< Haoran's POV >
After I told her that internet cafés weren't my thing, she told me to wait outside while she bought the lottery tickets. Then, she dragged me to the Ladies Market—
a long line of tent shops selling souvenir shirts with 'I Love Hong Kong' text printed in large letters, rattan bags, watches, keychains, lucky charms, and secondhand CDs.
"Here." She handed me a handful as she sniffed. "We just have to sell all these."
"How'd you even come up with this idea?"
"Just trust me. I calculated the pros and cons."
"I don't trust your calculations."
She shrugged. "We'll have to at least try."
We did try. And we ended up selling none. We gave up after an hour and walked around the bustling street instead.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
I watched her bite off the sharper end of her stinky tofu stick. She's been chewing quietly with a giddy expression on her face, hand tucked inside the pocket of her vest cardigan while I held the extra sticks, handing her a piece whenever she stretched her hand out.
When we reached a corner, she pointed at the group of old people sitting around a small table. “There.”
I threw her a disapproving stare. “You're going to play mahjong?”
“Look,” she said as she grabbed my shoulders. “I need you to act as a distraction. I have here some extra tiles on my bag and I'm going to use them to replace my bad tiles to get the winning hand. I need you to direct their attention towards you by then. I'll get the money. And then we run, okay?”
Before I could say a word, she grabbed my hand and started pulling me with her. “Help me just this once.”
The dices were rolled and now it's just a series of taking and discarding, taking and discarding until sets are completed.
“Péng,” blurted out the old man as he set aside a set of three.
Riko already had two sets of three.
“Draw a tile!” yelled the old lady when her seatmate was taking too much time arranging his sets to the side.
It was a close game and the mean old lady was catching up when Riko signalled me with a wink.
The cases of empty bottles made a loud sound when I crashed into them and the old folks all turned their heads to look. “Sorry, sorry.”
I saw Riko take just one tile from her bag before quickly dropping her tiles on the table and standing in victory. “I win,” she exclaimed.
The folks all made disgruntled sounds as they handed her the money. And as she instructed, we ran.
We were breathing rapidly as we stopped on a crowded street. She took her bills out of her pocket and waved them in front of me.“Let's go eat dinner. I guess you can call it...that...”
"What?"
A date.
“A treat! It's my treat.”
YOU ARE READING
Dear Kafka
Romance[CPN] Riko was nearing the end of her life. What she decided to do for the remainder of it was to find someone to love. She never knew it would be so beautiful, maddening...turbulent. She got what she wanted and Lord knows it was the first time.
