A Little Too Late

"Sorry I had to take a call," she said as she approached the table. She could see that her aunt and Dana has arrived.

"You look amazing!" an innocent looking Japanese girl with smiling eyes looked up at her in wonder. She blinked her eyes, time must have gone overtime for this girl in front of her because she is no longer the teenager she met in Tokyo en route to Berlin.

"You became reserved," she smiled fondly to Dana because she kept on apologizing. A tick of annoyance is growing at the back of her mind. She doesn't want to be here, but seeing Dana she's glad that she did. She never thought that meeting her again would actually feel nice.

"I heard we're going to have a photoshoot. What's the plan?"

"Well, Jess is arriving tomorrow and aunt Joy had her secretary handled all the necessary preparation, we just have to be there." she said rummaging inside her purse, then remembered, "Oh, thanks for the gift, I love it!" she said patting the white Dior Oblique Jacquard saddle bag that she gave her as a birthday present.

"It's good to know that you love them," she said wanting to kick herself because she sounded so fake in her own ears. Having this kind of conversation still throw her off because she never really had someone she could consider as a friend.

"Here are the photos that I had chosen for the photoshoot that we will have, if you have anything that you want to add or don't want we could have the photographer adjust to it," she said with a smile, as she showed her the photos of some women wearing gowns with puffy sleeves.

"What is it called?" she asked pertaining to the gowns.

"Filipiña."

"Oh! So these are Filipina traditional dresses. It's cool."

"Hey, young ladies, let's cut your catching up short for the night is getting late." Dana and Ellise looked up at their aunt, from looking at Dana's phone.

Then she looked at Dana and asked, "Do you have WeChat? I don't usually use Instagram, so I can't reply to your messages as soon as I want."

"I see. That's why you don't have a lot of photos on your IG account, I thought you just don't like posting photos. I'll download WeChat and let you know." she said, putting her napkin on her plate.

She pushes her chair out of the table for her to stand up because the three adults are already waiting for them.

---

"Miss E, do you want me to call Tian to pick you up?" Mr. Wan asked her as she comes out of the restaurant. All of them are waiting for her in the small garden outside the restaurant. She excused herself after the meal to go to the restroom. She needed space to breathe and tried to control herself.

Being with Dana and seeing how different and how perfect she is, is too overwhelming for her. Is this what they call jealousy? She thought to herself, every time she looked at Dana who looks like a heroine of some manga.

"No need, I can go with them and asked Ting to drop me off at the WIZ." she gave Mr. Wan a confused look. Why do they keep on pushing DT to her, she wonders by herself as they all say goodnight and get in the car.

When they arrived at the WIZ building she asked Dana and her aunt to get down, so she could introduce Dana to Grand. And it went down into a chaotic mess as the members of the WIZ club who are not used to seeing a girl in the building went crazy over Dana, because who wouldn't. Well except for Grand.

However, he cornered her when she went to the cafeteria to make herself a cup of coffee. She was surprised when he asks a lot of questions about Dana because when Dana introduced he looked so disinterested.

They were huddled at the table whispering when DT suddenly entered the room noisily and proceed to make coffee. She and Grand exchanged questioning looks on why DT was still making coffee at eleven in the evening.

They kept quiet and waited for him to finish making his coffee, so she could talk more about Dana when DT sit down at their table.

Grand snorted in amusement while she looked at DT dumbfounded she couldn't help but ask.

"What do you think you are doing?" she asked narrowing her eyes on him.

"Drinking coffee," he answered her nonchalantly, as he slowly sipped his coffee.

Ellise got so pissed off she stormed out of the cafeteria. Grand and DT were left speechless.

DT's face burned in embarrassment that Grand couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Shut it, dickhead." he said, glaring at Grand.

"Well, enjoy your coffee." he stood up from his chair still laughing. "Good move by the way," he added mocking DT.

DT gripped the mug of coffee, seems to forget that it is still hot, he burned his hand. He quickly gets up and opens the fridge, grabbing some ice to soothe the pain in his hand while he muttered under his breath with his stupidity.

He was deep in thought putting ointment on his palm when his phone rang, he snapped out of daze seeing the name that registered on his phone screen.

"What do you want?" he asked the caller in a bored tone. He furrowed his eyebrows listening. "Why are you calling me about such a matter? Aren't you and Ai's father should be the ones deciding on those things," he asked irritatedly.

"I'm sorry. I just thought that you wanted to be involved in Ai's birthday celebration hence I asked."

"I'm sorry Asya, you just caught me in a bad time," he said with his phone between his shoulder and ear because he is still drying the ointment in his palm. He didn't see Ellise standing outside her room when he climbed to the second floor.

Hearing Asya's name from DT's mouth. Ellise has reminded herself why she and DT are now impossible. She slowly pushed the door of her bedroom, inhaling and exhaling a deep breath to stop the tears from escaping from her eyes.

"Was it a mistake coming back?'" she asked herself softly in the darkness of her bedroom, as she groped in the dark to find her way back to her bed.