Lee sighed as he closed his phone screen. It had been more than a week since Mia left, and he had not heard anything from her. Despite how many times he tried reaching out to her, there was no phone call or texts back.

He had tried to send a message to Mia the very night she was supposedly on her flight to Dusseldorf. At the time, he was jolted awake in the middle of darkness. Of course he knew she was still on the plane at that time and did not really expect a reply back straight away. But when he was awoken, his heart was inexplicably tight as he clutched his chest to calm himself down. He had a sense of loss that night, a sudden slap to his soul, like an irrevocable sense of dread to his entire being.

He went on with his days afterwards, sending texts after texts, and also tried to call her directly. But her phone seemed to be inactive. When he went out with James and Jet one night, James even had the audacity to joke that she might have just dumped him.

The death glare he gave his friend was enough for the latter to shut his mouth for the remainder of the night.

He went through his afternoon without joy, until it was time for him to head home. Faintly, he heard Cindy, the red-haired receptionist, talking with someone on her phone, her eyes full of pity. She was chatting with the other person about some plane crash with no survivors. The navy was currently only trying to retrieve the black box.

Lee nodded his goodbye at her, causing her to wink playfully at him amidst her conversation before continuing to chatter again on the phone. He shrugged and left.

Accidents were like that, just accidents. Yes, it was unfortunate; yes, it was sad; but as long as there were no close people or loved ones involved, it was just another news in the daily grind. It seemed to be just an excerpt of a book in which unfortunate events had happened to unrelated characters. He felt pity, but that was all. Life was like that.

After sleeping through another restless night, he headed to CafeGood the next morning. It was Thursday, and he just wanted to check it out - just in case. As usual, he dragged James along.

He was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face that he hadn't seen for the past week or so. It was John the barista. When Lee visited his shop on previous days for the past week, an unfamiliar girl made his coffee, and told him that John was away for a funeral. It seemed that he had now returned.

But that morning, John wasn't behind the counter - that unfamiliar girl was still tasked with making the customers' coffee. John was standing in front of his shop, chatting with a woman.

As Lee and James walked across the road, John noticed them and waved his hand. Behind his glasses, Lee noticed his solemn expression, and his eyes were sunken. The woman beside him nodded her greetings, her eyes red. Only then Lee noticed that the woman had a face with a trace of similarity to Mia's, if not a bit older.

Lee greeted John, "Hey John. I heard you were away for a funeral?" He smiled towards the bespectacled man politely. His greeting was merely with chit-chat intention, "My condolences."

John gave him a ghastly stare as his forehead creased lightly.

"Lee...," John cautiously said, and gesturing towards the woman by his side, "This is Mia's older sister, Emily."

Lee looked at the woman and was about to smile and offer his hand to greet her. 

"Haven't you heard?" John continued, causing him to pause, "Mia was on flight Zero-Six-Seven to Dusseldorf last week, that crashed in the middle of the night."

Lee's vision went pasty white as he turned his head to see John, who now suddenly seemed so far away. The ground beneath his feet seemed to be crumbling, he could not feel his own feet.

"I was just back from her wake," John started to have beads of tears in the corner of his eyes, that he tried very hard to hold in, "It was just an empty formality. None of the passengers' bodies were retrieved. The plane is now resting at the bottom of the ocean. Emi is just here to collect Mia's personal effects from her office... ."

Lee vaguely saw John's mouth moving as the latter kept speaking, but Lee could not hear anything any longer. 

The next thing he knew, he was already in front of his apartment's door. James was concernedly supporting Lee's body, his arm around the other's shoulder. James helped himself, rummaging through Lee's briefcase to retrieve his keys, and opened the door.

"Lee, I've called the office to let them know you won't be in, alright?"

Lee was silent as he was guided to his bedroom. James led him to sit on his bed, "Lee. I'll quickly get you something to eat for later, okay? I'll accompany you for the day."

Lee blinked his eyes and stared at his friend, finally recognizing his presence,

"Uh? Oh no, James. It's fine," Lee monotonously spoke, his voice sounded foreign even to himself, "You should go to the office. You can just leave me now.”

He swallowed a dry mouthful of nothing before saying, “I am okay."

James gave him an accusing look, definitely not believing him.

"Just... do your work for a bit, yeah?" Lee persuaded and managed to muster a light slap on his friend’s hand. He remembered the current life he had, and the responsibilities he had. But none of that seemed to matter now. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva again to prompt himself to speak, 

"The new case needs someone from our team to supervise." When he saw James still standing there, he added with a strained hoarse chuckle, "You can come here maybe a bit later when you've finished the draft report."

With that assurance, James reluctantly left him.

Lee stared at the white walls, still sitting on his bed for who knew how long. Time seemed to pass very slowly. As he glanced at his trembling hands, he finally realized that his entire body was shaking. He searched for his phone and looked up the plane incident on the internet, finding various articles about it. Then one article listed a full list of the on-board passengers.

He easily found Mia Simmons name amongst the hundreds.

He stood and slowly removed his suit. He did not even know why he did it, but he had to do something normal. Otherwise, he knew he would collapse. But as he was about to change into a fresh clean shirt, he felt a sense of vertigo and he leaned his body tiredly against the wall. Then his body slowly slumped onto the floor. 

He blankly stared at nothing as he faced the white wall. Then he brought his knees to his chest, curling his body into a tight self-embrace to comfort himself from the coldness.

He let out dry silent choking sobs. There were no tears.

 

 

*** *** ***

James and Jet constantly watched over him as often as they could, making sure that Lee ate properly and did not stay alone for too long. However, to their surprise, after the passing weekend, Lee appeared at the office to work. His gait was usual, but his face was dark, and his eyes were hollow.

The day after, Lee heard from his superiors that the case for the plane crash was assigned to their law firm. Lee pestered them so much to be included in the legal team responsible for the case.

He succeeded and he became one of the key people responsible to draft and prepare for the court hearing. In fact, the whole case was baffling. A plane crash should have been just that: a plane crash. The responsibility should have fallen to the airline for any engine failure or mechanical difficulties.

But this time, the incident was tied to a person.

An influential person in the business circle.

In fact, Lee soon found out that this person - by the name of Hank Wilson, a man not even reaching his forties yet - was one of the major shareholders in the same corporation Mia worked at. He vaguely recalled that Mia mentioned Hank's name as the main supporter behind her promotion.

The whole case was bizarre, to say the least. Hank was so powerful and rich, that he managed to bribe several airline mechanics to tinker with the plane's engine. All those people were also implicated and going to be prosecuted in front of the court.

Hank himself did not put up any resistance. The man stayed silent and expressionless through all the hearings.

Lee even found out later that Hank's legal team responsible to defend his case actually came from other shareholders from the same corporation, not on his own request. With Hank's status and connections, he should not have had any problem forming his own legal team if he wished to. But Hank turned out to be indifferent to all this, seemingly calmly accepting the court's decision.

Lifetime imprisonment, with no chance of parole.

The case closed itself without much fuss, with the main culprit not voicing his objections and not appealing any further. Hank's wealth was seized and with some more formalities involving the whole corporation's board of directors, his monetary possession was distributed to the crashed victims' grieving families.

Including Mia's family.

When Hank was finally admitted to prison, Lee submitted another request to his superiors for a special permit for a visitation. James also helped him to pledge his request, knowing how important this was to him. He got what he wanted.

Nevertheless, Lee actually felt nothing as he stood in front of the prison cell, the tight bars and the dark small room obscuring Hank's face. Hank was calmly sitting on his bed when Lee arrived. The foreign looking man slowly lifted his initially slumped head when he saw Lee.

To James and the cell warden's surprise, Hank walked towards the bars that were the only separation between him and the three people in front of him.

The warden was especially confused as Hank was usually emotionless and had hardly moved ever since he arrived at the prison.

Then Hank's eyes glistened as he fixated his eyes on Lee, his lips were drawn in a tight calm smile. There was no madness in his eyes - like what the court tacked on his psychological report. This was a calm rational man, as rational as it was to make him orchestrate a plane crash.

"She wouldn't bloom for me," the man spoke in a low voice that only Lee could hear, "Even this time, she wouldn't bloom for me."

Lee blankly stared at the man, faintly thinking that the latter must had, in fact, been mad.

Of course, who else apart from a lunatic could have done something like he did.

For an instant, Hank's greenish pupils turned red. The two bright red pupils resembled two planets with the colour of blood.

Lee blinked. As quickly as it appeared, the red glint vanished. Hank then walked backwards to reach his bed, not shifting his gaze from Lee,

"There's always next time. There's always next time... ."

They could not get anything else out of the man, and Hank stayed silent despite James' constant questions and vocalized expression of disgusts. The young man almost screamed at Hank who was now silently staring at the cell's floor.

The next morning, they found out that Hank Wilson had passed away in his cell overnight. There was no wound, no sign of suicide, nothing.

It was like as if his soul just decided to leave his body, leaving an empty intact shell behind.

*** *** ***

To other people who saw him everyday, Lee was gradually becoming a robot, just going through his days in motion.

To Jet who only got to see him every couple of days, Lee's entire existence seemed to be wearing out - shrinking more every time he saw him. Finally, Jet took an urgent work leave to care for his brother, insisting that he was to stay at Lee's apartment to look after him. Lee initially rejected his offer; after all, he was still working fine everyday, much to Jet and James' concern. But finally, Lee just ignored Jet and let him do what he wanted.

Jet tactfully did not tell their parents about the whole ordeal to keep them from worrying.

One evening, while both were blankly watching the TV in Lee's apartment, Jet received an urgent call from his ER team. The in-charge doctor who was supposed to be on shift that day had to take absence because of his very feverish daughter, they only had Jet as an option.

The nurse who called him apologized and begged him to come, despite him still being on leave.

Lee urged him to go, giving him a small, weak, but encouraging smile. Jet finally left after he heated up some dinner for Lee to consume later.

"I'll be back by early morning," Jet said, before hesitantly walking out the door.

After his brother left, Lee stared at the TV again, then grabbed his phone from the coffee table in front of him. He opened his WhatsApp, and did what he had been doing whenever he was alone for the past few weeks: he texted her;

 

 

"I miss you", "会いたくて¹I miss you", "大切な Mia²Beloved Mia"

He missed her. He missed her so bad. No words were enough to comfort his tightly wrung heart. But the girl never replied.

She never replied. She would never reply anymore.

Lee felt very tired. He hadn't had proper sleep for weeks. Rubbing his red eyes, he walked towards his kitchen and opened a cupboard. He took out a bottle of sleeping pills - one that he had acquired recently without Jet's knowledge.

He walked back to his sofa, tiredly slumping his body onto it. He turned off the TV and connected his phone to a bluetooth speaker. Then he opened his music player on his phone, only one song on the list, put on repeated replay.

 

  SONG LINK (YOUTUBE) || TITLE:  女兒情 (NU ER QING). SINGER: TONG LI

 

He tilted his head backwards, resting his heavy head on the sofa. He closed his eyes as the music lulled him towards gradual state of unconsciousness. As his brain grew hazier, he faintly thought that he might have taken a bit more pills than what was recommended.

But as soon as he realized this with his last strain of lucidity, he could only apologize in his heart to his mother, his father, and Jet... and James... . It was too late now, he could not, did not have the strength, did not have the will, to move anymore. The darkness, where the memory of her smile lingered, was too comforting and inviting. At this moment, at forever from here onward, it was where he wanted to be.

In the background, a soft singing female voice was heard throughout the living room. 

 

[To live with my lover,]

[I'm in love with you, I'm in love with you,]

[I'll accompany you forever]

"I'll accompany you ... forever... ."