“Aiyaa!” Mei exclaimed. “Did you buy another pair?”

William shrugged. He was standing in his room, wearing only his shorts, re-arranging his shoes. Mei threw his t-shirt at him and started gathering other clothes off the floor. 

“William! You already have a pair of those shoes!”

“Di san (the third),” he said, distractedly, holding up a pair of white and gold Adidas shoes up to his face, staring critically at the laces. He had a toothbrush in the other hand, and expertly flicked a piece of dirt off the side of the left shoe and onto a tissue.

Mei threw something a little harder than the t-shirt and he didn’t duck in time.

“Mei!” he exclaimed at her, reaching out to whack her back, but she escaped with a dodging twist any martial artist would be proud of – a product of being the older and more experienced sibling.

“No more shoes,” she said, reprovingly. “You’re worse than a girl!”

William stuck his tongue out at her, but he could see that she was laughing under her breath as she walked out.  He continued to inspect, rearrange, reorganize and generally tidy the overstuffed, but not messy, shoe closet. When he was satisfied, he snapped a photo for himself and posted it to Instagram.

The shoes were perfectly organized by colour, age, and type. He knew that the children occasionally came to mess with things, taking random pairs and carefully placing them somewhere else in the closet, but he always knew the order and would carefully place it back. His little niece, An, especially liked playing this game and teasing her uncle about his shoe obsession. Sometimes she would spend hours lying on his bed with her hands propping up her little face, simply watching him straighten shoes until he was satisfied that they were perfectly aligned in every way. Her beautifully tilted almond eyes would sparkle with laughter while she grinned at him with a smile less one tooth.

They enjoyed sharing this special shoe game- him and his niece. His nephew, who was almost twelve, was more interested in playing video games.

Spring was turning into summer, and with no school, An would skip into his room every morning, little hands tapping his face to wake him up. Although he hated being woken so early, he absolutely adored An. Occasionally he’d set up an ambush, pretending to still be asleep, and then surprise her with a roar while catching her up in the blankets and pretending to smother her. An never got tired of it, and her shrieks of laughter cut through his feeling of homesickness.

William knew that Mei bore the noise and his childishness with exaggerated patience. Regardless she was usually up already making breakfast for the children and getting ready for work.