If only I knew

Chapter Eight

I dragged myself to work on Monday morning, back into the typical morning peak hour mad rush. Going back to work after a vacation is always a torture. It's like trying to get the engine started again.

Today, for once, I decided to text him first.

Me : Good morning! Joining the mad rush to office 😖 Enjoy your day off!

I was surprised he replied me.

Ken : Good morning! Jia-you! (Means all the best, something like that..)

Me : You are up early!

Ken : Got woken up by my dogs 😒

Me : Hahaha 🤣

Me : What are your dogs' names?

Ken : Xiao Dai (foolish, brainless, ignorant) and Li Qiu (this I have no idea, basically a ball?)

Me : hmm...

Weird names..

Me : So how did they woke you up?

Ken : One stepped on me, one pawed my face

Me : 🤣🤣🤣

Me : They missed you..

Ken : Probably.. anyway, so I'm up 😓

Me : Well, it's still early, you can always go back to sleep

Me : What time are you meeting your friends?

Ken : In the afternoon

Ken : It's okay, I'll have breakfast with my parents

Me : 👍🏻

He didn't reply back and it was getting difficult for me to even check my phone as I get sardine packed into the train so I also stopped texting.

I only finally get a breather when I reached my station. The train was emptied at my station practically. I queued to go up the escalator. I was hardly awake, to be honest. My body was just moving out of habit.

When I got into the office, my colleagues - mainly those I work with, are all interested to hear about my trip. I also quickly distributed the souvenirs before I forget about them and before work proper starts. Once the manager gets in, it is hard to be walking around giving out presents.

I have a pile of work waiting for me and my colleagues of course can't wait to hand back all my work to me. So, I was pretty busy for the whole morning.

After lunch, things start to return back to normal and I can check my messages. Mainly from my clients.

At around three, I got a message from him. It was a picture of his food, as he promised he would send.

I'm not sure if its the way he took the pictures or the food really looked so good, but my tummy is rumbling again despite I just ate lunch half an hour again and I had rice. Oh man.. Evil..

Then he wrote me the recipe of that fish soup he had. He said he made it at home the other day, if I recall. Yes, I recalled of course.

Ken : Steam the lightly seasoned fish and flake it. Saute the soup at the same time. Add the broth and bring it to a simmer.  Then add the veggies and the ham if you like. Stir in the cornstarch slurry to chicken and add in the fish. When the broth is nice and hot, stir in the beaten egg. Drizzle in the vinegar and white pepper. Add seasonings, stir and garnish with green onions to serve.

Me : What fish should I use?

Ken : White fish, sea bass, snapper, all okay

Me : Maybe I'll try it out this weekend