Lion Boy and Drummer Girl

by Pauline Loh

  Ricky rubbed his hand on a spot on his chest and winced. He tried to convince himself that the pain was from his healing tattoo, and not from his heart.

  CHAPTER 30

  THE BEAT REPORTER

  Sly Seetoh scratched his beer belly. The reporter was turning 40 and wished his editor would retire soon or die. He was tired of being a beat reporter, but his tabloid, Leopop Weekly, was too small an operation to employ two editors. Sly used to be a star reporter at an entertainment magazine, but it had folded and Leopop had become the rage. He’d jumped on the Leopop bandwagon because…who wouldn’t have?

  Sly was fond of telling people that reporters were like wine—they got better with age. But, in reality, he was starting to panic. He hadn’t had a good scoop for ages. He had covered the usual competitions and fashion trends, but what he needed was a revelation about some dirty secret between a few stars. Well, this latest titbit from one of his informants might just do the trick.

  His spy, who worked in a tattoo parlour, had told Sly that one of the newbies, a foreign import called Ricky Kang from the legendary Lung San’s troupe, had had a tattoo done. But the parlour boss who had attended to Ricky personally was notoriously tight-lipped. His discretion was what helped the parlour to attract celebrity clientele.

  Sly would not have thought twice about the tip because idols were constantly getting tattooed. Some of them were more inked up than Leopop Weekly. And they would usually post photos of their newest tattoos on Instagram before they had even healed.

  But Ricky had stayed silent on social media. This made Sly’s news sense tingle—Ricky had to be hiding something. Sly knew that the more a celebrity had to hide, the more the public would want to hear about it. And Sly considered himself the model public servant.

  After purchasing a discounted bottle of Pinot Noir, Sly paid the boss of the tattoo parlour a visit. But the boss turned up his nose at the cheap alcohol. (Who knew that tattoo artists could be wine connoisseurs?) He also did not appreciate Sly’s invitation for him to rat on his customer. This made Sly even more determined.

  He would have to solve the mystery the hard way, then. Anyway, it was high time he paid Lung Shifu a visit. And that pretty daughter of his, thought Sly as he sucked in his belly and preened in front of the mirror.

  Sly sauntered into Legends Hall and stood in the middle of the lobby. He deflated a little when he realised that there was nobody there to welcome him. A sign on a wooden door leading to the inner recesses of the hall read: “Please ring the bell and somebody will attend to you.”

  But reporters do not ring bells, just like they do not call ahead to book appointments. You learn so much more when you turn up unannounced, Sly smirked to himself. He pushed open the door and walked into a melee. A group of boys was training in the tiny open-air courtyard. Two strapping teenagers, engaged in hand-to-hand combat, came dangerously close to him. He stepped aside hastily, but they still managed to knock his glasses off his face.

  “Get out! Practice is on!” a voice roared.

  “My glasses!” Sly bleated. All his swagger disappeared whenever he was separated from his spectacles, as he was half-blind without them.

  “Here!” His spectacles were shoved into his hand and he was manhandled through the same door he had entered from. The door slammed behind him.

  Sly examined his glasses anxiously and was dismayed to find that they were crooked. Before he could fiddle with them further, a friendly voice called out.

  “Hey, bro!”

  Sly looked around and saw a boy standing in front of a similar wooden door at the other end of the lobby. Although the boy was sweaty and his hair was a mess, he looked breathtakingly handsome and urbane. Sly recognised him as Ricky from photos he had seen.

  “You should have come through this door,” Ricky said sociably. “Are you looking for someone? I can get him for you.”

  Sly smoothed back his comb-over, which had a tendency to fall aside to expose the bald spot underneath. He sucked in his belly and tried to look serious and important. “I actually came to see you, Ricky Kang.”

  If he had expected Ricky to look gratified at being recognised, he was disappointed. Ricky smiled and said, “A fan! Do you want an autograph?”

  Sly bit back a sour word and flashed his press badge. “No, I’m Sly Seetoh from Leopop Weekly.” He loomed over the younger man and asked solemnly, “My sources tell me you were in a tattoo parlour a few days ago. May I see the tattoo?”

  CHAPTER 31

  THE SECRET TATTOO

  Ricky looked shocked for a second. Then he bit his lip, as if trying to control his laughter. “I don’t think I should show it to you here,” he told Sly. “The tattoo is in a...um...rather private place.”

  Sly jerked his head towards the door. “You can show me indoors.”

  Ricky seemed to debate with himself for a while, and then he nodded.

  They went through the door, which led to a corridor hugging an inner wall along the courtyard. Sly saw a tall teenage boy, with fists planted on his hips, bossing around the trainees. So, it was Zeus who had abused his spectacles. The boy had grown taller and bulkier since Sly had last written about him. Zeus turned and glowered at Sly.

  “Sir,” he barked, “please read the sign on the door next time. We cannot be responsible if trespassers get injured.”

  A sweet voice interrupted the low growls and grunts in the courtyard. “It’s Mr Seetoh from Leopop Weekly! You should have called before coming. I would have ordered some of the custard buns that the bakery on this street is famous for. My father is out, unfortunately.”

  Sly turned and leered at Ying Ying. “I’m not here to see your father. I came because I realised how much I missed the Silver Girl of the Leopop world.”

  He moved towards her, his arms opening up to envelop her in a hug, but Ricky was suddenly between them. His face was filled with concern as he reached up to Sly’s spectacles. “Your glasses are out of shape. Let me fix them for you,” Ricky said.

  “Stop! Stop!” Sly jerked his head away. Ying Ying, unaware that Sly’s attempt to hug her had just been thwarted, asked, “What can we do for you?”

  “Ricky was just about to show me his brand-new tattoo,” Sly said, eyeing Ying Ying for her reaction. He hazarded a guess. “The rumour is that it was inspired by a lady.”

  Ying Ying kept on smiling. She paused before replying, “Idols get tattooed all the time. I didn’t know that Leopop Weekly was into this kind of gossip. Is it a special feature on tattoos?” She shrugged and said to Ricky, “Okay, it’s your show.”

  Ricky jumped onto the low balustrade separating the corridor from the courtyard and balanced on it like a lion on a beam. He announced loudly, “Brothers and sister, let me show you the tattoo that is going to make the front page of the news tomorrow!”

  He turned his back to the people in the courtyard, stuck out his behind and wiggled it suggestively. Then he snapped the waistband of his track pants.

  “Gross!” “Get out of here!” The boos and jeers were loud.

  Ricky pretended to put on an offended expression and blinked in what seemed to be righteous indignation. “I’m not doing the great reveal for an unappreciative audience.”

  He twirled nimbly on the narrow balustrade, turning around until his back was now facing Sly and Ying Ying. He started to dance and gyrate.

  Suddenly, a body hurtled from the courtyard and slammed into Ricky. Ricky lost his balance and collided with Sly. Sly staggered backwards into a shuttered window behind him and the ancient wood splintered. The upper half of Sly’s body fell through the broken window and he would have flipped right over, except that his legs were entangled with those of Ricky and the other boy.

  CHAPTER 32

  A BROTHER IN NEED

  Ricky’s attacker sat up—it was an enraged Prome. “How dare you disrespect my girl!” Prome yelled, straddling Ricky’s body. He raised his fist and aimed it at Ricky’s jaw.

  “Not the face!” Ying Ying shoute
d.

  The Lions had been tutored to keep their teammates’ faces pretty for photoshoots, so Prome pulled back his punch and angled it at Ricky’s torso instead.

  “Oof!” Ricky grunted.

  “Help!” a weak voice called out.

  In the confusion, the boys had not noticed Sly’s paunchy figure hanging half-in and half-out of the window. Mercury and Zeus leapt over the balustrade and pulled Sly up. The middle-aged man’s careful comb-over was completely disarranged and his bald spot gleamed. Buttons had popped off his shirt and his pale stomach was showing.

  “My glasses!” he moaned.

  Mercury hurdled the window and searched the floor. He picked up the glasses, then stopped. Ying Ying held out her hand for them. When she saw their mangled state, she understood Mercury’s hesitation.

  It was pointless trying to mend them. Ying Ying apologetically handed the broken pieces to Sly with two hands and bowed remorsefully. “Please bill the cost of a new pair of spectacles to Lion Legends. I’ll call a taxi for you now.”

  Prome was still trying to pin a struggling Ricky to the floor. Ying Ying kicked Prome and he clambered to his feet. “I’m sorry, mister reporter, sir. I was just trying to stop my teammate from breaking the law and offending your senses.”

  But Sly, the professional wordsmith, started berating Prome with unprintable insults. Prome endured the tirade silently.

  Mercury interrupted Sly’s monologue with a stony face. “Sir, the taxi is here. I will escort you out.”

  Sly continued grumbling as he stumbled, sight impaired, out of the hall.

  Ying Ying turned to devote the full force of her anger on Prome. “Wash up and wait in the reflection room. Shifu will want to speak to you later!”

  She waited until the sulky Prome had retreated. The other boys started clearing up the debris in the courtyard. Ricky was still lying on the floor. He moaned pitifully and looked up at her. She reached down and helped him to his feet. He beamed.

  “Don’t be too hard on Prome,” he said cheerfully. “That reporter really shouldn’t have insisted that I reveal my tattoo. I already warned him it was in a spot that shouldn’t see the light of day. Would you…like to see it?”

  Ying Ying’s cheeks flushed, a revolted expression on her face. “Look at your naked bum? No thanks.”

  “It’s not on my…”

  “If you want to reveal your tattoo to the press, then go ahead. Just make sure that whichever lady inspired it is famous. Then Lion Legends can get more mileage out of it. I’ve got to get that window fixed,” she said and left abruptly.

  Ricky sighed. He admired Ying Ying’s loyalty to the troupe; it was one of her qualities that he found so attractive. But sometimes, her methods of promoting her hall seemed so…mercenary. He remembered her proposal to trade him and unconsciously rubbed his sore chest again.

  Sighing again, Ricky went to the reflection room. Prome was there, sitting bolt upright, with his eyes fixed on the Legends plaque.

  “Thanks for bailing me out,” Ricky said.

  “I got your ISOS, bro.” Prome blinked his eyes rapidly thrice, then slowly thrice and repeated the rapid blinks again. “ISOS”, or “Eye SOS”, was the Legends’ wordless signal to each other whenever they needed assistance during a performance.

  Still smiling, Ricky added with an edge to his voice, “I appreciate your love, bro. But you crossed the line when you called Ying Ying your girl.”

  “Ying Ying and I go back a long way. We’ve drunk from the same cup, eaten from the same bowl, cried on each other’s shoulders and even slept leaning against each other’s backs,” Prome said, sneaking a wicked glance at Ricky, who was clearly seething with jealousy.

  “Growing up together means you’re brother and sister,” Ricky blustered. “It doesn’t mean you get to call her your girl. She’s mine.”

  “We’ll have to see, won’t we? May the best man win!”

  Prome offered his hand for a high five. Ricky ignored it. He heaved himself up and muttered, “You guys shouldn’t be called Legends. Ying Ying is surrounded by sneaky wolves and I’m going to get her away from you all.”

  Prome snickered. “You, a doll, competing against lions and wolves?”

  Ricky stomped away, but Prome just chuckled and stretched out on the parquet floor.

  CHAPTER 33

  AN UGLY FIGHT

  Ying Ying intended to go to the office to call a carpenter to repair the shattered window, but she found herself heading towards the music room and to her flower drum. She sank down quietly next to its comforting curves. Now that she was sure nobody could see her, she dragged her hand over the unshed tears in her eyes and drew a shaky breath.

  She felt…as if the bottom of her universe had been kicked out and she was back in the corner, cowering as her mum and dad argued. They had thought little Ying Ying would not understand or remember the horrible words they threw at each other, but she recalled them with the kind of black-and-white clarity that only young children possess.

  She knew the women her mum had been referring to—the rich, middle-aged patronesses who had sponsored her father’s productions when he was still trying to make something out of Lion Legends. To this day, she could recall their claw-like nails as they drew her stiff little body towards them, cooing, “Lung Ge, so this is your Silver Girl? Who am I to you then, hmm?”

  Then there was Uncle Ang with his wandering eyes and hands, who could not be satisfied with the wife who waited at home for him with hot meals every evening.

  What stunned her the most was her own reaction to Ricky’s tattoo. She beat her clenched fists despairingly against her head. From the beginning, I knew he was a ladies’ man, to be shared by many women but never loyal to one. He’s a lion dancer—they are all the same!

  Ying Ying could not bear to think about the mystery woman who had inspired Ricky’s tattoo. Could it be Jessica of Leopop News? Or maybe it was the rookie reporter from LeoWorld at Large—was her name Adeline? It could be any of the PR executives, hair stylists and make-up artists they had worked with during Ricky’s debut.

  Ying Ying growled to herself. He’s been here only a few months, and he is already so sure of a girl that he had her name tattooed on his bum? Maybe he plans to get tattoos of girls all over his body until he looks like a street directory! Annoyed with herself for her petty jealousy, she chewed angrily on her lip.

  The door cracked open with a squeak of rusty hinges. Ying Ying scrambled to her feet and bent over the shadowy ranks of drums, as if she were doing an inventory check.

  “Ying Ying?” Ricky’s voice hovered behind her. “The fight wasn’t Prome’s fault. I sent him an ISOS to create a distraction because I didn’t like the nosy reporter.”

  Ying Ying kept her back turned. When she spoke, her voice was as cold as ice. “You’ve done nothing but create trouble since you got here. You should just go to America. Get a degree. For once in your life, make your parents proud of you. Do you have any idea how many people wish they were in your shoes?!”

  Ricky sighed. “Why are you pushing me away? First, you wanted to send me to Hot. And now you want to banish me to America. You’re making my mission very difficult.”

  Ying Ying refused to be drawn into asking him about his secret mission. She scoffed, “You aren’t serious about anything. I’m sure this mission is just some frivolous prank like Apple’s coming-of-age joke.”

  Ricky’s smile faded. “This mission is more important to me than anything. What would you know?” He was growing steadily more furious. Ying Ying had tried to sell him to Hot Lions as if he were a piece of meat, and now she was taking the moral high ground?

  Despite his legions of female fans, Ricky had guarded his heart all these years because he had seen the loving, almost sacred, commitment his parents shared. It was a relationship goal that he aspired to.

  “You’re too handsome for your own good,” his mum had once said while tapping young Ricky fondly on his dimples. “Let Mummy give you a piece of adv
ice: Keep your heart for the right person.”

  “How will I know who that is?” he asked.

  “Your heart will tell you. She will make your heart beat like a drum.”

  Whenever Ying Ying showed the smallest inkling of affection for him, even though she did the same for all the other boys, his heart would race like a drum solo. But now that he had given away his heart, the recipient was stomping all over it.

  “You’re not one of us. You should just go,” she said tersely.

  Ricky finally lost his cool. “You’ve been telling me from day one that I’m not a Legend’s disciple. Yet you won’t let me leave until you’ve cut out your pound of flesh!”

  Ying Ying finally faced him and gave him an angry, puzzled frown.

  “You want to sell me to Hot Lions, in exchange for Hercules,” Ricky burst out. “Yes, I heard you talking. You’ve always challenged me to see myself as more than a doll, but you’re the one who thinks I am dispensable and can be bartered. Has Lion Legends become a marketplace? Or is it just you?”

  “Shut up!” Ying Ying screamed at him, hot tears flowing down her pale cheeks. “You don’t know what I’ve had to sacrifice for the Legends. I didn’t ask to be born into this!”

  “Born into the Legends! You rub my nose in it every chance you get. Ying Ying and her Legends in that impenetrable inner circle. But do you really share Shifu’s values? I know that the privilege to be included in Shifu’s family needs to be earned. And I’ve made it my dream to share with him the responsibility of taking Leopop to the ends of the earth.”

  Ying Ying stared at him silently, shocked by his outburst. She had never seen Ricky so angry, or so sincere.

  He took a long step and stood uncomfortably close to her. Ying Ying backed away nervously and collided with her drum, which gave a commiserating thud. Ricky’s eyes pierced into her soul. His next sentence sounded as if it was said with pity: “Why do I always get the feeling that you see the Legends not as your family, but as a burden you need to shake off?”