"You could have simply replied with a yes." Ye Jie said in a mocking tone.

  "You can make me fly all the way from Country R to here in Tokyo and I’m not even allowed to reply in a roundabout way?"

  Ye Jie smiled pleasingly. "Your problem is not that you had to come to Tokyo. Your problem is with the plane ride." She passed him an ugly look. He ignored it while clicking his tongue. "Tsk…… Tsk…… Such a brave person is scared of plane rides."

  "Hei!" She bellowed in Korean while squinting her eye. "It’s not that I’m scared of plane rides. They just make me nauseous. I can’t help it."

  Ye Jie laughed out loud at her expressions. He knew about her extreme repugnant feelings. She got up from her seat and left him laughing all by himself. It took a while for Ye Jie compose himself. He noticed that the bar was getting empty and it was already evening, the business should be booming at this time.

  He saw his best friend playing with coins as she came up to him. "Come, I’ll let you taste the Japenese style drinks today." He frowned and figured that she must have booked the entire bar.

  "Was it necessary?" He asked looking around in the empty bar.

  "Of course, it was. We have a lot to talk about after all." She replied in her silvery voice. There was a time, Ye Jie used to think that her voice sounded like silver bells ringing; it was beautiful. But with time, he realized, the more her voice sounded pleasant, the worse her personality was.

  She got inside the bar counter and beckoned Ye Jie to take a seat at the stool. Then she got busy with preparing a drink. Ye Jie looked at how with the expertise she mixed the drink. He only caught her movement when she placed a martini glass in front of him.

  "You’re in Tokyo, my friend. Taste the Tokyo Slipper." She said dramatically.

  He took a sip carefully eyeing the drink. It wasn’t that he didn’t have faith in her rather he didn’t trust her very much with alcohol. She had a tendency to get wild with alcohol; not drinking it but when she was making the drinks. He couldn’t decipher the other mixes but he tasted pineapple. She was asking him about his opinion while quirking her brows.

  "Mm…… It’s good." He said.

  "I know that." She replied matter-of-factly. "Now, let’s be honest here, it’s not that you called me here for Murong Yi."

  Then she turned to get busy with something else. Ye Jie stayed quiet for a while. "What do you think of my wife?" She paused for a second before resuming her activities. Ye Jie was looking at the martini glass, he didn’t notice her slight pause.

  "How can I comment on her? I haven’t met her?"

  Ye Jie sniggered. "You didn’t meet my ex as well yet you had a million opinions about her."

  She paused while shaking a cocktail shaker and looked at her best friend. "I literally have no opinions about your wife. She seems like a nice person." She resumed the shaking as she added. "It’s not like you looked for me when you wanted to check her background." It was a plain taunt directed at Ye Jie.

  "Hei! You weren’t talking to me that’s why I went to Wayne. it’s not like he found anything." Ye Jie tried to justify himself.

  "Right……" She snickered. She poured the cocktail in a glass and slid it towards Ye Jie asking, "Do you want me to look into her background?" Her eyes were trained on her best friend’s face looking for something.

  Ye Jie took a sip of the new drink and closed his one eye on reflex at the citric taste. "No…… I don’t…… I’m liking the slow pace and I like it when she shares her past with me herself." His lips curled slightly upward into a faint smile. Then he frowned at a memory. "I just don’t like her being a pessimist about everything."

  "Pessimist?" She asked curiously.

  "Yes…… Pessimist…… She doesn’t like beautiful things. She said what’s the use of a rose, it withers away with time. What’s the use of books, they turn old and left untouched. What’s the use of music that no one is going to listen to one day. What’s the use of a movie that’s gonna have no one to watch it an empty theatre. Also, she said, even soap bubbles are not that pretty if we look at the fact that they burst away at a touch." Ye Jie was complaining but she simply found it amusing.

  She walked around the counter and took a seat beside Ye Jie and placed her hand on his shoulder. "My dear best friend, I suddenly feel like I haven’t raised you well." Ye Jie gave her a glare which she ignored and said,

  "A book turns old but leaves a musky smell which wafts into its reader’s senses and lingers there as a reminder. A rose withers away but we still keep it in those old books. A rose is not preferred for its beauty but for its fragrance that never goes away. Music can be old but whenever that sound is played, it brings a million feels and memories with it. The theatre might be empty but if there is a single person to appreciate that movie, it was all worth it. A soap bubble definitely burst up at a touch but leaves behind a wet touch on our hands as a reminder that it was us who spoiled such a beautiful thing. The beauty has never been in the world, it needs to be in the one seeing it. Don’t forget the world is even beautiful for a blind person."

  Unknowingly, Ye Jie listened to her words attentively. He smiled at a thought. "If you act in such a sensible way, how’ll I say that you’re 4 years younger than me. Who taught you this, Ru? You weren’t like this before."

  "Life is a teacher in itself, dear best friend but death is even more of a teacher." She smiled bitterly. Ye Jie had so many questions he wanted to ask her but he didn’t. She was not the sharing kind of person, to begin with.

  "By the way, you were teaching those teenagers to not ditch classes. Have you even went to a school yourself?" He asked sarcastically.

  "I’m still more well-educated than you, Ah Jie." She replied with a straight face.

  "Oh, I just remembered," Ye Jie said as he remembered something. "My wife has a Sensei and I don’t like that person."

  Ru choked on the water she was drinking. She composed herself quickly. "Why? What did he do to you?" She asked cautiously.

  "He knows about First Emperor Hospital. And the only person who was supposed to know about it was you." He looked straight into her eyes. "You were the one who arranged everything and with your skills, I never thought anyone will be able to find out about it." He had been thinking about it deeply for days now.

  "Wow," She said unenthusiastically. "He has such skills." Ye Jie didn’t find anything odd with her lack of interest.

  "Help me find out more about that person." She again spurted the water out of her mouth at his words.

  Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand she thought of something. "Win a game and I’ll do it." She offered.

  "Win a game of what? Soccer? No thank you…… No one can win from a monster like you in that game." Ye Jie commented looking at her like she really was a monster.

  "Does your wife know what kind of a person you are, Mr. Ye Jie? Or does she also take you for a kind-hearted, soft-spoken with a noble bearing kind of person?" Ye Jie dry coughed but didn’t know how to reply. She glared at him. "Okay…… Choose a game yourself. No soccer." She changed the offer.

  "My answer is still no. You’re a monster that I can’t win from. You’re so damn smart that it takes you merely minutes to grasp whole gameplay."

  "Loser!" She grumbled angrily. Then she shifted closer to him and patted his shoulder. "My dear friend, if you expect your wife to be honest with you, be honest yourself first. Honesty is one of the keys of a relationship and both of you need it badly. No third person can get between you unless you both give that person a chance yourself."