Chapter 53：Reconnecting

"Come on in," Yu Jin invites after pushed the door to open wider. Xiao Ping follows Yu Jin. She just accompanied Yu Jin to visit his uncle.

"Have a sit. It's a bit messy and dusty. I haven't had a chance to clean up," Yu Jin says while crossing the room to open windows. Xiao Ping watches from the cozy white sofa. "Do you want me to help cleaning ?" Xiao Ping offers. Yu Jin giggles. "Are you wiling to ?" he asks jokingly. Xiao Ping nods to affirm. Yu Jin's giggle grows into laughter.

"You really are a diligent girl," Yu Jin flatters while sitting next to Xiao Ping then patting her head gentle. "That boy is lucky to have you as his girlfriend." Xiao Ping widens her eyes. "Who ? A Dao ?" Seeing Yu Jin nods, Xiao Ping's wrists spontaneously move to deny.

"He's not my boyfriend," Xiao Ping says to straighten up. "Really ?" Yu Jin asks with amused smile on the corner of his lips. Xiao Ping quickly nods a few times to confirm. "We are just friends," she adds.

"Hug each others like that is only friends ?" Yu Jin teases. Xiao Ping's face is turning red. "That.. that is.. " Xiao Ping loses her words. She has never been able to reply other's tease.

"Just a friendly hug ?" Yu Jin helps her find the word. Xiao Ping nods and smiles in relieved. "Right. Just a friendly hug," she confirms. Xiao Ping widens her smile when Yu Jin says, "Okay, I believe you."

Yu Jin amusedly looks at Xiao Ping who wanders her sight around the apartment. Her blushing face was so adorable. It takes him quite a long time to stares at her. Apparently, he misses her more than he thought. When Xiao Ping's sight is back to him, Yu Jin pats his thigh. "Wait for a moment," he says then goes to his room.

Not for long he is back bringing laptop. He puts it on to the table in front of Xiao Ping, then he draws out a thin cable looks like a phone cable and plugs it on to phone jack behind the sideboard. "Turn it on, Xiao Ping," he asks while inches his way out from behind the sideboard.

Xiao ping opens the laptop and turns it on. Yu Jin sits next to her. "This is the mouse," he says, pointing at a rubber button slips between keyboard's buttons. "Try it out."

Xiao Ping tries to move it around. "It's quite tricky," Xiao Ping says. Yu Jin smiles. "You will get use to it. Or.. I'll get you my mouse," he adds.

"No.. no need," Xiao Ping rejects in hesitate. "It's alright. Wait a second." Yu Jin goes back to his room. "Xiao Ping, just consider at your own home. If you need to drink or anything else," Yu Jin says from the room. "Okay," Xiao Ping replies.

Yu Jin is back and plugs the mouse to the laptop. "There you go," Yu Jin says while pressing an 'e' icon. "Go ahead, use it," Yu Jin says while standing. "I'm going to take a bath."

Xiao Ping stared at Yu Jin's back for some moment before she drives it back to the laptop. First thing she does is of course checking email. Her eyes are totally in shock when the inbox is shown on the screen. "O my God !!" she muffles her scream with her hand on her mouth. Beside emails from mailing list, her inbox is filled with one name, lostboy2000.

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The roar of the train echoing in the left aisle indicates that the shinkansen will arrive in a moment. A man with black glasses leans on a pillar, fixing his black hat before lifts his bag pack on his shoulder. A few seconds later a bullet train has stopped on the closest lane of him. When the automatic door is opened, none like others, he waited until it was less crowded before he jumps in the train and chooses the most isolated chair. Once he sits on the chair, a woman's voice which is s computer program announces that the train will be leaving to Tokyo.

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Seeing Xiao Ping is stunned with a sad face in front of the laptop, Yu Jin who just came out from the bathroom halts his move to rub towel on his wet hair. "What's wrong ? No email from him ?" Yu Jin guesses while approaching her.

Xiao Ping turns to him. "My inbox is full with his emails," Xiao Ping answers to say that Yu Jin's guess was wrong. "Then, why are you sad ?" he asks. "I just read mailing list. They said that Takeshi is fired by his company."

Takeshi observes the behaviors of shinkansen's passengers behind his black glasses. His mother is right, before noon the train is not too crowded. He feels lucky. Since he got on the bus from Kyoto to Osaka, until now his undercover has not been blown out. Takeshi sighs. He hopes the fortune is still on his side when he face Mr. Hamada later on.

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"But it's only a rumor," Yu Jin says after reading the news Xiao Ping said. "But it seems legit. Yesterday I read a local newspaper that said Takeshi boycotted an event that held by his company," Xiao Ping says in gloom.

"Didn't he say anything on email ?" Yu Jin asks. Xiao Ping shakes her head. "Maybe he did, but my email was full, so it might bounce back," Xiao Ping says. She becomes more regretful to not be able to check her email sooner. Xiao Ping inhales so long until her shoulders are raised then exhales with lowering them.

"On his last email he only said that he will be very hectic, overloaded with jobs because of his own fault. He also said that he missed me," Xiao Ping tells. In the end of her sentence her voice becomes weak. She was so happy to read the 'I miss you' from Takeshi. But the news from mailing list wiped her happiness.

Xiao Ping raises her head to see Yu Jin. She hopes that he has something to say to cheer her. But the young man is only looking at the laptop, speechless. "Yu Jin," Xiao Ping calls in hopeful. Yu Jin slowly shifts his gaze to her. "Let's go buy ice cream," Yu Jin suggests with a gentle thin smile. Xiao Ping weakly nods. "I'll go change first," Yu Jin says then stands. Xiao Ping delivers his leave with a sad look. Even Yu Jin lost words to cheer her up.