❝𝒎𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒆𝒊𝒑𝒆𝒊𝒔.❞
(you're missing from me.)
━━━━━━━━━━
𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔
Iva Laurent lost her parents when she was eight. Sold to the black market by her only relative left on this earth, she was l...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Metaphorically, if something as insignificant as a flutter of the butterfly's wings is capable to create a hurricane thousands of miles away, then it must be possible to cross path with a perfectly random someone on one fateful night who is set to change the course of your life.
Although the chaos theory postulates that a tiny change in a big system can affect everything, these encounters are hardly arbitrary. Rather, it's almost as if everything were predestined to happen as it must take the butterfly to flap its wings at the right time and in the right place to kickstart the chain of events leading to the unfortunate natural disaster. Everything's about timing and chance. In this sense, doesn't life seem to follow through a divinely preordained plan?
◩
SHANGHAI December | 15 years later Location: M1NT Nightclub
━━━━━━━━━━
As usual, M1NT was a heartbeat on loudspeakers. Music pounded powerfully in the sort of beats that pumped up the soul as neon strobe lights danced together with the crowd on the dancefloor, moving them in an electrifying way that bodies craved — hands all over and hips grinded together. The DJ held onto his headphones and nodded rhythmically with the music as dry ice-smoke swirled beneath him and floated through the dance floor. In this time and space, clubbers drowned themselves in the high and bonded with total strangers that wrapped them with a warmth that was denied in the cold, lonely streets beyond the doors of M1NT.
"GNT." I leaned against the bar counter and winked at the bartender, Kai.
"Hey, Iva," he returned the wink playfully. Grabbing a highball glass, he mixed in the liquor and added two wedges of lime. Casually tossing the coaster in front of me, he rested the drink on top of it and asked, "最近好吗?" (Translate: Have you been well?)
"还好," I replied. (Translate: Fair enough.)
Kai stretched his arms towards the counter and chatted with me for a while before a group of college kids hailed him over to the other side to take their orders. I rested one elbow on the smooth obsidian surface and leaned one side of my face on my palm while my finger danced over the rim of the glass. Raising the glass, I took a small sip and savoured the mild bitterness through the bubbly tonic that playfully caressed my tongue and down my throat, kindling comfortable warmth within.
From the peripheral of my vision, I noticed someone approaching but I remained in my chair, nonchalant about the approaching gentleman.
"Hi," a deep, smooth voice sounded in my ears as he rested his arm on the counter and leaned against it beside me.
"Hello," I replied, my tone was polite but unfamiliar. I turned my chair towards him as I rested my back against the backrest of my stool. My eyes fluttered opened but what I witnessed in front me nearly made me fall off my seat.
