that Chengyu is actually waiting for people to donate into his can right outside the mall where the entrance to the underpass is! Her usually calm mood that she regained after the incident at Yishun suddenly reverts back to anger once again.

“Why is that stupid jerk here of all places......!! How on earth did he know we'll be coming here after that incident!?”

Lina cancelled her trip to the female toilet and ran back to Reika, who is surprised at her sudden return.

“Lina-san, what's wrong?”

“We have to hurry and get out of here! That stupid jerk is already here in this mall!!”

“What?? What jerk?”

“You should know! That jerk who stalked us back in Yishun!!”

Reika then is reminded about Chengyu.

“Uh? Kind person-san??”

“I must've been lucky! I've been meeting such a kind person twice in a day! Thank goodness!” Reika thought as she said those words.

Lina tries to grab Reika's elbow.

“Come on! Let's go already!”

But Reika shakes her head.

“Actually, I've been wanting to talk to him ever since he helped me back in Ang Mo Kio, but didn't have the chance to, he just doesn't seem to want to talk whenever he wishes to...... maybe that's why he opened his mouth to talk only once in several occasions, something must've been preventing him from talking whenever he wanted to. Remember that time you almost tried to attack him?”

Lina remembered the time she tries to attack Chengyu for stalking them, instead of retaliating he just dodged by jumping further back.

“When I try to attack him he doesn't seem to want to retaliate at all...”

“It's pretty obvious that he would rather dodge away rather than hurt you. A normal person who is very angry would retaliate at that kind of attack but he didn't do that at all.”

Lina also remembered that when Reika grabs her to stop her from attacking Chengyu, Chengyu just simply stayed there without moving an inch, remaining in his defensive stance until they are out of his sight.

“Hmph! I think he is too scared to face me for what I did to him!”

“He is scared all right, but most likely not against you, Lina-san.”

“What??” What Reika deduced from his actions surprised her best friend.

“I think he is really scared...... about hurting anyone in that kind of place...”

Lina's hard-line stance starts to soften a little.

“Reika... you really have a kind heart, you know. And that has made a lot of people being kind to you as well. But I don't really want people to take advantage of that kindness of yours and harm you in return. I don't want to see you get hurt.”

But Reika holds Lina's hand to assure her best friend.

“It's okay, Lina-san. You are very nice to me already. But please trust me on this one, okay?”

Lina finally gave in to Reika's request.

“Okay, Reika. Getting him to drop his guard against us won't be easy, so be very careful and let me know if he ever starts attacking you, get it?”

Reika nodded her head, knowing that Lina won't try to attack him without any provocation. So they went together to try and look for Chengyu.

Chengyu was also looking around for donations around the area at this time.

“Hmm... It's not easy as compared to earlier locations that I've been to before......”

But suddenly, a white shadow passed him by without warning, which forced Chengyu to turn around.

“What's that white shadow......”

Chengyu tries to look around, but couldn't see anything resembling it, instead he found Reika and Lina walking towards him!

“No!! How can they follow me all the way here!! I must get out of their sight before they catch onto me!!”

Chengyu quickly ran without thinking, looking for a place he can hide. As for his pursuers, they hasten their steps as soon as he starts running.

“Hey wait up!”

“Kind person-san! Please wait!”

But as soon as they reach the place Chengyu once stood a few moments ago, he was already nowhere in sight as he has already went to hide behind a standalone sandwich bar 15 metres away.

“Let's split up to look for him.”

“Okay.”

The girls went in two separate routes to look for Chengyu.

And Chengyu, who is hiding behind the sandwich bar, heightens his ears' hearing ability to try and hear out the locations of those two girls.

“Hey moron! Come out, come out, wherever you are......”

“Kind person-san! Please come out and see us. We don't want to hurt you anymore, so please don't run away from us, okay?”

“Darn it! They're too persistent already! I know I can no longer get any information from them regarding what happened at the hospital 2 years ago anymore, but why are they now looking for me instead? I may have to wait until I find a way to be able to open my mouth and speak whenever I need to before I can even talk to them, otherwise I'll end up being treated like an enemy by those girls!”

Just at this moment, he hears the voices starting to get louder by the second, signalling their presence is near. Chengyu immediately dashed around the rears of the standalone stores set up around the east side of the shopping mall to try and dodge the girls looking for him.

“Where is he......??”

Lina rushes to where Reika is.

“Any luck?”

Reika shakes her head worryingly.

“I'm afraid if he gets desperate in trying to run away from us, he may try something silly and gets injured somehow...”

“You still have time to worry about that?? We have to get to him before he tries another great escape again!”

Then Reika suddenly sees Chengyu trying to run towards the pillar not far away from them.

“Look! Kind person-san's there!”

“Where!? Where is he!?”

Reika points to that pillar where Chengyu is hiding at and the girls walk towards it. Chengyu, who was hiding there, was seemingly angry at himself.

“That girl that I helped must've spotted me!! Had I decided not to place the coin in her donation can back in that place and just leave her alone, I wouldn't have ended up in this very ridiculous mess!! Looks like I have to utilise my special time-slowdown ability one more time just to get out of here and escape to the bus stop right in front of the mall. I hope this time won't cause the sharp pain I always have when I overuse this power. I have only one last shot at this, and if I make it I should be able to get out of this place!”

Chengyu tries to concentrate his energy on that one burst of his abilities that slows down time and utilises it all at once, successfully slowing down time very drastically and takes that short time space to turn across the pillar he is hiding and run full-speed before the girls even came close enough to it.

“Alright... just one more burst of speed and a straight-line route to the bus stop to go!! I have to make it! Now!!” Chengyu thinks as he pushes hard way past his limit, but the result of this came almost immediately in the form of a very sharp and serious burst of intense pain in his heart.

“Aaarrgggghhhh! What the......! Don't come at this time now......!!”

Chengyu realizes that time has slowly resuming its normal speed, meaning that the ability that he used is gradually losing power. But he was unable to reverse that and the most serious shot of pain seared through his heart, and he lets out a loud scream before losing consciousness and falls to the ground, the place where he fell only less than 10 metres from the bus stop outside the mall.

“NO!! If I fall here means it's all over......!!”

The date is 20th May 2007, 3:40 pm.

Chengyu starts to regain some of his consciousness but his eyes remain closed.

“Am I dead already? But what I'm feeling right now seems to suggest otherwise...... It's completely different from the place I fell, or is it......!?”

He tries hard to regain control of his five senses, and as he regains control of his hearing, he starts to hear a voice that he believes may have heard it before somewhere.

“......-san! …...-san! …...person-san!”

“What...... is...... that...... voice......?”

“......person-san! Kind person-san! Kind person-san!”

“Huh......? Kind person-san......?? Who...... exactly is that??”

Then he regains control of his sense of feel, and realises that his shoulders are being shaken gently.

“It looks like someone is shaking me, and I can somewhat sense...... some kind of a fragrance...... something like...... strawberries......”

As the voices continued, he feels the shaking starts to increase in speed and strength, although the increase is very little, and by this time he starts to regain control of his eyes again.

“Okay, I need to know what's going on, now!!”

He uses all his focus to try and open his eyes, which shows a blurred image when he starts to open them.

“Kind person-san! Kind person-san! Are you awake?”

The blurred image slowly starts to sharpen after a few seconds, which slowly showed a large patch of black and a spot of red above it.

“What exactly am I seeing here......!!”

He tries to focus on sharpening the image he sees with his eyes, and the patch slowly sharpens to see a picture of a girl with black hair and a red ribbon.

“Kind person-san! You're finally awake! Thank goodness......”

The girl seems very happy in his perspective. However, due to his inability to speak whenever he needs it, he was unable to utter a single word out of his mouth.

“Are you okay? How do you feel?”

Chengyu looks around and realizes that the two girls that he is desperately trying to hide from are now by his side, but he does not feel injury in any way except for the heart attack when he fell. He also realizes that he is now in a different place than the one that he fell on. He is now on a bed that looks like those in a hospital, but doesn't have any medical facilities other than the bed itself. The environment is completely different this time. Furthermore, Reika is sitting right next to him looking at him while Lina is sitting a short distance away looking in another direction.

“Where is this place......!?”

He starts to feel his chest as he suffered from a heart attack before he fell, and the pain is felt immediately, although it is now of a reduced intensity as compared to before he fell. As he feels his chest, Reika places both hands on his shoulders.

“Are you okay, kind person-san? Are you hurt anywhere?”

Chengyu shook his head hard.

“Thank goodness...... Luckily this mall has its own infirmary room that can allow people to come in in case of emergencies, you fell just outside the mall in front of the bus stop and some passers-by brought you here and we've been tending to you ever since, well...... at least for the last half-an-hour though......”

Hearing this, Chengyu quickly reached for his watch and the time is displayed as 3:45 pm.

“You were unconsciousness for more than half an hour before waking up. And it seems that you don't have any heart problems as far as we know, so it should be okay.”

“So I was brought here while I was unconscious, huh...... but why did she try and save me, instead of simply leaving me alone as I am......”

Thinking that, Chengyu tries very hard to get up and starts getting down from the bed. Reika tries to help him out of genuine concern.

“It's okay, take your time.” she said as she guides him out of bed.

Lina who is watching from a short distance, feels a little disgusted at what she saw.

“Reika at this time really looks like a nurse helping patients out of their beds......”

Thinking of that causes her to have a hallucination of Reika really wearing a nurse uniform, helping Chengyu off his bed in a hospital, which alarms her.

“Nonononono! This can't be happening!” Lina repeatedly shakes her head to get rid of that hallucination.

Meanwhile, Chengyu looks around for his belongings as he realizes that he is not carrying his bags or donation can when he woke up from the bed. Reika immediately knew what he wanted and guided him to a corner where his belongings are sitting nicely, including his donation can. While he reached for his things, he took out his paper notebook and wrote something with the attached pen on it. This made Reika curious.

“Does that mean kind person-san can communicate through writing when he is unable to talk using his mouth?”

After Chengyu wrote something on the page of the paper notebook, he showed it to Reika the words written on it which wrote: “Thank you. You're a good help in that situation. But earning my trust is another thing altogether, so you have been warned.”

“Ahahaha... It's still...... a pleasure though.” Reika could only laugh weakly after she understood what he has written.

Meanwhile, Lina finally looks at him with stern eyes and opens her mouth.

“Listen, jerk! You'd better pick all your things and get out of here as far as you can, don't ever stalk us up again!!”

An emotionless Chengyu simply wrote something on a new page and walked towards the entrance of the infirmary room where she is and showed her his answer: “You need to seriously do something about that attitude of yours. No man will want you if you keep this attitude of yours with you all the time.”

This really infuriated Lina and started scolding him.

“You'd better watch your mouth, moron!”

Reika could only giggle at her friend's reaction.

“Well, I guess he can be right about that......”

But then she realizes that she almost forgot her motive of looking for him in the first place.

“Oh, kind person-san! Please wait!” Reika tugged onto his T-shirt sleeve. “Is it okay... that I can talk to you for a little while? It won't take long, promise.”

“???” Chengyu was surprised by her request. “I knew she would try this one out...... I give up......!”

Minutes later, Reika was sitting beside Chengyu at the public seating area outside the underpass entrance. Chengyu has his paper notebook open and holding the attached pen.

“Kind person-san.”

“So that's what she refers me by......”

“Sorry to ask this, but......” Reika seems sheepish about her question. “Do you have a name......?”

“Is it safe for me to let my identity be known to this person......?” Chengyu thought about her question for a moment.

Deciding it to be so, he turned to a new page in his paper notebook and wrote his full name in English and Chinese on it. Reika took a look at what he wrote there, but wasn't able to properly read out his name. So he had no choice but to write the readings of his name in Katakana characters^[1] right on top of his English name and tore it out for her.

“Oh, Li Chengyu-san, am I correct?”

Chengyu nodded his head, even though the reading is slightly incorrect.

“Thank you. Chengyu-san! I will cherish this all my life!” Reika keeps the sheet of paper on her chest happily. “But I still don't understand why did you are so interested in us though...?”

“I need answers.” Chengyu wrote his answer without thinking, which made Reika curious.

“Answers? What answers are you looking for, Chengyu-san?”

His written answer: “Regarding your conversation with Lina.”

“No way... you actually overheard our conversation back in Yishun where Lina-san and I met?”

Chengyu nodded his head and wrote his next line of words: “You told your friend that you came here to Singapore 2 years ago for a transplant operation and received kindness from two people, is that right?”

Reika sheepishly nodded her head and explain what she knew at that time.

“I was warded at that time because my own bone marrow failed to function properly back in Japan. What my parents told me was that at that time, there was no matching bone marrow transplant in the country itself that can save me. My childhood friend also had his bone marrow tested, but did not match due to the difference in our blood types. I was warded in a Intensive Care Unit back in Japan for two months prior to this, and was informed only of a perfect match when my condition worsened all of a sudden. If a transplant does not take place immediately I could have been hit with acute leukaemia as a result. However, the matching donor is located only in Singapore so my doctor there had to make a painful decision to ask for an Air Ambulance to send me and my family to Singapore to receive the donation. That was around the end of May 2005 when the transplant took place.”

“Wait a minute! That was around the time I was sent to hospital because I was assaulted by those bloody morons. My mum told me then that I had successfully donated my own bone marrow to a foreigner from Japan that required the donation to live, otherwise she'll die in 48 hours! Then came the revelation about her bone marrow failing, which is so coincidental with what happened to me then. Is she the one that accepted my bone marrow donation?? I do not know for sure but the chances of that are seemingly very low......”

“After my successful transplant operation, I went out of the ward in a motorised wheelchair and lost my keychain somehow, but another kind person picked it up for me and returned it to me personally, but I don't understand what he was saying back then. I couldn't make it in time to thank the two Samaritans for that before my whole family have to go back to Japan within a week due to my dad's work-related matters.”

Chengyu was shocked at what she just said, especially with that Reika said may have tallied with what his own mum has told him about the beneficiary of his donation, but thinks that since there are no concrete evidence that she had any detailed knowledge about what exactly happened back then or even if this Reika here is actually the girl on the wheelchair two years ago, he decided to find out more about this from her by writing:

“Are you planning to locate the Samaritans who helped you in the short time you're in Singapore by coming here to study?” he worded this carefully so as not to sound her out too easily or arouse any of her suspicion on him.

Reika nodded her head sheepishly in reply, thinking about the kindness of those people back then.

Suddenly, Lina came back and called out to her.

“Reika! We need to go back to campus now if we want to be able to return our cans back by 5 pm today.”

“Okay, Lina-san! I'm on my way!”

Reika turned to Chengyu, took his writing pen and wrote something in his paper notebook before returning the pen to him.

“If you need to talk to me, please send a request in my campus chat-room and I'll try to connect to talk to you, okay?” Reika said to him before standing up to leave the place to join up with Lina.

Chengyu looked into the text she wrote and saw a e-mail address written there as well as some kind of numerical code below it.

“The first one obviously is the e-mail address she uses in the campus. But I don't know about the code written below it...... what purpose does it serve anyway? Anyway, I have a feeling this might be useful so I'll keep this for the time being......”

Chengyu decided to keep the paper notebook inside his bag and boarded the bus outside the bus stop while the girls went back to the MRT Station to board the MRT back to Clementi Station en route to New Hope Polytechnic.

During the bus ride which should take him to Bedok Bus Interchange in about an hour's time. He thought deeply on what Reika said about her previous visit to Singapore for the transplant.

“If what that Reika said was true, then there is a remote possibly that the bone marrow I have unwittingly donated while I was hospitalised... might have ended up in Reika's body. Although I don't have concrete medical evidence that proves this theory, I cannot rule this out until I can find medical evidence to prove otherwise!”

Author's Notes:

[1]

Katakana characters are core character sets used in the Japanese Language which utilises rigid strokes as compared to the regular Hiragana character sets used in the language. Katakana character sets are mainly used to describe objects or names that are used in foreign contexts or countries to differentiate items or names that are mainly native to Japan. In this case since Chengyu's name is considered a foreign name, Katakana characters are used to allow Japanese to be able to read the name properly, but using this has a drawback: If certain readings that exists in the foreign language are out of the readings permissible in the Katakana character set, it will be a challenge for Japanese to be able to read names properly without the required learning of that language beforehand.

Chapter 02 - Student Emotions on Collision Course (Part 3)

On the bus, Chengyu sits on the seat located at the very back of the bus and holds onto his donation can.

“That was extremely close move, now that I have shrugged them off for the time being... hope that they don't go bonkers and start to take a taxi to try and catch up to me again...”

But suddenly, a sharp pain hits his heart, and he immediately clutches his chest in pain.

“Ugh! Not now! Could it be due to......?”

He rememberd that he had used his mysterious ability twice in succession, first to push Lina's hand off his shoulder and the second to increase his escape speed to catch the bus that is about to close its entrance door when he reached the bus stop.

“If I use that ability just one more time, I don't think I may be able to stand up for quite a while after that...... I have to be extremely careful in using that kind of ability the next time I'm forced to utilise it......”

He decided to try to close his eyes and rest on the seat and recover some of his lost energy throughout the bus journey, not knowing where the bus will take him.

The date is 20th May 2007, 1:45 pm.

Slightly more than an hour passed by and Chengyu finally woke up again on his seat in the bus he has just boarded in Yishun, and the location of the bus is now near Bukit Merah Town. As Chengyu tries to determine his current location and the most suitable bus stop on its route to alight, he suddenly sees a shophouse ahead where there is a bus stop the the bus will stop at.

“Maybe I can move on from here......”

Chengyu decided to alight at that bus stop and tapped his transit card.

The transit card he is using now is still used to pay for adult fares as he has yet to receive his own special student concession transit card that allows him to purchase a concessionary pass. Paying for such a pass would make taking public transport more affordable compared to paying adult fares for a simple two-way journey of going to New Hope Poly from his home in Sengkang and back due to the fact that he can take unlimited bus trips while the pass is active for a fixed fee per month, the catch being that he has to make the pass payment every month until his Polytechnic days are officially over.

After he has alighted from the bus, he starts looking around and finds a underpass that shows 'Tiong Bahru' and a MRT Symbol before it.

“This must be near Tiong Bahru MRT Station if I'm not wrong...”

Then he saw a pink-coloured building that has no name on it, but has several retail brands on the prominent parts of the exterior itself.

“Judging from those things there, that pink building must be a shopping mall. I don't discount that place to be suitable to collect a few coins inside my can though...”

Having that thought in his mind, he entered the underpass and walked underneath the road via that underpass towards the mall, but en route to the other side of the underpass, he had no choice but to hide in a corner. The reason?

“I think I just came across a competitor somewhere......!!”

He peered at the spot where there are a few people gathering at. Although the crowd was there, but the centre of attraction was still quite visible from a distance. But what made him try and hide is that he noticed the same can that he has is located right in front of the person, and a middle-aged man talking to him.

“It seems that the middle-aged man is squatting there while the young man is talking to him......”

Chengyu tries to look more carefully and after a while, a small mat of cards is shown where the donation can sits. Next to it was cards lined up in an orderly formation on the mat itself. The items were made visible when part of the crowd that originally blocked his view made way for reasons seemingly unknown.

“Wait a minute! These are not ordinary cards!” Chengyu inspected the design and shape of those cards from where he is hiding. “These are actually Tarot Cards that people use to tell something about peoples' lives just by the meaning of the cards used the directions they are oriented as well as their positions on the playing field. Deciphering things about peoples' lives or even their future is an art in itself, and being able to do just that requires tremendous amounts of skill and knowledge to accomplish! Don't tell me that's the method he is using to get a few coins in his donation can?? Can the regulations of donation even allow this to be done? I never saw anything in the regulations booklet barring this kind of activity taking place, maybe this might be the basis that this guy is on in setting such a small booth like this......”

All of a sudden, he saw the young man talking about something seemingly related to the middle-aged man's work life.

“If you try to listen more to what your subordinates think of you and adjust to that accordingly, there may be a chance you can earn their trust gradually. Remember, you understanding what other people want is usually as important as others understanding what you want.”

“Thank you, young man. You're a great help.”

“My pleasure. If my divination can help alleviate some of your worries in life, I'll be the most glad.”

And the middle-aged man walked off, seemingly happy about what he heard. And Chengyu, who is hiding in a corner hearing about that portion of the young man's divination, has some kind of plan in mind.

“I really have to know some answers, especially regarding about that Reika and what she talked to Lina about back in Yishun, but wasn't able to get any concrete or reliable answers or clues that might help me get any way to that. Maybe if that person can give me any insight on this kind of thing...... Even if I don't really believe into this kind of stuff, but trying is better than having absolutely nothing to begin with, right?”

Chengyu decided to try if he can get some help in finding the clues needed to get the answers he need right now.

“But I should really need to do something about this first...”

He opened his bag and placed his donation can inside so that he does not give any image of a competitor to him, as well as not to give himself away too easily. In addition, since he can't speak whenever he wanted to, he picked out his paper notebook and a pen from another compartment in his bag and hopes this can at least help in communication when oral speech capabilities is temporarily disabled for him.

“Alright...!”

He walked slowly towards the booth, making himself look like a commuter going towards the MRT Station situated in the basement, and turned his attention towards the booth itself.

“Good afternoon, sir. Would you like to have your fortune told?”

Chengyu nodded his head slightly without uttering a single word.

The bespectacled young man sports a violet-coloured shoulder-length hair, and is wearing a light-violet-hued shirt coupled with a violet-coloured simple vest on top of it.

“Okay, sir. Please place a coin of any denomination into this can in front of you and you can get a free session of fortune telling.”

Chengyu looks at the can, which is the exact same can that he is carrying.

“Looks like he is also one of New Hope Polytechnic's students as well, huh...”

He placed a fifty-cent coin into the can, and the young man starts to shuffle three stacks of cards. The stacks have different heights, meaning the number of cards in each of those stacks is different, and all the cards used there are face down, their real identities hidden from view.

“If it's okay with you, can you tell me what problem do you have, and I'll try my best to see if I can give any divinations based on the problem you provided me, okay?”

“It seems he has a certain level of confidence about the divinations he can churn out, but whether he can give me any insight will depend on how he works out the question I'm writing down in my notebook......”

Once Chengyu has finished writing his question on his paper notebook, he showed it to the young man making the divination, which shocked him.

“That's weird, you can't talk? That's quite an unfortunate case we have here......”

“Sorry young man. I can't open my mouth and talk whenever I feel like it, so you have to try and bear with me like this for the time being...”

“But it's all right. So long as you can let me know your problem in writing, I can still help you out in this one. No problem.”

By then, he has just finished shuffling his three decks, so he took the paper notebook that Chengyu has written and looked at it. At the same time, Chengyu noticed that these are not ordinary tarot cards.

“I knew these cards! These are specially designed tarot cards that uses images from Japanese anime as their design for their face down as well as the different representations. The image used for the face down is the same for all cards! This has been a quite popular item at comic shops here and there are so many varieties of those cards based on different Anime or Manga series that are the trend here to try and appeal to the young people. No kidding, the variety of designs has also been extended to poker cards as well! These designs usually keep to a single Anime show or Manga series for each deck. And those tarot cards also come with a simple instruction manual on deciphering these cards and their meanings, but as the text of the manual and the cards themselves are in Traditional Chinese, only those who can understand the language will be able to understand how to utilise those things to do simple divinations. Probably these items are primarily made for the Taiwan or Hong Kong markets since the text is primarily used in these regions.”

“So, your problem will be 'I have many questions pertaining my past and hope to find a person who can give me answers to this. I have tried to ask people around me but couldn't find anything that constitutes an answer or even a clue that can lead to one. So I want to ask if I can live long enough to find such a person like that?', is that right?”

Chengyu nodded his head in response, and the young man took out one of the decks and spreads them out like you would see a croupier deal playing cards in a casino playing table.

“Okay sir, please pick just one card from each of the three decks that I will spread out for you, and place the cards on the three square spaces in front of you from left to right, meaning the card that you pick on this one, you place it on the left square, the next one on the middle and the last one on the right. Do not flip over the cards to see at this time, just pick one card from each of the decks and place them face down on the squares marked out for you. Looking at them before I tell you constitutes cheating and can cause the divination to be very inaccurate, if that happens I won't be responsible if anything untoward happens to you after that!” Those words that came from his mouth demonstrates the seriousness and pride he takes in his art.

The young man takes out a cardboard that has three squares drawn on it and places it in front of where Chengyu is sitting.

“Okay, he seems very serious about this 'Tarot Divination' thing...... I'll play along with him and see what happens......”

Chengyu picks out a single face-down card from the stack that the young man spreads out.

“Are you okay with this card?”

Chengyu nods his head in reply, and places the first drawn card inside the first drawn-out square on the cardboard. The young man then collects back the stack sans the card that Chengyu has drawn out and placed on the cardboard, then takes out the second stack next to the first one which has the most face-down cards and spreads it out like the way he did the first one. Chengyu picked a face-down card from this second stack and places that face-down card on the second square on the cardboard. The same process is repeated for the final stack which has the least number of cards judging from the height if it and he places the final card on the remaining unoccupied square. At each time Chengyu picks a card from the deck, the young man will confirm with him if this is the card he will select before placing the card on the squares.

“Okay sir, you ready for the moment of truth?”

Chengyu nods his head.

“So let's reveal what cards you have selected and the meaning behind those cards...”

The young man flips over the first card that he has selected during the selection process.

“You see, tarot cards are usually divided into three classes – namely the Major Arcana, Minor Arcana and the Court Cards. The reason I have you select cards from three stacks is because the three stacks contain cards belonging to each of the three classes. And the cards you have chosen are from each of the three classes in this system. The first one that you have selected is from the Major Arcana class. So let's see what is the card you've chosen and what it really means based on the problem that you asked me.”

The card was revealed to be of 'Justice' that is upside-down based on the card's orientation.

“First card is 'Justice' in reverse orientation. On the basis of your problem, your have a past chock-full of injustice and things not done the right way that directly or indirectly affects you to the extent that the truth has been hidden or distorted with the wrong kind of information about the incidents you face in the past.”

“There is some truth to what he says about this one. Injustice obviously refers to the selecting of the class monitor way back in my secondary school days where selection is based on popularity and not ability. But the truth being hidden or distorted might mean instead to two incidents – the time I returned a key chain to a girl in a motorised wheelchair while I was warded in hospital, as well as the mysterious student taking down the teenage gang members that landed me in hospital and left the school the same day as I did. These incidents only serve to generate more questions than answers that require me to find any trace of the answers that can lead to the truth behind them......”

The young man then proceeded to flip open the second card.

The second card was revealed to be of 'Three of Swords', also in an upside-down orientation like the first one.

“This system of divination I'm using to try and answer your problem is based on the Cause-Effect-Direction method. How this system works is that three cards belonging to each of the three classes are used in this divination system. For your case, I utilise a three-card divination having the Major Arcana card as a interpretation of the Cause, the Minor Arcana as the Effect and the final card picked from the Court cards as the Direction to find a solution or path to a solution to guide you to reach that answer to your problem. Of course the classes can be switched based on the questions posted but I believe this system and class order to be the most suitable to give the answer most suited to your question.”

“I get it. There are numerous ways to decipher cases and questions simply by altering the way the cards are arranged, the number of cards to perform the divination as well as the classes of cards used in the divination. All of them make a difference in the end result so having the matching system for a problem posted can help deliver a more accurate analysis and divination.”

“For the second card, 'Three of Swords' in reverse orientation. Based on your problem, this can only mean one thing: The Cause of the problem reflected on the reverse-oriented 'Justice' card has the Effect shown on the reverse 'Three of Swords' card which is severe suffering and negativity that has been suppressed inside you for a long period of time. I have reason to believe that this suffering and negativity has not only grown in size, but has resulted in your heart completely shut off from the outside world and taking outside warmth as dangerous threats that can seriously damage you.”

“I guess he has gone some way in describing the consequence of that near-fatal attack correctly... but the damage done is actually far more serious than he has described though......”

“Maybe the last card may be able to help find some clues to finding a path in which you can take while having to suffer as little damage when you walk down that path...”

The young man then turns over the final card, belonging to his Count card deck. The last card was revealed to be of 'Knight of Cups' in the normal orientation.

“Okay... an upright card at last...”

“For your problem, you might want to find a person who can give you clues to reach for the answer and help you, and the last card describes the personality of that person you may consider looking for somewhere down the road. The 'Knight of Cups' means that he or she is a very kind and gentle person who with the right person can fall head-over-heels for the person he or she likes and is committed to this partnership for a very long time. When he or she has a relationship to protect he or she would value that relationship over his or her life, so to find such a partner for that kind of person will not be an easy task, but this person may be able to hint at an answer that you might seek, so don't give up on that precious link with him or her and you'll be on the right track.”

However, what he said sent a rude shock in Chengyu's mind, and was reflected on a sour look on his face.

“That's not right...! Describing on that person seems more like someone I should find for a partner...... but what I am looking for is a person I can find answers to, not someone to spend the rest of my life with! But if that person can really give me the answers I need without getting tangled in that kind of relationship, this might work out......”

Nonetheless, Chengyu wrote a 'Thank You' note in a fresh page of his paper notebook, tore it out and gave it to the young man as gratitude before leaving the booth.

“I have reason to believe that this 'Knight of Cups' that that young man showed to me may also be a mirror image of my own personality in a certain sense, but someone with a similar personality like me to be able to find a clue to the answers? I don't really know very well about this......”

He first decided to walk up the escalator to the ground level, then moved up to the second level to continue on his search for donations. However, he did not realise that the nightmare that had almost enveloped him earlier in the day is about to rear its ugly head once again...

Chapter 02 - Student Emotions on Collision Course (Part 2)

The date is 20th May 2007, 11:30 am.

Chengyu has just exited Yishun MRT Station, the station that he has alighted after taking the train that headed north from Toa Payoh MRT Station earlier in the morning. The girl that has been following him has also arrived here, but finds him missing as he guessed that the passengers would usually take the underpass located inside the MRT Station instead of the pedestrian crossing located outside, and being a person unfamiliar with the Public Transportation System like her might go with the flow of the passengers there. But as she heads to the escalator towards the underpass. She paused unexpectedly.

“Wait a minute. If that kind person-san wants to avoid me at all costs, he might consider going to paths others might not be willing to take. What if......?”

The girl went outside as few people went outside the station except for those waiting for the bus at the bus stop 10 metres outside the station entrance. She then looked around and finally found her target, Chengyu waiting at the pedestrian crossing serving the cross-junction outside the station.

“There you are! Please don't run away from me anymore, kind person-san, because I really want to talk to you for a while......”

She made her way there, and was careful not to make him notice so that he doesn't get shocked into running away again, but somebody else that she is hoping to meet have accidentally caught her eye......

“Is that......?”

The girl immediately made a run as fast as she could to the new target, and the target actually noticed her running across the pedestrian crossing that Chengyu himself is also in the middle of and stopped in her tracks. And as the girl ran past Chengyu to meet her new target, his worry turned immediately to frustration as his efforts to evade her has ended in failure, at least for the time being.

“Darn!! I tried hard to get out of her sight but ended up like this!! But wait, she isn't waiting for me at all for following me all the way here, she's actually......!”

“Lina-saaaaaaaaan!” The girl calls out to her new target, and the new target is surprised to see her.

The new target called Lina-san sports a moss-greenish shoulder-length hair, has brown eyes, and wears a light green sleeveless summer blouse that straps over her neck with a emerald-green short skirt that stops just above her knees, completed with a pair white flat-soled shoes that looks like a mix of femininity and sporty styles.

“No way! Is it really you??” Lina replied her.

“Yes! It is me, Reika!” The girl that is originally following him finally revealed her name. “I thought I missed you in the campus, but I finally got to meet you in person at last! I thought I can only talk to you through the campus chat-room, I'm so happy to see you face-to-face!”

“Me too! I've never expected us to meet in such a place like this!” Lina replied, making Reika and herself like two little girls meeting each other after a long time.

Meanwhile, Chengyu has just stepped on the other side of the crossing where the two are and watches from a distance, and is already furious inside at the sight of the two friends. This is part of Chengyu's own emotional defence mechanism that is invoked automatically when he is near behaviour that he deems unacceptable such as friendship and boy-girl relationships, and this is reflected in the anger that he is feeling right now.

“So that long-haired girl's name is Reika, huh...... Wait a minute! That name sounds so Japanese-ish, plus that accent that she speaks. Does it mean she really is......?? But I have heard cases of Chinese females adopt Japanese Names as their Western Names in front of their own surname before......”

“So, have you adapted to life here in Singapore?”

“Um... still in progress though......” was Reika's reply. “Although I arrived here from about two months ago, I am still trying to understand the train system here, it's quite different from those in Tokyo or other parts of Japan though......”

“My wild guess just hit the bull's eye!!” thought Chengyu as he heard the conversation from a distance. “She really is Japanese......! That accent and complexion has never got me wrong!!”

“Oh, I've heard that your childhood friend also came with you to Singapore to study here, right?”

“You mean Kentaro-san? He is here too, but I think he might be too busy trying to hook up local girls here to come and help me......” Reika replied with a shy laugh.

“I never knew he is such a flirt. Anyway, what course are you studying now, now that you're enrolled in New Hope Polytechnic...”

“Oh, me? Same school as you, Lina-san.”

“Really? School of Information and Communications Technology?”

“Yes. In the Information Technology Course. Kentaro-san is doing the same course as mine.”

Lina gave a wry smile.

“Oh? Too bad. I'm in the Mobile Business Solutions Course. Looks like I won't be going to the same class as you guys huh...”

“Don't say that. I heard that some of the modules require students studying different courses to come together as a class.”

“Yeah, I heard about it as well, but isn't that more for the Inter-Disciplinary Modules, Reika?”

“Oh, yeah. But that should be a chance that we can study in the same class like that? I would really want to learn a lot from you about life in Singapore though.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. My dad's too busy preparing for his new assignment in his new company to experience life here, and my mum's too cooped up in her new job as a part-time teacher in the Japanese Association to do the same.”

“Oh, I almost forgot to ask you, where is your dad working as here?”

“A senior financial analyst at the Yokomoto Bank. It's the same company that he works back in Tokyo, just that he is now transferred to the Singapore Branch to work in the same job specifically for Japanese companies that have operations here. The company told him that he is transferred here because he has a good command of English and can do basic Japanese-English translation of financial documents that are needed in his assignment. He has worked in the company for close to 20 years and this is the first time he has been assigned to a foreign land to work on a medium-term contract basis.”

This brightens Lina's expression.

“Oooh, financial analysts earn quite a lot, do they? Why didn't you do business administration and study number-crunching instead of studying a course like what you do now? You can earn as much as you dad does now.”

Reika smiled wryly at her suggestion.

“Uh... I'm not very good at crunching numbers or do numerical analysis as good as my dad does... I feel more inclined to do basic programming and create software like interactive recipes that can teach people... a bit like my mum.”

“Really? Does your mum do software programming too?”

“Not really, but she does more teaching than doing stuff like making software as she is not good at that. I would like to have a balance of making content and teaching people better than just simply teaching though......”

“So what does your mum teach over there at the Japanese Association?”

“She mainly teaches Basic Japanese to elementary-school kids attending classes there, mainly consisting of children of Japanese Expatriates there, so that when they go back to Japan, they can be able to fit themselves back into the education system there seamlessly based on what they learnt in those classes. It's mainly on a part-time basis as she needs time to take care of our house here while my dad goes to work and only comes back after 8 pm. As for my dad, he is on a 3-year contract assignment here as one of the five senior analysts here. It's not easy being on that job here since you need to have a good grasp of the British style of English used in this place and he has a degree from a United Kingdom university.”

Lina seems surprised at how Reika ended up studying here.

“Actually... I came here once for an operation to receive my bone marrow transplant, but I was mostly in hospital at that time so I didn't have the chance to look at places outside the hospital......”

“That's bad, I heard about the operation you had almost 2 years ago in Singapore when you told me about it via the messaging program that we used to talk through the internet. But are you really serious about going to find that person who has donated the bone marrow that saved your life?”

This sent another wave of shockwaves through Chengyu's mind when he overheard that conversation.

“That Reika actually received a bone marrow donation here in Singapore close to 2 years ago...... Wait! Isn't that around the same time I unwittingly donated my own bone marrow in hospital while I was warded for my injuries??? I don't believe what happened to me at that time and her transplant has anything to do in common but I can't take my chances just yet......!”

“And in that hospital, I was helped by another kind soul who helped find back my precious key chain that Kentaro made for me......”

This invoked another set of memories in Chengyu's mind as a unwilling eavesdropper of the conversation.

“She claims that someone has retrieved her precious key chain, but it can't possibly be her on that wheelchair! I'll never believe this kind of nonsense!!”

“...and that's why I decided to help more people as a repayment to the two kind Samaritans who helped me in the past so that more people can be happy. And since my wish to come here coincides with Dad's assignment here. The whole family moved here along with him so that we can stay together as a family, and take the time to get my diploma and find them at the same time!”

“Wow, that's very thoughtful of you, Reika. But I don't know if you can find that person to thank him before you can finish your studies here. I don't want to give you the cold shoulder, but given that your dad has limited time to work here before your whole family moves back to Japan, it won't be easy though......”

“Thanks Lina-san, but I won't give up until the time our family goes back when the day comes, I have so many support from my friends as well as Kentaro who is also here now. I really don't want to disappoint myself and those close to me by giving up that easily.”

Lina held both Reika's shoulders with her hands.

“Don't worry, Reika! If there's anything you need to help, just let me know! I'll try to help the best I can.”

“Thank you, Lina-san!” Reika replied with a cute smile. “You're a wonderful friend!”

But then she realised that Chengyu is standing a short distance behind them.

“Oh! Kind person-san! There you are!” she went to Chengyu, who for some reason wants to move but couldn't find the will to do so.

“Darn!! Why did she follow me all the way here!! I should leave when I have the chance and now that I've spurned that very chance I can get my hands on!!”

“Please, kind person-san! Please don't try to run away from me again.”

This made Lina curious and walked to where the two are.

“Who is that person?”

“Oh! He helped me with my donations back in Ang Mo Kio where I was trying to get people to donate to my can. If not for his help, I would've been stuck there without getting a single cent inside and may get detained by the organisers for that...”

“You mean you took their words of 'getting nothing in your can, you can't get home' kind of joke for real??” Lina laughed at that kind of suggestion. “You seriously can't believe that kind of nonsense! Last year some of my seniors didn't have a single cent inside their cans and yet they can get released on time! Seriously, you're believing in that kind of threats, I don't know if you can really differentiate between what's real and what's a joke, haven't you?”

Chengyu looked at Lina and saw that she also has a can on her hands as well, the same can both Reika and himself are carrying.

“Not good! Two against one this time......!”

“Hey, Mr. Nice Guy!” Lina tries to put her right hand on Chengyu's left shoulder, but the moment he starts to feel the pressure of that hand on his shoulder. His face instantly turns to extreme anger and his emotional defences swiftly charges into hyper-drive, causing all movements around him to slow down significantly.

During this realistically short span of time, he quickly grabs Lina's hand that is on his shoulder with his own right hand, pushes it away hard, makes two-and-a-half vertical spins out of their reach and holds his can tightly with his right arm while performing a claw stance using his left hand, aiming it directly at the two girls with his eyes staring sharply and angrily at them echoing a powerful and savage growl resembling a fierce wolf ready to attack its aggressors without any mercy.

By the time this stance has been shown to the two girls, less than ten seconds of real time passed, shocking them with the speed at this is done, then Lina suddenly realises the acute pain the swift move had on her right hand!

“Ouch! That hurts, you know!!” Lina gets very angry at Chengyu. “What's your problem!?”

“You'd better be careful where you put that hand of yours, young lady!!” was the thought running in Chengyu's head.

“Hey! You'd better apologise now, or......!” Lina steps forward, angered by the expression on Chengyu's face.

“Don't come near me! You're a recognised threat from this point on!! Come closer and I won't show any mercy on you!!” was his reply in his mind while growling even more loudly with the left hand ready to swipe at her if she comes any closer. But as Lina comes even closer getting more angry, he tries to back off even further, thinking that he has no reason to deal any damage on her.

“Stop right there, you moron!!” Lina tries to grab Chengyu, but Reika suddenly tries to hold her back.

“Lina-san! Please stop! I don't want you people to hurt each other, please!”

“Let me go! That moron has no reason to do things like that!”

“Please! He just helped me before. I know he has a kind heart.” Reika tries to reason with her friend. “I'm very sure he has a reason for doing the thing he did just now. Please don't aggravate him further, okay? I'm sure if you stop attacking him, he will stop as well.”

Lina looks at Reika, who shook her head in agony to try and get her friend to stop. Lina stops her aggression and said to Chengyu in a very annoyed manner: “I'll take account that you helped her before and let you off this time. Next time I won't be so easy on you!!

An very angry Lina brings Reika through the front entrance of the shopping mall while Chengyu looks on while still on the ultra-defensive stance.

“Bring it on if you can, wretch! You'll regret it all the way to your funeral should you really attack! Don't force me to deal the death blow on you should things get way out of hand!!”

After he has calmed down and recovers from that defensive stance, he starts to analyse the situation about the two girls from a witness's perspective.

“It seems that the reason why this Japanese girl named Reika, who was following me, suddenly ran past me was due to the green-haired girl named Lina that was presumed to be her friend appearing right outside the mall, and it is obvious judging by their conversation that the Reika and Lina knew each other way before the she came to Singapore and study in New Hope Poly. By Reika herself was even more strange... why had she claimed that she came here to Singapore almost 2 years ago to have the operation to have a transplant of her bone marrow? Is it because she can't find a match back in her home country? Worse, is that she claims to have the operation at around the same time as I donated my own bone marrow during my hospitalisation. The girl named Lina seems very aggressive for a girl who doesn't dress like a tomboy, in sharp contrast to Reika who shows no sign of aggression or enmity throughout the period from the time we met all the way to try and stop Lina from attacking me. But why the contrast, and why is she so obsessed with trying to approach me when I am doing all I can to stay alone to avoid hurting anyone as well as allow damage to my own heart? I still have no answer to this even till now......”

Chengyu then remembers Lina bringing Reika into the mall a while ago.

“If my analysis this time is correct, the two girls must've been trying to collect donations from people in the mall. That means they might be still in this mall, and maybe the only way to find any hint of an answer to my questions is through Reika herself. Thing is, I have not been able to hold verbal conversations with anyone other than my parents since I graduated from my secondary school with my 'O' Level Exams. Will doing something people normally have little problem doing such having a conversation with people my age even be possible for me??”

But since if he doesn't start doing something now, he might miss out on information that can help answer his questions, he decided to go into the mall, hoping to find them and see if he can get any information especially on the reason Reika came to Singapore to study and the relation to things that happen in the past.

The date is 20th May 2007, 11:15 am.

As he reached the third level of the mall, he started scouting around for the two girls, hoping to catch them chatting about their past and possibly finding any clues along the way, while at the same time accepting any donations to his can coming his way and giving stickers to the donors.

“Ugh! Multi-tasking like this is pretty tiring...... but I need to do this to find more information about those two, especially about that Reika. She may have clues to help me find some answers to my questions......! But coping with that wretch named Lina is not an easy task if I need to get things done though......”

Looking around the third level took quite a while, and after some effort, he finally found glimpses of them walking around the sports store there. He sets there to try and spot them while trying to avoid their detection at the same time. Once he is there, he tries to utilise his heightened hearing ability that he has developed as part of his secret extreme training to try and hear their conversation.

“Wait a minute! All these two are talking about what's happening recently, nothing related to the answers of what I'm looking for! Have they realised that I was listening to them for answers? But they shouldn't have any knowledge about what I'm asking as I have not spoken a single word since the two met, they shouldn't be able to decipher what I'm thinking in my head all this time!”

Chengyu decided to continue the tracking discreetly while collecting donations at the same time, trying hard to listen to the two girls' conversations to listen for any clues to the answers he seeks regarding Reika's past and the connection to his own.

“I know this is going to be tough work, but for the answers, I can't give up just like that!”

Meanwhile the girls are talking about Reika's childhood friend while Chengyu tries to listen from a corner two shops away.

“How come Kentaro came here to study and tries to hook up girls here?”

“Um...... that's......”

“What's wrong?”

“He seems...... somewhat...... heartbroken......”

“Why was that so, Reika?”

Reika felt hesitant to speak.

“Um, Lina-san......” she musters her courage to speak. “Promise you won't laugh at this, okay?”

“Okay, promise.”

“Thank you. Actually......” Reika starts to explain. “Kentaro-san at that time had someone he liked for a long time......”

“Ooooh! Who was that lucky girl then?”

“Uh......!!” her cheeks were red.

“Don't tell me you're the one he likes, didn't you??”

Reika sheepishly nodded her head.

“Kentaro-san confessed his love to me three weeks before my family set off to Singapore...”

“Oh my goodness! You're super lucky, you know that?” Lina seems delighted at what she just said.

“Really?”

“I thought that I was a sporty girl and have a not-so-bad body, so guys should be taking notice of me, but too bad they are not good enough for yours truly!”

“Um... I thought no one ever asked you out, Lina-san?”

“Hey!” Lina suddenly gets very annoyed, which caused Reika to giggle at her expression.

“Actually you should show a little more of your feminine side together with your sporty self. This way, more guys will take notice of you more often.”

“Enough of myself. So how did you answer that childhood friend of yours?”

“I think the answer was pretty obvious though, otherwise how would he come here to find local women here?”

“I guess you're right...... that means you must've rejected his confession.”

Reika sheepishly nodded her head.

“You know, I still have faint memories of a boy during my stay in hospital where I received my transplant...”

“You mean the time that waaa~nderful boy you always keep talking about that returned you your favourite red-ribbon keychain that Kentaro gave you on your 12th birthday?”

“Yes.I wonder if he is still around here now......”

“I dunno. Maybe he may not be around anymore, who knows.”

This has Reika scared stiff!

“Please Lina-san! Don't scare me with things like that.”

“Oh, sorry... I forgot you are afraid of scary talk like that.” Lina apologised. “But seriously, you think you're still able to find that same boy you met in that hospital? He would have been an adult by now if he's still around.”

“I believe he may be still out there somewhere, I really want to thank him for the kindness he showed me. And also to the one that donated his bone marrow to me too.”

“Looks like you have a really huge task ahead of you to do other than your studies, huh......” Lina said with a sigh.

Meanwhile, Chengyu is annoyed that he kept hearing the same things all over again about the transplant and keychain events that happened so long ago.

“I guess I may not be able to get much from them based on what I've heard from them so far......”

The date is 20th May 2007, 12:45 pm.

The three persons involved have been collecting donations for the past one-and-a-half hours and they decided to have lunch.

Reika and Lina were having lunch at the fast food restaurant near the front entrance, while Chengyu is also having his lunch at another fast-food establishment on the opposite side separated by a passageway to the front entrance. As a precaution, he finished his own food and left the restaurant ahead of the two girls after trying to hear their conversation without any success. However, at the other restaurant......

“Hey Reika, did you notice a very strange man going out of that restaurant?”

“Huh? Where is he?”

Lina points to Chengyu that was walking out of the restaurant on the opposite side.

“It's kind person-san.”

“What 'kind person' is he? That jerk looks more like a wolf in sheep's clothing!” Lina is obviously fuming at the sight of him. “And you actually think he is a kind person? He is a nutcase!!”

“Lina-san. It's not courteous to address him like that.”

“And after all the stalking he is doing on us, you think he's not?”

“That's not it!” Reika was flustered. “That's......”

“Anyway, I have an idea to prove whether is a kind person, a lecher, or a nutcase, okay?”

“Huh? How?”

The two walked out of the restaurant and exited the mall via the main entrance, but Lina suddenly told Reika to split up with her so that they can sandwich paths with Chengyu when he walks by. And sure enough, Chengyu is really walking past the 'trap' set by the girls.

“Where did those two go...... I have a bad feeling that I might be ambushed any time from now...!!” This immediately activates his emotional defence mechanism and prepares to attack in case of anything happening after this.

As he slowly walks by two pillars that the girls were hiding. Lina pops out of one of them and barks at him.

“Okay, moron! Stop right there!!”

“Darn! A trap?!” Chengyu looks back and sees Lina, and instinctively raises his left arm as his right hand is holding to his donation can.

“You can forget about that fake act of yours, jerk!!” Lina was seemingly not impressed at his stance. “Answer us why are you following us around the mall! Wrong answer, I'll call the police!”

“Darn!! You even want to get the police involved in that kind of matter? You must be bonkers!!” thought an angry Chengyu as he tightens his stance, ready to attack. But just then......

“Lina-san. Please let me talk to him, okay?” Reika showed up from behind another pillar and tries to talk to a very agitated and furious Chengyu.

“Kind person-san. Please tell us why are you so interested in looking for us.”

Chengyu couldn't even open his mouth when he needs to, need to say speak.

“I know you can talk, kind person-san. So please tell us why do you want to follow us around the mall.”

Chengyu then remembers that he did open his mouth to tell her “Do what you want. I'm getting out of here!” earlier in the day.

“So that means I might be able to open my mouth and speak, but I still don't know how I was able to do it. Until I can figure it out myself, I don't think I can just speak at will like normal people do!”

So faced with no option, he tries to concentrate his mind, but the result of this is simply a gathering of energy in his left hand and he instinctively swung that hand of his like the action of swiping something with a left claw, and that creates a seemingly large gust of wind that blew through the two girls, causing them to almost lose their balance.

“What the...??”

“Owww!”

Chengyu quickly used the space of their confusion to run off in the quickly towards the bus stop near the shophouses that were next to the mall and boarded the first bus that arrived there, and the escape was boosted with the sudden activation of his unknown power that slows down time dramatically.

By the time Reika and Lina knew what was happening, Chengyu was nowhereto be found.

“Where is he?” Lina looked around, and saw the person in the bus that has already leaving the bus stop, and this made her really mad!

“Moron!! Jerk!!! Don't ever come back, you bastard!!!”

“Lina-san. That was not very feminine of you, you know.”

“Who cares abot being feminine when he's on the loose!!! That jerk has ruined our afternoon and I won't rest until I catch him!!”

“But you just screamed at him not to come back.” Reika told her. “If he really doesn't come back, how are you going to catch him?”

A frustrated Lina just screamed loud and hard at the bus stop as a reply, Reika couldn't do anything but sigh at her actions.

“Lina-san sometimes has a bad temper that may put off a lot of men though, but she is still a very lively person and a good friend to me too. I hope she can find her Mr. Right soon.”