Tragically Yours

| 4 |

After mingling with every single soul present in this theater, I finally found the person I should be talking after all of this. He's the main reason why everyone seems to want to help me find my other half across the world. He's also the reason for all of this, and I need some clarification on this sly bastard. Once I'm close enough, I tap my finger on his back.

He turns around and when his eyes adjusted to process who's in front of him, the corners of his mouth lift in a mischievous grin. "Here's the birthday boy! So, how are you doing?"

Fine, I'll bite into this role-play of his, "I'm going great, my buddy Ethan." I playfully slap a hand to my knees in an effort of emphasizing how gosh-darn surprised I am. "Darn brain of yours surprised me once again. I would whistle in appreciation, but I can't whistle."

That made him laugh and made the other people in our proximity turn their heads to check up on him. In a crowded place, it's easy to differentiate Ethan's laughter than other people's laugh. He has this unique sound to his laughter that can be easily distinguished in the crowd. "You just have to wet your lips and pucker them up. After that, softly blow air through your lips. Once you heard a soft tone, that's when you should blow harder while keeping your tongue relax." After he explained how to whistle to me, he then tries to demonstrate it by whistling.

This fucker is discreetly flexing on me. "I swear you made it sound easy, but when I attempt to follow your instructions, I can't fucking do it." To prove my point, I begin to wet my lips and pucker up my lips together. I blow softly, but I can't seem to hear the tone he was referring to. I immediately stop because I don't want to lose all of my breath to attempt a goddamn whistle. "See? I can't do it."

Another laugh escapes his throat, and I have this urge to punch his face for making fun of me. Man, I wish I could whistle. "You'll be able to whistle if you keep on practicing." He whistles nonchalantly in a tone that sounds familiar to me. After a second of processing what song he's whistling, it suddenly dawned on me. He's whistle to the tone of Justin Timberlake's song, Mirrors. "Anyway, what's up? I know you didn't approach me for a quick lesson about whistling."

I raise an eyebrow at him, pretending to be clueless on what's his insinuating. "Oh? How sure are you that I didn't just approach you to have a quick whistle lesson? Huh, what gave you that idea, my dear friend?"

He raises both his arms onto the air, "Well, for starters, if you truly had approached me for a quick whistle lesson, I would have begun to charge you money for it. Then second, I know you have a lot to uncover to me because of the play Lisbeth's gang presented."

Oh, look at him, he's being smart. I'm proud of my best friend. "Since you know the real reason why I want to talk about with you, do you have anything to say before I go on a friendly banter about this topic?"

A hand of his went to his chin to pretend to be in deep thought about it. He even tried that squinting of eyes while focusing on nothing in particular act. Like sister, like brother, or in this case, like twin, like... Other twin-I don't know, I may have forgotten my catchphrase for the joke. But anyway, I swear if Ethan doesn't have this passion about journalism, I would have persuaded him to become a theater person. After a while of this ridiculous act of his, he finally speaks up. "All I'm going to say is, I'm not sorry."

"Bold of you to assume I want your apology, my dear friend." When he only grins, I shake my head while letting out a sigh. "I really appreciate you going all out on my birthday, but can you convince your twin sister or everyone in this theater to stop helping me find her."? Both my hands gestured the surrounding crowd, "All of these people have their stuff to do in their precious time, I don't need to be something they have to help in their time."

"I understand that you want to do this alone, Vy." He places a heavy hand on my shoulder as his face form in a sympathetic expression. "But after years of watching from the sideline, I can't watch you struggle on finding her or even give up that easily. I haven't met this Gail woman, but seeing your determination on finding her tells me she's worth all the time in the world." A soft chuckle came out of his mouth, and I got momentarily confused by why he's laughing. "I'm sorry, I just remembered peeking at your computer screen every once in a while to see what you're doing, and all I could see is you typing her name on Google." He pokes a finger on my chest, "I bet if I check your search history, all I would see is her name over and over again."