The foursome in Dee’s car was still in the middle of the busy road, trying to find some way to beat the traffic to get to the airport quicker. Joned was getting a little anxious.
“Dee, can we actually get there before 4 p.m.?” Joned asked.
“If we take the main road, you’ll have to kiss that flight goodbye!” Dee replied as he dodged another car which was blocking his way.
“What?! But we have to give Cloud back to his family! Pearl might be missing him already!”
“Don’t worry! I know a highway and a detour which would get us there in a jiffy!”
With that, he accelerated slightly and sped off down the highway, asking Ryo to check out and see if there were any traffic cops around who might catch them. Lucky for them the highway was pretty much deserted with less cars, but of course some of the cars honked at them because they were speeding past them like there was no tomorrow. When the road ahead looked pretty much no cars at all, Dee sped as if his life depended on it, catching Ryo, Joned and Jinggo off guard and making them fall backwards.
“There it is!” Ryo called out. “The sign that said ‘Detour to Airport’!”
“Then let’s go!” Dee exclaimed and swerved to the left into the detour. Ryo, Joned and Jinggo yelped as their bodies swerved together to the right by the impact. Jinggo, who was sitting at Joned’s left, fell and crushed onto him, his shoulders meeting his. He had a good mind to blush there and then but he was still too cautious to let Joned see his true self. When they’ve all regained composure, Jinggo pretended as if it didn’t happen. Only Joned was looking pretty blissful, behind Jinggo’s knowledge, that is.
The Asian recruits soon were taken aback to find out that this detour had led them to a quite dense forest ahead. They crashed through trees, ran through ponds, barged through thick bushes, and even scared a few animals along the way. Joned was the most shocked one among the foursome.
“Are you crazy?! This road is practically the death of us!!” Joned exclaimed.
“Well, you wanted to go to the airport so much, and I’m offering you the quickest way possible!” Dee replied. “You wanna let Cloud go back to that Pearl benedict girl or not?”
“We still have 10 more minutes before 4 p.m. Are you sure we’re going to make it?” Jinggo asked, looking at his watch. Before Dee could reply, Joned had already made a head-start.
“Yes, we can! As long as we persevere, we’ll get there!”
Jinggo suddenly realized that he had seen another side of Joned and couldn’t help feeling that he looked so gallant that way. To distract himself and stop him looking at Joned, he turned to stroke Cloud. He still didn’t want him to know his true self. He was afraid, so afraid to show it and he felt so stupid for being such a coward when Joned wasn’t.
No sooner did Joned say those words than they saw the airport up ahead. Everyone, except Jinggo, cheered in victory as they moved closer and closer towards the airport. But luck wasn’t on their side. Halfway towards the airport, Dee’s engine suddenly ran out of gas. The sudden acceleration and the non-stop driving must have exhausted it. It stopped in the middle of the road and the car bonnet popped open by itself, emitting smoke. Dee groaned—not only did his car ran out of gas, but it has also overheated.
“Oh man!” Ryo slapped his forehead. “We were so close!”
“I’m…I’m sorry, Dee…” Joned apologized. “If I wasn’t such an asshole and insisted on going on this, your car wouldn’t have…”
“Don’t be silly, Joned!” Dee slapped the shorty on the back. “What you’re doing now is the right thing, and now you have to finish it. Go now!”
“What? But what about you guys?”
“Forget about us, you baka!” Ryo exclaimed. “If you don’t make it, everything we have done for will go to the dumpster, and I’ll personally shoot you for that!”
“Come on, go! We’ll be fine!” Dee agreed. “We have a car to protect us from wild animals.”
Joned smiled and picked up Cloud from inside the car. He took to his heels and ran as fast as he could towards the airport. Jinggo followed suite. They both ran and ran and didn’t stop until they’ve reached the airport entrance. Inside the airport, they tried to check the list of departure on the TV screen. They ran their eyes through the list but couldn’t seem to find the flight to India anywhere.
“There it is!” Jinggo said as he pointed at a small section on the TV screen. Sure enough, there was a flight to India at 4 p.m. and the sing showed that it was…BOARDED?
“What?! They’ve boarded the plane already?!” Joned ran towards the glass window that displayed the arriving and departing planes. That’s when he saw the plane that was leaving to India flying away and soaring up into the sky. Joned stood there, staring in disbelief for a minute or two before his legs went weak all over and gave way. He sat abruptly on the floor, his eyes looking blank. He continued to stare at the flying plane until it disappeared out of sight before looking down at Cloud in his hands in total disappointment and failure. Jinggo noticed that his eyes were welling up and tears were dripping out like rain onto the cat. Jinggo’s heart ached to see Joned sad like this.
“How can this be…? I’ve tried…I’ve tried so hard…I’m sorry, Cloud. We didn’t get to your mistress…”
Jinggo knelt down beside Joned and patted his shoulder. He picked the cat up from his arms and closed his eyes as he hugged Cloud close to his chest, holding back his tears that were induced by his aching heart. He whispered, “It’s OK, Joned. It’s gonna be OK. We’ll take good care of Cloud. He’s not going to be alone. We’ll take care of Cloud and take him back home with us once our exchange course is over.”
“Yeah…I guess you’re right…” Joned replied as he tickling Cloud’s throat. “Maybe everything is not all that lost. But I can’t help feeling that I’ve failed Cloud…”
“You did your best, Joned,” Jinggo said, smiling slightly. “Let’s go home.”
When they were about to leave, they heard a little girl talking to her father, “Daddy, when exactly is our flight to India? That plane to India has already left.”
“Our flight is at 5 p.m. I’ve mistaken it for 4 p.m. How clumsy can I get?” the father chuckled.
“I told you to get a pair of reading glasses!” the mother complained half-annoyingly. “Now we have to wait for an hour before we can really move out of this place!”
“Sorry, darling,” the father replied apologetically. “You can go around and do a little shopping if you want.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” the mother said delightfully.
“I wish Cloud was with us. I couldn’t find him anywhere,” the little girl sighed as she stared at her empty animal box. “We’ve done everything we need to take him with us and now he’s gone.”
“It’s alright, Pearl,” the father said. “I’ll get you another cat back at India.”
“It’s just not the same without him…”
“Excuse me,” Jinggo voiced out, alerting them. “I believe this cat is yours.”
“Cloud!” Pearl squealed in delight as she reached over to take her Persian white cat into her arms. The cat purred happily and nuzzled his nose with hers. “Daddy, look! That big brother has brought Cloud back!”
“That’s great, sweetie,” Mr. Benedict said in all smiles. He then turned to Jinggo and Joned and shook their hands, “Thank you so much for bringing Cloud back to my daughter. She has been crying all the way to the airport this evening and had only calmed down just recently. What can I do to repay you?”
“Just don’t lose him again,” Joned replied. “Take really good care of him from now on and you’ll make us very happy.”
Jinggo nodded too. For once, he didn’t ask for payment (In the manga, Jinggo is a very money-minded man and only accepts the case if there’s something in it for him). He smiled as he looked at Pearl dancing around with Cloud in her arms, looking very happy indeed. He laid his hand on Joned’s shoulder and said, “Come on. Let’s go and meet back with Ryo and Dee.”
And so they did.
“Hey, guys! Looks to me like you’ve made it to the Benedict family!”
Ryo and Dee were sitting in their car fairly dressed (Well, you can guess what they’ve been doing while waiting for our Asian recruits) and waving at Jinggo and Joned to show where they were. Joned and Jinggo moved towards the car and saw that the bonnet was still up.
“Sorry about the car,” Joned apologized again. “So, is it OK yet?”
“Not entirely,” Dee replied. “We managed to cool it down a little but without gas, I don’t think we’re going to go anywhere. So how did it go?”
“We were lucky,” Jinggo replied. “The father made a mistake of the time of flight and had to be sitting ducks for another hour. We got there just in time.”
“I think there might be a gas station somewhere nearby the airport,” Ryo said, pointing at the right side of the airport. “Maybe you guys can tell us about it while we push the car to the station, if you don’t mind.”
So, while the foursome pushed the car towards the gas station, Joned the chatterbox told them everything. Ryo and Dee were pretty impressed at how lucky Joned could get just when he thought he had lost hope. At the gas station, Dee filled up and bought some tidbits from the shop inside before the four of them hopped into the car and drove back home.
Once they’ve reached home, the sky was pretty much dark and starry. They couldn’t believe that they have spent a whole day running around just for a small cat. But they were glad inside for they knew that they have done someone a great favour today. Jinggo and Joned thanked Dee for the ride and got off the car.
“Hey, Jinggo,” Dee said as he took the package he just gave him this morning out from the back seat. “You forgot your package.”
“That’s for me? But I thought that’s for your so-called ‘friend’,” Jinggo asked, slightly surprised.
“It’s actually for the both of you,” Ryo replied sheepishly, still a little bit guilty for busting their almost-date. “Open it when the time is right.”
Both Jinggo and Joned blushed. Jinggo quickly took the package from Dee’s hand and dashed off into the house. Joned thanked Ryo and Dee for today’s ride and followed suite. Ryo took a look at the duo’s front door before turning to Dee and asked, “Do you think this would work out?”
“I’m pretty sure this would. Today has been a pretty fruitful event, isn’t it? Besides, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to know if they actually…well, you-know-what.”
Ryo sniggered and followed Dee behind as they both went into their own home sweet home.
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