Loving You, For a Lifetime

0.9 Darkness

Lee sighed as he closed his phone screen. It had been more than a week since Mia left, and he had not heard anything from her. 

He had tried to send a message to Mia the very night she was supposedly on her flight to Dusseldorf - him having jolted awake in the middle of darkness. Of course he knew she was still on the plane at that time and did not really expect a reply back straight away. But when he was awoken, his heart was so inexplicably tight as he clutched his chest to calm himself down. He had a sense of loss that night, a sudden slap to his soul, like an irrevocable sense of dread to his entire being.

He went on with his days afterwards, sending texts after texts, and also tried to call her directly. But her phone seemed to be inactive. When he went out with James and Jet one night, James even had the audacity to joke that she might have just dumped him.

The death glare he gave his friend was enough for the latter to shut his mouth for the remainder of the night.

He went through his afternoon without joy, until it was time for him to head home. Faintly, he heard Cindy, the red-haired receptionist, talked with someone on her phone, her eyes full of pity. She was chatting with the other person about some plane crash with no survivors. The navy was currently only trying to retrieve the black box.

Lee nodded his goodbye at her, causing her to wink playfully at him amidst her conversation before continue chattering again on the phone. He shrugged and left.

Accidents were like that - just accidents. Yes it was unfortunate; yes it was sad; but as there was no close people or loved ones involved, it was just another news. It seemed to be just an excerpt of a book in which unfortunate events had happened to unrelated characters. He felt pity, but that was all. Life was like that.

After sleeping through another restless night, he headed to CafeGood the next morning. It was Thursday, and he just wanted to check it out - just in case. As usual, he dragged James along.

He was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face that he hadn't seen for the past week or so - it was John the barista. When Lee visited his shop previously, an unfamiliar girl made his coffee, and told him that John was away for a funeral. It seemed that he had now returned.

But that morning, John wasn't behind the counter - that unfamiliar girl still tasked with making the customers' coffee. John was standing in front of his shop, chatting with a woman.

As Lee and James walked across the road, John noticed them and waved his hand. Behind his glasses, Lee noticed his solemn expression, and his eyes were sunken. The woman besides him nodded her greetings, her eyes red. Only then Lee noticed that the woman had a face with a trace of similarity to Mia's, if not a bit older.

Lee greeted John, "Hey John. I heard you were away for a funeral?" he opened with mere chit-chat intention, "My condolences."

John gave him a weird stare.

"Lee...," John cautiously said, and gesturing towards the woman by his side, "This is Mia's older sister, Emily."

Lee looked at the woman, and was about to smile and offer his hand to greet her. 

"Haven't you heard?" John continued, causing him to pause, "Mia was on flight 067 to Dusseldorf last week, that crashed in the middle of the night."

Lee's vision went pasty white as he turned his head to see John, who now suddenly seemed so far away. The ground beneath his feet seemed to be crumbling, he couldn't feel his own feet.

"I was just back from her wake," John started to have beads of tears in the corner of his eyes, that he tried very hard to hold, "It was just an empty formality. None of the passengers' bodies were retrieved. The plane is now resting at the bottom of the ocean. Emi is just here to collect Mia's personal effects from her office... ."

Lee vaguely saw John's mouth moving as he kept speaking, but Lee couldn't hear anything any longer. 

The next thing he knew, he was already in front of his apartment's door, with James concernedly supporting Lee's body, his arm around the other's shoulder. James helped himself, rummaging through Lee's briefcase to retrieve his keys, and opened the door.

"Lee, I've called the office to let them know you won't be in, OK?"

He was silent as he was guided to his bedroom. James led him to sit on his bed, 

"Lee. I'll quickly get you something to eat for later, Okay? I'll accompany you for the day."

Lee blinked his eyes and stared at his friend, finally recognizing his presence,

"Uh? Oh no, James. It's fine," Lee monotonously spoke, his voice sounded so foreign even to himself, "You go to the office. You can just leave me now. I am okay."

James gave him an accusing look -- definitely not believing him,

"Just... do your work for a bit, yeah?", Lee continued, remembering the current life he had, and the responsibilities he had. But none of that seemed to matter now. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva to prompt himself to speak, 

"The new case needs someone from our team to supervise." When he saw James still standing there, he added with a strained hoarse chuckle, "You can come here maybe a bit later when you've finished the draft report."

With that, James reluctantly left him.

Lee stared at the white walls, still sitting on his bed for who knew how long. Time seemed to pass very slowly. As he glanced at his trembling hands, he finally realized that his entire body was shaking. He searched for his phone and looked up about the plane incident on the internet, finding various articles about it. Then one article listed a full list of the on-board passengers.

He easily found Mia Simmons name amongst the hundreds.

He stood and slowly removed his suit. He did not even know why he did it, but he had to do something normal; otherwise, he knew he would collapse. But as he was about to change into a fresh clean shirt, he felt a sense of vertigo and he leaned his body tiredly against the wall. Then his body slowly slumped onto the floor. 

He blankly stared at nothing, faced the white wall, then he brought his knees to his chest, curling his body into a tight self-embrace to comfort himself from the coldness.

He let out dry silent choking sobs. There were no tears.

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