Chapter 11

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The siblings bade Misao farewell and started making their way back to Yumemite Apartments. Shruti tightly held onto her brother's arm as they walked.
"Shri..." Shruti suddenly called.
"What?" Shri asked, giving her a glance.
"Don't tell Ma and Pa about what happened just now, okay? If you tell means, they won't let me go out with you again."
Shri sighed. "Fine. But promise you'll always stay within my sight, especially when in crowded areas?"
Shruti nodded. "Promise. I won't go behind all. I'll walk next to you, okay?"
Shri nodded and brought her to the lift. They went straight up to their apartment and acted as though nothing was up.

***

The large empty notebook from Shri's bag was finally remembered and opened, its blank ruled pages staring at Shri as he tapped his mechanical shaker pencil against the wooden dining table with a frown, fiddling with the golden Om hanging by his neck.
A rough plot had made its way into his head, but his hands refuse to make words out of it. Shri sighed and leaned back in the chair, staring straight at the ceiling. He closed his eyes for a while and tried to come up with a sentence to begin the story, a hand on his forehead.
He ended up groaning when he got nothing, resting his face on the open book.
"Oi, what happened to you lah?" Shruti came in with a jug and two glasses. "From just now you like this only."
"Idea not coming lah," Shri sighed, lifting his head to see her through his slightly fogged glasses. "How?"
"Push that aside and drink some tea," Shruti suggested, placing the jug of green tea in front of her brother. She put one of the glasses in front of him and filled it up to the brim with green tea. "Nah. Drink while it's still hot."
"Don't want," Shri shook his head. "Too hot. You fill up so much, some more. Confirm gonna spill."
"Aiya, just drink lah," Shruti sat down in front of him, filling up the second glass for herself. "You like tea, what."
Shri sighed and pushed his book to the side, carefully pulling the over-filled glass of tea towards him. He bent his head took a sip from the glass while it was still on the table to empty it slightly and only then lifted it to his lips, pushing his fogging glasses up his nose.
"What book you writing?" Shruti asked, holding the warm glass between her hands.
Shri shrugged. "Don't know lah..."
"Then why you open the book and sitting like this?"
"I dunno lah, maybe I wanna write story that take place here, in Japan."
"Here ah..." Shruti frowned thoughtfully. "Why here?"
Shri shrugged. "For fun. We walk around can get stuff, what. I got some inspiration lah."
Shruti frowned for a moment. "Why don't you write something with Misao?"
"Misao? Why?"
"Because... you met her here and keep meeting her?"
Shri just stared at her.
Shruti rolled her eyes. "Seriously, why you so lame?"
"You want me to write romantic-romantic stuff ah?" Shri glared at her.
"I never said anything about 'romantic-romantic stuff', Shri," Shruti pointed out. "Like this. You met this girl, became friends with her and then... what?"
"What?"
"I writer or you writer?"
Shri tiredly looked at her.
"You only writer, right?"
Shri sighed. "Yeah lah, yeah lah. So you want me to write a story like that?"
"Up to you," Shruti shrugged. "Your book only, what."
Shri frowned thoughtfully and took a sip of his green tea, which was now a little cooler, and got his glasses fogged again. He groaned and put the glass down, taking his spectacles off to wipe the lenses with his shirt before putting them back on.
Shruti snorted and downed her tea, pouring herself another glass. "So how now? Okay ah, your story?"
"See how first," Shri sighed, fingering his pendant again.
"First you finish your tea," Shruti gestured to his glass, getting up with her glass. "Then you write whatever you want."
Shri frowned and watched as she made her way to the television to watch a Japanese Drama instead. He sighed and turned back to his notebook, then to his tea before taking a sip. The tea was warm and calming, without sugar, just the way he liked it. He eventually put the glass aside and picked up his pencil again, bringing it towards the notebook.
Shri closed his eyes for a moment and thought of a beginning scene. The time when he stood up for Misao at the Shirakawa Bridge played before him. He opened his eyes again and stared at the notebook. Now all he needed to do was to put that scene into words, find the right sentence and begin the story.
But how? He had the right scene, yes, but which fragment should he start with?
Shri's gaze then fell on the camera he left on the tv cabinet, right across where his sister sat as she sipped her tea. He gasped as he remembered how he took a picture of the canals, then of Misao herself. He went back to his notebook, his pencil flying across the page as it wrote down whatever that Shri had commanded it to. A full sentence appeared, then a paragraph. Then two, three, then he flipped the page and went on writing. Shri stopped when he came to the part when he came home.
His gaze went back to Shruti who sat watching tv, her glass now standing empty on the coffee table. Shri smiled and went back to the notebook. Of course, what's a book based on his real experiences if she wasn't in it?
Shri smiled and continued writing, even chuckling when getting to the part where the two off them waited in front of the apartment complex to watch for Misao. He eventually finished his tea and got himself a refill before continuing his book. He always thought that tea, especially green, went well with writing.
The parents eventually came back, holding large bags of stuff. Shri finally looked up from his notebook and was surprised to see them coming in like that.
"You two went shopping ah?" Shri snorted, seeing how they brought lots of stuff with them.
"Yeah!" Suganthi nodded, grinning. "Eh, Japan shopping heaven lah!"
Shruti entered the chat. "What y'all bought? Anda kunda ah?"
"Actually, that was the main reason why your mother wanted to go shopping," Shridhar grinned, taking his shoes off. "You don't know about her ah?"
"You mean... you actually bought anda kunda and came ah?" Shri said in surprise. "That means correct lah, what Shruti said."
Suganthi sighed and joined him at the dining table. "What lah y'all. You think in Japan can get anda kunda all ah?"
"I dunno, you can find stuff anywhere, what," Shruti smirked. "You once tortured Pa for that so big tambalam, made him go from one shop to another in Brickfields or something. Then at last he brought, don't know from where he find and brought also."
"Actually, I bought it in Klang," Shridhar corrected. "You think your mother will let ah if I don't buy for her that tambalam?"
Shri chuckled and watched as the three of them started arguing over that giant plate.

-anda kunda literally means pots and pans in Tamil lol.
-tambalam is a stainless steal plate that is used in ceremonies, sometimes in cooking. The one that was referred to is the one for cooking, a very large plate that we, especially my family, use when preparing the homemade snacks for Deepavali. It's easier to use that since we sorta... mass produce the snacks for guests and whatnot lol. So yeah, we use that to let the freshly made snacks to be cooled before being packed into jars.

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