Used It Well

Raelle didn't even have to mentally go through her own schedule to know that he was right. There was indeed no specific time planned for a phone call with him. But there was a reason for that.

"I'm with you in the morning and in the evening," said Raelle. "Is there a need to have a phone call as well?"

"There is," he retorted.

Raelle thought about it for a minute before saying, "When should I call you then?" Shui Xian blanked out for a second. Even though he was the one who brought it up, why was he the one blanking out now? It must be because he didn't think she'd agree so easily. "You need to give me a time so that I know I won't be disturbing your work with my phone call."

"How about the lunch hour?" suggested Shui Xian.

"Lunch hour?" she repeated. "You want me to call you for a whole hour?"

"Why? You can't?" he asked with a straight face.

Raelle shrugged her shoulders, "Fine. Lunch hour it is then." She took a pause, "Is there anything else?"

Shui Xian thought about it and pointed out, "I didn't see any time set aside for Hyson either."

"He and I often don't contact each other for weeks," replied Raelle honestly. "And whenever we do, it's unplanned. He says we don't need to talk to each other daily to prove our friendship because even if there is a distance of hundreds and thousands of miles between us, our relationship won't change."

Shui Xian could only nod at that. It did seem like even with the distance between them, their relationship was closer than friends that'd meet daily. He really admired that.

"If there is nothing else, I'm gonna wait for you downstairs."

Saying that she turned around and left the room. At the breakfast table, Raelle greeted Shui Koshing before she took a seat and continued to look through her iPad.

"How was your dinner last night?" questioned Shui Koshing.

"It was good," answered Raelle. "Did you have dinner with Opa and Yanyan?"

"I did," said Shui Koshing. "And I must say, it was a good idea. I enjoyed myself very much." He took a pause before adding, "And that's why I've decided to listen to my daughter more often from now on."

Raelle offered him one of her practiced polite smiles before she looked at the cellphone that was ringing beside her. The call was from Hyson and she didn't take it immediately. As she had told Shui Xian, she and Hyson really didn't contact each other daily. But lately, the frequency of their interaction was increasing.

Of course, she won't say it but she actually didn't mind it.

Even though Hyson was still as 'troublesome' to her as he had been when they first met, but it won't change the fact that he was the 'trouble' she was most familiar with.

Since she was working on her iPad, she attended the call and put it on speaker.

"What?" she asked without any 'hello' or 'hi'.

"You sent this brand new phone?" came a groggy voice that made Shui Koshing also look up at Raelle.

"Did you just get it now?" she questioned in return instead of answering him.

"No, it was delivered in the middle of the night but I was sleeping at that time," told Hyson. "But that means you really sent it. Why did you?"

"You asked for it last night," reminded Raelle.

"You know I was joking," Hyson shot back.

"And you know I don't joke," said Raelle shutting Hyson up. "Hold on a minute! If you just got the phone, how did you send me that message last night?"

Hyson rolled his eyes at how she just noticed that and said, "My dying phone still has some leftover breath in it."

"Oh, the phone is just like the owner of it."

"Did you just insult me?"

Raelle took a sip of her milk tea before saying, "Since you gave me a gift last night, let's just say I returned the favor with that phone. We're even! Now don't bother about anything and just use the phone. It's not like I can return it."

Hyson took a deep breath before saying, "The gift I gave you..."

"I used it well, thank you!" Before he could even continue, her words made him choke up on air.

She could hear Hyson's cough from the other side but there was another person who ended up coughing when he heard this. That was Shui Xian who just came down and heard her saying that last sentence.

Seeing his father giving him a strange look, Shui Xian composed himself and silently sat beside his wife.

It took Hyson a while to say, "Ellie, I gave that gift to you because I was trying to joke around with you."

"Then let's just say by giving this gift, I'm also trying to joke around with you."

"This joke isn't even funny!" Hyson shot back almost immediately. Although he had been the one who told her to buy her the phone, he really didn't mean it. But she again took him seriously. That's why he had always been so cautious to say anything around her. Buying him ice cream and buying him a phone were two very different things!

When was she gonna understand that?

"Hyson, is there a mirror around you?"

Hearing her question Hyson looked at the mirror in the foyer and replied, "Yes, there is."

"Go and take a look."

"Why?"

"Everything will seem funny once you look at your face," she replied.

"Argh!" Hyson's lips twitched for a moment before he burst out, "If you had been here, I'd have pulled all your hair out and made you bald!"

"Better luck next time!" said Raelle. "Oh, and tell your mother that I'd be coming to see her over the weekend."

Hyson snorted, "You want to return her favor of the gift as well?"

Raelle took a pause before saying, "No. I just want to eat something made by her." She didn't explain anything further and hung up the call. She looked at both Shui father and son. Shui Xian was focused on putting food in Raelle's plate and Shui Koshing was focused on his son's movements.

Although they both heard the conversation, they both didn't show any unnecessary reaction.