Ride on Time

Chapter 57

As Shree and Vasu waited for their char kway teow to be prepared, the latter spotted the familiar strange man coming towards them.
"Akka..." Vasu nudged his sister and got up. "That feller staring at us and he coming here now."
Shree turned to look and gasped, getting onto her feet. "Oh my god... it's him! It's him! Vasu! It's him!"
"The guy that's been following you around?" Vasu asked to confirm.
"Yes!" Shree nodded vigorously. "The same feller!"
The man stopped before them, a slight frown on his face. Shree immediately got behind her brother, as if he was her protective barrier.
"What you want?" Vasu growled, trying to seem intimidating since he was a little taller than the other man.
Mitsuo didn't seem fazed at all, frowning as he pulled out a familiar blue flower hairpin. "Does this look familiar?"
Shree peeked out and gasped when she realised what it was, pointing an accusing finger at him. "My kanzashi! You stole it!"
Mitsuo rolled his eyes and almost shoved it in their faces. "Why would I steal this? It fell when you were running away from me last night." He handed it to Shree. "Here."
Shree hesitantly took it. "Is this why you chased me?"
Mitsuo nodded. "Just for this. You wouldn't even listen to what I had to say and ran away as if I was a predator or something." He sighed and gave them a short bow. "Well, that's it."
With that he turned around and left the two of them staring after him in shock.
"So it was all because you dropped this kanza thing?" Vasu snorted. "You were running away from someone who only tried to return something!"
He started laughing at her, resulting in Shree giving him a backhand. The older Chinese man that had been preparing the char kway teow called to them, rather amused by their bickering.
The siblings paid for the food and left the Medan Selera.
"A lame ending, wasn't it?" Shree sighed, looking at the kanzashi as they walked towards the red Perodua Viva. They spotted Mitsuo getting into a Toyota Innova with E-hailing stickers on it, right behind their car.
"It's a Grape," Vasu noted, unlocking the car. "I think he staying in Sheralbon only lah."
"I think so," Shree nodded as she got into the front passenger seat, holding the bag of food. "He joined my class just now." She groaned. "Great, now I feel bad for running away from him."
"But how did he know we were gonna be here?" Vasu frowned, his face laced with suspicion.
Shree shrugged. "I think he came to eat. I think he was the one eating in that restaurant next to Kamala."
"Just in case, be careful tomorrow," Vasu warned. "That one also, if he approaches you."
Shree nodded. "Noted." She suddenly grinned and poked his arm. "Just now you like bodyguard for me ah..."
"Yeah lah, you so scared that some weird feller chasing you," Vasu pointed out, inserting the key into the ignition. "See see he just wanted to give you that flower hairpin."
"It's actually a kanzashi that Mom made for me," Shree smiled, looking at the pin. "Gosh, the guy really went out his way just to return this..."

Mitsuo was finally relieved at having returned that kanzashi. Now he didn't have to chase Shree whenever he saw her.
And now he could treat himself to some tasty durian.
Which he didn't know where to get.
The prices were so expensive and some of the reviews claimed that the durians served were either rotten or stupidly expensive.
So he decided to just cancel the idea and look for a good Malay restaurant where he could get nasi kerabu.
...which seemed very far away to take a Grape.
Mitsuo went with a Plan B. Take an LRT from the Asia Jaya station to Kelana Jaya. There he would take a Grape that won't cost as much.
He may not really like it, but it was worth a shot.
But he decided to only do it the following day since he was still full from the banana leaf rice he had for lunch. He heard of a Ramly burger stall in PJ State and decided to try that instead.
The Grape ride was cheap too so he didn't have a problem.

The burger stall was merely a food truck in front of a convenience store, where a man stood and made burgers on a heating plate right before your eyes. Mitsuo asked his Grape driver to wait before going to the food truck, ordering himself a burger. He sat on one of the plastic stools as he waited, watching people going in and out of the convenient store beside him.
All of a sudden, he spotted a familiar young woman exiting, holding a plastic bag of stuff. Mitsuo groaned and pulled his hood on, turning the other way to hide his face.
Of all people, it had to be Shree.
Mitsuo heaved a big sigh of relief when she walked right past him and went to what looked like a modified red Daihatsu Mira Avy with blue rims. The logo was different and he realised that it was a Malaysian car that was based on the Daihatsu.
The burger man handed him a plastic bag with his order. Mitsuo bowed and paid before making his way back to the waiting Grape car.

"I got us milk, sausage and kacang," Shree said as she got into the car. "Enough, right?"
"More than enough," Chandrika said. "Go home ah?"
"Yeah, 'cause nothing else," Shree shrugged.
So they went home and ate their dinner over a dramatic Tamil soap opera.
"Seriously, doesn't this drama ever end?" Shree complained. "Two thousand plus episodes?! Vasu was still in primary school when it first started!"
"Tell me about it lah," Vasu groaned in agreement. "I was in... standard five?"
"See?" Shree sighed. "Now he in college already!"
"Keep quiet, this is the good part," Devi interrupted.
They kept quiet and turned to the television. The characters were all shouting at each other, with dramatic music playing in the background.
"I don't see why that's interesting," Shree shrugged and turned back to her dinner. "Anywho..."
She started talking about something else and eventually got shushed by her grandmother yet again.
"And look, it's over now," Devi pointed the remote at the television screen. She promptly switched to the news channel. "Keep quiet, I wanna listen to the headlines."
Chandrika motioned for her children to go to the dining hall, a slight smirk on her face. The two followed suit, gathering the rest of their peanuts.

"What actually happened just now?" Chandrika asked. "Why he follow you it seems? Because of the Kansai?"
"Kanzashi," Shree corrected with a sigh. "And yes, he was following me around just to return it."
"Fall out of her hair also she never even realise," Vasu snorted. "He looked very annoyed some more."
"But how he know y'all gonna be at Selera?" Chandrika questioned.
"I think he came for banana leaf and we were there too," Shree shrugged. "I saw him eating at the restaurant beside Kamala."
"Oh, that shop," Chandrika nodded. "Uma Restaurant. Got buy curry from there once, very salty."
"See!" Shree pointed out to her brother. "The food there not nice. Don't know why that feller went and ate in that shop."
"Then what he did?" Chandrika prodded further.
"He came to us, I asked him what he wanted and he gave the flower thing and left," Vasu ended. "That's it. We packed char kway teow and came home."
Chandrika nodded. "Who's that feller actually?"
Shree shrugged. "Some guy. I think he staying in Sheralbon and got interested in the book I was reading."
"What did this guy look like?" Chandrika persisted.
"Chinese?" Shree shrugged. "Looked like it. Spoke very good English too."
Chandrika nodded. "I see..."
"Is the interrogation over?" Vasu asked, slightly annoyed. "It's case closed, Mom. Akka dropped her hairpin, the guy found it, and followed her around to return it. End of story."
Chandrika nodded and pulled her phone out. The siblings exchanged glances and got up, going to the living room to join their grandmother again.

-kacang means beans or nuts, like kacang gajus means cashew nuts, and kacang soya translates to soy beans. But if you just say kacang it usually means peanuts lol.