The Friend of Mine
Lim and Miya were in front of Lim's bedroom door. His right hand was still holding Miya's left hand on his left shoulder. Both of them had their hearts racing.
Lim looked at Miya. He was trying to find some words to break the ice.
Being stared at like that, left her puzzled, "What?"
"Take two steps back. I cannot open my door if you are around."
DANG!
Miya's heart sank.
She shifted her focus. Wishing that Lim wouldn't realize how nervous she was.
She didn't want to get embarrassed because her heart had racing in the wrong race.
"I can't even move my hand if you keep holding it."
"Sorry." He got rid of her hand as if it was not beneficial anymore.
Actually, Lim was as nervous as Miya.
He was not the type of person who was good in doing whatsoever the romance gesture a man would probably do. Instead, he was cast Miya out, "Just step back!"
Miya took two steps back. Without further instruction, she was mindfully enough to turn her body around. She tried to gain Lim's trust by safeguarding his privacy, she thought, "I will be the close confidant to him, so he will not be too mean to me."
She was waiting patiently in front of Lim's room by doing her happy dance while humming.
"Down payment! Down payment! Ha… ha… ha… ha… ha…"
But suddenly, she was aware of something and turned back, "Wait! His wheelchair has broken, right? Then how—"
At that time, Lim showed up, bringing a pile of pieces of stuff, and passed it to Miya.
"Choose whatever you need. I am not familiar with your preferences."
She was confused seeing the wheelchair. It was in great shape!
"Your wheelchair?"
"I have one extra wheelchair. I'm used to having a backup plan."
"Oh… OK. I'll get going, then."
Miya had to have an unsteady walk back to her new perfect sanctuary because of a massive pile of Lim's clothes and white blankets.
Lim just remembered something, so he called her loudly, "HEI! If you need privacy, there is a remote near the TV cabinet. Just press the green button!"
"Thank you, Boss!" she walked away without paying much attention.
***
BRAK!
Miya threw all of the stuff she brought to the sofa, "What a day! The bed looks so tender. And it keeps calling me," Miya duckwalked to the bed.
She was ready to jump and fly to the bed, "Ready to take-off!"
But when she rose her hands up, she smelled a sour scent came from her armpits. "IYUUH… My armpits smell like a scorpion! Go around! Go around!" She aborted her flight to her bed.
Then she randomly took one out of ten pairs of Lim's clothes and went to the bathroom behind the TV cabinet while moaning, "Huhuhuhu… It must be cold. It's 3 am, and I need to take a shower. This is a total torture!"
***
"Aaaahhhh…"
Miya's eyes sparkled with heavenly joy. She had a puss-in-boots face on hers. She whispered, "It's a blessing…"
Miya was dipping in the white modern hot tub facing the full-glass rolling door.
Outside the door was the forest overgrown by pine trees. There was a warm light that came from some solar lamps used to decorate the trees.
"The scenery outside must be much more exquisite at noon. I have to give my best in doing my job! This kind of blessing will not come twice to someone like me." Miya was playing around with the bubbles that covered her body. She shaped her fingers round and blew up bubble bath soap to create some huge flying bubbles.
"Ahhh… I don't wanna get out of this hot tub! It's cold out there!"
***
Lim was lying on his bed.
He took his cell phone.
He opened the CCTV apps to check Miya's room.
He saw no one in there.
He increased the input audio volume and listened to Miya's loud voice from the bathroom.
"Ahhh… I don't wanna get out of this hot tub! It's cold out there! I probably will stay in here
until the sunrise!"
Lim smiled.
He put his cell phone down on his bed when he knew that Miya was soaking in the bathtub.
Of course, he was mindful enough, not to install the CCTV on her personal space.
He just put one CCTV near the entrance, one near the TV room, and one near the kitchen.
He managed not to see what she was doing, but couldn't bear not to listen to her voice.
She told a bedtime story to her own self, "Once upon a time. There live a LITTLE— BRAT— HIDING— WOOD… Hahahaha… Indeed, he is the little brat who're hiding in the woods. But actually, I think he is a good man."
Lim started to adore Miya's thoughts. To be exact, he adored himself. He was excited when knowing that others could see his birght side. This made him turned to be overconfident, he thought, "Hmnnn... She has good eyes in finding a pearl of kindness in my heart. I think, maybe I can try to make a friend with her. She has saved my life, after all. She badly needs money, but she chose a good way to earn money. If it is not her, maybe I already being a dead body right now. I wish, she was really different from others…"
Suddenly, he found his old memory when his eyes spotted his childhood backpack. He kept it
well inside the big display cabinets in front of his bed. Aside from the backpack, there were
some other kinds of stuff he treasured the most from his childhood.
***
Lim was 10 at that time.
He was crying in a tiny storage room in the orphanage's backyard. He put off his shoes, and flipped them over. The label was still sticking on it, unpeeled. It just getting shabby because it's always stepped on.
In his sob, he peeled off the label.
"Mom… I miss you a lot. I need you to be here with me. If I listened to everything you have said, will you just— come back? I will do everything you told me to do so. You said I need to peel it off, huh? I will do it. Please… I miss you, both of you—"
He was scrubbing hard the residue of the label that was too sticky to be completely peeled off.
His cries getting louder. His body trembled. His stuffy nose made it hard for him to breathe.
"I don't wanna go around by bus anymore. I don't care with whatsoever my friends have done with their parents, Dad."
He wiped out his tears.
But it seemed to be useless for they kept bursting out. He hugged his shoes tightly, as tight as he used to hug his parents. "I will let you tickle me all the time, Dad. I wanna hear your laugh again. I love you, Dad…"
CLUNK!
Lim heard the sound of falling stuff.
He tried to stop crying, put on his shoes and find the source of that sound.
As he was there, he found an eleven-year-old tubby boy.
The boy was crouching down, trying to hide his wide body, two times of Lim's body size, behind a medium-sized bucket. Of course, he knew that it was useless.
So, he stood up with a heavy HEK sound, for his body weight made he got a cramped leg.
"Sorry…" he said. "I'm Joe. My bed was opposite to your bed if you do pay attention."
Lim kept silent. He wiped out the reminiscing tears on his eyes.
Joe tried to find an excuse so Lim would not angry at him eavesdropping everything.
"Sorry— I don't believe with others when they say that you are a werewolf. So, when I saw you sneaking out from your bed, I follow you here. It's a full moon— So… This is the right time to get a proof, huh?"
Lim turned around and walked away but Joe held him after getting his leg cramped-free, "I don't mean to see you crying. I just want to say, it's OK to cry. Especially when you just have a hard time."
Lim stood still.
Joe grabbed Lim's hand and sat him down on the floor.
He tried to comfort him, "You know? Your tears have to be taking out of your body. If your life burden was 5 kg, removing 1 kg of tears from your body will lighten up your day. Look at me! If it is me, I have to remove 5 kg of tears and 10 kg of fat. I have such a 'weight life'. Hahahaha"
Lim chuckled with Joe.
His tears had faded away, but he needed someone to talk to.
He tried to open up, "I have no parents. My life ruined!"
"We are in an orphanage, dude! Nobody has parents in here!"
"My parents have passed away—"
"Hei listened! You can do nothing about your parents who have passed away. Your life is much better than mine if you wanna get to know."
Lim stared at Joe. He felt better after found out that his life was not that worst. But how come Joe talked about it as if it was a normal situation. What on earth did he experience in his life?