by Meg Xuemei X
With a forlorn, sober look, Sha Sha shoots a last glance at Kai. But he pays her no mind.
“He’ll be fine,” I say. “The big wolf boy is tougher than he looks.”
Kai snorts, “Thank you for vouching for me. After you patch me up, I’ll surely be able to give you a foot massage.”
My heart flutters at his intimate teasing, but I give him a baleful, warning look. Sha Sha flees from the room.
Kai is quick to move to the door, shutting and double locking it, before he settles in a chair and lets me work on his wounds.
“Ouch!” he cries every time I gently pluck a small fragment of broken mirror from between his knuckles.
As a martial arts practitioner, he’s used to physical pain, but I know that he just wants to draw more sympathy from me, so I’ll forgive all the harsh things he said to me.
“If you keep making that sound, I won’t be able to concentrate and you’ll hurt more,” I say.
He whines quietly, still attempting to gain sympathetic points, as I clean his hand with alcohol-dipped cotton balls. After I apply the cream to his skin and stop the bleeding, I wrap the bandage around his hand.
“I like you when you tend to me, Xire. Where did you learn to do that?” he says softly. The fury has completely left him. So, I’m Xire now.
I ignore him, wrapping it up.
When I’m done, feeling drained, I take off my overcoat, sink into the long sofa, and lie down.
Kai uses his good hand to clean up the mess he made. And then he comes to me, picks me up, lies down, and lets me sprawl on top of him. I don’t have energy left to fight him off, so I allow myself to feel the tightness of his muscles beneath me.
“Let’s not fight again, love,” he says, as if I were the one who picked the fight.
I close my eyes, pretending to nap, while his hand strokes my hair.
“I couldn’t bear to hear that you were so easily giving me up, and I could bear it less that some punk was going to have you.” He presses me so hard against him that he almost squeezes the breath out of me.
I struggle for air. “Not every boy is a punk.”
“They are if they try to steal you from me,” he says. “And I’ll hurt them if they try.”
I open my eyes. “Even when I go to college, I won’t be with anyone else. I’m not interested in other boys.”
“Good,” he says. “I want you to stay uninterested in boys.”
“You want me to be a nun?”
“What can a nun do for me?” he says. “I just don’t want anyone to get between us.”
“Fine,” I say. “I don’t like you punching mirrors or anything. I don’t like you hurting yourself.”
He lifts his head and kisses the top of my head. “Then try not to provoke me. You’re the only one who has that effect on me.”
“If you don’t want me to provoke you, make me a mug of coffee,” I say, suddenly craving the foreign luxury of relaxation.
I’ve had coffee a few times with Kai. I’m afraid I’ve become addicted to the pungent taste. I read that in western countries, people drink coffee every morning.
“Anything you want, love,” he says, trying to sit up while I’m on top of him.
“Lie still. You need rest.” I get up. “Throw the instructions and I’ll make good coffee for both of us.”
The next minute, he’s standing beside me. “I never need rest.” He flexes his fingers. “This is nothing.”
“Then why did you whine when I fixed your hand?”
He grins. “My heart hurt at that time.”
While he’s brewing the coffee, I tell him that one of his neighbors saw me on the way to his studio. “The one at the fifth door,” I say.
“I hate that woman. She always complains about me,” he says.
“Everyone complains about you, Kai,” I say matter-of-factly. “They call your studio the Production House of Cacophony.”
“What’s wrong with playing music?” he says. “Anyway, she might not recognize you with your disguise.” He adds milk into a mug of steaming black coffee, the way I like, and mixes it. “And what’s this business about spaceships?” He hands me the mug of white coffee.
“I’ll be an astronaut one day, exploring the new worlds and new civilizations and boldly going where no man has gone before,” I say.
“I’ll boldly go with you,” he says.
I laugh. “I hope you can.” But I think he thought I was joking about going to space. I take a sip of coffee. The drink sends twinges of exotic satisfaction through my nerves. With a sigh, I fix my stare on his new painting—Night over the Ducklings’ Nest.
“What do you think?” he asks, his gaze following my sightline.
Before I form an opinion, a knock taps hard on the door.
Kai and I snap our heads to the door. “We can never get a break, can we?” he says. “Ignore it.”
So we ignore the interruption, as we’ve done before.
The knock turns urgent.
“I hope it’s not Sha Sha again. She’s gotta learn to quit!” Kai says.
“Whoever it is, we’re not opening it,” I say.
The knock accelerates to banging. “Open the door, Kai!” a male voice with a sexy Southern accent calls.
“Randi! Damn him!” Kai says. “I sent him to stay with Pau for the weekend. Why the hell has he come back now?”
I shoot Kai an anxious look. “Your friend is going to bring attention to your studio. It’ll be hard for me to get out without being seen.”
“Don’t worry.” He squeezes my hand. “He’ll go away. Randi isn’t known for his patience.”
“We know you’re in there! Come on, open up!” Randi shouts. “Sha Sha told me you’re inside!”
This is going to be a disaster. What if she tells everyone at school about Kai and me too? Well, I’ll just deny it if the headmaster calls me to his office. They still can’t prove that I have a relationship with the boy. It isn’t the first time the twins have spread rumors about me. Sha Sha is the only witness to today’s incident. I’ll just deny everything and discredit her as the girl whom everyone knows has been trying to get into Kai’s pants.
“We’re not leaving until you open the damn door!” another voice joins the shout. “It’s freezing out here.”
“Pau!” Kai says. “Damn him to hell!”
Randi and Pau bark in laughter outside the door and keep banging it.
“They’re pleased with themselves for making a big scene,” I say.
“Pests! Childish!” Kai swears like a fiend. “And they still want to be the next big thing in the painting world!”
“We must make them go away,” I say.
As Kai trains his eyes on me with worry and frustration, I snap out of my stupor. I was raised in adversary.
“I’ll hide, and you’ll open the door,” I say.
“Hide? Where?” He looks around his studio. Like the owner, the room is also an open book.
My eyes fall on the only possible hideout—the wooden chest. Even though I’ve grown a lot, I can still squeeze in, but his friends will surely search it.
He follows my sight and shakes his head. He doesn’t like the idea. I turn to look out the rear window five feet above the tiled roof. He seems to like that even less. “You can’t be serious,” he says. “The tiles are old.”
I make my way to the rear window and duck my head out to have a better look. He comes behind me, checking also. His breath stirs my hair. I remind myself to focus on our task rather than on his breath and his scent.
“It will do,” I say.
“No,” he says. “They aren’t strong enough to support you.”
“I’ll manage,” I say.
He crosses his arms over his chest. “If I say no, then it’s a no.”
“Do I have to deal with you too, on top of your obnoxious friends?” I snap.
“Xirena,” he says. “How about I just open the door and shout at the two idiots and send them away?”
“They’ll get in. They’ll know. And then everyone will know. I can’t have three witnesses,” I say. “Do you have any idea what the school and my mother will do to me if I’m caught?”
The boy, who didn’t flinch when he faced a wolf, looks full of dread for my sake. Hardness deserts me. “I’m light,” I say. “I’ll be fine. I promise.”
“I won’t put you at risk —”
“I’ve done this a dozen times,” I say.
He raises an eyebrow.
“You’ll have to learn to trust me too,” I say.
“Give me a minute,” he says. “Let me come up with a more reasonable idea.”
“Boys, stop climbing the window! You’ll fall!” Some neighbors’ shouting erupts from outside.
Then the noise of someone moving toward the front window sounds disturbingly alarming.
“The idiots are going to get in through the window!” Kai says. “I forgot to lock the dead bolt.”
We look at the front window ruefully. It’s too late to hurry there to make up for our negligence.
“Put me outside the rear window now,” I say.
Kai looks torn.
One of his friends reaches the front window, working to pull it open.
I lift myself onto the windowsill of the rear window and swing my feet across it, ready to lower myself onto the roof.
“Fine!” Kai lifts me like I weigh nothing and carefully sets me down. I nod at him as my feet find two relatively stable tiles.
“Yell if you feel the tiles aren’t solid.” He still holds me tightly.
“Let go! Throw a blanket over my head,” I say.
I duck under the rear window just as I catch sight of the front window opening. At the same time, Kai covers me with a blanket.
A second later, I hear Kai yelling. “What the hell are you doing, Randi?”
The sound of a heavy thud comes from the studio, and Randi complains, “Man, what’s wrong with you?”
“You break into my studio and you ask me what is wrong with me?” Kai demands.
“Why didn’t you just open the door? I risked my butt to climb through your window!” Randi demands. “Are you guarding gold or a girl?”
Then Pau’s voice shouts outside the door to remind them of his existence. “Guys, let me in!”
A second later, I hear Pau’s voice in the room. “You haven’t been yourself lately, man. You’re definitely meeting a girl in secret”
I stay still under the blanket. So Sha Sha didn’t tell them about me. It strikes home: she wanted Kai’s friends to interrupt us, but her pride won’t allow her to admit defeat. I smile at the realization: she’ll never tell the school about what happened today.
“That’s the dumbest thing that has ever come out of your mouth,” Kai says.
“Dude, you’ve never locked the door before,” Pau says. “But the last three months, your door has remained closed most of the time. I’ve knocked on your door at least fifty times! I booked models, but I had to turn them away and apologize profusely!”
“Remember the old days at summer camp in Shanghai? We were like brothers. We didn’t keep secrets from each other,” Randi says. “But since I’ve traveled all the way to visit you, you’re always sneaking out without me, behind my back. You’ve even thrown me out! You dumped me on Pau, and you know Pau and I don’t mix! We’re like water and oil!”
“I know Pau isn’t a charmer, but I’ve only asked you to stay with him for the weekend. I need some personal space,” Kai says.
“Hey, I’m still here,” Pau protests.
“You’ve never needed personal space before,” says Randi. “I must see the kind of girl who makes hard-ass Kai betray his brotherhood.”
“An elusive succubus?” Pau suggests.
This one gets me angry. From my past observation, Pau seems to be the one who chases every girl.
“You’re being ridiculous,” Kai says. “And now you’ve exhausted me. You need to leave now—I’m sick.” He starts coughing, but that doesn’t seem to convince his friends. They haven’t left.
“What happened to your hand?” Randi asks.
“Oh, that,” Kai says. “That’s why I didn’t open the door. I was hurt. Will you guys leave now? I need to rest.”
“Don’t be fooled by him. He must have hurt himself practicing martial arts. I’ve done worse,” Pau says.
“I smell coffee.” Randi sniffs.
I immediately curse myself for neglecting the details again. Soon they’ll spot two mugs of coffee, and Kai won’t be able to pull off the lie.
“Why are you blocking us, if you’re not hiding anything?” Pau says.
Judging from the sounds of feet moving around the room and bodies shoving and crushing, I guess that Kai’s friends have broken his defense line.
“Two mugs of foreign coffee!” Pau exclaims. “They’re still warm.”
“Show her to us now, Kai, and then we’ll go,” Randi says.
“See for yourself!” Kai says. “I’m all alone. And what is it to you if I have a habit of drinking two mugs of coffee at the same time? I like to have my black coffee first, and then I have a white one. That’s how I prepare for a new painting.”
“That’s lame, buddy,” Randi says. “Let’s search, Pau!”
I hear the chest door banging and someone smacking the quilt on the bed.
“No luck?” Kai asks in a mocking tone.
I expect him to get rid of his friends within a few minutes, but lying and threatening aren’t his forte. And he has a dilemma. He can’t leave the rear window unguarded, and he can’t match the two boys at the same time.
I’d better come up with a new plan. Any moment, the old tiles might give, and a heap of blanket on the roof will catch unwanted attention if someone surveys the area.
The edge of the roof is eight yards from where I am. If I inch to the edge, I’ll be able to get down to the ground. I shift my weight, lift my right foot, and move it to the next tile, making sure not to make a sound.
When my foot touches the next tile, I can tell the tile isn’t going to support my weight. I duck my head out of the blanket and scan quickly. The best few tiles are already under my feet. No matter which direction I go, I’ll break the tiles and fall through the roof. The noise would definite lure everyone out of their dens, including all of my mother’s nosy friends.
As I move my foot back, I hear a slight creaking sound underneath. Now I’m worried about the tiles beneath my feet. They aren’t as solid as I thought. My hands grab the dents on the wall behind my back to disperse my weight. I don’t know how long I can hold this difficult position.
I need a third plan. I can’t be stuck here.
“The girl must have been here at some point,” Pau says. “Randi, didn’t Kai ask you to shop for a fancy music box for him, the lover’s kind?”
“And a girl’s leather outfit and boots,” Randi says. “He wanted the best. They cost him five times this price of his paint kits. I knew he wasn’t buying them for his sisters or their kids. I know Kai. He wouldn’t spend that kind of money on them.”
“I asked you not to tell anyone about it, Randi!” Kai hisses. “How can I count on you again?”
“Sorry, man,” Randi says. “But you left me no choice.”
“What color is the leather outfit?” Pau asks.
“Light brown,” Randi says.
“I saw Sha Sha wear them a few days ago,” Pau laughs. “While we’re here looking everywhere for the secret girl, it’s been her all along! Dude, you lost the bet. You swore you’d never fall for any girl. I’m taking the painting of the Tibet Girl!”
I hear sounds of wrestling. From Pau’s complaining, it seems Kai has blocked his approach to claim the trophy.
“Don’t be a sore loser!” Pau says.
“Kai isn’t into Sha Sha. If it’s her, he’d just admit it,” Randi says. “Sha Sha called me after I sent Kai the leather clothes. She asked me to send her the exact same but in a different size. The
whole thing mystified me.”
“Maybe our girl escaped through the rear window,” says Pau.
My heart leaps to my throat. I lower my body. At this point, there is nothing I can do.
“Go ahead! Go out through the rear window, or I can give you a hand,” Kai says viciously. “I hope you don’t fall through the rotten tiles and break your neck!”
“No one can survive those tiles,” Randi agrees.
A metal click overpowers Randi’s murmurs, and then Kai shouts, “Stop it!” His footsteps rush away from the rear window. I wonder what has raised such alarm in him that he’s abandoned guarding me. I can’t risk getting up to take a peek, but my heart pounds hard with the anticipation of the unknown.
“Kai’s secret vault behind the painting of ‘Sunset in the Woods’!” Pau gloats.
I hear something being pulled out from the vault. Even an open book conceals a secret. I feel bile rising in my throat. There is no such thing as an honest soul.
The room quiets down as if everyone has stopped breathing. Is the secret that bad? I have to control my breath not to be heard.
“This is the girl Kai has fallen for?” Randi asks.
Who is the girl Kai secretly adores and whose portrait he has locked inside his vault? Is it Ming Zhu, the girl he made bigger than life on canvas to make me jealous? So, in the end, he still wants her. What a liar! Fire burns into my eyes and ash clogs my throat. My right foot slips, and the tiles cracks under it.
But the boys in the room are all too preoccupied to notice the noise I’ve made.
“Give it back!” Kai calls with indignation.
I hear furious struggling in the room.
“Okay! Fine!” Kai calls. And the fight ceases. “You can hold it. Just don’t ruin the painting!”
He really cherishes that girl. I breathe sharply. I can’t believe that, in the end, I have to witness my own humiliation while being stuck on top of a tattered roof.
“This girl’s absolutely gorgeous, but not in a traditional way,” Randi says.
“Conventional beauty does nothing for me,” Kai says.
“I don’t understand why you hid this beauty,” Randi says. “This is the work that will make you. You have to show the public.”
“It’s not for the public,” Kai says. “Now carefully put it down against the wall. Careful!”