Thank You [Moonlight Chicken HeartLiming Ver.]

{Our Encounter}

[POV: Liming's 3rd Person]

  "You need to deliver this to Senior Sergeant Major Supoch's house." He overhears his Uncle Jim talk to Saleng as he walked home from school, just about to enter. Saleng closes the refrigerator's door after he placed in all the can of beers. A whine came from him.

  "Can't you ask Liming to do it? I still owe his wife's lotto money. I haven't paid for it yet." Liming sighs, shaking his head. For as long as he'd met Saleng as their part-time worker, he'd always bought lottos, wanting to become rich and just sit back and not do anything. He'd only want to ever get rich, but only sitting there and waiting for luck to strike.

  "Ay, don't pull any tricks on this family." Uncle Jim scolds, warning him that he shouldn't mess with the rich, "You have no idea what they're capable of." Of course, like every time they speak about the rich, his Uncle would never take the poor's side, always kissing at their shoes because they live in poverty, struggling day by day.

  "I know..-" Saleng looks down at the table, listening to all the nagging like everyone does because the oldest knows best - except Liming would disagree. "You could be in trouble!"

  Liming finally swoops in and walks inside, grabbing the chicken order that was wrapped in a plastic bag, "Give it to me, I'll do it."

  "Ai'Liming, how could you do it? It's dangerous. You don't even have a driver's license yet." Liming has always hated how irritating the scoldings were, ever since he lived with his Uncle, even if he loves him, he could never get used to it.

  The high school student turns to the side and rolls his eyes and purses his lips before doing a 180 and walking into the kitchen, "My friend doesn't have a driver's license and he rides his bike to school every day." He doesn't have to look to know that his Uncle rolled his eyes and turned to him.

  Liming takes the keys before going back to the table they were standing at, this time next to his Uncle, talking as he swung the keychain around his pointer finger, letting it hit his palm before closing in on it, keeping it in his hand, "I've never seen a police checkpoint on this road."

  His Uncle stays silent, he was going to leave when Saleng offers him a fist bump to which he returns, smiling before he left. Saleng crosses his arms, "Bye, my beloved bro. Drive safely!" Saleng waves at him.

  He waves back as he walked down the small steps, "See you!" Was the last thing Saleng said before he went to the very back - another kitchen area.

  Liming starts the motorbike, the engine vrooming a bit before he sets off with a smile on his face, the chicken order in the back crate.

[=====]

  He comes up to the eerily big but cold-feeling manor of the Supoch's. The front sliding door was left open so he peeks through, gently opening it to not scare the people in it. It was already pretty dark out yet it was only about eight in the evening. "Here's your chicken rice," he calls out into the house, yet no one answers, only his head peaking in.

  He slips off of his flip-flops before gently walking in with the bag of chicken rice, still in his school clothing. He walks further in, almost in the middle of the foyer, before speaking out again, "Here's your chicken rice."

  He could see a boy standing at the alcohol stand, raising an eyebrow and getting a bit annoyed when he ignored him, clicking his tongue as he scratched his head, making his way through the pillars, he spoke again, "Here's your chicken rice."

  He raised the bag, but yet again, the boy ignores him and continues doing his own thing. Liming rolls his eyes and quickly makes his way over, already starting to lose his temper, scratching the back of his head and speed walking to the guy.

  He grabs onto the guy's arm and pulls onto him, "Here's your chic- oh sh*t!" the guy flinches and drops a bottle of liquor in his hands, the glass shattering on the wooden floor.

  They both retract, Liming closing his eyes slowly and letting out a frustrated sigh as his right hand raised in the air out of shock, luckily he didn't drop the chicken rice on his left. The boy across from him sighs and runs his hands through his hair, equally frustrated.

  He was wearing a muted out color, almost washed away and boring, cold. A muted blue-gray as he looks down at the shattered glass. He looks up at Liming accusingly. He opens his mouth just a bit before doing weird hand signs in a quick manner, clearly upset, as his face said so as well.

  "Who are you? Why are you here?" He makes a few broken noises come out of his mouth due to frustration.

  Liming only stares at him dumbly, his mouth agape, "Alai wa? (What the hell was that?)" He looks towards the floor, making a 'huh?' facial expression and slightly shaking his head. The male across pinches the bridge of his nose, dropping his hand to his thigh before bringing it back up to do the same thing again, but slower - even though it looked like a flash for Liming.

  "I don't understand," He wiggles his arms around his side, trying to express it somehow, "I can't read sign language." He looks down at the shattered glass while the guy scratches his head, pointing down at the glass and up at him. Liming doesn't need to really read what that meant.

  "No, it wasn't me." He says back, trying to make the guy somehow understand what he was saying. He does the same thing again, also hoping that Liming would understand, "What was that? I don't get it. I can't read it-"

  Liming looks around helplessly, then deciding to just leave the food on the counter, "I'll just put it here. He swiftly makes his leave, looking back after he passed the pillar of the counter, then walking some more, looking back, and finally leaves the house. 

  He misses the way the boy looks down at the shattered glass with a troubled expression.

[=====]

  The next morning, he walks out of his house, opening up the metal shafts "Au, hey Leng.", he meets Saleng who's sitting at the back of the muted-green overused truck "What are you doing here?"

  "Can I have the diner's spare key? I didn't bring it with me last night." Liming makes his way over to the truck, also sitting down with his bag over a shoulder. He slips it off when he sat down and takes out the keys, handing it to Saleng. 

  "Thank you. Where's Uncle Jim?" And Liming looks down at his lap then back up, letting out a small 'oh', he hadn't even noticed Uncle Jim at all today, he never really pays attention to that, anyway. "Come over as soon as school is over. I don't want to hear your uncle nag."

  "Uh, let him. He stops when he's done with it."

  Saleng lets out an exasperated sigh, "Like uncle, like nephew."

  Liming recalls back to last night, looking ahead of him instead of at Saleng, then back, "Hey, P'Leng, Officer Supoch's son is deaf?"

  Saleng looks up, trying to recall from the back of his mind, "Ah, you mean Heart?" He paused before trying to recall more than just that, "He only became deaf about 4-3 years ago. It was caused by some disease. I'm not sure what it is."

  Liming nods, taking in the information, his name is Heart. "I see, how does he study then?"

  "I don't think he goes to school now, I haven't seen him for quite a while, his parents don't want him to go anywhere." The pause for a little bit, just sitting in the relaxing silence.

  "Do you know him?"

  "I see him when I bring his mother lotto orders. He looks kind of annoying, right?" Saleng chuckles and Liming smiles, thinking back about the male, "What happened? Did you have a fight with him?"

  "Oh, no." He shakes his head once, looking away and somewhere towards the distance. 

  "Did you?"

  "No, nothing happened."

  "Okay. Later then." He could tell by Saleng's voice that he didn't buy a single thing Liming said, but didn't say anything about it, getting up. He gets onto his motorbike and leaves him sitting there on the truck, contemplating.

  It's probably nothing. Liming thinks to himself, I shouldn't need to worry too much, it's nothing important, is it? He shakes his head then gets up, deciding to just go to school before he becomes tardy.