Month of Sorrow

Chapter 7 - Strings of Fate (part 2)

"You feeling cold?" Hong Kong asked.

Philia shook her head and smiled. "No, I'm fine, thanks."

Hong Kong raised a brow in concern yet again, but decided to not push the question any further.

"Silly question time," he said. Tell her about the letter and ask her if she's the one who wrote it! "There's a note on a summer bouquet that was delivered to my and Ice's hotel room." Goddammit!

"A note?" Philia asked, her orange-brown eyes meeting Hong Kong's French quarter gold ones. "Summer bouquet?"

"Yeah," Hong Kong replied, stopping in his tracks as Philia followed. Freaking dingus, why didn't you ask her about the letter?!"The note itself is in Spanish. Like I said, I have an eidetic memory, so I can say it out loud to you."

"Okay, shoot."

The Hongkonger cleared his throat as he repeated the note in Spanish, his British accent rolling on the words,

"'Hola de nuevo, mi querido amor."

Philia's eyes widened a little as she blushed a little and let out a soft gasp, although she sounded like she was trying to hide it.

Hong Kong tried to not take note of her face, although he could feel his chest ache with a seemingly unknown desire (he's still refusing to believe France's words back in the hospital). He swallowed. "What does that mean?"

"Um, it means..." Philia said hesitantly, then blurted out, "It means 'Hello again, my dearest love.'"

Hearing those words in English made Hong Kong's chest well with... with... something that he can't pinpoint but is denying at the same time. "'Hello again my dearest love?'" he repeated in question form. "Really?"

"Yeah, it does..." Philia smiled, though Hong Kong could tell that it was fake. "Sounds like you have a secret admirer, Li Xiao."

"Maybe..."

They reached yet another awkward silence as they resumed walking. And Hong Kong was just running out of subjects to talk about. He mentally slapped and scolded himself for not mentioning the letter. And he was just as confused and mixed up as ever with these new emotions building up and welling within his body to the point where his chest would ache and his surgical scar would tingle. Now, if you know Hong Kong very well, he is very good at bottling up his emotions for as long as possible. Very rarely he snaps, or he has even attempted to snap, from keeping his emotions all packed in for too long. And now, it seems just one of those times that Hong Kong feels like he needs to release them just right now.

However, he instantly cooled down when he and Philia came across an abandoned bicycle just laying over the shoulder of the stone path and the grassland. Approaching the bicycle closer, Hong Kong noticed it's slightly rusted, though the rubber handles and tires are spared from the wear and tear. Who in the world in their right minds would abandon their bicycle in a park, especially during a cloudy and foggy day?