Ride on Time

Chapter 125

Shree had a bad feeling about this Ramesh guy too, but for some reason, wanted to go intrude on his son's interview. She knew that Shruti wouldn't mind if they went since... well, Mitsuo was Shri in her eyes and she was his girlfriend. Shree didn't know how true this was but it still made her queasy.
Especially the part where she would be Mitsuo's destined lover.
Shree didn't know what to think of this but it was true that she did have some attraction towards Mitsuo. Who wouldn't? He was a nice guy, respects her, and was a good writer too. The fact that he liked her culture made it better, made her feel closer to him.
And now, he was enjoying his Zumba lesson with her. It was funny how he only showed up towards the end of her shift so that he could ambush her as soon as she was done. He was even standing at the front since there were only two other students besides him. Shree thought he seemed a little childlike, seeing how he was actually really excited when the Elegant House Remix version of Platonic Dancer S. Kiyotaka and the Omega Tribe came up. Apparently, it was one of his favourite songs too.

"I didn't know you knew Sugiyama Kiyotaka and the Omega Tribe," Mitsuo caught up with her right after her shift. "Do you know Garasu no Palm Tree?"
"I do," Shree chuckled. "I like both the original and the Nu Discotheque Groove Remix. I like their music after Carlos Toshiki joined in too."
Mitsuo was so excited when he heard that and started talking about other Japanese City Pop artists like Kaoru Akimoto, Momoko Kikuchi, and Meiko Nakahara.
"Seriously, how come you didn't know?" Shree asked, mildly surprised. "I played Night Tempo's remix of Kimi wa 1000% only yesterday. You didn't notice?"
"Maybe I was too focused on dancing to realise," Mitsuo shrugged.
"Maybe..." Shree agreed. She bit her lip slightly before telling him. "Anyway, you wanna go to Shruti's office after this? I brought the car with me, and I have to pick up Vasu. Then we can go straight to KJ."
"Where's that?" Mitsuo asked, not understanding the acronym.
"Kelana Jaya. You wanna come? I wanna see how this Ramesh feller's son will do at the interview."
Mitsuo frowned thoughtfully. "Do you think they'll let us see?"
Shree shrugged. "It's Shruti. She your best friend, what."
Mitsuo smirked at that. "She just might. By the way, there's something weird about that guy. I don't know what, but there's something up with him."
Shree contorted her face in disgust as she nodded in agreement. "Same. Very fishy feller."
"I get what you mean. Also, he seems to know your friend's dad but he acted like he didn't know."
"Who knows," Shree shrugged. "Anyway, I go and bathe first. I'll meet you in the lobby, okay?"

Mitsuo insisted on sitting at the back of the Perodua Viva to surprise Vasu when he would come. For some reason, the backseat was decked out in cushions and even a woollen sweater. He somehow managed to hide himself behind Shree's seat as he watched the unsuspecting Vasu come towards to the car with his gigantic backpack. He was planning to get into the backseat but Shree pointed at the seat beside her as soon as he was near enough.
The younger man nodded and came over, thrusting his bag next to his feet as he sat down, and pulled the door shut. Vasu heaved a huge sigh of relief and leaned against the seat.
"So, how was school?" Shree asked.
"Good, but that Musang feller, right..." Vasu sighed. "For that feller right, must go in front and sit with him and talk. He will talk as if our KK is not important at all. Yeah lah, for him not important, what. I still have no clue how he gets away with being the teacher with the most fails. Imagine this, his classes score a hundred percent of fails ninety percent of the time."
"Like that lah, that feller," Shree smirked, trying really hard to not expose the guy behind her. She wondered when he would show himself.
"Anyway, what's for lunch?" Vasu asked. "What Awah cook?"
"Not sure, I came straight from work," Shree truthfully said. "You want, you call and ask lah."
"Oh..." Vasu nodded. "Never mind lah, we go home and see."
He was a little surprised when Shree took the exit to enter the Federal Highway instead of Old Klang Road towards home. "Eh, where we going lah?" Mitsuo decided that it was the best time to show himself.
"So!" Mitsuo exclaimed as he popped up out him, causing the younger man to yelp in surprise. "Got you, didn't I?"
Shree burst into laughter as she drove, nearly missing the Kelana Jaya exit.
"Were you there the whole time?" Vasu asked. "Gosh, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"
Mitsuo laughed too. "Just wanted to surprise you. After all, you do this to me too. Imagine how I feel when you do it to me."
Vasu snorted. "Fine. But I like how you actually hid in the back."
"That's what you do to me," Mitsuo smirked as he leaned into the middle seat. "Anyway, you asked where we were going, right? Guess."
"To that Shruti's office, right?" Vasu sighed. "You here means there only lah."
"Yeah," Mitsuo chuckled. "Wait, I just realised. Ms Shruti's daughter is your classmate, right?"
"Yeah?"
"Does that mean we will meet up with her at the office?" Mitsuo asked.
Vasu inwardly panicked, but gave a casual shrug. "Who knows? Hopefully, no lah."
"I thought you like her?" Shree smirked, giving him a nudge.
Vasu felt cornered. "Umm... no? Why ah?"
"Because it's obvious," Mitsuo squeezed himself between the seats once again. "I had the same look on my face when I first saw your sister."
"What?" Shree asked in surprise.
Vasu's nervous look slowly morphed into a cheeky grin. "Don't act like you don't know, Akka. You were practically sobbing while binging on durian ice cream the night before Mitsuo was supposed to leave, thinking that you upset him."
"Upset me? Why?" Mitsuo asked, turning to Shree but she didn't turn her attention to him at all as she continued driving forward.
"Because you seemed a little upset when we dropped you off after the outing," Vasu continued to snitch. "She was even listening to this song... something called Lotos?"
"It was Scorpion, the album's name is Lotos," Shree sighed in defeat. "Mitsu, I was just sad that you were leaving, okay?"
"I was too... I wasn't upset with you guys in any way," Mitsuo admitted. "I apologise if I made you feel that way, but I was just sad that I was about to miss all of this. Miss going around with you guys. You guys made me feel at home here, and I was sad that I was gonna leave you guys behind."
There was silence at this.
"And yes, I was sad too, ended up listening to Aoyama Killer Story and Stay Girl, Stay Pure," Mitsuo added. "The main reason I didn't wanna leave was because I felt like something was stopping me. Imagine this, I was already at KL Sentral, waiting in line to get a ticket for the KLIA Express. It was even my turn to get the ticket but I... I just couldn't bring myself to buy that ticket. So I just bowed and turned back to the LRT kiosk."
Vasu snorted. "You talk as if you're writing literature."
Mitsuo smiled. "Yeah, I guess I do that sometimes. My friends tell me this too, so I guess it's the same for me in Japanese."
"Yeah, you do that," Shree added with a chuckle. "Anyway, wanna see what state this Suresh guy is in?"
"Bet you, he's this scrawny guy who doesn't know half of what's going on around him," Vasu smirked. "By the way, is that why we're going to Shridhar Industries now?"
"Yep," Shree smirked. "Mitsuo thinks that this Ramesh guy is worth investigating, especially since he made such a kecoh when he came in."

-kecoh means fuss or havoc.
-KK is short for kerja kursus which means coursework.