[2078] Squid eggs/frilly dresses/fish plushie

December, 2078

“Sin, let’s go to the Red Cross Fair.” Chan barged into the boy’s room. “I got the money. We can go.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Ugh, since when did you go from being a sweet boy into a boring teenager? Come on!”

Sin curled up under his blanket. Chan sat on his bed. Su came in and pecked the boy’s hair.

“Are you still upset?”

“Papa won’t even talk to me. You wouldn’t tell me what happened that night. Why are you hiding things from me?”

Chan’s mouth pulled itself into a taut smile.

“Hey, it’s not like I’m happy doing this. There are some things you’re better off not knowing, alright? Once you learn something, you can’t unlearn it. It’s always a one-way relationship, unless you go through the process of having your memories deleted, that is.”

“I still want to know.”

“I’ll tell you only if you accompany me and Su tonight.” Chan pulled out his trump card. “Consider it a part of your training. There are some things that you can learn only by going out and observing those around you. The fair is a good chance.”

“You just want to go out and eat those nasty fried foods full of carcinogens…”

“Don’t call them nasty fried foods! At least call them street food or something! So what? Are you coming or not?” Chan’s cord swayed like a wagging tail. Sin stuck his head out from the blanket.

“Fine, but we won’t stay long.”

“Good. I’ll go get ready. Meet me outside when you’re done dressing up.”

Sin preferred going places virtually rather than spending extra effort to get dressed and travel there, but the fair could only be attended in person. He threw a shirt and a pair of shorts on himself, then came out of the room.

Chan was busy booking online entry tickets with Su’s assistance, and as soon they were was done, the three headed out.

It was evening by the time they arrived, just in time for the fair’s grand start. When they stepped off the car, they were greeted by a sea of people not wearing air filtration masks.

Chan took Sin’s hand, and they walked together through the entrance and into the crowded fair.

“Alright, let’s get something to eat.” Chan rubbed his hands together as he headed off to the rows of food stalls.

He had his eyes set on one selling fried fish balls. The neighboring stall was selling fried chicken and grilled pork with sticky rice. The one next to it sold fried squid eggs, Sin’s personal favorite.

It was the Thai food zone, and only in this one zone, he already wanted to sample so many things.

Chan saw the boy’s expression and happily ordered his fish balls, then received his order.

“You want the squid eggs, don’t you? Let’s go.”

“I…”

“You’re still growing. Keep eating. Woah, the smallest portion is already eight hundred baht?! Are you kidding me?! Is it time to sell my seafood crypto coins?” Chan went up to the seller. “Hiya, are these real squid eggs?”

“Yep, from squids raised in certified pollution-free waters. No plastics, no heavy metals, no endocrine-modulators.” The seller replied.

“I’ll get the medium one.”

“Are you sure you’ll have enough money, Chan?”

“Ah, shut up. Kids shouldn’t be worrying about money.”

To outsiders, they looked like two besties hanging out, but to Sin, Chan was more than that. Chan was his friend, mentor, and older brother. He was family.

The two munched their way through the stalls. Sin enjoyed himself much more than he wanted to.

They were finally done with the Thai food section, only to be greeted with the international food section. There were stalls selling lasagna, fries, corndogs, steamed buns, sushi (albeit Thai-style), and so many other things. Chan inhaled his beloved coconut milk ice cream and marched into the next battle.

It rained, and they had to seek temporary shelter. They ended up carrying their food all the way to the clothing section, where there was a roof.

“It’s going to flood. I just know it. Bangkok floods every time it rains.” Chan downed the last bits of his crispy crepe.

“Is there a day where Bangkok doesn’t flood?”

“You got a point there.” Chan licked the last bits of cream off the crepe’s wrapping. “Are you full?”

“I am… Though, I’m worried if your frame can take that much food.”

“Don’t worry about me. I have my ways of dealing with it.” Chan fixed his eyes on a frilly dress in the store across from where they were. “Hey, mind waiting here a bit?”

“I’ll go with you.” Sin got up. Chan nodded, and they went to the store.

Chan tapped on the AR function to try the dress on without having to actually touch it. He stared at his reflection in the software, then exited the preview.

Sin watched him quietly, with Su perched on his finger. He thought Chan looked nice in that dress.

“This brings back memories.” Chan found a recycle bin next to the store and tossed all of their food containers in. “Have I told you that I was born female?”

“No, you’ve never mentioned it.”

“Yeah, now you know. Both Su and I were born female, but I’ve always thought of myself as a boy. I wore dresses and enjoyed playing house with Su, though. I only got this male frame after Madame torched what remained of my birth body. I actually have her to thank for that. It felt really weird in this body at first, especially with this bulge in my pants, but now I like it a lot. It felt just right.”

“What about Su?” Sin asked, thinking about why Chan had to be thankful to his birth mother for something like that.

“Su happened way before that. I’m actually a lot older than I look. Anyway, Su went missing the same time my father did.”

“Chirp, I want fish.”

“You already ate too much, Su. In fact, all of us went overboard today.” Chan flicked the bird’s chest lightly. “That reminds me, I think I still have our old birth certificate. My name on it was Chansuda, and Su’s was Soisuwan.”

“Your names rhyme.”

“Yeah, Soisuwan and Chansuda. Man, those names sound like strangers to me.” Chan laughed. “Anyway, thanks for listening, Sin. The world is complicated, so if you feel lost, talk to me about it.”

It did not take long for the other boy to pour his heart out.

“Papa doesn’t love me anymore.” Sin stood in place, hanging his head. “I don’t understand myself. I don’t like papa for what he did, but I still love him because he’s still my papa.”

“What makes you think that he doesn’t love you? Maybe he’s just busy…”

“He said I remind him of Madame Butterfly.”

That sentence reverberated in the air like some terrible noise. Chan and Su were both at a loss for words.

Sin may look very similar to Apaimanee, but he inherited his mother’s sharp eyes and curly hair. Not only that, he was growing more similar in appearance to Madame Butterfly by the day.

Chan bit his lower lip. He petted Su’s head, and the bird chirped normally instead of saying the word chirp.

“You’re still his son.” The older boy said. “And your mother is Khun Malee. Madame Butterfly is just a woman that gave birth to you. I don’t want to see you hurt yourself because of something you can’t change. No, let me reword that. I don’t want to see you get hurt because of something that isn’t your fault.”

“Thank you, Chan. I… I really love you. Thank you for being here.” The boy sniffled. He sounded like he was squeaking. “And you too, Su.”

“Sure, squeak toy.” Su flapped over to Sin’s shoulder.

“Squeak toy? Where did you even get that word?” Chan furrowed his brows, then shrugged. “Whatever. Anyone up for games?”

The rain stopped. They continued their outing and walked past a flower shop. A group of people were buying flowers for each other. Sinsamudr stopped and watched them.

“What is it? Do you want a bouquet?”

“No, I just thought of something. Sud’s mother wanted to be a florist. She wanted to own a big shop supplied with a hundred kinds of flowers, and she wanted to arrange large bouquets and wreaths and flower arches she could only see in advertisements. She told me so before we ran away from Madame. I guess she isn’t interested anymore, since she’s not leaving that island.”

“A florist, huh? Tough job.”

“Yeah, and before that, she also told me that she wanted to become a mermaid.”

“Now that’s real tough, but not impossible.”

“Does it even matter anymore?”

The boy quickly walked on ahead, cutting the conversation short. His mentor sighed.

Chan led them to the game zone, where many classic festival games were available. There were rows of gachapon machines and crane games as well.

“What do you want to play? I think this is your first time trying any of these. Let’s go with the easy ones.” Chan cracked his knuckles.

“I want to try that.” Sin pointed.

“Goldfish scooping? I didn’t know they had these. And what will you do with the goldfish once you got it?” Chan saw the boy’s blank face, so he sighed. “Get a virtual goldfish if you’re not ready to raise a real one. Keeping a pet is not suited for our lifestyle, you know? I can’t keep pets because I don’t know if I’ll have time to check on its feed and water… and I don’t want it to die just because I died.”

“Okay. Let’s do something else.”

They went to a booth with a small inflatable pool. The surface of the water was covered by floating colorful degradable plastic eggs.

The game was simple: pay the fee, pick an egg, crack the egg open, and see the number inside. The booth will give them the prize corresponding to that number.

Chan paid for ten eggs and stood scrutinizing the eggs. Sin stood behind him.

“Is there a trick to picking the one with a good number?”

“The colors of the eggs don’t mean anything, I’m certain of that. I can’t see through the eggs. It seems this is a game of pure luck.”

“What if the grand prize isn’t even in this pool?”

“That’s possible. They usually drop the egg with the grand prize in near the end of the day. If the grand prize goes out too quickly, then nobody else will play. That’s just their way of doing business.” Chan placed his hands on his hips. “But this is just a game for fun. Pick whatever you want and suck it up.”

Sin scooped nine eggs from the pool. They were all minor prizes like candies, game coupons, or keychains. Su picked one egg, and got a gift card for a popular online shopping platform. It was barely worth anything, but it was a nice little prize.

Sin wanted to try a shooting game, so they went to a booth. The booth owner saw Chan’s cord and asked about his modifications.

“What?! I have to play on the highest difficulty?!” He gawked.

“Yes, your frame is very good. I bet you could clear the normal-people level with your eyes closed.”

“Hey, my brain was modified for medical reasons, not for enhancements…”

“I still have to go by protocols, you know.”

Chan sighed. “Bring it on, then.”

The highest difficulty was to have him hit five targets on a spinning wheel. Sin could only see a blur of color, but Chan quickly pulled the trigger five times in succession. He managed to hit four out of five targets.

“Noob.” Su chirped.

“Thanks for the encouragement.” Chan handed the gun over to Sin. “Give it a try.”

Sin, being unmodified, had a choice of trying the normal static targets for smaller prizes, or hit moving targets for the grand prize. For the latter, the targets slid across his view and disappeared off to the side. If he could hit five, he would win the grand prize. It was a large fish plushie that was almost as big as him. Chan thought its face looked stupid.

Sin only managed to hit two on his first try. Chan paid for another round, and this time the boy hit three.

“That’s impressive.” The booth moderator watched from the side. “Kids usually play the static ones, and it’s hard enough to hit two.”

Sin tried again, but he only managed two this time. Chan kept paying for more chances, and on the seventh round, he asked the boy to stop.

“Rest your eyes. Why are you so obsessed with getting that giant fish plushie, anyway?”

“I really like it and I’ll have it.” He said with a serious face. His determination was the real deal. Chan knew that he would not quit until he got the doll.

“Okay. Deep breaths, then. Be one with the gun. You’ve trained for this. Concentrate, Sin.”

“Alright.”

The targets moved even faster. Chan knew the game was not fair, but he said nothing. He wanted Sin to get some practice from this.

A few more rounds passed. Sin knew that when he was nervous, he would not shoot well. He calmed his mind, eliminating the crowd flowing behind him, Chan and Su standing beside him, and the booth moderator that had a hand on the control panel.

He fired five times, surely and slowly. Five hits. He won the grand prize.

“You did it!” Chan cheered. Even Su flapped around in circles around their twin’s head. Sin let out a long sigh and lowered the gun. The booth moderator applauded, then handed the giant fish plushie to the boy.

“Careful carrying that.”

They probably paid more than the market price of the doll by that point, but nobody cared. The boy hugged the fish plushie tight. He wanted to show off to everyone at the fair, but it was hard to carry around, and the ground was wet, and their sandals made splash noises as they walked.

“Let’s head home. I’ll call the car over.” Chan patted the boy’s shoulder. “Did you have fun today?”

“I did! I’m going to go to sleep with this doll.”

“Hey, at least let me get it through the sterilizer first. It’s wrapped now, but who knew what happened before it was wrapped.”

“Chirp, I need a bath.”

“We all do.” Chan stretched. “Hah, I haven’t had this much fun in a while either. We gotta show off to Khun Malee when she has time.”

As soon as they were going home, Sin thought back to the exchange he made with Chan.

“Can you tell me what happened to papa that night?”

Chan sat on the driver’s seat, leaning against the window. Su was on the steering wheel. Sin sat behind them, but he could see Chan’s eyes from the rear mirror.

Chan stared blankly out the window, his cord wagging like a tail, making rustling noises against the seat.

“Okay, but this is heavy stuff. You can’t unlearn this. Are you absolutely sure?”

Sin nodded.

“Fine… That night, Apai was called over by those who possessed his stolen memories. They were from Langka, working under Khun Huren.”

“…Khun Malee’s husband.”

“Yeah. Your father went there, and they caught him in an explosion. He almost died, but he made it back with the memories. I think they were planning to let him live from the very start. Anyway, that’s the gist of it.”

“If that’s all to the story, then why are you so reluctant to tell it?”

Chan heaved a sigh.

“Because we later learned that one of the reasons your father was so careless going to that explosion site…was that he was kinda freaked out. He killed a woman and was caught doing so.”

“Huh? Papa used to be an assassin. He wouldn’t be so careless. And he wouldn’t freak out after killing a person.”

“Gosh, do you really want to know?” Chan asked. The boy was unwavering, so he went on, knowing that if he lied, the boy would find out sooner or later. “I don’t know what happened, exactly, but he choked a sex worker to death.”

Sin was wide-eyed, and Chan continued.

“Normally, these sex workers have sensors implanted into them. Their supervisor will know immediately if they’re in danger or are in a state of stress and fear, but they can adjust the sensitivity to their liking. In your father’s case, the supervisor only received the emergency signal when she’s almost choked to death. The supervisor didn’t make it in time to save her. I don’t know what made your father do it, but that’s probably related to why he freaked out later.”

Sin was silent for the rest of the trip. Chan regretted telling the boy, but he had the rights to know. His attempts to comfort the boy or change the subject were all in vain.

When they reached home, Sin plodded to his bedroom with his big doll and stayed there for the entire day.

Malee visited him the next evening. Sin was no longer excited about his new plushie, so he told the story of how he got it in the simplest way possible. However, Malee already heard the exaggerated version from Chan, so she was nonetheless impressed.

“I am glad you persevered. Else, you would not get to bring this doll home.”

The boy hugged the doll even tighter.

“I wish I could get everything I want by being stubborn about it.”

“Some things take time, and some things take even longer time. If you keep working at it, you will eventually get what you want. I know that for a fact.” Malee rubbed the boy’s head. “How about this? Your father may have forgotten your birthday this year, but for the next year, I will give you the grandest gift ever.”

“What is it?”

“I will launch a satellite dedicated to you into space. How does that sound?”

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Hi... nice to meet you. Thanks for reading. 

I notice that this story is getting more views after I change the cover art.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy. And I hope you're having a great day. If not, have some of my sunshine *does kamehameha pose*