The Stars In Your Eyes

"I'm home."

Bai Yuren could hear her brother's voice from the kitchen. She was standing there, sweating, and cursed inside. She was in a life and death battle with these damn shrimps. Why on earth she decided to be a good sister, told her brother that she will cook his favourite dishes as their dinner for welcoming him home. 

The only good things about preparing shrimps are they are easy to defrost. Just took 10 minutes for them to be soaked in cold water and it defrosted already. She hates the process of removing these damn shells. Sometimes it pricks her fingers. 

She hates deveining them. Dig under the vein with her knife and and pull it up and out. Sometimes it breaks as she pulls, makes her just keep digging and pulling until it's removed.. Some people choose to leave the vein, but her brother always removes them. Because after all, it's animal waste. And most of all, she hated the smell of her fingers after she cleaned it, stinky fish fingers.

"Gege, i'm in the kitchen." Bai Yuren shouting. Her voice let her desperation leak out. She knows her brother must be tired from the journey. But she can't help to hope her gentle brother will take over this battle and let her be free. She chose to prepare the vegetables and the chicken.

"I thought it was only your sweet talking when you said you'll cook my favourite dishes, but i guess i was wrong." Bai Yutang can't help but chuckled to see her sister's face.

Bai Yuren peeked at her brother, hoping her brother would tell her to leave these shrimps alone, like he used to. But her brother was just standing there, leaning on the kitchen's door. Watch her with an amused face. Clearly he wants to tease her, waiting for her to beg him. She held her dignity for five minutes before she finally shouted.

"Gege, what kind of brother are you, letting me struggle alone here!"

"What? It's only two minutes and you already give up? Beg me first, then I'll handle those shrimps."

Bai Yuren was a little bit surprised to hear her brother tease her. His face is not sunken pale like last time. It now shows his genuine smile. A pure smile like his brother used to have. It seems his gloomy and sad mood from the previous holiday was gone. He looked happy again. She decides to lower her pride, and observe her brother more.

"My handsome gege, my almighty gege, please please please.. Let me prepare the vegetables. So can you lend me your magical fingers to handle these shrimps?"

Bai Yutang chuckled, and walked towards the kitchen counter. He washed his hands, and took over the shrimps from his sister. "Where's mom?"

"Mom is still at Auntie Lau." Bai Yuren washed the broccoli and dipped them in the salt water. Then she moved to wash and peeled the carrots. She starts to chop the carrots and the bell pepper before she hears her brother ask her again.

"Does mom really need to work over there? I'm not comfortable with it."

Bai Yuren also didn't feel comfortable with it. To have your mom at her age working in that small restaurant makes her worried. She could also sense that her brother was the one who felt miserable with their mom's choice. But she can't shake her mom's decision.

"I'm not working for money. You all realise that i'm alone here, right? Can you imagine how bored I am here everyday in this empty house?" Her mom refuted their protests even more when Bai Yuren said that she will move out from the dorm to live with her again. 

"If you move out from the dorm, then you really will hurt me. I just want to work there, talk with people my age, can't you understand that?" With these statements, how could Bai Yuren say anything more? And she knew her brother was useless when talking to their mom. He will just surrender even when the war has not yet started.

Just like their father.

"Mom said that she felt lonely in this house. Just let her be. I know Auntie Lau won't overwork her. It was a miracle actually that Auntie Lau wanted to hire her in the kitchen."

Bai Yuren finished chopping all the vegetables and started to work with the chicken. She didn't hear any response from her brother. She knew what's on her brother's mind.

"This is not because you didn't give her enough allowance. I know that for sure. She just needed something to do. Don't think about that too much."

"I know. But still, it would be better if she didn't need to work and just spend her days like she used to." Bai Yuren still could hear regrets from her brother's voice. She wanted to say that it was impossible. Their father is gone. The lights of her mother's life. It would never be the same. But she closed her mouth and just chopped the chicken into cubes shapes.

"So you'll only spend one week here?" Bai Yuren tried to change the conversation.

"Yes, i still have to do research for my final project. I want my final project to be done as soon as possible. That way I could start to search for a job next year. How's your study?" 

Bai Yuren will start her third year. In these past two years she worked hard. She never studied as hard as she did now. She needs to maintain her scholarship for her not to burden her brother more. "It's okay. I can maintain my grade. Don't worry." Bai Yuren said lightly.

They finished cooking while talking about random things. Bai Yutang said he wanted to take a shower first while waiting for their mother to come home. When her mother came home, Bai Yuren went upstairs to call her brother. 

One of her habits is that she rarely knocks on her brother's room. So she just opened the door and found her brother lying in the bed, smiling while talking on the phone. 

"Don't get too drunk, gege."

That's the words she heard from her brother. She could guess who was the person on the other side.

"Hey, why can't you get rid of your habit? Knock the door, ah." Her brother flustered to find her standing in the door.

"Why don't you lock the door? It was not like you're naked or watching porn. Why the fuss?" Bai Yuren grinned. "Mom is back." She told Bai Yutang.

"Gege, i'll call you later. My mom is back. Yes. Yes, I'll send your regard to them." Bai Yuren could hear Bai Yutang say those words in a low voice. It's no use, she could still hear him clearly.

Bai Yuren smiled. So they're already made up, huh? No wonder her brother back to his usual self. Even brighter and smiled a lot. She already guessed this much when her brother raised her allowance again.

Looking back at that time when her brother filled their house with gloomy and dark clouds for the whole last holiday, she thought that her brother's relationship was over. Bai Yuren can't tell her brother that it was one of the reasons which made her mother work in Auntie Lau's restaurant. Her mother worried about Bai Yutang stressed out because of their financial situation, and even blamed herself for not becoming a good mother for him.

That last holiday was the first time for Bai Yuren to see what her brother looked like when he was brokenhearted. She even hates Jian Kang Lu for a moment. How could that man hurt her brother like this. She texted Jian Kang Lu in fury, wanting to bury the man who hurt her brother with her vicious curse. But she couldn't send that message, since she didn't know for sure whether those two were in a relationship or it was all just her imagination.

Her fury and rage calmed down when she called YingYing, her best friend.

"YingYing! I'm so mad right now!!"

"What what? Are you talking about Princess Ling's latest chapter? Yeah, it makes me mad too. That stupid king is really a scumbag."

"Nooo, I didn't talk about comics. It's about my stupid brother!"

"What else did he do this time that makes you mad? You know that it was probably your fault, right?"

"No!! I told you that he probably had a lover, right? Now it seems he broke up, and ruining our meal. All of the dishes he cooked is awful now. I already imagine to eat his oxtail soup and those chicken shrimp stir fry. But now everything he cooked tastes like my cook, and he kept putting his sad and miserable face this whole week. I swear i almost saw he cried when i talk about his lover last time."

"Tsk tsk.. Do i need to remind you how ugly you are with your snots running through your nose when Ling Xiao had a girlfriend. You act like the world is ending even though he might be not knowing your name until now."

"No one in our school who didn't know my name." Bai Yuren shamelessly answered. She knew that was the truth, since she held the first rank in the entire school three years in a row.

"Anyway, I thought your relationship with your brother improved lately. Why don't you just ask him? Or maybe you just need to learn how to cook."

Bai Yuren was stunned. It seems YingYing was right. She guesses what makes her brother's cooking skill reduced to kindergarten level because maybe it was hurt for her brother to cook. She knew that her brother used to cook for Jian Kang Lu everyday. Maybe that will ease her brother's pain for a little bit if he took over the cooking task.

That's when she started to take over the kitchen from her brother. And there was also one time she texting Jian Kang Lu out of curiosity. She just wanted to test whether her brother's sadness truly originated from that handsome man.

[Jian Ge, how are you? My brother told me you can't visit us this holiday. Are you so busy?]

Jian Kang Lu replied to her with short sentences.

[Yes, I'm sorry. How are you, RenRen?]

[I'm fine, Jian Ge. Visit us if you can spare your time.]

[Yes, I will. Send my regard to your mom.]

That message ends. Few days later she received money from him, said to be her 'holiday allowance'. She didn't text Jian Kang Lu for money. And she was torn between using that money or throwing it back. But of course YingYing gives her the most logical answer.

"You stupid girl. Money is money. Doesn't matter if it was from your brother's lover or ex-lover. She sends you the money means she still wants to be together with your brother. By the way, how could your brother get a rich girlfriend that was so in love with him? I never thought your brother could charm a girl at this level. My stupid brother was the one who always spend his money on his stupid girlfriend."

Bai Yuren can't say that the person is not a woman. So they just spend the money to eat until their heart content. Buy clothes, cosmetics, and comics. Just like any smart girls will do, they spend all the money. 

"Hey, if this person truly hurt your brother, why don't we extort the money from her as payment for being a rude girl." YingYing even shamelessly advises her. Bai Yuren rejected that idea wholeheartedly.

But looking at her stupid brother's face that now back to smiling widely like he was the happiest person in the world, showing his blushing face like a maiden which Bai Yuren herself never did, she laughed inside her heart. Maybe she and YingYing could got their 'holiday allowance' again from her brother's stupid lover. 

Just like YingYing said, "If she was rich and didn't hesitate to spend her money on your brother, it means she will not hesitate to give you also. She needs you to be on her side as her future sister in law, right?"

If that man wants to kidnap her brother for this holiday, she could allow it. Her brother's happiness is the most important thing. But of course, it will do no harm to test Jian Kang Lu more to decide whether he was the right person for her brother.

Bai Yuren smirked, she knew exactly what she would text Jian Kang Lu tonight. She was sure she could sell her brother's picture for a high price. It seems her holiday will be great this time.