Confessions of a Cat-holic (76)

The smell of nicotine, together with the brisk of cold air, surprisingly blended very well with Vivian's spray of white musk fragrance by the Body Shop. She reminded me of a cat. She actually owned a cat. She named her "ball". She talked gently and walked gently just like a feline.

The kind of unorthodox behavior exhibited among my new friends were different from my peers in alma mater. I rarely saw my new friends fight or swear in public, though I sometimes would spit out a few f-words, just to show my frustration to be stuck in a school where everyone knew more germanic words than foul language.

Every time I felt baffled by my decision to transfer, Tracy almost knew exactly what was on my mind and offered me the answers to some of my most perplexing questions. She knew why I didn't feel belonged in SPCC. But instead of consoling me or giving me any life tips, she would sing me a few songs which granted me the most helpful insights as in why I ended up where I was.

Almost synchronizing to my thoughts and unspoken aggravation, Tracy would sing me these few songs solo despite her general disposition to engage in drinking games rather than the rare showcase of her karaoke talents. These songs would be "absolute" sung by Maggie Fu the cover artist for Cecilia Cheung, "every other second" and "deceiving self and others" by Bondy Chiu.

I enjoyed her singing with heartfelt gratitude and a touch of sentiments. She knew where I was coming from, not some pretty pink house or barbie wonderland, and definitely not a secluded monastery excluded from the rest of the world. She knew why I had to leave my familiar surroundings to come to this strange land of odd nerds and self-proclaimed geniuses. All without my telling or confessions in words. This sense of telepathy was so amazing. I could only feel this with my real friends from the gang.

When I said my gang, it was not just Vivian and Tracy. In each karaoke session, Vivian would invite some new faces whom I had never met before. The ratio of new faces to our fellow mates at SPCC was about 2:1. Vivian and I accounted for two, and we would be accompanied by four other outsiders. If there were three of us, then there would be another six strangers balancing and equalizing our familiarity.

These new faces looked intimidating because they were Vivian's friends. She always told me about the people she met outside of school and they were no good people. One of them was Ah Bo. He was a guy, if that was not obvious enough. He looked like an anime character with spiky dyed hair and trendy haircuts. He liked to wear a pair of long tailor-made boot cut grey pants and a knitted pullover and scarf to cover up his school badge. In addition to that, he also wore those gothic styled rings with skull figures and gelled his hair to match his outfit. I could tell he was joining us after school but I was not sure which one. From the way he dressed himself, I was pretty sure that he was a gangster, or a band 3 peripheral student.

Born and raised in Hong Kong through all these years, I could easily spot a triad member, given that it was illegal to claim membership of any underground society in Hong Kong. I was curious about Ah Bo, like which school he went to, where he lived, how he became friends with Vivian and why he was wearing uniform on a Saturday.

Vivian encouraged me to talk to him. So I would usually start by saying hello and follow with a few welcoming questions. But Ah Bo never responded. He covered half of his face with his knitted scarf and did not talk to anyone, including me of course. He was not autistic but I guessed he didn't come to socialize with us.

As of now, I still considered Ah Bo a mystery. Vivian never told me anything about him. She just said I should ask him directly if I was curious enough, like he would care to respond.

Vivian's friends rarely came to our karaoke sessions repeatedly more than once. In my distant memory, I had only seen Ah Bo less than three times, which was a lot already if you took into account the frequencies of encountering the other ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvBGoPt0frI