Ride on Time

Chapter 56

The song ended and so did Shree's shift. Hanis arrived just in time so she waved her students off and started leaving, avoiding the strange man at all cost.
To her dismay, he left the room with her.
"Miss, can I speak to you for a moment?" She heard the man call.
Shree bolted. Quick footsteps sounded behind her too. She decided that there was only one way to shake him and if he doesn't leave her after that, he'd still land in trouble.
The ladies' bathroom.

Mitsuo stared after Shree in dismay when she ran straight into the ladies' room. He sighed and looked at the blue kanzashi in his hand. He decided to just continue with his workout, hoping that he'd meet her again later.
He decided to continue the Zumba class for a few minutes but the songs weren't his type so he made his way to the yoga class next door instead.
Something which he deeply regretted.
Mitsuo could barely feel his arms and legs when he came out a few minutes later.
He wanted to workout more, but didn't know what to do, so he ended up just walking on the treadmill.
Until he caught sight of Shree, now changed into a t-shirt and skinny jeans.
Mitsuo stopped and started running after her again.

Shree yelped when she caught sight of the strange man chasing her again. She ran out of the lobby and spotted her mother's old car waiting for her at the pick-up/drop-off point. Shree ran towards it and got into the front passenger seat.
"He chasing you again?!" Vasu said in shock.
"Yeah!" Shree gasped. "Go! What are you waiting for?!"
To her surprise, Vasu started unbuckling his seatbelt.
"No need lah, just go!" Shree shouted again, patting his shoulder.
Vasu looked at the rear-view mirror and saw no one following him. "I think he left."
"Just go, can you?" Shree groaned again.
Vasu sighed and sped out into the highway.
"What's for lunch?" Shree asked, changing the subject.
"Don't know, need to buy," Vasu shrugged. "Akka, who's this man lah? Why he following you around?"
Shree sighed. "I don't know lah. He came out of nowhere and asked me about the book I was reading."
Vasu nodded. "Chinese feller ah?"
"I think so," Shree nodded. "I got up to leave already, then he started running after me. Crazy feller lah." She decided to change the subject again, looking around in the car. "Wait, where's Awah?"
"She's busy with her drama," Vasu said. "Climax it seems, but I don't see how."
Shree started laughing. "Everything also climax for her."
"So what do you want for lunch?"
Shree shrugged. "I don't know..."

Mistuo groaned at not being able to return the kanzashi yet again. He screamed in frustration and went back to his room on the fifteenth floor. He tossed the blue kanzashi onto the dresser and grabbed the hotel bathrobe before entering the bathroom for a nice shower.
Mitsuo made it a quick one before slipping the bathrobe on and returned to the main room. He changed into a casual outfit and sat on his bed, looking up what he should have for lunch on his phone.
And for the best ais kacang in town since it was a hot day yet again. It rained a little on the previous day, but now it was hot as ever. Mitsuo craved for something cold but apparently, ice cream wasn't enough.
So ais kacang it was.
He found that the best cendol in PJ was located in Old Town. It wasn't all that far from the hotel, but he'd have to take a Grape. It was in a community hawker centre too so he decided to have his lunch there too.

"So you wanna get the Kam Heong nasi goreng from Selera..." Vasu sighed after a long and vain hunt around Petaling Jaya just for lunch. "Isn't there anything else out there to eat?"
"Do we have a choice?" Shree shrugged. "More than one hour already lah. You want cendol also, right?"
"Let's see lah, what else got," Vasu suggested, parking the car behind the centre. He took his phone out and started looking up the hawker centre. "Got a lot of stuff lah. Don't know why you all want that kam heong only."
Shree smirked and watched as he searched. "So, what you want?"
"Got char kway teow, Cantonese noodles, Indian food, Banana Leaf Rice," Vasu went on. "What you want?"
"Eww, Indian food means that Kamala Restaurant only lah," Shree quickly shook her head. "Food there not nice."
"Got two Indian restaurant, right?" Vasu pointed out. "Kamala and Uma."
"Yeah, we got buy curry from the other one since Kamala was closed. Very salty."
"Then let's try the char kway teow."
Shree reluctantly nodded. "Fine. Let's go."
"You go lah."
"I don't know which shop got char kway teow all."
Vasu sighed and turned the air conditioners off before stopping the engine. "Pass me the steering lock."
Shree did and they got out of the car, locking it before making their way into the hawker centre. There were rows and rows of shops, some closed and some open. They passed the Indian shop beside Kamala Restaurant and saw a customer eating banana leaf rice.
"Got banana leaf here also lah," Shree noted as they walked past it.
"Yeah, I was speaking in Japanese," Vasu rolled his eyes. "Next time, must talk in Japanese."
"Talk lah," Shree smirked.
Vasu started mumbling some gibberish which he thought sounded like Japanese.
Shree eventually smacked him, pulling him around the hawker centre to look for the char kway teow shop.

Mitsuo sat down in the Indian restaurant and ate the rice and various side dishes served on a large sheet of banana leaf. He wondered if he could finish all of it after the ais kacang, but he surprisingly did since the gym session really drained him.
The curry tasted a lot more different than the ones he had before in Indian restaurants in Japan. It definitely contained more spices and was spicier, salty even. He figured that it might have something to do with the different regions, with the Indian restaurants in Japan mostly from the northern region of India and this one being southern.
He found it quite pleasing and ate everything, gathering information for the book he was planning to write. He folded the banana leaf towards him and placed the silver tumbler which they served water on the leaf to keep it folded before making his way to the counter to pay for the meal, even buying some Indian sweets for later.
As Mitsuo was leaving the hawker centre, he spotted a familiar young woman sitting at the other end of the food court.
It was the kanzashi lady!
He decided to go over and give her a piece of his mind for running away from him when he only wanted to return what's hers.

-cendol is a Malaysian dessert served cold. It consists of shaved ice, coconut milk, jelly, and green jelly-like strips. The cendol is the green stuff, actually.
-Shree referred to the hawker centre as Selera because it's short for Medan Selera which translates to appetite centre in Malay. Meaning, food court lol. Food court and hawker centres are both called Medan Selera in Malay.
-kam heong is a type of Chinese dish that is originated in Malaysia. There is a big difference between Malaysian Chinese food and Chinese Chinese food as Malaysian Chinese create improvised fusion dishes. Kam heong is a spicy gravy made of curry leaves and basically curry spice. There is also such a thing as Marmite Chicken/Pork which is a dish made of meat with Marmite and sesame. There are lots more Malaysian variants of Chinese food that I might add lol.
-Also, Old Town is called that because it's the oldest town in the district, now city, of Petaling Jaya. I'm not sure if the address says that, but the locals definitely do. It's widely known as Old Town. Like Old Town, there's PJ State—sometimes called New Town— then there's Gasing, which refers to the long stretch of Jalan Gasing and the Gasing Hill. A lot more actually.