Even the news of the police’s arrest of David De Cruz didn’t brighten her spirits. What was the use of bringing that guy to justice when Sylvester failed to wake up?

It was a surreal ordeal to drop by the hospital everyday, only to find he was still unconscious. Christopher had returned to Hong Kong for his studies and all of a sudden, the whole house seemed so quiet. began to wonder how she had managed life before Sylvester’s entrance in it.

But no matter how hard she tried to figure out, she failed to regain normality. She was already used to his laughter. She missed his lame jokes. She yearned to see that childlike grin on his face whenever he eats chicken rice. She missed every single thing about him that either makes her laugh or go mad.

::::

“, are you with us?”

snapped her head up and glared at Mr. Douglas O in front. She glanced around at the unsympathetic faces of her classmates, who were apparently waiting for the next interesting thing. Which class is this? What are they discussing about? She gave her head a hard shake to dislodge any preoccupations.

“No, Mr. Douglas. I am not listening.” she replied honestly with a trace of lifelessness.

The teacher’s eyes bulged with annoyance. “You’re not paying attention, are you? Then would you be so kind as to share with me and the rest of the class what you find so much captivating than the four elements of a valid contract?” Evidently, this nasty slime ball was challenging .

“You are the most dead boring teacher I ever seen in my whole life!” she grunted loudly. Fact was, nothing could get inside her head. Her thoughts were preoccupied with images of Sylvester. And now, this curly-oily-jelly hair was here to piss her off.

Everyone was staring at , mostly with their eyes widen and jaws dropping. The whole class disintegrated into hilarious laughter and whispers. Mr. Douglas O looked like he had swallowed his tongue. “Get out of my class!” he shrieked in madness, pointing at the door. “GET OUT!”

But before he could say more, had already packed her stuffs and bloated out of the class.

::

This is such a lucky break, thought pessimistically, walking down the deserted hall with lightness in her step. Perhaps she could return home for a shower before dropping down to the hospital to see Sylvester.

The phone rang the moment reached home. Throwing her keys on the coffee table, she dashed to the phone and answered it before the last rang. “Hello.” she greeted.

“Good afternoon. This is Mrs. Weasley calling from Jurong Community Centre. May I speak to Mr. Sylvester Sim?” a lady at the other line spoke politely.

“He’s in the hospital now.” It took a while to make that reply. “I’m sorry he’s unable to speak to you now.”

“Then would any of his family members mind making a trip down to the centre? His stuffs are with us for too long I’m afraid we have to return them. He has not being coming down for the past two weeks. If no one is coming to claim his stuffs, I guess we need to throw them away to save space.”

“What stuffs?” was utterly confused.

“Just some of his things he have been busied with whenever he comes here.” the woman replied and could sense impatience in her tone.

“All right I will come down later this afternoon.” made no effort to hide her dissatisfaction. Without saying goodbye, she slammed the phone back to its receiver.

:::

“I see. So Sylvester is in the hospital.” a male staff working for the community centre said solemnly as he ushered down the corridor. “No wonder there’s no news from him lately.”

“Does he comes here always?” asked, surprised.

“Yeah. He always comes here to complete his stuffs.” that guy informed. “He said it’d be inconvenient to do it at home in case any one in the family finds out.” couldn’t quite figure out what that guy meant. But some part of her brain told her Sylvester must be keeping something from her.

“Here it is.” The guy stopped at one of the rooms. “I guess you need to clear up his stuffs inside. This room will be rented to someone else with effect from tomorrow. Sylvester hasn’t called to say he still needs this room.”

“Sure.” said. “I will take his whatever stuffs away.” Her hand reached out for the mental knob and gave it a twist. She swung the door open and entered the small project room.

She was greeted by a round table, which surface was so messy she bet Florence would scream at the sight. She walked nearer the table and noticed an uncompleted jigsaw puzzle, a couple of magic pens, crayons and the jigsaw puzzle box. Curious, picked up the box and was bowled over by the picture printed on it.

It was a picture of Sylvester and her together. Both were smiling with enthusiasm at the beach. It was taken during their outing to Sentosa. That inquisitiveness on her face dropped as realization hit her hard. Sylvester must have enlarged this picture and requested it to be printed on a jigsaw puzzle from a shop that expertise in this area of business.

Tears slid down her cheeks as happy memories shared with him replayed itself like a movie. Her heart shattered completely. Her hand glided along the uncompleted jigsaw that was lying on the table. Part of her face and Sylvester’s were still detached. The other little pieces were in a box beside the puzzle.

So that explains all. ’s doubts vanished like wind blowing the clouds away. Sylvester wasn’t going on a date at all! He must be cooking up a lie to keep her from finding out the truth. He must be all the while visiting this Community Centre just to complete this jigsaw puzzle. And to think she picked up a quarrel with him when he returned home late that night.

Her teary eyes gazed at the table helplessly and finally rested on a A4-size card. It was beautifully printed with characters from ‘Precious Moments.” She took the card and flipped it open. The inside was decorated with crayons and magic pens. At the bottom was the comic version of Sylvester and gazing at the stars. A warm smile of comfort formed on ’s face as her eyes traveled on the card, appreciating Sylvester’s gift in drawing.

At the right side of the card showed a written message from Sylvester. It read:

‘To , Reasons why you deserve this and the jigsaw puzzle:

01. Being locked up with you in that music studio opened the door of getting to know you better.
02. Evidently the only one I won’t get angry with for calling me by my Chinese name. (^.^)v

03. My world becomes a happier place because I know someone like you. ^^,
04. You bring wonderful smiles and loving thoughts within my heart.

05. Very stubborn is the most outstanding traits you ever have. Keep that going! ^^,
06. Adam & Eve made it. Charles & Diana did try it. Romeo & Juliet died for it. But you & I are going to live forever with it.
07. Loneliness took its flight off upon your arrival into my life.
08. Each time you wanted to irritated me, you always ended up irritating yourself. Haha!
09. Never have I know how precious and complete life is until the day you touched my soul with your love.
10. Teasing you whenever I can is simply a irresistible thing I will be doing as long as I can.
11. I smiled to many people for countless times; but when I first saw you, my heart took over and smiled for the first time.
12. Now because I know there’s someone out there who really cares for me, I promised her to take care of myself.
13. Everything about you, be it good or bad is what makes you special and makes me know you’re the one I’m searching for all these years.

So now you get my message? I’m sorry I made you angry and if I could do anything, it’d be to bring your smile back again.

I’m sorry.

And I love you always.

Yours truly,
Sly.’

Undeniably, there was a hidden message in the card. The first alphabet of every reason formed 3 words when pieced together - ‘Be My Valentine’. A weighty feeling of sadness gained access to her heart.

It was all pain and grief was experiencing. How can she be so bad? All the while Sylvester was busy planning to give her a beautiful surprise. But yet, she argued with him for no apparent reasons and even ignored him. She hated herself.

Unable to handle her misery, she dropped her knees to the floor and sobbed noiselessly.

“Sly…” she whispered, “I love you too..”

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End of chapter…

Okie.. Thanks for reading ya!!

Vist my new Sly fic at: /sly_forever/

PS: Haha.. I added that sad music for some effects.. lol..

Leave me your comments here!! or drop it at the SI forum. (^.^ ) … …

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