Wayne was busy practicing and preparing for his new drama script, so he had not paid much attention to Pei Li or Penny. He needed to exercise in the morning before heading for martial arts classes in the afternoon till late in the evening. On some days, he had to attend photoshoots for the drama poster.
As he read a part on his role as a police detective landing to solve a tricky, brutal domestic violence case where the victim had died, he shuddered at the thought of Pei Li's circumstances. The moment he saw the script, he was intrigued, and a part of him could not deny he had Pei Li in mind. A part of him wanted to act in the drama as though it were a redemption for not being able to save Pei Li's twin, Pei Ni, that fateful night.
A part of him had always blamed himself for being too young and too useless among the adults to be able to save a life. He wished for the ending of the drama that the victim did not have to die, but he knew that being able to solve the brutal case was sufficient.
The leading actress who was to join them was Sebastian's usual thriller series partner, Clarin Li Jing Xing. She had been in the industry as long as Sebastian, only to be more low profile, but once her appearance was in a drama or movie, she ensured the work would make it big.
Wayne's agency was surprised he wanted to take on this path, as normally new actors would play it safe and head on to try romance or comedy genre for the main lead, but Wayne took the bold path as Sebastian and dived into thriller and crime. He was glad it was Sebastian acting along with him as an undercover detective in the drama this time.
After that night of discovery with Penny, Pei Li has been sleeping the whole time. Wayne was not even sure if she was awake for a long while, as there were times when her food was not touched. After a tiring day of posing for a magazine's front cover shooting, he returned home. Alighted from his agency's car while scrolling through Sebastian's tabloid news, he was a little worried for him, but he was more worried about himself turning out to be like Sebastian.
Once again, he stepped into the smell of stale fried noodles wafting from the table again though it was covered. He knew Pei Li was not awake. He got worried as he went to check on her after slightly opening a few window panels.
"Hey… Why weren't you eating today, Penny?" Wayne asked gently as she stirred a little, but she slept back in after a bit.
Worried and distressed, Wayne shook her awake.
She stared at him while sitting up and rubbed her eyes groggily. "You're alright? Why are you so sleepy? Are you sick?" Wayne questioned, but she kept quiet and zoned out while staring into space.
"Have… have you eaten, Penny?" He asked again as he was not sure if she was even Penny. Her gaze slowly averted to Wayne's.
"Who… is Penny?" Her question surprised him as she faced him indifferently. Wayne tried shrugging his doubts away by checking the time. It was close to midnight, and it was Pei Li whom he was holding.
He watched her slowly lie back into her bed and fall back to sleep. Wayne was dumbfounded by her reaction as he left her room. He was having a hard time accepting Pei Li's changes.
His mind recalled his conversation with Penny on this exact balcony. Though he knew Penny would be gone someday but he did not expect it to be this fast. A side of him misses her especially when Pei Li is approached with danger recently. That reminded him of Pei Li's notebook for Pei Ni, which Penny had been using as a guide.
He flipped open to find it had been a few days of empty pages. Pei Li had been sleeping excessively. He opened up his browser on his phone and checked on her disorder symptoms. It worried him more when he read that it was hypersomnia, and it was a depressive episode of her bipolar disorder.
He wanted to seek professional help, but his pending debut drama was holding him back. Filming was about to commence in a week. He cannot afford to go around fetching gossip or negative feedback. Besides, he read that he would need to monitor her more and keep a routine for her. Hence, he decided to prepare several surveillance cameras to monitor Pei Li remotely.
On the same night, Violet and Sam brought Sebastian to stay at their unit instead. To give Sebastian some privacy, Sam slept in Violet's room with her.
"What are you thinking so intensely? Jade?" Violet asked while lying by Sam's side as Sam sighed at his psychic sister.
"Are you a worm in my brain now?" He asked as she smiled, knowing she was right.
He sighed again before asking her about his worries for days.
"Does it still hurt? Was it very painful?" His eyes reddened as he touched her stomach, which surprised her cause she knew the brother she had always known would not be vulnerable this way.
It only has to be Jade.
"Slightly now. It was not bearable back then. I think I was probably having some postpartum depression as I kept thinking about suicidal…" She admitted to him.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" Sam panicked as he sat up.
"I'm fine now.. All thanks to Sebby's situation… Don't worry…" She tried to appease her brother as he blinked away his tears and hugged her.
"I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention to you…" That apology from Sam made Violet realise she was right about Jade. There was more than just a marriage and divorce for the house, but she still could not figure out the missing piece of the puzzle.
Did Jade go through this too? Oh, Sam, you're a bastard! He scolded himself as Violet gently patted his back.
"Vi, are you not going to tell him…" Violet knew Sam meant Dexter as she shook her head.
"So, now that I'm fine. I was thinking of visiting a homestay nearby to do a review. I wanted to go tomorrow but…" She updated Sam as her eyes averted to the room's door, and Sam knew she was worried about Sebastian.
"Just go. He needs time. I will handle it." Sam assured her as she nodded.
"I have sorted out the list of candidates…" Sam put her to lie down, though he was worried about her not letting Dexter know. He was worried about many things about her, but since she was getting on a short getaway, whether for work or her wellbeing, it was still beneficial either way.
"I know. I saw. Sleep. You need to wake early for your visit…" Sam tucked her into the blanket.
Violet finds him strange, but obediently obliged and pretended to fall asleep fast.
With him thinking she had fallen asleep, he sneaked out to the balcony and bitterly browsed Jade's social media page. There have been no updates for four days. He wondered has she had been well taken care of since he was gone.
He boldly went into their chat room and typed.
I'm sorry… He hit send without hoping for an answer, but the next thing he knew, she called.
He sighed before picking up.
"Sorry, it must be disturbing you sleeping." He instantly apologised again.
"What's wrong?" She asked with a worried tone.
"Nothing…" She knew him well enough to know he was lying.
"You're alright?" She asked.
"I'm good. Sorry, I sent the wrong text to the wrong person." He lied as she smiled at all these mainstream excuses she had seen countless times in her drama scripts.
Violet sneaked out to eavesdrop.
"All good. You wanna chat? What have you been eating?" Jade asked randomly, which made him relax a little.
"Hmm…" He could only hum cause he recalled he did not eat anything from Sebastian's rush.
"You haven't eaten yet?" Jade acted like she was shocked.
"Go make yourself some noodles with a fried egg. Add some vegetables, or at least some spring onions!" Jade nagged as his eyes reddened, recalling that it used to be their late-night supper when living together. Violet wanted to reach out to him, but knew it was not wise as it must have took him a lot of courage to pick up that call.
"Do you hear me?!" Jade snapped at his silence as he hummed in acknowledgement.
"Heading now. Catch some sleep. Goodnight." He said before instantly hanging up and silently sobbing by himself in guilt.
Violet slowly made her way back to her room, knowing it was best to leave him alone to cope with his problems as she had plenty of hers on her plate now.
The call made Jade happy for a moment before she realised she was back to her loneliness days again in bed. She had a hectic schedule on purpose to take her mind off him, but it was to no avail.
Everything, everywhere, all she sees and thinks of, he crosses her mind constantly. His apology was unexpected and was still a mystery as she took her mind off for a while from an old ongoing issue.
Back then, when Sam was around, she realised he had been discreetly protecting her in the agency. The notorious actor in the company, Carlson Lahat, originally hailed from Kung Tap, had been accused of sexually harassing several female co-leads during filming. Just because he had been making the agency high income, the agency had often tried to shove or solve the allegations without proper procedures as quickly as possible, letting the culprit run free.
After Sam left, Jade was paired with him in a new movie recently. She knew she just had to endure that two or three months of filming and endure the predicaments professionally, but she was still not confident without Sam, as it seemed everyone, including the agency, was siding with Carlson. She had been trying to find ways to protect herself, but to no avail, as she slowly drifted asleep with the comfort of being able to hear from Sam again.