Chapter 6 – Oxymoron

“---- If I could drop dead right now I would be the happiest man alive ----“

2005 July 3^rd, 9.57 am, Nana Plaza, Samahan Alley,

---- The morning before he met Saengdao or Shio and after he met Busarakham – old hag.

Chin Hwa followed the cat given by the old lady into an alleyway. Chin kept on following the cat for about an hour.

“Wait, Wait, Wait, can this cat even help me find the red paradise within time. I even need time to deliver it to the customer… well, Kerl can deliver it, but if I didn’t make it in time they will kill me.”

Cat leapt into an abandoned building through a broken window. Hwa looked through the window and cat was nowhere to be found, it was like the cat disappeared into the thin air.

Chin Hwa tried to squeeze himself through the window and got his top left of his forehead cut in the broken glass.

Chin Hwa tried to move slowly not creating any noise. He slowly took out a retractable knife out of his back pocket and pointed it toward the empty space. Crouching a bit he kept moving forward.

“Should I brought some back up? Or at least kerl, huh? Well if someone jumped and killed me today, will that change anything at all, huh?

…I hope they make a clean shot to my head so I can die in a second… it’s not the death I am afraid of it’s the pain. At least at my death I want a peaceful ending.”

Scratch.

A screeching and scratching and purring noise could be heard above a meter high from Hwa. He moved towards it letting his guard down.

“Woahhh, yatta..” Screamed Hwa as he laid his eyes upon the stolen goods, the red paradise.

Clang

A person appeared from the rear side of the container worth of stocks piled up together. He had the demeanor of a drunk person and all Hwa could see was his shadow.

“Fuck, just a single guard, huh?” Thought Hwa as he looked to his each sides and behind. Yet he found no one else.

The person appeared out of the dark to show himself to be a kid, an average middle school kid, a 13 year old-something kid. Still his hand were not exactly visible but looked like he was holding on to something.

“A crowbar? A pistol? Is he going to shoot me, huh?

…Fuck death, I want to live to be 100 years old.”

A gentle voice could be echoed through the place which said, “Qǐng.”

Hwa let go of his guard completely and walked casually towards the little kid. The kid had a buzz cut and wore a box framed spectacle. The gun he thought he was carrying was just a bar of chocolate. Yep, the kid looked like he had a sweet tooth.

“Name, huh?” Asked Hwa.

“Tian Kuo.”

“Tian Kuo, Chinese huh? Wait I remember reading it somewhere… hmmm….. Oh I remember it, it was in the morning calligraphy letter given to me. Tian Kuo was the name signed and later erased it for that lame assed name (there were prints of the name ‘tian Kuo’ on the letter). I see so he was the one who wrote that beautiful handwritten letter with poor grammar.”

“Hmm… if I had met Saengdao before I met Tian Kuo I would have definitely shipped them, After all even his name Tian Kuo means the vast sky it will be a perfect fit for Saengdao – starlight.”

Chin Hwa dialed to someone and spoke something in secrecy, only words that could be heard were, “There is no one here…. Just a poor dim kid…. Kerl.” It was clear from just these three phrases that Hwa called Kerl to load back his supplies and that to leave the poor kid alone.

“However you are going to take this supplies away and I am weak and I can’t definitely stop you… they made a mistake thinking there won’t be no one coming for it….” Started speaking. Tian Kuo.

“I told them, I told them this would happen. No one listened to me.” Mumbled Tian Kuo.

“Well I will give away these supplies to you… if you could answer three of my questions.”

“Seriously ~ this brat…. Watch me as I take the supplies without answering any questions.” Said Hwa.

“Please~ Please Please.” Begged Tian Kuo.

“Well whatever like anything is ever going to change. Just a three question, I could spend time this way as kerl brings up the truck.” Thinking as much Hwa waved his hands signing him to ‘ask away’.

“Is that your fashion? And why do you keep using ‘huh’ often after every questions? And where did you get the idea to wear that fashion or that ‘Huh’ thing? Oh and also this a one single big question.” Asked Tian Kuo.

“My fashion? I just put up everything I had together and stole some too I guess it can’t be called fashion at least.”

“I guess those two question are important the least and the main question is the one where I got the ideas, huh? Well… I could say I took everything from the surrounding that I exist. Taste on Food, fashion sense and manner of speech were all not inherited but I saw and took from the surrounding. Not a single thing from my personality to preference are influenced by my genetics. At least that’s what I believe.”

“Hmm… so a nurturer?” Mumbled Tion Kuo.

“So you think you’re a learner and not an inheritor?” Asked the second question, Tion Kuo.

“Often as certain studious people believe, ‘you are more than your genes’ am I not right, Huh? Only the physically traits are inherited the eye color, height or skin color. I am not my father or my mother.” Replied Hwa.

“Of course you aren’t your father or your mother, they are different entities but at the same time aren’t you a shadow of them? There might be a person in your family who says ‘huh’ after every question, a person who has the same personality traits of you or at least your singular personality and character and attitude divided within four or five of your gene colleagues (family members)……

“…. Then aren’t you just a fruit salad of your family members?” Asked Tion Kuo

“Looks like the second question is still going on, huh? I hate this kind of questions where there are layered five or seven question within a single question… I don’t like this kind of complex things, that’s one of the reasons I hate mystery novels and psychology drama.” Thought Hwa looking a bit stressed.

“Yes, I may be a fruit salad of my family and every singular individual might not be singular individual at all, every one might be a byproduct of something or someone…. Even within my family I am a fruit salad then if I considered the entire population I might not even be a tiny bit of unique I might be a mix fruit juice….” Said Hwa.

“…. Right it’s as if the one who created everything was too lazy to design something new and he keeps recycle the same old thing… like he is terribly afraid of change.” Added Tion Kuo.

“Hmm…. If you think about it of the all people in the world with different personalities, attitude and character… I am a product of them all not a product or a copy of a single entity so that alone make me unique, a unique flavored Mix fruit juice.” Said Hwa with a somewhat a prideful tone.

“Hmm… honestly I didn’t hope you to answer it like that… you changed the trajectory of your answer…Fufufu…. That is a serious joke.” Said Tion Kuo with a fun demeanor.

“You know third one is not a question but an opinion.” Said Tion Kuo.

“People in this world are all about themselves and selfish to boot. It’s as if the god abandoned us by giving the remote control in our hands and we are a failures at playing god…. And the world is changing and I hope, I wish it would burn….” Said Tion remembering the hardship he had been through just in his 13/14 years of life. What did it even made a kid to think like that and speak like that?

“Hmm… if you think that way. Humans are really selfish and the only one they look out for is their selves. Well guess that is what a selfish means, huh?

…. In this world there are only two kind of people, the one who do not know they are doing wrong and those who know they are doing wrong, and I’m the latter.” Said Hwa with a serious tone of voice.

“Guess there is only one thing in this world you can be certain to expect from people without fail and that is them doing wrong.” Thought Hwa.

“But change is something beautiful and the world is changing and I was unaware of it. But once I knew it was at in the dawn, I look forward to it.” Said Hwa.

“Sounds funny isn’t it, huh? A scum like me looking forward to a change. Am I not allowed to, huh?