🎼-Dae-hyun

I looked at the attendance sheet and let out a heavy sigh. Her name had been missing from two sessions for a row already. Kumar was at the corner that they usually reserved for their private warm-ups, just by the barre bars.

“I know you and Kumar will protest. Hell, even I want to keep her here because of her potential. But if Éclair keeps missing out on practice, we will have to demote her for real,” said Harini as she stuffed the sheet into her administrative file.

Kumar himself looked stoned, his eyes distant as he propped his long, toned legs on the barre. I averted my gaze from him. Didn’t want to catch the jealousy bug! That was one hot bod!

Harini and the other members of the exco brought their hands together into a single clap. Time to do the official group warmup! I stood beside Kumar and we both dropped towards the floor to do a cobra stretch.

“Hey, Kumar, is Éclair ponning CCA?” I whispered.

“Éclair? Well, she’s been sick for the past two weeks already according to Kenny. We’re damn worried for her,” he replied.

Then, we got up. Time for jumping jacks. I grinned when I could no longer feel my thighs clanging against each other when we transitioned into jump-squats.

After CCA ended, I headed straight to Kumar, backpack already on my shoulders. He looked up at me for once as he put his fancy Puma shoes on.

“What is it?” he asked.

“How is she getting her homework? Is she catching up with classes?”

His knobby fingers tightened his gold shoelaces. Propping himself on one hand, he stood up, towering above me once again.

“Kenny and I take turns to deliver her homework. I drop by every three days to help her catch up with her work. In fact, today’s my scheduled time to help her catch up with work. Have to hurry before her dad comes back. Why?”

I pulled down the beanie from the back of my head and tried looking for a way to say it without sounding like I had a creepy obsession with her or something. What if he misunderstands and thinks that I’m stealing his girl from him?

“Can I follow you, please? I want to check up on her. Since that day when she acted all weird, I haven’t had the chance to talk to her much. She doesn’t even turn up at the piano,” I said.

Instead of giving me a death glare, Kumar’s shoulders lifted as he gave me a genuine but slight smile.

“Sure thing! I’m sure she’ll be happy to know that you still care,” he said.

Sure enough, I was on the bus headed towards Serangoon Gardens with him. We stopped by one of the prata houses to get some well-deserved dinner for all of us.

“So, I realised that even though we see each other in lectures a lot and are in the same CCA, we never got to know each other really well,” said Kumar as we sat down on the stools outside, waiting for our orders to be fulfilled.

“What? You want to know more about me? Man, I’m honoured sia. I think you know my name and all that already anyway. What is it that you want to know?” I asked back.

Kumar glanced upward at the blinking neon sign from the shophouse unit next door. He perched his chin atop his knuckles, probably ruminating on some good, hopefully not overly-invasive questions to ask me.

“How come you’re a year older than the rest of us?” he asked.

Ah. Now how should I categorise that question?

“Funny story. I was actually accepted into SOTA. I was supposed to be part of their music programme. Then, I kena put into NA. I didn’t really give a shit back then in primary school. Learnt my lesson. Did well for N Levels, then O Levels. Now, I’m here,” I replied.

All this while, I realised that my eyes were on the edge of the green linoleum table’s edges. Maybe in the deep recesses of my mind, past the video game valley and the meadows of music, this little fact of mine was stuck in the sand dunes of shame.

“Totally understandable. I took a big detour myself. I really wanted to go to SOTA and do dance professionally. Once I got into the GEP, everything changed lor,” he replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“Order number 95!” cried the Indian worker from behind the counter.

Kumar raised his hand and walked towards him to collect our dinner. I stood up, carrying my backpack by one strap. What would have happened if we had both never taken that detour? I smiled at the thought of having him as my junior. But really, I think I preferred this arrangement instead: one where we were equals.

🖍-Kenny

“You know, ah. The first time I stepped here with Kumar to pass Éclair her homework, I don’t know. I was scared. All these landed houses. So atas. Like, right behind my estate, there’s also an atas area. I never dared go in there. It’s like another world altogether,” I said to Yu-chi as we alighted from the bus.

We walked a little further away from the landing area and took some time to absorb the foreign environment around us.

“Aiyah. To get to Chung Cheng, I also had to walk through a private estate. But yeah, it does feel weird to be here for other reasons,” he said.

With that, we headed on the path towards Éclair’s house, walking past cafes that would probably cost me an entire week’s worth of pocket money just for one item on the menu. Past the French grocery store with items whose names I could never pronounce correctly.

“So, how long has she not turned up?” asked Yu-chi.

His eyes were never ahead. He took his time to soak in the architecture, the little differences between each of the houses, the cars.

“Two weeks already. Actually, I know it sounds weird for me to say, since she’s almost killed us, but I’m worried for her. I mean, no one skali falls sick and doesn’t turn up to school,” I said.

“Well, if she’s so sick, why isn’t she in hospital?” he asked.

Come to think about it, I never asked myself why either. The further we got into the road, we stumbled upon two boys clad in the SJC PE-shirt. Yu-chi had to restrain his laughter over their big height difference.

“Eh?! Kumar? Is that you?” I called out, raising my left hand.

The two boys turned around. The boy wearing the dark-blue beanie looked rather familiar. Kumar waved back upon seeing the two of us. Okay, he never told me that he was coming over to help Éclair catch up with the lessons that she missed.

I ran towards them, with Yu-chi trailing behind.

“Eh? I thought you don’t usually come to Éclair’s place on Wednesdays?” I asked.

“Oh. We have some dance stuff to catch up on. That’s why Dae-hyun’s with us today,” he said, gesturing at the guy with the beanie.

“Hey. I’m Dae-hyun,” he said as he exchanged handshakes with the both of us.

“How’s the homework load?” he asked.

“Enough to maybe make her vomit blood, I think,” I said with a sheepish smile.

The strong fragrance of curry made me craving for some of it, even though I knew that it would make my tongue explode. Kumar looked at the plastic bag of food and rubbed the back of his head, apologising for forgetting about the two of us.

“Nah. It’s alright. We’re eating at home anyway,” said Yu-chi.

“Wait a minute. Kumar. Yu-chi, if you’re from NY, how did you come to know Kumar?” asked Dae-hyun as he pointed at him.

“Oh. Yu-chi? We uh…met at a party. Yeah. Nora’s birthday party,” he said.

Okay. That was a close-enough shave. The four of us somehow began chatting about our woes with our Physics lecturers. When we reached Éclair’s house though, there was already somebody standing there by the gate.

Was he siao? Who would wear black in Singapore’s hot climate? He had one hand in his pocket as he stared at the topmost window. Kumar and Yu-chi started clutching their chests. Dae-hyun raised an eyebrow.

“This is not good,” Kumar whispered.

Then, the man turned to face all four of us. He threw what seemed like a cannister of spray paint towards us. The domestic workers who stared at us rippled away. Even the poor pigeons that had nothing to do with this.

Kumar clenched his fists, trying to suppress whatever he wanted to say. And with a stomp of his foot, he shouted a roaring ‘fuck’.

🚲-Yu-chi

“It’s the exact same fucking bullshit that happened during the showdown,” Kumar grumbled.

Then, it dawned upon Kenny and I. That was the barrier that concealed any evidence of ongoing magical activity. And now, we were stuck in it.

“Kenny, get Dae-hyun out of here. Now!” I screamed as I dodged a blast of fire headed towards me.

Kenny saluted me and grabbed Dae-hyun by the forearms. The latter screamed, wondering what on earth was going on. Well, I would let Kumar do the talking since the two seemed pretty close.

“Take my hand,” Kumar ordered as he extended his open palm towards me. “Now!”

I interlocked my fingers with his and ran towards the others. Only except, they were sprawled on the floor, lying on their backs with blood dripping from Dae-hyun’s nostrils. Kenny’s forehead was purple-black. The barrier was locking them in.

Then, another fireball zoomed past us, prompting Kumar and I to duck down. It scorched the hexagon-lined walls, revealing that life was still going on outside this dome.

“Hey. Who the fuck are you? Why the fuck do you want to attack a bunch of JC kids like us, huh? What the fuck did we do to you?” Kumar yelled.

The man walked strutted towards us. I helped Kenny and Dae-hyun up, not wanting to make eye contact with whoever this siao lang was. He clicked his tongue before bursting into laughter at how dumbfounded we looked.

“I’m just here to pay Éclair a visit. Tell her that her services are no longer needed,” he said.

Kumar was seething through his teeth. Dae-hyun rubbed his nose, almost shrieking when he saw that his fingers were lined with both mucus and blood. Gan lah! This is bad. Really bad. From the corner of my eye, I could see Kenny scrambling to take his phone out from his pockets. Call Frankie. Call Frankie. Call Frankie.

“You. You are the guy she keeps talking to me about! You’re the guy who told her to kill Kenny, Nora. It’s you!” Kumar yelled.

“Yes. It’s me. I’m so glad that all of you came straight into my trap. Not to mention, you two haven’t been using your powers lately, have you?” Lisias sneered back.

“Eh. Frankie? You there. Wah. Starhub must be damn good to still get reception from a magical barrier sia. Kumar, Yu-chi and this new guy…we’re kind of in a very shitty situation. Can you-“

The handphone fell to the ground with its parts being scattered everywhere. I clenched my fists and screamed. His family wouldn’t be able to afford another phone for him.

Kumar kept screaming my name, begging me to stop what I was doing. I did not give a fuck. This guy could easily pay for his facial reconstruction surgery. Kenny? His father would have to pray for more passengers and his mother would have to work overtime just to get him a new phone.

“You fucking bastard!” I cried as I delivered a swift punch towards the man.

He laughed at how badly I missed. I gave yet another blow, and this time, I hit just the right target: his right cheek. Heck care if he would get facial lacerations.

“You think you can anyhow bully people like that, is it?!” I screamed.

And those memories came back. The way the boy hugged my shins as he hid behind me. How the other guy had a parang in his left hand and lunged towards me.

Just like that, the man lied on the floor, a tooth lying beside him. Without thinking, Kumar grabbed my hand, yelling at Kenny and Dae-hyun to hold on to him in some way. But my eyes were on the mess that I had left behind. On his cheek was a very deep wound. It happened again.

The next thing I knew, all four of us were in the actual real world again. It was like we phased through the barrier. Blood was still trailing down Dae-hyun’s face, and Kenny’s forehead was still bruised. My own knuckles too were bloody, but the man that I punched was nowhere to be seen.

“It worked. My fucking powers worked!” Kumar cheered to himself.

Kenny stepped forward and tapped the space in front of him. It rippled with every touch that he made. It was still there. Kumar grabbed my forearm again, and without thinking, all four of us charged right into the Dubois’ house.

We all landed straight on our chests, all piled up on top of each other on the driveway. Dae-hyun was the first to shoot right up. He scrambled for his beanie and shoved it back onto his head.

“You alright, Kenny?” I asked as I propped him up.

He nodded. Dae-hyun though? He just spun around, not caring about his face anymore.

“What the fuck just happened?!” he yelled.

☕️-Kumar

“Are you fucking kidding me? You’re trying to tell me that we ran straight into a fucking wooden gate and didn’t get broken bones? What even is going on?” Dae-hyun stammered.

“Eh, Dae!” I cried out, pressing his shoulders down. “Dae!”

He stopped panicking. The door began creaking open. Oh fuck. Please don’t let it be Pierre. Please don’t let it be Pierre.

Heng ah. It was just Bianca, although she had already armed herself with a feather duster.

“Guys! Why didn’t you use the intercom?” she asked as she put the feather duster down and gestured for all four of us to come in.

I pushed Dae-hyun forward when it became clear that his feet were cemented to the ground.

“Well, let’s just say that there was a damn scary guy following us so we uh…sort of climbed over?” I explained, my face contorting with that very blatant lie.

Bianca called for Éclair to come down. Upon seeing Dae-hyun’s bloodied face, she gave a disapproving nod and escorted him towards the kitchen. Okay, maybe our injuries made it seem slightly more believable.

“Kumar? Kenny, what happened to you?!” cried Éclair’s songbird voice from the second floor.

All three of us glanced up and watched as she floated down the steps. She was still clad in her silken nightgown, although she had tied her hair into a loose ponytail. It better be a sign that she was looking through my notes.

“Well. Guess what? We got attacked by a fucking mad man who sucked us into another dimension right in front of your house. Then, somehow phasing through walls became a thing,” said Dae-hyun as he stepped out of the kitchen with a white plaster above his nose.

The moment Éclair saw Dae-hyun though, she ran straight towards him and hugged him. Just acquaintances? And why were my cheeks feeling unusually warm?

“The man said he was here to pay you a visit. Who…who is he?” asked Kenny as he unzipped his bag to pass her homework over.

Éclair’s irises started quavering. I could already deduce the answer, but I wanted to hear it from her own lips. She sank into the sofa beside Yu-chi and sucked in her lips.

“What did he look like?” she asked.

“Wearing a business suit. All black. You know him?” said Dae-hyun as he sat beside her, pressing down his bandage.

She inhaled a deep breath, gazing up at the crystal chandelier dangling above the coffee table.

“He’s the one who asked me to kill Nora and Kenny.”

Yu-chi squeezed Kenny tight, almost as though he wanted to assure him that he would be alright. No wonder why he destroyed his handphone when he attempted to call Frankie for help. Dae-hyun’s own mouth parted with realisation.

“No wonder why…that day at the piano. The question you asked me back then,” he said.

Éclair nodded. All my suspicions were right about that man. He was the one forcing her into this. Yeah, he deserved to get falcon-punched by Yu-chi and have those facial lacerations.

“How did you get involved with such people?” I asked.

“I saw a man at the fire staircase. He was fighting with that man. All of a sudden, he sedated him with some tranquiliser. I screamed and he noticed me. He…,” Éclair clutched her bosom, over where her Anima Magi should be.

Her eyes became glassy from tears.

“He grabbed me by the chest. Told me that my magical energies were just as high as the main he tranquilised. I told him I’d do anything to stay alive. Since then, I’ve been collecting data for him just to stay alive,” she said.

Yu-chi immediately stood up and headed towards the indoor fountain area. Kenny followed after him, asking him if he was alright. Dae-hyun turned away from her with his arms folded.

“Éclair. He sexually assaulted you. He coerced you into harming others. You have to call the police,” I begged of her as I placed my hand over hers.

“This is fucking bullshit,” Dae-hyun blurted.

I gasped, unable to believe what I just heard. Just a moment ago, the two of them were hugging each other. It was a genuine hug. And she seemed so happy to hear his husky voice again.

“What kind of monster is he? Éclair, you should have told me this months ago! You know what? I’m fucking calling the police right now,” said Dae-hyun as he fished out his handphone.

Éclair placed her other hand over his phone. She glanced at him, shaking her head. Okay, I agreed with Dae-hyun. This was bullshit.

“What if goes around hurting other girls the way he has hurt you? Man, Yu-chi should have just fucking killed him,” I muttered.

“I’m scared that he’ll kill me if I report him!” she begged. “How will Papa take it if I’m gone? How would Dani feel?”

I pressed my hands over her shoulders and whispered for her to calm down. What did Sam do that time after we came out of the principal’s office again?

“It’s okay. We’re here. We’re here,” I whispered.

“If he tries to lay a finger on you, he’ll have to answer to us. And Éclair, let me ask you something. Are you really living?” asked Dae-hyun.

She blinked back tears as she stared at him with her green eyes. Even I found myself blinking.

“Are you really living, Éclair?”