"What's up?" a male voice that wasn't Quang's asked.

Quang opened the door to the restaurant wide, staring at the man that stood just outside the entrance. He stepped to the side and without invitation the other man came walking in. From his head down, his entire ensemble was worn and tattered. The gray hoodie jacket he wore looked to be a size too small and the sleeves were torn off, leaving the hem frayed.  The shirt underneath had seen better days. His jeans weren't in any better condition; small tears were scattered throughout the ragged black denim. The black shoes he wore were scuffed and scratched and were fastened together by a set of shabby buckles. 

His skin was beige and his hair a dark blonde. A red headband wrapped around his forehead kept the long and messy bangs of his from covering up his dark blue eyes. He passed by Quang, not even making eye contact with him despite their heights being roughly the same. He scoured the inside of the restaurant, looking at the interior with a small smile on his face. The man held onto a string attached to a sack with one hand that dangled on his back. With his other half gloved hand he brushed away some loose strands of his hair before looking at Selene. With a short nod, he said "Sup."

"Hello," Selene said shyly as she gave the man a short wave. Quang came up from behind and gave him a shove in the shoulder with his arm, making him stagger forward.

"Vic!" Quang shouted, his voice containing a mix of relief and anger, "I don't know if I should hug you or strangle your right now!"

"Why not a hug, man?" Vic said. He placed the long black nylon bag on a table and then spread arms wide and embraced Quang in a hug. They both patted each other on the back.

"You're Vic?" Selene said with awe as she got up from her seat. She made her way to the two that were hugging each other and waited for them to finish. Once they were done, they both turned to her. She had a smile on her face as she eagerly waited to meet the person that she and Quang had been looking for so fervently. 

"Vic," Quang said after stepping back from his friend. He held out one hand towards the young woman. "This is my pal, Selene. She's been helping me trying to find you for a couple days now."

"Hey Selene," Vic said, still smiling. 

"Do you know what we've gone through to try and find you?" Selene said sarcastically. "How many fights we got into trying to figure out where you were?"

"What? Why were you guys trying to find me?" Vic said confused, his hands pointing to his chest.

Quang blinked twice, staring at Vic in utter confusion. "Because you've been missing. For months!" he exclaimed.

"Really? It's been that long?" Vic said as he returned Quang's stare with a perplexed look of his own. Quang didn't respond. Instead, he looked towards Selene and shook his head. Selene wanted to say something, but the words were lost on her lips. "What have you been doing for these past three months, Vic?" Quang inquired.

"If you're wanting to know what I've been up to, it's gonna be a long story, bro. You might wanna take a seat and get comfortable. It’s gonna be a while!"

"Don't worry, I've got plenty of time," Quang said as he crossed his arms. He pulled out the chair that he was sitting at prior to Vic’s arrive and took a seat. Selene did the same on the other side of the table. Vic grabbed a chair off an adjacent table and with a small slam, placed all four legs on the ground. He kicked back, placing both of his feet on the surface of the table, and using the leverage to balance his entire body on the two rear legs of his chair. He placed his hands behind his head and looked at the steaming scoop of pho in Quang’s spoon.

"Think I could get a bowl too?" Vic said. "I'm starving."

Quang put his spoon back in his bowl. "You know how my parents are about giving you free food."

"But I haven't had a meal from here in three months!" he replied. 

"Oh, but you can keep track of the last time you ate here just fine!"

"I'm a busy man, Quang. You know that!" Vic laughed and rocked a bit in his chair. "You know we have this conversation every time. I'll pay ya back, honest." 

"Somehow I doubt that. Tell you what. You give us the details on why you went MIA for months and I'll think about making some pho for you. How does that sound?"

"I was planning on doin' that anyway! You just made me want to tell ya even more."

"Sounds like you better start explaining then," Quang said, his eyes cutting towards his friend. Vic rubbed his forehead with the red wrist band on his red hand. His eyes looked upwards as if he were scanning the inside of his brain for an answer.

"So, I was out by the record shop over in Moonlight Valley, right? Checking out their selection..." Vic's statement wavered when he noticed Quang squinting at him.

"Wait, wait, wait. Hold up,” Quang said. He leaned forward, getting an even closer look at Vic. "You said you were in Moonlight Valley?" 

"Yeah," Vic nodded. "That's where the best record store is in all of Isla Lucrecia."

"That's like an hour and a half drive from here!"

"So?"

"You don't have a car! You don't even have a license!" 

"You know the city's got a transit system, right?" Vic said, looking unenthused. 

"Do you know how many bus routes you'd have to take? If you wanted to go so bad, we could have just set a date aside to head out!" Quang looked more exasperated with each word he said. "Not to mention how much it would cost to cover bus fare."

Vic let out a hearty laugh, almost falling out of his chair as he kept his hand over his stomach. "Bus fare? Come on Quang, you know me better than that. You think I paid for any of those rides? Why would I do that when I could just hop onto the empty cargo cars by the train station and get a free lift that way?"

Quang took in a deep breath and leaned back in his seat. "Fine. Continue."

"Anyways. I was at Tommy and James Music Selection, ya see? Browsing what they had. Left kinda disappointed. The stuff they had was a bit out of my price range, and Sly wasn't there to chat with. Instead it was some new chick trying to get me to listen to some noise. She said it was HK Pop and that it was the newest trend. Popped in a cassette and blasted a song over the store's speaker. Couldn't stand whoever it was on the recording. You know the song Passion and Patience? By Slick and the Groove Stand?"

After taking in a deep sigh, Quang's eyes rolled to the back of his head. "Yes. Of course I do. It's your favorite song by one of your favorite bands. You play it all the time. Are you going to get to the important part of the story anytime soon?"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry, I'll get there. But this part is essential to what happened."

"Is it though?" Quang asked, bored.

"Back to where I was. The chick that did the vocals had the tone of the song all wrong. All the instruments had been replaced with some synthetic, canned, digital pop. It was terrible, Vic. Terrible."

"Passion and Patience?" Selene said. The other two looked towards her. "That's the song by Hualing, right?"

Vic shook his head. "No, no. It's a Slick and the Groove Stand track! 1969. One of the best songs ever recorded!"

"Oh. I've heard the version by Hualing from a few years ago."

"You've gotta listen to the original! Here," still leaning back in his chair, Vic grabbed his nylon bag that was on the table behind him. He unzipped the package and after fumbling through it, he took out a plastic cassette and slid it over to Selene. She lifted it up and examined it close. The paper insert inside was was torn and the front of the case had snapped at one of the hinges. Carefully, she opened up the case and saw that the cassette's label was in just as bad of a condition. She could barely make out that the title was Slick and the Groove Stand's Greatest Hits: Volume I.  "That album right there? It'll change your life. Just give it a listen."

"Thank you!" Selene said with a small bit of nervousness. 

"I do want it back though," Vic added. "But you can your time and—"

"Vic!" Quang shouted. His patience had vanished. "Please. Could you continue from where you had left off?"

"Oh, right," Vic kicked back once again, getting comfortable as if the seat he was leaning back in was a hammock. "Now where was I? Yeah, I couldn't stand that version of Passion and Patience so I booked it as fast as I could. I got hungry so I started looking for a place to get some food, you know? All of the fast-food places were pretty crowded during lunch time, so I started to head towards one of the finer places in Moonlight Valley."

"You? Looking for fine dining at Moonlight Valley?" Quang said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah. Is that not believable or something?"

"Vic. I can count the times you've paid for a bowl here on one hand. And I've known you since we were just kids."

"Did I say I was going to pay for it? I've got my ways of getting my meals. You'd be surprised at how much edible stuff people just toss out. Wasteful, man. Just wasteful."

Quang and Selene looked at each other, with Selene having a look of worry. After a brief wag of his head, he looked towards his now-found friend again. "Sorry for interrupting. Please, continue."

"I was by this café that had an outside eating area with a bunch of tables and umbrellas, right? I see someone left half a turkey sandwich. Completely untouched. I reach over the railing to grab it and this woman just... looks at me."

"I wonder why that would be," Selene said quietly. She looked at Quang and noticed that he was struggling not to intrude on Vic's retelling of the story anymore.

"Not like it was her sandwich. I was just saving the waiter a trip to the trash can. But as I'm grabbin' the sandwich, she just stares at me. She had these big green eyes. Bright blonde hair that glistened in the sunlight. And she just kept lookin’ at me."

"The poor woman was probably terrified!" Quang said. "You're reaching over a fence to steal food from a vacant café table. She might have thought you were going to rob her!"

 "She didn't look at me like she was scared, Quang. She looked at me... differently. I can't really explain it, man. I just can't."

"You think some woman that lives up in a classy place like Moonlight Valley will find someone of your stature attractive?" Quang said.

"No, it definitely wasn't that, either. The way our eyes met. It's like we had a connection but not a romantic one. I can't describe it." Vic tapped his finger to his chin and remained fixated on the ceiling.

"You're a girl, Selene," Quang said as he looked to the woman on the opposite end of the table.

"How observant of you."

"What do you think of this? Does Vic here have a wealthy admirer on the other side of the city? Or has munching on too many leftovers scrambled his brain?"

Quietly, Selene looked at Vic, her eyes scanning the ragged ensemble he put on. Her lips pursed into a frown as she thought about what to say next. "Well Vic, what happened next?"

"What do ya mean?"

"Did she freak out? Call for help? Maybe she kept staring at you in silence. Or..."

"Oh, none of that," Vic replied. "She had her bodyguard chase me away."

"Bodyguard!?" Both Quang and Selene said in unison. 

"Yeah. Big dude. Red metal mask. Long white cloak. He took out a spear and pointed it at me," Vic said as he scratched the inside of his ear with his pinky finger.

"Maybe you should have opened up with that, Vic." Quang put his arms down on the table and slammed his head onto them, making the entire bounce with a thud. "I need a break from talking with you, Vic," he said with a muffled voice from having his face buried within his arms. "Might as well make you that bowl of pho in the meantime."

"Thanks, buddy!" Vic reached over and gave Quang a pat on the back. "Think I could get a beef one this time?"

“You got a lot of nerve being picky.” Quang got up from his chair and took a step towards the kitchen. “But when I get back, you’re finishing this story!”