New Life : A Second Chance

They were in First Class out of Xing Han\'s insistence, for he knew what a poor flyer Kyle was. He couldn\'t have his BFF suffer in business class now, could he? The first-class seats were much bigger and spacious, and most importantly - only two chairs side by side.

So Xing Han took the role of being Kyle\'s nurse very seriously.

After all, Kyle was taking the flight to accompany him in meeting his family, right? It was the least that he could do.

He made sure Kyle was nicely tucked in. He would dab Kyle\'s forehead if it was sweating - actually, it wasn\'t but Xing Han felt he had to do it anyway. He remembered the \'sour plum in 7-up\' concoction that Kyle had told him about.

He asked the stewardess for the soft drink, then carefully taking out the valuable sour plum from his pocket (that he had placed in a small container) and put it in the cup. He put this on his own tray rather than Kyle\'s, so that Kyle had space to just curl up in the chair.

Xing Han had bought the sour plum in bulk the moment he found out about it. So he had a whole steady supply of it in the dorms, at Master Shifu\'s house and at his own house.

The flight stewardesses saw the meticulous care Xing Han was giving Kyle and their hearts melted.

Kyle, in the meantime, was dead to the world. He was sleepy and added to the whole airplane ride, he was knocked out immediately upon take-off.

Xing Han had to wake him up for landing, as his seat had to be placed back upright.

With his hair out of place from being curled up at the seat, eyes dopey looking from waking up. Kyle stretched a bit, his elbows bent and pressed back as he twirled his neck. Rubbing the back of his neck, Kyle blinked, getting the sleepiness out of his eyes.

Xing Han didn\'t think he\'d ever see Kyle looking so disheveled and unkempt.

Of course, that was only in Xing Han\'s eyes.

To the others, though ...

What they saw was a good-looking young man, his hair sexily messed up, causing his fringe to fall over that smokey bedroom-eyes as he looked in front. When he stretched, the muscles seemed to strain even more against his tight-fitting white V-neck T-shirt, showcasing the muscles underneath and giving a tantalizing view of his collarbone.

There was a collective gulp in the air.

Xing Han heard a strange noise and turned his head, frowning but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Just the stewardesses all bustling about in the cabin while the other passengers were completely engrossed in their reading of the inflight magazine.

Shrugging, he turned back to Kyle, wondering what was so interesting in the inflight magazine to have them read it to intently. He handed Kyle the sour-plum drink concoction while putting up the tray, carefully holding on to Kyle\'s jacket.

As Kyle would often curl up in the airplane, he opted to wear a simple tight-fitting T-shirt and jacket. The tight-fit T-shirt wouldn\'t crease as much from his curling up on the seat, and any creases would be covered by the jacket.

Of course, he did cause a little bit of sensation when he took off his jacket before sitting down. Which was another reason why Kyle had so many eyes on him the entire time. Something both were oblivious to.

Kyle, because he was just too airsick while Xing Han ...

Well, it\'s Xing Han. What do you expect?

Kyle gave Xing Han a lazy smile of thanks and took the drink, relishing the soury-fizzy taste that seemed to settle his stomach somewhat.

Kyle then leaned back on the chair and braced himself for the landing.

Gah. He hated flying.

? ? Xing Han\'s Home ? ?

While waiting for Xing Han to come home, the sisters passed the time in the living room, doing their own thing. The two younger ones on their smartphones, while the eldest had a book.

Rose was browsing through her IG account when something popped up.

"Wow," Rose said, "Listen to this! The new John Wick movie released a teaser trailer!!"

"Really?" said Karen, not really interested. Action movies were not really her thing.

"When is it going to be released?" asked Jessica.

Rose scrunched up her face, "It doesn\'t say here. Wanna see the trailer?"

Jessica nodded and scooted over to sit next to Rose. From the screen, they could see that the teaser trailer was 1 minute and 44 seconds.

Their heads close together as Rose pressed \'play\'.

[Teaser Trailer]

Dramatic music started in the background, with Lawrence Fishbourne\'s voice being heard saying, "The Man, the Myth, The Legend."

"John Wick ... Chapter 4" flashed by, followed by the \'Lionsgate/Summit logo\'.

Several other scenes were given, mashed together. John Wick in a room, heavily injured.

\'Summit Entertainment Presents\' flashed by the screen.

A scene showing a young boy training, face hidden - only his back was seen as he lifted weights.

Flashed to a young boy tied naked on a chair, his face hidden as it was face down, and he was being tortured. Flashed to various fighting scenes, the face not shown as it was seen from the back.

This was followed with scenes of John Wick recuperating, his body full of bandages and taking medicine. It then showed John Wick \'playing\' with various types of guns as he picked them and shot them. Cut to various fighting scenes, explosions everywhere.

The background music kept building up from something slow, to its current \'top\' moment.

The scene stilled.

Two figures were facing each other.

John Wick, in his usual dark suit, facing a young boy.

For the first time, the camera zoomed in on the young boy, who was dressed all in black, the tight-fitting clothes accentuated his lean muscular physique. The vintage style black leather jacket that he wore couldn\'t hide it.

The young boy lifted his head, and there was a brief second that showed his face before the screen went black.

John Wick\'s voice was heard, "NO".

Followed by Lawrence Fishbourne\'s voice, "The Man, the Myth, The Legend ... has finally met his match."

\'2020\'

June

[End]

The girls sat, transfixed, looked at each other and then screamed.

"Was that...?! That was, wasn\'t it?!" Rose was screaming at her sister, grabbing her by the shoulders.

"It was! It was!! QUICK! Check the credits!!" Jessica screamed as well.

Karen glared at them, "What the hell is going on? Can you tone down that screech of yours?"

Karen was doing something really rare. She wasn\'t looking through her phone, but was actually reading a book. Her sisters loud screaming interrupted her enjoyment of reading and she was quite annoyed.

The two didn\'t hear her though, as they were so engrossed with their phone.

"O.M.G." Rose said, her eyes wide.

"It really is him," Jessica gasped.

Amongst the names of the actors in the film, there it was: Kyle R. Smith

They looked at each other again then replayed the teaser trailer again.

"O.M.G." Rose said again, "Just look at that body ..."

"Is he really naked there?!" Jessica screeched.

"Who cares?!" Rose said loudly, "I\'m going to watch this the moment it comes out!!"

"You can\'t go without me!" Jessica shouted, grabbing Rose by the shoulders, almost practically screaming it.

"Just what is going on here?" came a voice from behind them, "Why are the two of you screaming like banshees?"

The two sisters stopped, turned and screamed.

Xing Han put his hands over his ears while Kyle took a step back, his eyes a wide open in shock.

"Yi-Lyn! Hing Huen!" boomed their father\'s voice. He could hear them from his room and he had come down when the screeching didn\'t seem to stop. It was bad enough that they were making such a ruckus, but to be caught while there was a guest?

How embarrassing.

The two sisters immediately quietened down, their eyes wide open while putting their hands over their mouths. They looked down, suitably chastised.

Glaring at his two daughters that had not been acting like a lady befitting the Tan name, he made a mental note to give them a talking to later. For now, he greeted Xing Han and Kyle.

"I am home, Father," Xing Han said respectfully then turned to the woman beside him, "Mother."

Puay Kiow smiled, coming over to give Xing Han a hug, "You have slimmed down, Xing Han. That is good."

Xing Han gave a wide smile, "Yes, Mother. I will work hard."

"Good," Zhènlín said, nodding his head.

"This is my best friend, Kyle," Xing Han said proudly, though he really wanted to say BFF FOREVER but in front of his parents, he had to be the serious son.

Kyle stepped up, shaking Zhènlín\'s hand, saying, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Tan. Thank you for having me here."

"It\'s our pleasure," Zhènlín said, "It\'s the least we can do in return for your help with Xing Han."

"It\'s Xing Han who is helping me, Mr. Tan," Kyle replied honestly, "His insights are very useful for me."

"That is good," Zhènlín said, as he turned to face Xing Han proudly. His son truly did turn out well.

"Why don\'t you go and settle down first," Puay Kiow said, smiling gently.

"I will, Mother, thank you," Xing Han replied.

"Thank you, Mrs. Tan," Kyle said, "You have a lovely home."

Puay Kiow smiled widely and watched lovingly while Xing Han brought Kyle over to his room.

Just as they left, Zhènlín turned to face his two daughters, whose faces were bright red and were looking suitably embarrassed. Seeing them like that, Zhènlín decided to be lenient, thinking that they had realised how badly they had behaved earlier and was repenting.

Little did he know that their horrified expression and contrite manner were not out of repentance over their screaming ... but for the fact that Kyle had seen them at their worst.

Karen scoffed internally at her two sisters predicament.

Although she didn\'t know what caused them to suddenly break all decorum and act like hooligans off the street, she knew that being seen in such a light by the one that they had been waiting for anxiously, had hit them very hard.

Karen looked at Xing Han\'s closed bedroom door and went back to her book.

Not bad. Not bad at all.