Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 22:14:58 +0800 From: Johnny Kape <johnny.kape@gmail.com> Subject: The Original Joy, Chapter 5 Before this story: All rights reserved. Every word of this story is fiction. The background of this story is set to somewhere in Asia, where I come from. There might be some scenes, some songs and some social and cultural things that you don't understand. It is welcomed to give me a mail asking for anything you don't understand in this story. Hope you enjoy it. Special thanks to my editor, Matthew Templar, and my friend Pok. They helped me a lot with my English, gave me many good suggestions, and the most important, help me decide the title of this story. :-) You can't see how important this story title is until the last chapter of this story, so I wish that you all can read on to last. :-) Please feel free to tell me what you think about this story. I'd be very appreciated to get your feedbacks. I'll answer all emails. Thank you. --- Johnny Kape <johnny.kape@gmail.com> The Original Joy -- Chapter 5 Henry lay on the bed, hugging and caressing Jay, who seemed to have fallen asleep. Though asleep, Jay was still sobbing, because he had just buried his head into Henry's chest and wept a few minutes ago. Henry kept caressing Jay's back and thought about what happened that evening. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * He brought Jay to a public phone that was a bit far from his apartment. The reason he chose such a place was that he was afraid of being tracked by the police and be treated as a kidnapper. He gave Jay some coins. Jay dialed timidly. "Mom?" "JAY?" The voice from the other side of the phone was so loud that Henry could hear it clearly. Jay moved the transmitter a bit far from his ear. "JAY!! WHERE ARE YOU NOW? WHAT HAPPENED? ARE YOU OKAY?" "I... I'm fine..." "WHERE ARE YOU NOW? JUST STAY THERE AND I'LL COME TO TAKE YOU HOME!!" "No. I don't want to go home." "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? WHY DO YOU ALWAYS LIKE TO MAKE ME ANGRY LIKE THIS?? YOU JUST RAN AWAY AND DISAPPEARED FOR THE WHOLE NIGHT... YOU... YOU... TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE NOW!!" "No! I'm fine. Don't worry about me." "JAY!!!" Jay hung up the phone. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * After calling his mom, Jay became very silent. Even when Jay saw the news talking about his own concert on the TV in the launderette, he didn't talk at all. To Henry's surprise, there was not any news about Jay's being missing on TV, only about his last concert. Henry thought that they might just hide this news. After going back to Henry's apartment, Jay just took off all his clothes and went to take a shower, silently. At the same time, Henry reloaded the thick quilt into its duvet cover and put it on the ground, making a bed for himself. Jay walked out from the bathroom and looked at the thick quilt on the floor. He kicked the thick quilt aside in a lather. Henry was startled by Jay's action. Then Jay walked to Henry and hugged him. "Sleep with me, please," Jay said, in a faint voice. Henry didn't know what to do. Jay just pulled Henry's hand and walked to the bed. Henry had no choice but to follow Jay. They both lay down on the bed. Jay hugged Henry tightly. Henry took off his t-shirt and hugged Jay too. "Have a good sleep. Everything will be better tomorrow," said Henry softly. Tears started to fall down from Jay's eyes, and dropped onto Henry's body. Henry patted Jay softly. "Why are you crying? Just tell me what's up, okay?" Henry whispered. Jay started to weep. Henry didn't know how to comfort him. He just patted and caressed Jay's back. After weeping for a while, Jay seemed to calm down a bit. He was still sobbing, but he said, "Henry, can you always be with me? I feel so lonely." Lonely? Henry was a bit surprised. He couldn't imagine that Jay was feeling lonely. He caressed Jay's hair and back, and whispered, "Yes, I will always be with you. Just have a good sleep." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Henry went back to the real. He looked at a sleeping Jay. Why did Jay feel lonely? Thinking for a while, Henry felt that he started to understand. Jay must have very few friends in school, because his agent told his teacher not to injure him in the P. E. class, making his classmates stay far away from him. Jay seemed not to have a good relation with his parents either. That could be proved by Jay's conversation with his mom. Henry started to sympathize with this little boy. The cost this boy paid for his success seemed to be much, much more than Henry could imagine. Henry adjusted his position to put Jay's head on his arm. He looked at Jay's young face. This super star, with millions of personal wealth, was sleeping in his arms, in the nude. Well, if his female fans knew about this... Henry shivered a bit. However, no matter how famous this boy was, no matter how much wealth this boy had, at that moment he was just a little boy who needed help and comfort. Henry wondered how many people on earth really understood and cared how this boy felt. At that moment, the boy was sleeping beside him. Henry had a feeling of satisfaction, which he had never experienced. It was a feeling of satisfaction from being needed. Though he was poor, he provided a harbour of refuge to that little boy, and he was quite proud of it. He recalled John. They were very good friends, just like brothers. However, John was quite active, and was the leader among the two. He never got the same feeling from John. It would be very good if Jay was his younger brother... Henry hugged Jay and thought, and gradually he fell asleep. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * When Jay opened his eyes, Henry was ready to go out. "Morning, Jay. Do you want to sleep more?" Jay asked with sleepy voice, "Where are you going?" "Work, of course. Or how could I have money to buy some decent food for you?" Henry answered, pretending to be a bit upset. Jay laughed. "You finally laughed," Henry smiled and said. "Your smile is really charming." "Can't you just stay here with me today?" "No. I have a lot of work today. But I'm off tomorrow, so I can be with you the whole day. And... about this evening..." "What about this evening?" "This evening I have a date, to a KTV to sing songs with my friends. Do you want to come with me?" "Uh... singing..." Jay hesitated a bit. Henry laughed. "That's okay if you don't want to sing. You can just go there and watch others singing. If you don't want to go, then you can stay here and wait for me to get back." "I want to go with you." "Okay. Just change your role tonight. You can just listen to others singing and applaud them." ---- P.S. For those readers who don't know what "KTV" is: KTV is Karaoke TV, also known as Karaoke Box in Japan. It's commonly seen in Asia, including Japan, China and Taiwan. It's a place containing many rooms, from small to large, and each room has a TV and a song selector machine. Usually some friends will go together and occupy a room and sing songs together. It's a common way to release one's pressure in Asia. The fee is counted by time, for example, each hour costs 20 US dollars; or by person, for example, each person for 4 hours cost 20 US dollars, etc. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaoke_Box