Brain Injury

Friends

The next day at school, Dre walked into his history class, looking forward to seeing Keung now that he became comfortable with him after he assured him he's a good guy. He smiled as he saw Keung sitting there and sat next to him.

"Hey, Keung."

"Hi, Dre. Sorry about Cheng yesterday."

"It's alright I guess. I'm probably going to have to get used to it," Dre sighed.

"I admit, he's kind of a dick sometimes."

Dre laughed at Keung's comment with him laughing along.

"Yeah. I wonder why though."

"Well, actually, it's not entirely his fault. You see, we're in a kung fu class. Me and all of my friends. We have this teacher who teaches us no mercy, even if the opponent is down."

"No way, man, that's terrible!"

"Yeah. As must as I hate his inappropriate method, I have to comply. If we don't, he slaps us."

"Aw, hell no!" Dre remarked.

Then, Ms. Zhou began to lectures them about a daily assignment. Being a nice teacher she always is, she allowed them to negotiate someone next to them as long as they aren't loud enough and is work-related. She would let them converse casually as soon as they finished their work.

With Dre and Keung being the smart guys they are, they finished their work about 15 minutes before class is over.

"You know, I had been thinking of Chenguang all last night after school. I never personally met someone with a brain injury before. It felt kinda... I don't know, strange, maybe?"

"Yeah, I get that alot. I noticed some people looked at her and they kind of freak out a little when they get a close up view of her in person. I told them she won't bite," Keung chuckled at the last part. "But really, it's a bit uncomfortable for her and me if they stare too long."

"Yeah, I kind of get it. I guess people doesn't want to say something that might offend them."

"That's true," Keung agreed with. "Again, this whole situation regarding her is hard for me at the most, besides her family. I often get nightmares of her dying at the majority of time when she was in the coma."

"Oh, god, sorry to hear that."

"Yeah, but it became less common when she woke up. But the nightmare never stops, though I get it every now and then."

"That sucks." Keung nodded.

"You know," Keung continued. "If my friends weren't rude, I could introduce them to you. But don't worry, their teasing won't last forever."

"Yeah. But you can tell me their names, at least."

"Okay, well, the one who gave you the black eye is Cheng, you already know, as well as Zhuang. The others is Liang, Feng, Xiang, Song, Xing and their girlfriends, Zhilan, Biyu, and Chunhua. But the girls have different lunch period than us. Well, to be exact," Keung leaner in to whisper. "Biyu is not Feng's girlfriend yet. He have a crush on her. Same goes for Xiang with Chunhua. But don't tell anyone."

They both laughed.

"Speaking of which, I met Chenguang 4 years ago when she moved into Beijing, like you did, from Shanghai. It located like several hundred miles south from here. We met after her first day at the dojo a couple days after moving here. I was so shy because she was so beautiful."

"Aww that's sweet," Dre remarked.

"Yeah. We gravitated naturally to each other. She was so smart, funny, and beautiful. And just five months later, we started dating after I took her out to the Qi Xi festival. It was nice. All was well with us until that night. That night when she was, um..." Keung stopped midsentence as his face fell at the thought of what happened three years ago. It gets so hard for him to talk about it.