When Myra woke up the next morning with a splitting headache, the first thing she recognised was the familiar light wall of her bedroom. The pain in her head obliterated her from attempting to recall where she was the night before. She felt soreness in her lower abdomen and back, which she fathomed was the aftermath of being active.
But the question was, what happened last night? She woke up with no remembrance of what happened or why she had drunk so much. She looked around her room for any signs of Hart having spent the night with her, but there were none. But if it wasn’t Hart, who else could it be, she gasped, rubbing her face. No, she, Myra Yang, wasn’t that shallow of a person! Other than Hart, she couldn’t imagine having someone else in her bed.
Then she heard a knock on the door. Sierra invited herself, still sleepy early in the morning, into the room. She was wearing a purple turtleneck matched with a long red skirt, and her breath smelled strongly of toothpaste.
“Girl, it’s already eight in the morning and you are still in bed?”
“Eight?”
She almost fell off the bed in surprise. “What day is it?”
Her head still felt like it was about to split apart. “It’s Thursday!”
“Ah, sorry. I still need a rest. I feel like I just ran a marathon,” she lied.
“Hey, where were you last night? You stink. You didn’t even change your clothes when you reached home!”
Myra peered down under her blanket. Sure enough, she was wearing her outdoor clothes to bed, something she would normally never do. She felt something was amiss. There was a matter in her head that she couldn’t recall what it was. It felt important, but she didn’t know what it was. All she knew was that she had to do something.
“Strange. I can’t remember a thing.”
“Just how many cans did you drink?” Sierra nagged again.
“I… I really don’t remember!” she yelled, frustrated. Her hair hung dishevelled behind her back, and her body was aching. “How did I even get home last night?”
“Beats me,” Sierra shrugged. “I suppose you walked yourself home, because when I got home after my midnight movie with Teos, you were already in bed. We didn’t want to wake you with our conversation, so I asked him to go home.”
“Uh, I came home by myself?”
“Yes, after you went missing on campus!”
“I skipped classes?” Myra was feeling at a loss for words. Was this really her, missing her lectures and getting so wasted she could not remember a thing? If so, she was really lucky her father wasn’t here to give her a serious lecture on life.
Father? The thought of her father suddenly rang a bell in her mind. But no matter how she racked her brains, amidst the headache, she couldn’t recall what it was about her father that she deemed an important thing to do. It irked her she couldn’t remember what important thing she had to do or find out.
“Sierra?”
“Uh, what?” Her stepsister was already roaming about her room. She didn’t have a class until maybe ten o’clock in the morning, so she felt extremely relaxed. Some printed mini photographs of Myra and her father hung from a decorated string on the wall. The first time he had taken her along on a business trip. They had gone to Singapore. Then there were her primary school graduation photographs and a photograph she had taken with her father during her eighteenth birthday. Such memories would always remain in her mind.
“Do you think my father has deserted us?” Myra questioned. “It’s very unlike him to have left for so long without telling us where he went.”
“What do you think?” Sierra retorted. Then she shrugged. “Whatever the reason, it is between him and my mom. I know they had a big quarrel that resulted in them not talking with each other for weeks. This was just after we were away in Bali. She still won’t tell me what it’s about, but what else can a couple argue and give each other the cold shoulder, other than because of money?”
Myra didn’t say a word more. She just walked into the bathroom and silently washed up. A hot shower seemed to do magic. She stood, refreshed, while looking at her naked body in the mirror. One would feel blessed with those curves, but she resented herself for them.
The chauffeur sent them to their university. While they sat idly in the vehicle, Myra dug for her cellphone in her handbag. Realising her phone was out of juice, she took out her portable charger and charged it. Immediately, her screen jumped back to life.
Fifty-six missed calls from Hart? Are you kidding me? She hurriedly opened the messages.
“Hey, baby, what are you doing now? Sorry to inform you at the last minute, I got a call from my uncle to head down to R City to resolve some issues. I’ll be back later tonight, okay?”
He had sent this message when she was probably at university. Then at eleven, he had called, presumably to inform her he was back. This just bugged her. Why hadn’t she answered any of his calls?
When Hart worked, he was such a workaholic that he didn’t have time to check his calls or messages. For this, Myra fathomed it was futile for her to call him so dejectedly replaced the device inside her handbag. The pain in her head was dispersing as it was half an hour since she had taken some fast action panadol to counter the headache. Fortunately, her first class got cancelled at the last minute, so she was in time to attend their mutual lecture for an elective class.
The professor began with his usual sentences, quoting literary figures, but the next minute, he announced he had a guest for this lecture, who would enlighten them with his hard-earned experience on the topic for today. The students chattered excitedly, wondering who would be this honoured guest.
Myra, acting as illustrious as she could be, put her pen down and flipped her course notes. The sisters had a shared interest in culture and traditional views and thus took an elective course in this department. A Chinese professor, Lu Yu, led the lectures. She looked up barely from her notes when familiar looking feet passed them in long, big strides.
She didn’t even need a few seconds to guess when the female dominated crowd chanted his name as if they glued it to their lips.
“Jake Yu - Jake Yu - Jake Yu!”
They clapped so wildly that proved distracting for Myra. When Jake turned to face the crowd, Myra instead pulled the book over her timid face.
“Today, I am here to share with you about cultural ethics in the face of business. I know that many of you are business major students, and in V City, traditionalism still comes into play. A big proportion of Asian families make up the population of V City, so for those of you who have a similar experience, would you mind sharing the same with our peers today?”
He strode across the room until he stopped at Myra and Sierra’s table. “Miss - Yang,” he pretended to read her name on the attendance list corresponding with her seating arrangement. “Would you like to answer this for the others to know? If you are comfortable.”
Her heart thumped in her chest. Jake still had that effect on her, she lamented silently. It surprised her that seeing him today had triggered no anger towards him. Maybe her heart forgave him on its own.
She stood up slowly, facing away from Jake, and turned towards the crowd instead.
“I am the only daughter of a traditional family. In addition, I lost my mother at a young age. My father single-handedly raised me in his own way. He trained me to be ethical and to be considerate. And no matter what we do, we should think about whether it falls under the label of ‘ethical’. Respect others like you would want them to respect you.” She explained the traditional views of her father and what he had taught her about renowned Chinese historical figures like Kongfuzi and Mengzi. Fortunately, her little speech ended with her classmates in awe.
Jake then took over. “Now in business, it’s a similar approach, yet has some differences. First, let us see this from the customer’s standpoint.”
She took a deep breath and massaged her temples. Observing Jake in this manner, as the young and wealthy CEO and successful entrepreneur, she wondered if all CEOs had this weird vibe. Her heart was racing so rapidly that she had to detract from her thoughts by looking at a saved photograph of Hart on her cell phone.
It was only when the room fell silent that she realised Jake was standing next to her with his eyes on the photograph with a wide stare. Hurriedly she replaced her cellphone, pretentiously taking notes, which she scribbled on a brown notepad.
Until the lecture time was up, Jake continued to throw some strange glances her way, which she promptly ignored. When he concluded his speech, the university students eventually got up to go as they needed to catch another lesson, leaving Myra and Sierra, who had no more lectures for the morning.
Just before she could leave, Jake gave her a subtle smile.
“Myra, have someone in your heart now, I see.”
She trembled as she looked for a way to answer him in her head, but found none.