A Prompt

Laughing at Last (4)

Two days can be very fatiguing when two persons vehemently try to pussyfoot around. The two young guys literally circled each other like stray cats ready for a fight. The one steadily lurking to get information prised out of his friend, the other one viceversa not willing to say something but to stay as polite as possible not wanting to hurt the first one. That was Lei’s constant thought and sorrow during the weekend. The only thing Lei was longing for at the end was to sleep the next 24 hours peacefully without getting disturbed by anything or anyone.

Instead he picked out as many places and events as possible where speaking wasn’t appropriate to prevent Ah-Si from talking and asking too much. For that reason, he had arranged for two soloist concerts and tugged Ah-Si to several art museums. The last evening, he took him to his dorm as he knew that there would be a party or a jam session somewhere to be found for sure.

Normally the Daoming heir would have had tortured Lei to press the truth out of him. But paradoxically Ah-Si behaved rather composed. Lei was in a constant alert mode because that absolutely wasn’t his friend. Did he take special medicine?

However, these two and half days passed by very quickly and soon Ah-Si would be leaving for London. For their last lunch Lei had chosen a restaurant in a small alley of the ancient heart of Vienna which was famous for its well-known signature dish.

Ah-Si who knew that time would run short before he was heading back to his business, was slipping fretfully back and forth on his chair. Recognizing Ah-Si’s also increasing number of nervous eye-blinks Lei wondered when his childhood friend would ever overcome his self-consciousness and receive back his former infamous unshakeable confidence which belonged to his true character. 'The power of love makes fools out of all of us,' he reflected thinking about the time when Jing had left him out of the blue.

“Lei! What do you think? Does she still love me? She surely must hate me the most for what had happened!”

Lei rolled his eyes while he was chewing on his meat. It was approximately the 10th time within one hour that Ah-Si insisted on asking him again and again. There still remained two further hours to be pestered by Ah-Si with questions before he finally would leave.

“Go and eat your Viennese Schnitzel!” Lei replied infuriated as parents used to do when their children didn’t eat but were always joking around during mealtime.

“It’s getting cold. What a pity. It tastes so good.” Lei pointed with his knife at Ah-Si’s plate where a wonderful golden breaded slice of veal was deliciously scenting. Ah-Si hadn’t touched it so far as he was blabbering all the time. “But what if…”

“Ah-Si!” Lei was yelling at him now. “If you don’t stop right now, I’ll get up and leave and you can go to the airport by yourself all alone!”

Ah-Si looked dumbfounded with eyes wide open. Till that moment Lei had kept his self-composure. He had tolerated nearly everything without saying a word. Now Lei made the impression to stay true to what he meant. 'Had he ever seen or heard Lei’s temperament running wild?' He couldn’t remember of a similar reaction of his well-known, normally buddha-like smiling so silent friend.

“What I can tell you is that if you don’t take care of your health you will be still looking like a dying duck in a thunderstorm and that won’t please Shancai at all if she ever will be willing to meet you again!”
Ah-Si’s mouth fell agape looking sheepishly, he swallowed his saliva while listening to the harsh words of Lei which finally found their way to his brain and he decided not poke the bear any longer. Ah-Si lowered his head similar to a scolded child, he slowly took fork and knife and started to cut his meat.

After three bites the desperate one tried to say something again, but Lei stopped him at the same second Ah-Si took some breath.

“No, cut the crap - Stopp – Eat!” Lei sounded exactly like his sister Zhuang when no reply was tolerated. This time Ah-Si behaved, still a bit unwillingly.