Ride on Time

Chapter 35

Misao opened the letter that Shri had sent to her and gasped, much to Kumiko's surprise.

My book is almost done and the next package you'll be receiving from me is the book. I can guarantee you that.

Misao squealed, startling her housemate once more.
"Oi!" Kumiko threw a cushion at her. "What happened to you?"
Misao turned to her with a grin. "Shri's almost done with his book! He said it will be the next package he's sending to me!"
"That's good," Kumiko nodded. "But cut it out with the screaming!"
Misao giggled and threw the pillow back at her. "By the way, you don't have a boyfriend yet?"
Kumiko sighed. "Nope. I try hitting on some but they reject me."
"Maybe you should try going to bars as yourself instead of going in full suit," Misao gave her a knowing smirk. "You go right after work, don't you?"
Kumiko sighed. "You may be right, but Shri fell for you in Geisha attire."
"Says who, I only first met him as a geisha. But we started getting along outside work. Got that?"
"Fine..." Kumiko's frown lit up. "What do you want for dinner?"
Misao shrugged. "Chicken?"
"I was thinking yakiniku."
"Make sure that niku isn't gyūniku."
"How about butaniku?"
"Sure, I don't mind."

***

Shri finally got his hands on his book, in the form of a novel and not in an A4-sized booklet or in the form of a handwritten notebook.
A novel. His project was finally done.
Shri got a few copies for himself and made his way home.

"I got something for you," Shri grinned as soon as he entered, holding one hand behind him while his other held his typewriter.
"What lah?" Shruti asked, looking away from watching Baywatch.
Shri smirked and came closer, putting his typewriter down on the table, and revealed what he had been holding. Shruti gasped when she saw that it was a book, one that Shri himself had written. It was titled:
The Collision of Two Worlds.
"Your new book!" Shruti exclaimed, taking it. "You got it published so fast!"
Shri chuckled. "They just finished printing the first copies today. So I got one for you."
"Then Misao? You said you wanna give her one also?"
Shri smirked. "I already send. But you're still the first one to read. Misao only gonna receive in two weeks."
"Yay!" Shruti hugged her brother. "Thanks, Shri. I'll read later."
She ran up to her room and immediately started wrapping the book up in clear film to protect the cover from damage. Shri chuckled when seeing how excited she was to read his new book.
"Help me choose bookmark," Shruti said, motioning for him to come over. She put a box in front of him and grinned.
Shri went through the bookmarks and pulled out a carved wooden bookmark with a tassel that both he and Shruti got for themselves when they were in Kyoto.
"Nah," Shri said, handing it to her. "Use this."
"Ooh!" Shruti said in awe, placing it right above the first page and letting the brown tassel hang loose from the top. "Nice! It suits also."
Shri chuckled and went back to his room, meaning to read his own copy of the same book.

***

Misao was so excited when she received the package from Malaysia. She instantly flourished it to her housemate, who wasn't as excited but happy for her nonetheless, and started reading it right away.
"I really like his writing style," Misao remarked, glancing at Kumiko as she flipped the page. "Also, his English is so good! I wouldn't have expected a non-American or non-English person to write in English this good but here he is!"
Only the editors knew how much they had to change his original work.
Kumiko nodded at her, in the middle of her Cup Noodles.
Misao eventually gave up and went to her room to read it in private instead. She laid down on her bed and read, smiling to herself as she realised how she herself was manifested into the book into the form of a character named Masako, who was also a geisha who took the name Hana for work. She was surprised that he chose that name for her character, Masako was the name of her grandmother.
Shri himself was in it, named Krishna instead. Misao noticed that it was also his grandfather's name, seeing how he once mentioned it.
So she kept on reading, not even aware of how much time had passed until she took a toilet break.
It was an hour past midnight. Misao gasped and quickly placed a bookmark to mark the page she was reading and put the book away on her nightstand, meaning to take it to work the next day so that she could read it during break.

***

It was lunchtime and Suganthi came in with a tiffin carrier of food for her family. Shri went to the pantry and sat with his parents, his eyes shining at the sight of food after working for half a day.
Siddharth came in and sat down in front of Shri, instantly rambling about something uninteresting. Shri was only glad that it wasn't about his marriage plans.
Wang came in too and Shridhar called to him. He smiled and came over, perching himself beside Shri.
"Wah! Chicken curry ah!" Wang gasped as soon as he saw the food.
"Take some lah," Suganthi smiled, pushing the stainless steel container to him.
Wang gladly helped himself to a few small pieces of chicken to eat with his fried rice. "Thanks, Auntie!"
"Take some more lah," Suganthi urged.
"Eh, never mind lah," Wang refused, rolling up his right sleeve slightly so that he could eat. "I won't eat so much one."
Siddharth's conversation was put on hold as the three other men started talking about work. He sighed and ate in silence but that was until he spotted Mikail coming in with a package of food he got from the Mamak stall nearby.
"Eh, Mikail!" Siddharth loudly called, interrupting the conversation. "Come lah!"
The young Malay man came over with a smile and sat down beside Wang, who moved his drink aside to give him space. Mikail smiled at his Chinese friend and opened his package, revealing the Roti Canai that he got from the shop.
"Eh, enough ah for you?" Shridhar asked. "Why aren't you eating rice?"
Mikail shrugged. "Used to it. Also, they're finished with nasi goreng."
"Then at least take two lah," Shri pointed out. "You only bought one?"
"Wah, just now only Auntie was scolding me for taking very little chicken," Wang pointed out. "So little lah, you eating!"
"You want some rice?" Suganthi offered.
Mikail passed the offer.
"Aiya, we don't cook pork at home lah," Shri urged. Then frowned, not really sure with the legitimacy of this information. "Not in the rice cooker, at least?"
"We don't," Shridhar added, motioning for him to have some rice.
Mikail sighed and took his offer.
"You want some chicken curry too?" Suganthi offered next.
Wang swallowed his food. "Eh, better take. Very tasty."
"I cooked it in a new wok," Suganthi added. "Brand new. This is the first dish I cooked with it."
Mikail begrudgingly took her offer and added some onto the brown wax paper.
They continued having their meal, chatting casually. Even Siddharth joined in, one of the only times speaking about something other than marriage.

-Mamak means Indian Muslim. Basically just Indian food but with a more... Muslim touch to it since they sometimes serve beef, unlike Hindu restaurants. They also serve a bigger variety of food like Biryani, but not Banana Leaf Rice. It may seem like there isn't much difference besides this but there is lol. Indian shops have some stuff that Mamak stalls don't serve, but Mamak stalls serve some food that Indian shops don't. They also have a slightly different cooking style. Also, it's Halal, but most Indian shops are too since they don't only avoid beef but they also don't serve pork. So yeah, both are actually halal lol.
-roti canai is a type of flat bread, basically a type of paratha.
-nasi goreng means fried rice.
-also, notice how Mikail seemed hesitant to accept food from Shri's mom until she mentioned that the wok she cooked it in was new. This is because pork is considered haram or forbidden in Islam, just like how Hindus consider beef as forbidden. In Malaysia, we respect each other's religions and prohibitions so we usually warn others if a certain food contains either beef or pork.

Also, the title of Shri's book is an Easter Egg because the original title of this book is actually Two Worlds. But I decided to change it since my mom unknowingly gave me the idea of making a book called Ride on Time while I was listening to Right on Time by Vantage, which is a remix version of Tatsuro Yamashita's Ride on Time Demo. So yeah. I decided to change the title.
Here's the old cover of the book, by the way. There aren't many changes besides the title.