A girl with no name 无名女郎 (part 4)

I really appreciated your comments so far. Many positive remarks, a few criticisms here and there really made me have a greater motivation to work harder on my story. I have to say "paiseh" as I took nearly a week to finish part 4. I was tied up with some stuff during the week.

I always liked to write stories from young and always wanted to be an author. I believe that to be a successful author, one must be open towards new concepts, new ideas and be unbounded in terms of stretching those creative juices and imagination.

After writing, editing part 4 and doing up the drafts for the rest of the parts, I feel this is the biggest challenge to write something where it not just stretches my ability to write but also a test of whether my character might have a drastic change after writing a story. I am not saying that I would be a depressed soul after writing, but I do not know what would happen to me next after finishing this story…..

The story warms up….

“This is your parcel and a boutique of flowers,” the nonchalant voice of the delivery man seemed to downplay my anticipation.

I took the boutique of roses. Other than the natural smell of the roses, my nose sniffed on something else familiar. It was my favourite perfume, Gucci Flora. I was very surprised that someone would be able to know what perfume I sprayed on that fast. I pondered and wondered if I had told anybody on my first day of work.

As I opened the parcel like a small child with glee, I was surprised that it was a porcelain vase with very intrigue carvings of Chinese fairies. There was a note attached on the vase which said, “Fill me with roses.” The sender was anonymous but indeed he was quite comical in the way the gift was presented to me.

“Wah, I really envy you,” Kelly exclaimed as she took my roses and smelled them too.

“Cut it out, we have to finish our dinner and then get changed,” I looked from the corner of my eye as I saw some customers walking into our workplace.

As I got dressed up with my make-up on, I made a final check in the dressing room as I headed out.

“Hi Vanessa, remember me?” a voice seemed to have shot out from the dark.

“Hey Mr. Lim, how are you? I saw you last night and today you are here again,” I turned around and I could recognize him. He was one of the few loyal customers who came to my workplace since I started in here.

“Recognise this perfume?” Mr. Lim put on the brakes to what he was going to say next as he pointed to the perfume box that was on the table.

“Oh mine, you are the one who asked the delivery man to send the roses and the parcel,” I exclaimed as I saw the Gucci Flora box on the table.

“I hoped you liked it, I sprayed the perfume on the stalk instead of the petals as I was afraid the petals might turn brown. I have cut the ends slantwise and I hope you can put them into the vase that I had given you. Use warm water and put a spoon of sugar into the water so that the roses can last longer,” Mr. Lim seemed nervous as he stammered at the end when I gave him a light peck on his cheek.

“You are amazing, how do you know so much?” I was very impressed by Mr. Lim’s knowledge on flowers.

“Although I have my own business dealing in technology, my mother is a florist. So I learnt a lot of things about flowers from her. Just call me Ronnie would do,” Mr. Lim felt justified with his answer to my question.

“I hoped we can be more than friends,” Mr. Lim stopped abruptly testing my reaction to his statement.

“It’s a pity that we can be almost together. But I really appreciate your sincerity and your support for me since when I first started working here,” I was trying to be indirect but yet hoping that he can get the message.

“Cheers, and thanks again for your gift,” I poured a drink for myself and knocked my glass gently against his.

“This perfume is also for you. It is not just an empty box,” Mr. Lim pushed the box into my hands as I could feel the weight of the perfume bottle inside the box.

“Thank you once again. I have to go over to the other side. I would come back,” I exclaimed.

As I went around, there was not much of a crowd as it was a weekday. I just went about to my usual routine of dancing and in between our dance sessions, we went round different tables to talk to the customers.

I walked by Mr. Lim’s table when a hand grabbed on my upper arm.

“Vanessa, I have waited for you for over one year. I really like you a lot. Can you be my girlfriend?” Mr. Lim slurred a little as I could tell he was quite drunk

I was taken aback by his action but I forced a smile.

“You are drunk, Mr. Lim. We would talk about this another day ok?” I tried to avoid his question.

As Mr. Lim put his arm around my waist, I spotted Kelly nearby giggling at my direction and she shrugged.

“Call me Ronnie dear. You are my girlfriend, so you call me dear ok?” I struggled to try to understand what Mr. Lim was trying to say even though Mr. Lim pulled me closer towards him with his arm still tight around my waist.

I could not help but laughed silently to myself. He was a very sweet above-average looking man who had a stable career, but I did not have any feelings for him. Maybe I was too picky or it was the environment that I knew this man that made me hesitant.

I finally pulled myself out of his grasp as his grasp gradually became less tight. Mr. Lim was struggling to sit in his chair as I persuaded him to go home early to have a good rest.

As Mr. Lim staggered out of my workplace, I was quite relieved as I carried on with my routine.

Friday came at last. Everyday from the second day at work without fail, we had to go to our workplace two hours before hand to practise on our dance moves.

“I think that’s about all. We have to quickly take our dinner. Time is running short as we have to start work quite soon,” I felt satisfied when we finished our rehearsal.

“Angel, the playlist of the songs is written here for our dance tonight,” I passed a piece of paper that I scribbled the songs on to the disc jockey.

“Let us welcome our third group of dancers who would be giving you all a spectacular performance,” Angel’s voice interrupted the music as we went up on stage.

There were a lot of people today and I felt a bit nervous. Although there were butterflies in my stomach, I tried my best to concentrate on our routine. As I went to the front part of the stage, a pop sound almost deafened my ears as I was given a five hundred dollar sash. I felt a sense of achievement as my nervousness dropped a notch or two. I waved towards the direction of the person who rewarded me but I could not see clearly as the area he was sitting in was dark. More flowers and sashes came in not only for myself but also for my three other colleagues. We felt that our hard work had paid off and we were motivated to give a better performance along the way.

It was all about our work, as we had to prioritise our time according to the amount that the customers had given us.

“Hi Marcus, thank you for your flowers,” the four of us sounded out in synchrony.

“Don’t just thank me. The rest have contributed. You all danced very well, I really enjoyed it very much,” Marcus complimented us as his hands started to move from my back down to near my butt crack.

“Let me introduce the rest of my friends to you,” he waved his hands in the direction to his friends.

“Alan, Jeremy, George…” When he said the name, I quickly looked at the direction as I felt a bit scared at that split moment.

As we played card and dice games, we seemed to be having fun drinking. We did not feel like we were working. It was always very fun having Marcus around although he comes once in a week on Friday normally. Marcus is generous, young and rich. Sometimes, I wonder why he was still single.

As the four of us drank for nearly half hour, we felt high as we chatted with them as if we are out on an outing. As we cracked silly jokes, it was hilarious how some of them could laugh till they almost fell off the chairs.

As I left the table, I was a bit tipsy. As I walked by the table towards the bar, I felt that the alcohol had kicked in and I staggered a little. I did not know for what reason I just sat down randomly on a chair.

“This is my seat,” a familiar voice sounded out from behind sounding serious.

I immediately jumped up as I seemed to have wakened up from a semi-drunken stupor.

“Relax, I am just kidding, It’s ok, just sit down,” Alex seemed to have a hundred eighty degree change in his tone as he sat beside me.

As we talked, I tried to use my eyes to flirt with him. I tried to move I did not know whether he was simply blur or he was pretending not to notice. I did not divert my attention to Gilbert and Leo as they were busy listening to the live band.

“You seemed to be drunk,” Alex seemed concern as my eyes seemed to be closing.

“I am fine,” I struggled to open my eyes wide again. As I put my hand on my lap, I felt that the touch of the material seemed foreign to me, then I realised that I was touching on his thighs. I looked around to see if anybody else had looked at us.

Then his hand held my hand down on his thigh. His big warm hands made me feel secure. I did not pull away from his grasp as I acted aloof to what was happening. As I gently put my body towards his shoulder to hear him talk, I could feel that his heartbeat had quickened a beat or two. I could feel his big shoulders as I enjoyed the warm secured feeling with him beside me.

When I put my mouth near to his ear to reply to his questions, it was just a hair-line distance between my lips and his ear lopes. I could feel that I gave a tingling sensation to his senses as the sound waves coming from my mouth were projected into his ears.

“I have to go to another table,” His other hand was about to land on my lap as I made an excuse to run off.

“I did not know you were behind us,” Gilbert sounded from behind as he tried to tap my shoulder but I was too quick for him as I ran off to the washroom.

As I went into the washroom, my phone rang. I did not see the number on the screen and I just picked it up.

“WHAT?” I shouted so loud that anybody walking past the washroom could have even heard it.

The end of part 4

Who was on the other line? What had happened?
Look out for part 5!

A girl with no name 无名女郎 (part 3)

Hi everybody. I hope you have enjoyed reading the first two parts. For those who are anxious to know what is going to happen, here it is: the third part of the story.

The story starts to warm up.........


I looked up and I was surprised by who he was.

“I know about what happened in the past few months, I believe your father would be able to fulfill your request,” a familiar voice sounded out on my left which startled me but I could not recall the owner of that voice.

I looked up and I was surprised by who he was. I could recognize him even though his face was partially blocked by the umbrella.

“Mr. Zhang, why are you here?” I could not find something more appropriate to ask him at that moment.

“I heard from my son, George, about the whole incident. I know that you have suffered quite a lot over the past few months. George is an intelligent person but yet he can do rash things and not think of the consequences at times. This time round, his actions caused dire consequences which are irreversible,” Mr. Zhang’s voice was calm and seemed like he had prepared beforehand what he was going to say to me.

“So what’s the point of telling me all these? It’s the past,” my defiant voice did not seem to disturb him in any way.

“Your father betrayed me while he was working under me. Before he passed away, I told him I have forgiven him for what he had done. Even though I am a very busy man, I would still come to see him at his death anniversary. Maybe its fate that we did not meet on those days until today,” Mr. Zhang let out a faint smile. His unusual calmness irked me a little.

“I disapproved your relationship between you and my son because of your profession. I cannot allow my son to marry a dancer in a nightclub. It would have a very bad image on my son and me. I do not know what is so attractive about you that make my son go head and heels over you. Karen is a nice woman who has a bright career path in one of my companies. You are so different from her. Yet both of you are best of friends. What an irony,” Mr. Zhang seemed to be beating round the bush, not getting straight to the point.

“I don’t wish to waste your precious time. You are a very important businessman, could you please be more direct and tell me what you want from me?” I tried to be strong giving him a no-nonsense attitude although I felt like breaking down anytime.

“George cannot concentrate on his work entirely. He is trying to get over with the loss of Karen but he needs you badly. He misses you a lot. Do you know that he is hunting all over for you ever since you shifted your home and changed your number? I even had to send one of my sub-ordinates to assist him after work,” Mr. Zhang’s voice started to get a bit more anxious but his sincerity was still doubtful.

“I hope you can quit your job and get together with George. For the sake of my son, I am coming here to ask you. He is my only son and I mean well for him. Today is my best chance of finding you as I knew you would turn up on your father’s death anniversary.” he put the umbrella away as the rain came to a stop, revealing his face completely.
Upon close scrutiny, I realised that he had aged a lot over just a mere five years since I last saw him. His eyes, which were full of fire eons ago, seemed to be subdued at that moment.

“Your son is going to take over your business and he is distracted at the moment that’s why you come here to ask me. I think it is more of your own personal interests rather than you being so kind and caring for your very own son,” I was quite sure my analysis of his motives was at least eighty percent correct.

“If you want to think it in that manner, I would not want to bother to change your mindset. Quite some time, I had forgiven your father because of your father’s long service under me. Till near the tail end of his life, he had caused me a lot of trouble and made me lose a lot of money back then. I believe you are a smart girl, you should know what I mean. I give you three days to think about it,” his words made me feel uneasy as I felt a bit threatened.

“What if I don’t agree?” I did not know what to expect of him for my question as I turned my head to face the tombstone.

“Then I cannot promise your safety in this country. I believe that by you going to the authorities would not be a wise option for you,” his words sent shivers down my spine.

As he walked away, I broke down and cried. I seemed to have left with no choice but to get together with George or to get out of this country.

“Hey Vanessa, it has been a long time since I have seen you and your mother,” my aunt smiled as I greeted her at the door.

As we entered into her home, I did not hesitate but to tell my aunt the objective of my visit. After a brief conversation, my aunt understood our predicament.

“Mr. Zhang’s influence in many parts of Taiwan is quite big. I think it’s a good idea that both of you were to come to Singapore to stay. Singapore is a safe country to stay and work in. He would not be able to do any harm to you. Your mother can stay here. I have a guest room. I am staying alone anyway and my children visit me occasionally. It would be good to have some company of my age,” my aunt agreed to my request.

“I would be staying in a rented place near my workplace with my colleagues. It would be more convenient for me as your home is very far away from my workplace, but I would visit you, mama,” I turned my head to look at my mother.

As I went to my workplace in the night time, it was a surprise to a few of my colleagues.

“You are back, you have been away from here for about 6 months,” Kelly’s reaction on my presence seemed a little exaggerated.

“I had some stuff to handle back in Taiwan so I was away for so long,” I scanned around and saw quite a number of new faces in the dressing room.

Kelly had been working with me for a few years. We have been going around in Taiwan’s clubs to dance and also to numerous events. Ever since we first came to Singapore about one and a half years ago, our bond was stronger as we had to depend on each other in a foreign country.

“Joanna and Vivian went back to Taipei?” I scanned around the dressing room and also looked outside at the relatively empty pub.

“Yes, they went back to Taipei just two weeks ago. I am not too sure if they would be coming back,” Kelly sounded a bit disappointed at the end of her statement.

“They have been good partners when the four of us were a team. Now we have to try to get the synergy right with our new partners,” Kelly continued as she introduced the two new faces.

“Belinda, Carol, She is Vanessa,” our brief introduction was punctuated with exchanges of handshakes.

Kelly pulled me to the Disc jockey console.

“Angel, Vanessa,” I realised that the disc jockey had also been changed too.

“We had not rehearsed any dance moves, so we shall just do our own dance moves for today,” Kelly spoke to the three of us.

When it was our turn, we went up to the stage. I spotted a few familiar faces even though I have not seen them for a long while. Garlands of flowers were given to me as I went to the front of the stage. I was trying to be as natural in my dance moves as possible but as I had not practised much for the past few months, I felt a bit stiff and the nervousness of being on the stage came as I lacked a bit of self-confidence.

“Hi Vanessa, it has been a long time since you I saw you. I thought you are not coming back to Singapore to work,” a voice rang out as I came down to the stage and walked to the bar area.

I turned my head around. His face looks familiar but I could not recall who he was at that point of time.

“My name is Ah Hong. You forgot my name already I guessed,” he spoke as I was trying to think hard to recall his name.

“Cheers on your return back to Singapore,” he pushed a glass of drink into my hands. I smiled at him and the rest of the customers on the table as I finished the glass.

“Ah Hong, I have to go to the other tables,” I grinned at him as I pat him on the back.

I went around looking for anybody familiar. I saw one group of three men whose ages are in their late twenties as one of them was waving at my direction.

“Hi, my name is Leo. You are very pretty. Is this your first day here?” he look quite handsome but he sounded quite cheeky the moment I was in the vicinity of their table.

“Hi, my name is Vanessa. I just came back from Taiwan,” I shook hands with him and looked behind.

“Hey, my name is Gilbert. Nice to meet you,” his smile with the two dimples showing prominently on his face made me giggle a little.

“Hi. My name is Alex,” he seemed to look a bit fierce and he did not have much of a facial expression but I smiled at him out of politeness.

Gilbert and Leo stood in front of me, trying to get my attention. From the corner of my eye, I looked in the direction of Alex. He occasionally looked at my direction but his attention was on the stage listening to the songs played by the live band members.

As I sat down on the table with the three of them, my conversation with Gilbert was very long. We could talk about a lot of stuff from the political scenes in Taiwan to the food fare in Singapore. Although we talked for about nearly ten minutes, he was unlike other customers who tend to be a bit touchy and talked silly things to me but he did not give me any kind of feeling on the first impression when we just met.

As I went around other tables, I was very elated where quite a lot of customers still recognized me after such a long period of absence. I felt like I had thrown down a big boulder off my shoulders when the night continued as I drank a lot on that day.

When it was near the closing time, I staggered towards the bar area. As I tried to support myself by putting my hand on the round table near me, my hand missed the round table and I felt that I was about to fall.

“Vanessa, are you ok?” a strong hand grabbed my upper right arm. I looked up and Alex seemed to be concerned.

“I am alright, thanks anyway,” I turned to face him as I tapped on his hand showing my gratitude.

“Carol and Belinda, what made you come to Singapore to work?” I was still quite drunk even after washing up as I climbed to my bed and saw Carol and Belinda still awake in their respective beds.

“I was studying in University but I did not like the course that I was in. When I was in year two, I fell in love with my university classmate and my grades became from bad to worse. At the end of the second year, I had no choice but to drop out. My passion is dancing and someone recommended me to come here to work,” Belinda took the initiative to reply to my question first.

“Well, my father passed away when I was a young child. Recently, my mother had a minor stroke and cannot work so I had no choice but to find work and I was told that I can earn a lot of money in here so I came here,” Carol’s words seemed have struck me hard in my head. She was not only just truthful but her family background was quite similar to mine.

As we talked, our voice became softer as we subconsciously went into our respective dreamlands.

“Let’s work on our new dance moves. I would take the lead, you all would follow me,” I looked at Kelly, Carol and Belinda as we looked at the stage.

When the selected songs were played, I went to the front of the stage as I tried to choreograph our new dance moves with three songs. It was tiring as I had not done it for a long time and I had to spend a lot of time correcting some mistakes along the way. Having three other dancers in my group to synchronise with my dance movements was not easy but I hoped that we could get our act to near perfection by the end of the week.

While we were eating, a delivery man came in.

“May I know whether Vanessa is around?” the delivery man seemed to looking around.

“Yes?” I acknowledged.

“This is your parcel and a boutique of flowers,” the nonchalant voice of the delivery man seemed to downplay my anticipation.


Who is the mysterious sender of the flowers and the parcel? Look out for part 4!

A girl with no name 无名女郎 (part 2)

Hi everybody. Its me again. I hope you all have enjoyed the first part. Now let me roll out the second part.

The story continues....

As he slowly walked towards me to sit down beside me, I felt nervous as my heart seemed to skip a beat or two. I seemed to know what was coming next, but I seemed to be anticipating it. The feeling of anticipating it made me breathe harder as I felt more comfortable in this white low-cut short satin dress on my skin with my head sank into the silk pillow and the indescribable texture of his bed on my exposed bare skin………

“My world would never be complete without you,” he leaned over to my side.

I felt comfortable in his embrace as he leaned partially on top of me. His touches seemed familiar but yet so vague. His kisses were assertive and attentive. As his kisses from my cheek came down to light pecks on my neck, my eyes became half-close as I felt pampered. As I felt a tingling sensation all over my body with his fingers running down from my neck to my dress, it was a feeling that I missed so much. As his fingers went to the side of my body from underneath my arms to the middle of my chest and down to my waist, I shivered slightly as my breathing was a slow and relaxed pace. I felt very vulnerable as I could see a blurry image of his fingers going slowly up on my twin peaks as his fingers went back in between them. He really knew what I needed at almost every moment. Second after second, I felt that I was in another higher level. George was a man whom I really wanted to be with for the rest of my life but under circumstances and obstacles between us, we could not be together.

As his hands moved down to my legs and he attempted to tug my dress up to my waist, I instinctively pushed him away gently as he felt startled.

“What’s wrong?” he sounded very concerned.

I shook my head and smiled faintly at him.

“You really melt my heart,” my voice was barely audible.

Without a second thought, I put his right hand on my chest and I did not let go of it but only after a few seconds. He froze as his hand did not move. He seemed to be concentrating on feeling my heartbeat.

As I breathed hard, time seemed to have frozen for a while as we were in an almost still position not knowing what the opposite party would do next.

George boldly pulled up my dress to my waist as he kissed me in the lips passionately trying to distract me from what he was doing as his hands went underneath my dress. I could not help but letting out soft groans as his touches on my bare skin seemed to electrify me as he was pulling my dress up nearly to my bust.

Just then, I heard the keys at the door starting to unlock.

“Oh no, don’t tell me is her!” George’s face was as pale as the colour of my dress.

I glared at George as if my eyes could shoot darts at him. I could not believe what he said.

“George…..I am back……Oh my god! Who is that woman?!” a familiar voice sounded as George was blocking my view.

“I thought you said you wanted to stay in your mother’s place tonight. Why are you back?” George tried to divert the topic.

“Oh, so you took the opportunity to bring another woman back while I was not around right? I came back to drop off my shopping bags and I wanted to ask you to fetch me there. Bitch, you would get it from me!” the voice became louder with each word spoken.

As George rushed over, I could not believe my eyes. She was Karen, my best friend!

Karen dropped her bags when she saw me. In the next moment, Karen ran to my direction so fast that George could not stop her.

“How dare you seduce my fiancés? I could not believe that you want to snatch him away from me,” her tight slap across my face punctured her statement.

Her tight slap was so powerful that I fell onto the sofa bed. She wanted to attack me when George grabbed her from behind and pulled her away from me.

“I was hoping to introduce him to you next week and not now, not in this way. Vanessa, you have disappointed me truly. You are always in the limelight with men and now you still are,…” Karen incessant yelling at the top of her voice made her look like an insane woman at that point of time.

“George, you better explain this in front of us,..” I could not help but let the torrents of tears flow down my cheeks.

“What’s there to explain? You are a very cunning woman, you knew that I was going to marry him, and so you seduced him behind my back. You are worse than a slut,” Karen was ready to pounce and attack me at any moment only to be held firmly by George.

As Karen seemed to calm down, George let go of his grip slowly.

“I would die in front of you two. My dear George, our baby would join me and I would not allow him to see a horrible father like you. Worse of all is, the third party is my best friend,” Karen seemed berserk as she looked frantic, prancing around trying to look for something.

“Karen, I really did not know he is going to be your husband. Trust me please,” my words were minced in between my sobs as I struggled to speak with my tears flowing into my mouth.

Karen’s eyes suddenly looked at one direction as she ran towards that direction. It was the kitchen. George and I quickly chased after her as she took a knife on the table.

“Don’t come any closer if not I would kill you,” she inched backwards towards the open window as she climbed onto the ledge facing us.

Without any hesitation, I ran over to try to grab her, but she took the knife and slashed my upper right arm. As I managed to wrestle the knife off her hands, I stretched out my hand to grab her hand regardless of the perils that I was going to face by doing so. As half of my body was nearly out of the window, I tried to grab hold of anything, but all I could grab was the thin, crisp air and I felt a sudden upsurge of wind movement. I looked down in despair as I saw Karen land in a thud. I was stunned and was in a loss of words. No words could describe how I felt. As a strong wind howled cries into my ears, it was far from gentle on my face as it blew my tears literally back into my eyes. The sting caused me to return back instinctively into the room. George slumped at the corner of the kitchen, obviously too stunted by the sudden extreme change of events.

Instinctively, I rushed downstairs. I did not even think twice but to just run down as fast as I could to the ground floor. The pain from my right arm seemed to be non-existent. I felt abit numb at that area. My heart pumped so hard that it seemed like it was going to jump out of my mouth anytime. As my heart paced so fast, I seemed to be looking at a whirl of kaleidoscope of colours, my mind was dizzy and my head was spinning fast. My thoughts which meandered around my mind were only about Karen. It seemed to take eternity to run down the stairs as I finally reached to the ground floor. I ran towards her direction, and when I was nearing her remains, a concoction of nervousness, fear, sorrow and disappointment tingled down my spine with such a tremendous force that I just crumbled to my knees and fell next to her body and my knees landed onto the pool of blood with a splash. Her beautiful face was still intact, but her upper body was smashed horribly. I held onto her face, my tears flowed profusely and dripped onto her face. Any miracle of her surviving was totally wiped out.

“Karen, I did not have a chance to tell you the truth. I really did not know George was going to be your husband,” I murmured as I looked at Karen.

I did not know that blood was flowing profusely out of my open wound from my arm as I felt dizzy. My vision slowly became blurry as I felt a lot of blood on my left hand. Before I could look at how extensive my wound was, I blacked out.

When I woke up in an unfamiliar place, the first person I saw was George. Behind him was my mother. I immediately turned my head to face away from George.

“Lingling, I did not know that the both of you know each other. If I have known, I would not have done such a thing,” George’s words not only did not console me but instead made my blood boil.

“You should not have done that in the first place whether or not, Karen and I are good friends. Karen is a good girl. She is my best friend for fifteen years. I feel cheated. Your lies, your..”I could not bear to carry on as my emotional wound was much deeper as compared to my physical wound as my head was still facing away from George.

“Get out of my sight, George. I want to speak to my mother privately. Just get out,” my anger was stifled as I tried to control my temper in the hospital grounds.
George tried to grab my hand but I put it away from him as he reluctantly left the room.

“She is gone. Karen is gone,” I cried as my mother hugged me.

My mother knew Karen very well from the time when she was only a small child as she often came to our home to study or play together.

“If I had known, I would give George a tight slap,” her angry words shot out of her mouth after I related the whole incident to my mother.

“You had better rest well, my dear child. Don’t worry about me, we have enough savings to last for a few months. At this age and my health, nobody would want to employ me. Its really hard on you,” her tone became much softer, a big contrast to her earlier statement.

4 months later,

I could not help but think about Karen as I looked out of the window, enjoying the sunset view. The memories at her funeral were still fresh in my mind after quite a long time. After police investigations, there was not enough evidence to press any charges against us. The whole episode was a trauma to me and I was glad it was over but the emotional pain still remained. George persistently called me many times and even looked for me at my home but I ignored him. I did not have a choice but to change my number and to shift to another place to avoid him. It was only then that he could not locate where I was. During these four months, I did not have the mood to work as I felt like I was going into depression.

As I walked along the uneven pavement, I looked down at the random puddles of water filling small gaps and holes in the pavements. The pelting of huge raindrops on the ground seemed to be like an onslaught of small hailstones hammering onto the helpless ground which was under the mercy of the natural elements of the weather. My pace turned from a slow one and eventually to a stop. I managed to find my father’s tombstone. Every year for the past 5 years, I would not fail to turn up in front of his tombstone on his death anniversary.

“Pa, my best friend, Karen, is dead. I hope you can take care of her in the other world. I feel very sad, Pa. I have lost you and now I have lost my best friend too,” my murmurs were hardly audible as I knelt in front of the tombstone.

“I know about what happened in the past few months, I believe your father would be able to fulfill your request,” a familiar voice sounded out on my left which startled me but I could not recall the owner of that voice.

I looked up and I was surprised by who he was.

Who else was there at Vanessa's father's death anniversary? Find out in part 3!

A girl with no name 无名女郎 (Introduction)

Hello once again. Its been almost one hectic long year. Well, alot of things had happened this year. Perhaps quite a few sweeping changes in my life. This year, I had met alot of new friends too and this story is inspired by a few of them. Concocting life experiences with some imagination on my own took quite a while for me to plan out, but writing it out through my head seemed to be a smooth flow of ideas after ideas into this story. The protagonist is a female once again. (I think I cannot recall the last time I wrote a story where the protagonist is a male.) I feel its going to be a greater challenge than the previous story that I wrote and I could feel the great challenge of immersing myself into a shoes of woman already in the later part of the introduction of the story. Perhaps some ideas for those ladies out there who wants to have a different perspective in their relationship with their men? Haha, I don't know seriously whether it would work, but no harm trying!

The story starts to unfold......

“Vanessa, I am going to be a mum. I am 2 months pregnant,” Karen broke the new with a whisper in my ear. A broad smile across her face emphasised her joy.

“Even though we have not met for nine months, I did not know you have a new boyfriend and already pregnant! Are you going to get married to him?” I glazed at my best friend with a surprise.

“You have always been busy with work overseas and we hardly catch up. You know that we have not been talking much for the past 2 years. Remember the times when we were in High school, college and university. We would always tease the boys and have a lot of fun together. I always envy you, you always seemed to be a hunk magnet whereas I have to be like a sidekick to you. That was the past. Now I guess we are in our mid twenties, its time to move on to the next chapter of our lives,” Karen’s words seemed to deviate from the current topic as she did not answer my question.

“I would keep it a secret from you who he is. One day, I would introduce you to him and he has proposed to me!” she uncovered her hands as she showed me the one-carat diamond ring.

I smiled as I felt elated for my best friend. I still remembered during our schooling days where I was able to get the attention from the boys in school whereas she was behind supporting me. Now, she was the first to get married. It was irony but that’s life.

“Hi George, sorry to keep you waiting,” I smiled at him as I got into the car.

“I miss you so much. Working in Singapore must be tiring for you I guess,” George returned the smile as he looked into my eyes.

As I related about my work in Singapore, the ride seemed to be a short one as George pulled over to a local restaurant.

“I guessed you must have missed the local food in here after working overseas for so long,” George took my hand as he led me into the restaurant.

As we ate our dinner slowly, it was a far cry from when I worked in Singapore. I slept in the wee hours of the morning when dawn nearly cracked and woke up when the sun was about to set. Dinner was a quick one as I ate at the company that I worked in with my colleagues.

As we finished our dinner, George put his right hand across the table and reached out for mine. His left hand took out a small envelope from his pocket as he put it in my hand.

“My dear LingLing, you know during the time when you are in overseas, I miss you so much. I don’t want you to work so hard overseas. You are so pretty and good-natured. You do not deserve to work in this line. I know you need money to support your family. It is very hard on you to grow up in a single-parent environment too. I want you to take this and stay here and accompany me ok?” his tone was serious. His expression was solemn.

I peeked in the envelope and realised it was a lot of money.

“I cannot take your money, I am not your mistress and I cannot be your girlfriend. Our relationship is just pure companionship. My family woes had nothing to do with you, I don’t want you to be involved. I would feel very guilty taking it,” I refuted his offer firmly. My voice seemed agitated but yet quaky.

“Come to my place. We can talk there,” George held my hand gently as if assuring me that everything would be alright.

I nodded with a faint smile.

On the way back to his home, the silence in the car seemed to make me drowsy as I adjusted the chair and leaned backwards to close my eyes and take a nap.

As my eyes fluttered open slowly, I felt his hand on my waist as his lips were gently planted on mine. His quickened breath stirred me up as I closed my eyes again and I held his arms.

“We have reached my home. Its just my way of waking you up without causing you a scare,” his words seemed to ooze out an air of romance.

As I entered into his home, it was slightly different from my last visit nearly nine months ago.

“I bought this oriental foldable partition from an auction two months ago. Its used for changing clothes behind the partition,” he pointed at the 5 panel foldable partition which had 5 different oriental drawings on it from Chinese cranes to that of carps. I looked at awe at the partition. It was a beautiful add-on to the decoration of the living room.

“Nobody has gone behind the partition as yet,” his seemingly jokingly manner did not really quite synced into my mind as I caressed the rosewood of the long sofa set.

“This sofa bed is made of rosewood to blend into the rest of my decoration. Its comfortable for two people,” his cheeky comments made me tingle a little.

“Other than that, the paintings and the furniture are still the same by and large,” he continued on, trying to impress me with such delicacy that he did not want to sound too proud of himself.

George looked into my eyes as he held me in his arms.

“Lingling, its been nine months since I last saw you. I really missed the times that we were together. Stay here for the night, wouldn’t you?” George sincere words seemed to move me by an inch.

“George, I am just a dancer who earns money dancing in clubs. Your father is a very powerful businessman. I really like you a lot, how I wish I can be your girlfriend, your wife, but I am not worthy of you. I can only be your companion and I can only accompany you as and when I come back here from Singapore. You know your father cannot know of our relationship and your father would definitely disapprove of our relationship. You are going to take over your father’s businesses soon. I don’t wish you to screw things up and disobey your father,” I spoke as I caressed his face as my hands move down to his cheeks and his neck.

“George, I want to…” my words were interrupted abruptly as he grabbed me and kissed me in my lips. As we frenched, I seemed to melt into his big strong arms as I felt dominated by his touch. As my eyes opened with a tiny slit, I gazed at the partition.

After two minutes, our lips parted as I tried to catch my breath. As I was breathing hard, his gaze seemed to be looking below my neck. I let out a slight smile as if trying to concede it away from his view. I continued to breathe hard on purpose as I put my hands on his arms.

“I brought the white dress that you bought for me for my birthday last year,” I whispered into his ear.

Even though I could not see his expression, I had an intuition that he was surprised by what I said.

“I want to be the first person to go behind the partition to change my clothes,” I did not know why I said that but I felt that I was partially floating with ecstasy.

I did not wait for him to agree and took the white dress from my bag. I went behind the partition. It was slightly taller than me. There was a tiny slit between the panels as I tried to peer through to see George. I could see that he walked to the sofa seat and sat to face the partition.

As I adjusted the partition, I purposely made the slit between the panels wider as I pushed the two panels outwards. I peered through the slit one more time and I could see George nervously adjusting himself on the seat as he crossed his legs.

As I turned on a small table lamp on a small table beside me, the bright light seemed to glow within the partition and it was in contrast to the dimmer lighting of the rest of the living room. As I slowly removed the buttons of my blouse, I purposely stood next to the slit as I gazed at him. I did not know whether he could see me looking at him or whether he could see what I was doing.

As I let my blouse slip off my shoulders to the ground, I unzipped my pants as I slowly pull it off. With only my bra and panties on, I brushed my hair through my fingers as I walked about inside the partition inspecting the drawings on each panel. I then slowly picked up my white dress and slipped it on. As I adjusted my dress, I turned off the light as I walked out of the partition.

“I……ermmm..I…Do you need anything else?” he stammered as he looked nervous. I smiled at him and planted a kiss and shook my head.

I walked over to the sofa bed as I rested comfortable on the left side.

“I am beginning to appreciate the new add-ons in your living room,” my words had a tint of cheekiness.

As he slowly walked towards me to sit down beside me, I felt nervous as my heart seemed to skip a beat or two. I seemed to know what was coming next, but I seemed to be anticipating it. The feeling of anticipating it made me breathe harder as I felt more comfortable in this white low-cut short satin dress on my skin with my head sank into the silk pillow and the indescribable texture of his bed on my exposed bare skin………

THat's the end of the introduction!
Part 2 would come soon......!!! I hope you enjoyed my story and appreciate that you all took your precious time to read it! Thanks!

Deceit [การหลอกลวง] (gaan Laawk Luaang) - The end (part 2)

Hi everybody. I hope you all have enjoyed the story so far and I know alot of you are awaiting the very last part of the story. Through my roller-coaster rides of my feelings for the past few weeks, I have finally finished writing the story. I do admit that a few times, I almost broke down and cried when I wrote certain parts of the story - A reflection of my true feelings. I do hope that you all can spend some time reading the story as it is longer than the other parts...

The story comes to an end.......and so is my own little story.....

“Congratulations, you have won the contest. You are going to be a big star, but I meant what I said from the bottom of my heart just now in the make-up room. I think I have fallen in love with you, not because you are pretty on the outside but because of your inner beauty. Such a beautiful lady like you is very rare. I have been holding back all these months about how I felt about you and I gathered my courage to tell you this right now, would you at least give me a chance for us to develop further?” Keith looked at me intensely, hoping for an answer that he wanted to hear.

“I told you I am seeing somebody else , didn’t I?” my lies through my teeth did not seem to convince Keith.

“You are lying. You are not seeing anybody. You are bluffing yourself. Tassa, you can deceive all those around you, but you cannot deceive yourself. I want the best for you, please, I really love you and I want to be together with you, is that what you want to hear so that I can convince you how true I am to you?” Keith was almost shouting as he could not believe what he heard.

“I am now going to be a superstar soon, I don’t have time for you. Even if we are together, we would not be happy together at the end. You are just a guitarist in the band, you are not fit for me,” my scorns at him hurt me deeply as I did not mean it but I wanted to provoke him and discouraged him to drop his idea.

“Tassa, I know you are not such a person. You know it deep inside you. Go ahead and deceive yourself all your life. Deceive all you want, but you would never be happy with what you have achieved,” Keith yelled at me defiantly for the first time.

I turned around not facing him as I could hear footsteps fading away from me. When I realised that Keith was out of sight, I went to the chair of the make-up room and cried. Why am I deceiving myself? Why am I doing this to myself even though I liked him too?

“I was looking all over for you. It’s time to go, what happened?” Mr. Thaphorn’s concerned voice suddenly woke me up as I tried to brush my tears aside as fast as I could.

“Nothing, really,” I did not know what to say.

Mr. Thaphorn fetched me and my mother to his home. As my mother and I sat with Mr. Thaphorn in the living room, there was an awkward silence.

“I would want to propose to your daughter and I want to give the both of you each a comfortable life,” Mr. Thaphorn’s words shocked me as I almost dropped my glass of water.
My mother gave a curious look at me as I stared at Mr. Thaphorn in blank space.

“I would be happy for my daughter’s choice,” my mother took her time to decide on what to tell Mr. Thaphorn.

I felt cornered as Mr. Thaphorn gave my mother the impression that he was the Mr. Nice Guy, but I would not forget that he deceived me once although I might have forgiven him. He knew that I would not be telling my mother that he made me his mistress before.

“I would think about it,” my tone projected out no emotions.

“Mr Thaphorn is a very nice person, he gave me an accommodation to stay in a nice hotel and he told me that he offered you free accommodation in his home when you were in Singapore. I think…”I put my hand up to interrupt my mother when we were on a taxi back to the hotel where my mother stayed.

“I know you mean well for me, mother. It’s been a long time since we spent time together. I was thinking that since papa had passed away, we can move together to an apartment in Singapore. I want to keep you company and not leave you alone in the village,” my proposal seemed to make my mother deep in her thoughts.

“I really want to, but after spending nearly 50 years in Thailand. This is a new environment that I must get used to. I would miss the village and our neighbours if I do come to Singapore to stay permanently,” my mother turned her head away from me as she seemed to be looking at a specific direction.

Time passed very fast as mother and daughter spent quality time together for four days before my mother went back to Thailand. It was still open-ended to whether my mother wanted to stay with me. Arthit was kind enough to make sure that my mother would be taken care of back in the village and I was more than grateful towards him. It was a pity that he had to go to Malaysia for a short business trip and he had to miss one of the most important days of my life. I would spend another two more weeks before my contract would officially end and that I would be moving over to the record company to start afresh.

It was refreshing to come back to the old environment of my workplace after such a long while. It was a Tuesday night and it was normally two-thirds full. When I came up to perform, it was not only full but there were a lot of people standing around at the fringes of the pub. Apparently, my popularity had risen tremendously after my big win in a singing competition.

“Thank you everybody for your support. I want to announce that my last day in this place would be next Saturday but occasionally I would make an appearance in this place and I hope that you would support us continuously,” I stood in between two female singers who came in two months ago to cover for me while I was busy with the rehearsals.

As I finished my first part of my performance, I went around talking to the customers as they shook hands with me to congratulate me.

“Hi, Congratulations to you,” a hand came out from nowhere offering a handshake from the next table.

The hand belonged to Mr. Ng. I excused myself and returned the handshake.

“How have you been?” Mr. Ng’s question seemed to be rather common.

“I am doing fine,” my reply seemed be almost mechanical and automatic to the question itself.

“The orchids are growing much more beautiful than before. I really hoped that you can take a look at it,” Mr. Ng’s words reminded me of the past when we had an intimate moment at his home.

“When can I ask you out for dinner again? You seemed to be always busy,” Mr. Ng’s request reminded me that I had ignored it once.

“I am not sure. I think it’s very hard for us to meet outside my workplace,” I did not look at Mr. Ng in the eye when I blurted out the statement.

I could feel an air of disappointment from Mr. Ng. He did not say anything except to empty his glass in seconds.

“Is it because of what I said that day that hurt you? You know I like you so much and I look forward to looking at you,” he started to speak with intermediate pauses after he gulped down his drink. I felt the tension increasing with his words.

“No it’s not that, I really cannot meet you outside the workplace. Sorry,” I tried to apologise as sincerely as I can. Apparently, it did not seem to work.

“I really want to take good care of you, and love you whole-heartedly. Although I don’t know you that long, I just have that kind of feeling,” Mr. Ng’s true feelings seemed to reveal whether is it out of desperation or out of sincerity I was not sure.

“I have to go now, I got to perform now,” my excuse was made clear to him as I turned to the direction of the stage.

As I finished the performance, I packed up to leave as I headed home. As I was about to leave home, Mr. Ng was in front of me.

“Can I send you home? I just want to talk to you,” Mr. Ng requested.

“Someone else would be sending me home,” I tried to refuse his request politely.

“Where is he? I don’t see anybody coming to fetch you. Please let me talk to you for a while on the way to your home,” Mr. Ng begged again as he grabbed my arm.

“He would be coming soon, let go of me,” I tried to free myself away from his grasp.

“I am sorry for that time when I scolded you. I really did not mean it. I was drunk when I said those words to you,” instead of letting go, his grip on my arm was tighter.

“You are drunk!” I mustered all my strength and broke free of him as I gave him a tight slap.

“Don’t make a scene here. Mr. Ng, you have crossed the line,” I ran away as I did not take notice his reaction and did not dare to look back.

As I saw Mr. Thaphorn’s car on the other side, I heaved a sign of temporarily relief.

“What happened? You seemed to be frantic,” Mr. Thaphorn looked concern as I got into the car.

“Nothing,” I smiled at him faintly.

When I reached Mr. Thaphorn’s place, I went to retire to my room. As I was about to take a shower, Mr. Thaphorn looked at me seriously as he wanted to tell me something important.

“Tassa, you have stayed here for quite some time already, I believed that after next week you would not be working in my pub, I would miss you in my workplace. Have you considered my proposal?” Mr. Thaphorn’s words did not seem to make a nice conclusion for the night.

“I cannot decide now, can you give me some time? I am very tired,” I was being honest to him for a rare occasion.

“No you can’t. You either agree to be my wife, or you leave by this evening, I give you time to pack your bags,” Mr. Thaphorn’s words came like a thousand knives piercing me everywhere.

“I have helped you made your pub make a lot of money. You deceived me to be your mistress for months. Now that you know I am about to leave your pub, this is how you are going to treat me? If that’s what you want, FINE! I shall not agree to be your wife and you would not see me anymore after five this evening,” I was very upset as one bad incident led to another.

I was lucky that through the record company, I was able to find a place on my own to stay. Soon, it was my last day of work and I managed to get the full amount of money agreed on the contract from an unwilling Mr. Thaphorn.


As I was about to step out of the record company’s grounds after work, Keith was standing just a few metres away from me.

“What do you want?” I did not bother to greet him.

“I knew you were lying. You are not seeing anybody. Not Mr. Thaphorn or anybody else. Don’t deny, I can see it in my own eyes. I am not a fool. Why must you lie to me? You know that we do like each other in a way,” his statement seemed to have overwhelmed me that I felt a tear oozing out of my right eye.

“Stop hurting me, would you?” the tall walls of ice that inhibited me from telling him my true feelings seemed to start to melt.

“You must have your difficulties to hide from me, I know it. I want to help you. All along when I first knew you, I was there for you. I knew all along what you have been through. Be fair to yourself, Tassa,” I rushed to a corner as he chased after me while he was talking to me.

I leaned against the wall as the thoughts went through my mind. I definitely would not want Mr. Ng even though he is a nice person. Slapping him was the last straw for him to even want to talk to me again. I have rejected Mr. Thaphorn’s proposal and he kicked me out of the home.

“I came to Singapore to just look for a better life so that after a few months later, I can go home and my family can have a more comfortable life. Little did I know that so many things had happened to me. I was almost raped by Mr. Lee. I was deceived by Mr. Thaphorn to be his mistress. Now that I have achieved success, I feel that I have achieved nothing, I don’t know why I feel that way,” I subconsciously confessed to him.

“It’s ok, Tassa. I know that you have been through a lot over this period, let me help you ok?” Keith’s concerned tone did not really make me feel better.

As our casual outings together amidst our busy schedule were short, we enjoyed each other’s company very much. Our casual outings became more and more romantic as we began to be closer to each other.

“The view from your ceiling window is very beautiful. We are lucky to have a starry night,” I commented as I looked up lying on the bed.
“Everyday, I would look up to the sky wondering what would you be doing at that moment, hoping the sky can tell me the answer,” Keith smiled foolishly as he was looking at the same direction as I do.

As we turned to look at each other, it was spontaneous and synchronous. We smiled at each other with a common understanding knowing what the other party is thinking.

As Keith slowly turned himself towards me and went on top of me, I breathed heavily. I did not expect him to do that but I did not resist. I felt an air of anticipation of what he would be doing next. As Keith’s lips were near mine, I could tell what he wanted. I could feel his face flushed red as I could somehow feel the heat from his face. Without thinking, I took his head and kissed his lips as passionate as possible.

As we kissed each other deeply, it was beyond words to how to describe this kiss. As his touches on me were so slow and detailed, I felt that my love for him seemed to have run deep into my veins and made my body shiver as my nerves tingled.

As we caressed each other, I could not find the slightest reason or logic as I slowly slipped off my dress in front of him. Keith just looked intensely into my eyes even though I was almost bare.

“Your eyes are so beautiful that I just could not stop looking at it. It’s something which I could not stop looking at,” Keith whispered.

His whispers seemed to be a drug which made me go into my subconsciousness as I kissed him everywhere and I slowly licked his bare flesh as I slowly unbuttoned his shirt. I felt the need to satisfy him, the need to turn that moment of his love for me to lust.

My gentle seduction turned a little more aggressive as we were only left with our underwear. As I sang a short verse of the lyrics of a song and danced in front of him, his look on my eyes were intense but it was slowly diverted to my assets which I felt appreciated.

Suddenly he got up from where he was and he pushed me to bed, as I felt that his male instincts came like an adrenaline rush. As he removed the remaining of cloth on me and his own, he just made love to me immediately. It was raw passion that I could not describe. He was the first man that I truly loved deep inside me that I was copulating with. As I felt different level of highness, I felt like all my worries and troubles were melted away in the river of affection for each other.

“My dear, I cannot continue, I do not want to make you pregnant,” Keith’s logical senses seemed to throw in front of me as his breath was very heavy as he tried to speak.

Instead of killing the mood, his words somehow made me feel more attracted to him. His consideration for me from the start when I knew him was relentless even till this stage. I hugged his bare body tightly as I looked at his eyes once again.

“I need you, don’t stop….please,” I looked at his eyes intensely as I knew my eyes would seduce him and erase that thought.

Although I felt that Keith seemed to be hesitant, his male instincts got the better of him as I could feel that the peak at that moment was coming and I held him tightly.

As I felt him reaching to the height of the moment, I felt it spontaneously too on myself. That moment was truly magical. As we hugged each other tightly for ten minutes, I felt so loved by this man that I would want to bear a child for him and start a family with him.

“I would be responsible for what I have done,” Keith finally broke the silence.

“Keep quiet, silly boy,” I used my finger and poked at his forehead.

2 months later,

“Hi doctor, may I know what are the results?” I was concerned as I was anxious about what had happened to me recently.

“Congratulations. You are expecting,” the doctor’s words came as I had mixed feelings.

As I was only starting my career, I did not know if I was able to cope with my expectancy. Although I felt that my wish came true that I could have a child with Keith, I would need to know that I have to juggle my career with my family very well.

As I tried to call Keith, I could not reach to him. It was weird as normally at that time of the day, he would be going to work. I shrugged off the thought that nothing would happen to him as he could be riding on the way to work.

After I finished my work, I was increasingly getting more tired easily. I broke the news to the record company thinking that I would have disappointed the directors. Even though they felt that it might have hampered the progress of the release of the album, I was very glad that they fully supported me as they told me that my first release of my album and photoshoot for the album would be after my pregnancy.

I tried to call Keith again but I could not contact him. I was starting to get worried. As I went home to watch the evening news, my jaw dropped as I realised that Keith was involved in a nasty accident on the road earlier on in the day and he had died on the spot.

My mind was in a mess as I felt torrents of tears pouring down my face. I did not know what to do as I was frantic. I scrolled down the list and managed to get Gary, who was Keith’s colleague.

“Hi Gary, Keith is dead,” I struggled to talk as my tears went into my mouth. My words were almost inaudible.

“Thank god you called. You had better come down to the mortuary. I would give you the address now. I did not have your number and I could not access Keith’s mobile phone,” Gary gave me the details and I immediately flew off.

At the mortuary, I went to see him. The sight of him lying motionless made me crumble down to the floor and cry. I could not bear to look again. The pain was unbearable as I wanted to break the news to him that I was expecting and that he promised that he would marry me.

“Hi, are you Keith’s gf?” Keith’s dad spoke.

“Yes,” I could only say a word as I burrowed my head, squatting down on the floor and leaning against the wall.

“I managed to claim his belongings from the staff and I think that you should have this. I am sorry that you have lost your boy friend and I am equally hurt too that I have lost my only son too,” he was surprisingly calm and strong as he spoke to me.

As I looked up, I had cried so much that my eyes were blurred and I could only make out the outline of a red box. I took it feebly and put it close to me. I opened it and saw a very beautiful diamond ring.

As I lifted up the diamond ring, a slip of paper slipped out of nowhere. I took it and read it.

“Tassa, I want you to be my wife. I want us to be happy together, forever.”

My tears were flowing but it was no longer flowing out of my eyes but inside my heart. I took the diamond ring with care as I wore it on my finger……….


8 years later.

“Hello, do you still remember me?” a familiar voice came from the right.

“Hi. It’s you,” I looked at Mr. Ng. His features did not change much as compared to when I first knew him except that he had a few wrinkles on his face.

“Is that your child? She is really beautiful. How old is she?” Mr. Ng squatted down as he looked at my child.

“She is 8 years old now,” I smiled as he was teasing my child.

“I really loved your albums. Each of your albums is so successful that they went double platinum. I guess you must have really put in a lot of hard work. Whenever you have a new release, I would always buy them and listen to them everyday. When I hear the songs that you sang in the competition and in the pub you used to work at, I would always remember the good times many years ago. It is a pity now that you have retired,” Mr. Ng seemed to be looking up in the air blaring out his thoughts unknowingly.

“Where is your husband?” Mr. Ng seemed to have his clouds of thoughts erased in the air as he queried.

“He passed away eight years ago,” I tried to smile as I recalled how Keith passed away although he was not officially my husband.

“I am sorry to hear that,” Mr. Ng put his hand on my right shoulder trying in anyway to comfort me.

“Ever since the slap you did to me, I never saw you again till now. It was my fault, I shouldn’t have tried to pester you that night,” Mr. Ng’s flash back of that event seemed to be very fresh in his mind.

“It’s alright, Mr. Ng. It had happened so many years ago. Are you married or seeing someone now?” I put forward a similar question to him.

“I was. But I am not now. My wife divorced me two years ago. It could be the purple orchids I grew in the garden. She preferred some other flowers,” Mr. Ng made a small giggle making me wonder if he was trying to make a joke or trying to pass to me a hint.

“Here is the name card. You need not have to call me Mr. Ng. Call me Leo would do. I am not your customer in the pub anymore. Don’t need to be too formal,” Mr. Ng passed me his name card as I took it reluctantly.

“I got to go now, I hope you would call me and perhaps we can have dinner. I wonder how many times I must request from you to have a meal with me before you would even accept.” Mr. Ng’s past memories of our conversation seemed to be remarkable.

“I did not reject you outright,” I was trying to scrabble for the right words to say.

As we separated and walked in different directions, I walked towards the rubbish bin and contemplated to throw the name card away.

“Mummy mummy, why are you throwing away the card?” my child’s voice from below yelled to seek attention.

“I think he is a nice man. Mummy, have you known each other for very long? I want to eat dinner with Uncle Leo too,” her innocence amused me as I smiled at her.

“He is a very busy man. I would try to see if he can make it one day then I would bring you out to eat together with him ok?” I replied making sure she understood.

As I grabbed my daughter’s hand firmly, we strolled down the streets and I put the name card in the pocket. I thought to myself that this man never gave up after so long. I shook my head slowly as I smiled to myself. It was not just a smile but it was from the bottom of my heart…..

Thank you for your support of this story. In the mean time, I would post up my earlier works up as I would be busy with my work for the time being and hopefully I would be able to pen a new story during June. Thanks once again....

Deceit [การหลอกลวง] (gaan Laawk Luaang) - The end (part 1)

Hi everybody. I hope that you all enjoyed your Chinese New Year holidays. Well, the story got to come to an end soon. And I have posted here part 7 which is also the end of the story but it would be split into two parts. I hope you enjoy the story.

The story comes to a conclusion........


As I saw the band come in, I could not help exclaiming, “I cannot believe you are in this band!”

“Hi, it’s such a coincidence, I am so glad to meet you,” Keith’s nonchalant tone familiar to my ears made me ecstatic this time round.

As we were introduced to the other band members, we soon worked with our rehearsals.

“I got for you your favourite sandwich and your drink,” Keith sat beside me as we took a short break.

“You still remembered what I like after such a long time. I guessed we have not met or talked to each other for several months,” I felt awkward as my initial excitement on seeing him died off quickly. I did not know what else to say to him as we had not spoken to each other for quite some time.

“I wanted to call you, but I guessed you must be busy. I did not want to disturb you. I could see that you have changed a lot and you put all those past unhappy events at the back of your head,” Keith was straightforward as his words somehow made me think of the remnants of the past.

“I would rather not talk about it. But thanks for everything back then,” my awkwardness raised a notch or two as I did not want the past to mingle inside me again.

“I really missed you a lot, Tassa. I could not confirm my feelings when we were constantly together at work, but once you left us, I felt that a piece of me has been broken away from me. I have been thinking about you but yet I do not have the courage to tell you back then as I was very guilty about covering up the incident. I felt I let you down….”he stopped abruptly as I raised my hand.

“Sorry, I am seeing someone else,” I could not believe that I said such a thing.

“Tassa, as long as you are happy with that person, I would be happy for you. But tell me the truth, do you like or even miss me even a bit?” Keith’s inquisitive probe was something which made me think for a while.

“No, not at all,” I breathed heavily as I answered the question not knowing why I lied to him.

I got up as I finished my drink and went to the washroom, not even telling him where I was going.

As I washed up, I looked at the mirror. My reflections of my thoughts were on the other side of the mirror as I seemed to be scrutinizing them on that other side.

Why should I lie to him? In fact, I missed him a lot and I liked him the most. I did not know why I said such a thing to him. I felt I was worse than Mr. Thaphorn. He might have deceived me but he was true to himself. I not only deceived Keith about how I felt but I had deceived myself too. As I touched up on my make-up, I breathed hard and closed my eyes as I tried to put aside all distractions and concentrate on my rehearsals.

As we went about the rehearsals, it was good to relive the old times where I would peek glances at Keith and performed. His smile to me was consistent as it would somehow reduce the stress that I had been going through.

As time passed very fast, it was three days before the competition.

“I would like to thank all of your support for me all these while. You all have been great. I would need to take a break for the competition and I have to thank most of you who would be supporting me in this competition,” I concluded my performance with a few words to the customers.

As I stepped down, Mr. Ng approached me again.

“Good luck to your performance. I hope you would win and I would be there to support you,” Mr. Ng smiled at me as he shook my hands.

“Thank you very much, I got to go now,” I was deliberate in trying to avoid him.

“Why are you avoiding me?” Mr. Ng’s question seemed to annoy me.

“I am not avoiding you, I am very busy these few days. I got to wake up early for my final rehearsals,” I told Mr. Ng firmly.

As the big day came, I felt as if there were butterflies fluttering around in my stomach as my heart beat went up a notch or two. As I saw my regular customers from my workplace coming in full force, I felt an unknown strength and to add to that foundation of strength, Keith was beside me.

As I sang the newly composed song by one of the songwriters in the record company, it was simply the most suitable song for me. It was entitled “My home”. It was about a person who missed home and who had been away from home and looking forward to coming home. To make it more challenging, half of the lyrics were in Thai and the other half in English. I felt that more of my inner feelings could be injected into the songs when I sang some of it in Thai. It was a gamble to whether the crowd was able to accept such a song.

“I would like to announce the top 3 who would have to sing another 2 songs before the winner is decided. The results are based on the marks given by this panel of 8 judges who are professional singers, producers and songwriters,” Miss Chut announced as she looked nervous herself.

My eyes were the widest as I was shivering as she announced the names. The first two names were not mine as I felt that my mood was brought up and down like a roller-coaster. As Miss Chut was about to announce, I felt prepared to break down and cry if my name was not announced.

“Tassa Songhrasri,” Miss Chut announced the last name.

I was ecstatic beyond words as I tried to balance myself after realizing that my name was announced. I was not aware of the roaring cheers from the crowd at the right hand side where all my supporters were there.

During the five minute break, I was at the backstage.

“You have made it to the top three,” Keith beamed with a smile as he handed me my favourite drink.

“I wish you good luck for the final stage of the competition,” Keith’s tone never changed ever since the first day I met him, but I know he meant well deep inside me.

As I sang two songs, the first song was a dance hit as my feelings and emotions were happy. As I danced around in those familiar steps that I used to do in the workplace, I felt as if I was performing as usual in the workplace blocking out the pressure of more than five hundred people staring at my direction. Keith complemented me well as we were familiar with each other’s style. An ace card that I had that the other singers did not have. I felt as if the stage was a playground where I moved around happily where the only boundaries were the stage perimeters. As I thought about the happy moments with Keith, Mr. Ng etc, I was smiling while singing the dance hit.

As the three of us rotated, I was trying to put myself into the right set of the feelings for the second song. It was a sad song as I recalled the demise of my father and how Mr. Thaphorn deceived me to be his mistress.

“Hello Tassa, someone who claims she knows you very well, wants to see you, but you only have 5 minutes before you have to go up to the stage,” a backstage crew shouted at my direction

As I looked up the mirror to see the reflection, I could not believe it. I dropped the make-up set as I turned around.

“Mama!” I shouted so loudly that the people outside the small make-up room might hear.

“I was seeing you perform on stages. You have grown up, my sweetheart. You are ready to take on the world to be a top-class performer. I am proud for you as you have already achieved so much,” her words were in between tears as we hugged each other tightly.

“How did you get here?” I was curious.

“Mr. Thaphorn arranged to let me come here to see your performance. He is a very nice man,” she spoke in a quaky voice as he coughs made her voice less audible.

“Mama, are you ok?” I was concerned as her face was abit pale

She nodded.

“Tassa, you have two minutes more!” a voice from the other side of the door shouted.

“Mama, go back to your sea to rest, ok? I need to perform soon,” I led my mother to the door.

As I re-appeared, I put on a solemn look as I sang the second and last song. Memories of my childhood flooded in my mind as I scrutinised the crowd for my mother. I saw my mother near the far left corner as I smiled at her faintly. As the memories meandered around, the demise of my father was very painful to me. As I sang the song, I looked at Keith and Keith nodded as if understanding what I felt. I felt a gush of negative feelings and emotions up to my eyes as I tried my best to hold back my tears as my eyes began to be watery. As I concluded the song, no matter how I shut out my tears, a tear seemed to ooze out from my left eye as I waved to the audience and went back to the backstage.

As I was out of the sight from the audience, I cried as hard as I could, leaving the backstage crew baffled to what had happened. I slumped on the chair so hard that it could have broken even though I was quite light. I looked at the mirror as the reflection showed a horrible-looking me. Ever since I came here, I felt I was a toy, a chess-piece. My main aim was to make as much as money in Singapore so that I could go back to my village and live a comfortable life for the rest of my life with my family but it was at the expense of my happiness. It was unthinkable that I would betray my own body to do such a thing, to give myself away to men with loads of money and not to a man I love.

“Tassa, I know I am not supposed to come in, but this is the least I can do for you,” Keith’s voice seemed to appear from all of a sudden as it jolted me out of my deep thoughts. I saw a bottle of my favourite drink in my sight literally even though I did not even turn my head.

“Tassa, no matter what happened to you in the past, I still believed your heart is good. You are a good woman. You decided what you had to do at that time because you felt that it was the right choice, but you did it against your wishes. It is fate that brought us back together. I want to get more involved in your life, not just the songs that you sing together with me,” Keith seemed to have summarised what he felt about me all these while.

I smiled as I felt unknown warmth in my heart, which itched a little.

“Tassa, the results are going to be announced soon, you have to go up now,” the backstage crew opened the door.

As the three of us held hands in a row, we were nervous as I could feel that my two competitors are shivering with nervousness. I was no exception.

“All of you have done extremely well. If I could, I would want all three of you to join us to walk on this musical career path, but I can only choose one. I shall announce the runner-up first,” Miss. Chut’s mood seemed to be in tandem with ours as her voice projected a little nervousness.

“Miss Sandra Wong!” Miss Chut smiled.

“Miss Sandra Wong would receive $50,000 cash, congratulations!” Sandra went to take her prize from Mr. Leow as the crowd cheered as Miss Chut announced.

“The winner would receive $100,000 cash and a 3 year contract with our record company, the winner goes to…..” Miss Chut tried her best to keep the suspense.

It was the longest pause ever as my eyes were wide open as her lips were about to pronounce the first syllable of the name.

“Tassa Songhrasri!” I nearly crumbled to the floor as the other singer held me up as she hugged me to congratulate me.

My supporters went wild as they shouted my name in unison as tears of joy flew out of my eyes uncontrollably. After all the long hours of hard work, I had finally succeeded. As I tried to wipe my tears with my fingers while collecting the trophy from Mr. Leow, I was speechless as I said a big thank you to him.

“I knew you were the one for us when I looked at you and your performance on the first night I saw you,” Mr. Leow beamed as he nodded his head approving his statement.

“I would like the winner to sing our newly composed song, my home, one more time, to wrap up this competition!” Miss Chut gave a thumbs-up as she looked at my direction.

As the lights blinded my vision momentarily and the clapping sounds droned into my ears, I closed my eyes momentarily to try to connect to the emotions and feelings of the song. When I felt the complete sync between my inner self and the song, it was just in time for me to start to stretch my vocals. As I sang, the rhythm from the musical instruments filled my mind with an output of the melody from my mouth. As I looked down from the stage to the audience, I could not see their faces clearly but I could feel their devoted attention towards me. As I pulled a high key near the conclusion of the song, the audience stood up and gave me a standing ovation. The initial low monotonous clapping sound slowly turned into a high-pitched loud and synchronous beat. My eyes scanned the audience and I spotted a lady who was the only one who held firmly on her seat. She was my mother. When I scrutinised every detail on her face, a tear came out of my face with momentarily jerks in its trajectory. When the song came to an end, I just stood staring at my mother’s direction. My recollection of the past seemed to fast forward very fast in the flash of light to the present.

As I finished singing “My home”, torrents of tears fell out of my eyes uncontrollably even though I mustered all my strength to hold them back. The audience clapped non-stop as they remained standing up and finally my mother feebly stood up and clapped.

“Thank you so much,” my voice quivered under the microphone which was shaky with my trembling right hand, in contrast with my firm grip on the trophy on my left, and a sense of achievement that I had secured a contract with the record company and a hundred thousand dollars cash reward for claiming the top position in this contest.

“This song is dedicated to my mother whom flew all the way from her hometown in Thailand to Singapore to see me perform and also my father whom passed away six months ago,” I spoke as I recalled the last moments that I spent with my father.

When I stepped out of the changing room, Keith was standing at a near distance as he looked at me.

“Congratulations, you have won the contest. You are going to be a big star, but I meant what I said from the bottom of my heart just now in the make-up room. I think I have fallen in love with you, not because you are pretty on the outside but because of your inner beauty. Such a beautiful lady like you is very rare. I have been holding back all these months about how I felt about you and I gathered my courage to tell you this right now, would you at least give me a chance for us to develop further?” Keith looked at me intensely, hoping for an answer that he wanted to hear.

What would Tassa tell Keith? Look out for the last and final part of the story soon!

I hope you all enjoyed reading!

Deceit [การหลอกลวง] (gaan Laawk Luaang) - Part 6

Hi everybody. I hope that all of you are enjoying yourselves over the Chinese New Year Holidays. In between visits, indulging in good food etc, I kinda have time to write part 6. After just 3 days, I managed to chisel and carve out part 6. I hope that you would like the story.

The story continues....


“No matter what choice you make, you have to come with me to the pub to meet somebody tonight. He might be able to change your life drastically for the better,” Mr. Thaphorn continued as his stern look set me aback for a while.

I had nothing to lose anyway, so I nodded my head in agreement.

“Meet Mr. Leow. Mr. Leow is the managing director of GMI Records, This beautiful lady here is Tassa. She is the singer that I have been talking to you about,” Mr. Thaphorn introduced both of us to each other as we shook hands.

As we talked, I learnt that Mr. Leow was scouting for talents in a privately held talent competition. The top singer chosen would be rewarded with a handsome cash reward and a contract to produce albums in his record company for this talent competition.

A woman who seemed to be in her 30s came over to our table.

“This is Miss Chut, she is the music director of the company. She would be here to listen to you perform on the stage. I hope that you can give us an excellent performance,” Mr. Leow gave me a smile as he felt confident about me.

My heart beat per minute increased a few notches as I went up to the stage. Unlike other performances, this performance would determine whether I would be chosen by the two directors. I quickly shut out my thoughts and suppressed the pressure inside me as I just went about to sing like every other night. As I stringently kept within my optimal zone, I sang my favourite songs and I enjoyed myself as I visualized myself to be my favourite singer, Marsha. Unknowingly I was making slick movements on my feet as I playfully danced with William. William in turn raised his guitar as he swung his guitar in a few directions. It was an unforgettable night as I enjoyed myself the most out of the many nights that I performed.

As I finished my songs, whistles and claps came from all directions. As I waved to the audience, I went down the stage and sat with the directors and Mr. Thaphorn.

“You are a superb performer and a very powerful singer. Your performance really blew me away. I have not seen such a world-class performance for a long time. Why didn’t we discover you earlier?” Mr. Leow’s words were so flattering that my face turned a little red.

“You would take part in the competition and I believe that you can do very well in it and stand a good chance to have a long working relationship with us,” Miss. Chut added in much to my delight.

“Thank you very much, no words can express how I feel right now,” I spoke as a tear came out of my eye.

As the car reached near his home, Mr. Thaphorn put his hand on my thigh in the car.

“I have filed for a divorce. After the necessary documents have been processed and when the time is right, I would marry you. I want you to be my wife,” Mr. Thaphorn’s words shocked me.

As Mr. Thaphorn led me into the room, he took out something from his pocket.
He opened the small square box as it revealed a big diamond ring. I put my hand on my mouth as I could not believe what I saw.

“This is your birthday present. Happy Birthday to you!” Mr. Thaphorn put the box gently in my palms as he kissed my forehead.

I felt overwhelmed and touched that he remembered my birthday and gave me such an expensive present.

“Forget about the past, alright? Let us start anew together.” Mr. Thaphorn’s words seemed not to reach to my ears as I was lost in my thoughts.

“Mr. Thaphorn, thank you for your present, but I would consider your proposal to marry me,” my thoughts were blurted out of my mouth.

Mr. Thaphorn smiled at me as he briefly left the room without a single word.

As I retired on the bed, I could not sleep. Although Mr. Thaphorn had deceived me to be his mistress and to stay with him, he wanted to make it up to me. Mr. Ng was very sweet and caring towards me but somehow, I did not have any lasting feelings with him. It was just at the spur of the moment that I did enjoy his company but feelings for him soon died down when we parted. As my thoughts meandered around my mind, I thought of Keith. It’s been a long time since I saw him. I would be deceiving myself if I were to say that I had no feelings for him at this moment. I still missed him and I had to admit that I thought of him every now and then. As I was playing with my mobile phone, I scrolled down the contact list to Keith’s name. I did not know why he never called me and vice versa. Recalling the past events that happened, I guessed it was too awkward for the both of us to talk to each other.

As I went to the premises for the competition, I was very eager. While preparing for the competition, I was advised on a lot of aspects of music from controls of vocals to that of image consultancy. It was an enriching experience as I mingled with other contestants and shared experiences.

It was quite tiring as I went through a few elimination rounds. Juggling between handling the competition and my work was very stressful, but it was the inner strength of my character that brought me through and my hard work paid off as I entered the finals.

“Congratulations to all who have made to the finals, the finals would be held on the stage in the open space. The venues and other details are stated in the booklet that I have passed to you. I would like to give a kind reminder that singing in a confined area and in the open space is very different. The finals of this competition held by our company would be advertised in the media and tickets would be sold. If you want to get any tickets on behalf of your family, friends etc, please do so by next week,” Miss Chut scanned our excited faces as she announced the details.

Mr. Thaphorn waited for me downstairs at the waiting area.

“Mr. Thaphorn, I made it to the finals!” I shouted joyously as I hugged him.

I told him about the details of the finals of the competition and it was 2 months away.

“Congratulations. If you win, you would leave me for the record company and I would definitely miss you as a singer in my pub,” Mr. Thaphorn’s excitement was nowhere near mine.

I smiled at him as I did not say a word, as we headed to the pub.

As I started my performance, I felt that I was more natural and I could be able to pull off higher notes in certain songs where I wasn’t able to. I felt especially ecstatic when I could make the audience sing along too as the crowd was dancing at their respective tables to some of the songs. William also did a little performance with his guitar as he tried to strum the guitar behind his shoulder.

“Hello everybody, I would like to make an announcement. I would be participating in the finals of the GMI Records singing competition. I hope that you would be able to support me by going to the competition to see me sing in there. You can ask for further details from the managers and waiters,” I tried to catch my breath after my performance.

As I went down the stage, I felt a nudge near my waist. I turned around and saw Mr. Ng.

“Congratulations! I hope you would win!” Mr. Ng hugged me to my surprise.

I returned the hug lightly as I broke away from the hug briefly.

“Can I ask you out for dinner some day? Like let say around six in the evening? I know you like Korean food. I know of a famous Korean restaurant in town. Then after dinner, I can send you to work,” Mr. Ng offered.

“Let me consider and I would tell you,” I did not want to decline the offer outright out of politeness.

As I went over to Mr. Thaphorn and his friends at the sofa seats, we were playing hand games and drank a lot along the way. One of his friends, Mr. Shinati, was a wealthy businessman who owns one of the largest rice exporting companies in Thailand. As our sofa seats were not so visible to the main crowd, Mr. Shinati was trying to take advantage of me at the dark corner.

“I know you are now available and you are not anybody’s mistress. Why don’t you spend a night with me, my sweet thing?” Mr. Shinati was sleek with his hand as his right hand slowly went up my thigh and inside my short skirt.

As I felt a tingling sensation, I felt like something was stuffed up the side of my g-string before I could stop him from doing it.

“It’s a small gesture from me, I hope you accept the offer and I would give you the same amount,” Mr. Shinati kissed my cheek as he whispered into my ear. His words seemed to tease my eardrums.

As I excused myself to the toilet, I went to take out what was inside. It was a one thousand dollar note. My eyes suddenly grew big as I could not believe my eyes. As I went back to the sofa seat, I saw Mr. Ng was looking at my direction as Mr. Shinati stood up and kissed me lightly on the lip as he hugged me and I reciprocated the hug and kissed him on the cheek.

“I got to go up to perform, I would come back for you, my dear,” my words seemed to tease him as his smile projected out his lust and desire for me.

As I was about to go up stage, Mr. Ng grabbed my hand and he seemed to be angry although he tried to conceal it.

“You all women from Thailand only want money. Is money all you think of? You all have no feelings and no regards for those whom really love you for the way you are,” Mr. Ng’s remarks shocked me as he seemed to be in a drunken stupor.

“I got to perform now. Let go of me,” I warned him.

“Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah, Roma, Roma-ma, Gaga, ooh la la….” It was the perfect song for my mood as I sang Lady Gaga’s bad romance. I felt like I was exploding out my inner emotions as I sang it out partially angry and partially disappointed. As I sang, I winked at Mr. Shinati and I avoided any eye contact with Mr. Ng even though I knew that this song was his favourite.

As I ended my performance, I went back to accompany Mr. Shinati. He was not just any other customer but someone who could make me feel comfortable with him. As we joked and drank, we seemed to be old-time friends although I only saw him for the first time. As I stole glances at Mr. Ng, Mr. Ng seemed to be drinking non-stop as his face was glum.

“Mr. Thaphorn, Mr. Shinati is drunk. Maybe you and Mr. Khoo can help him to get home?” I was concerned as Mr. Shinati was slurring nonsense as he could not even hold the glass properly.

As the table was cleared, they left. I tried to avoid Mr. Ng but he approached me as I tried to leave the place.

“I am so sorry that I said such things to you, please don’t get offended. I really love you a lot. How can I make up to you?” Mr. Ng gripped my hand firmly and Mr. Ng’s face brightened up the instant I smiled at him as I did not want to create a scene in front of too many people.

“It’s alright. You are after all partially true, but we still have feelings and emotions too. I like you too,” his apology was accepted immediately but reluctantly.

“I have to go home now, I hope you sleep well and have a good night,” Mr. Ng felt disappointed that I had to leave that soon.

Time passed very fast as it was only six weeks before the actual competition were to start. As we were needed to practise our songs with the band, which would be performing on the competition itself, we had to carry out the rehearsals till the day before the competition.

“I am glad that you all are here, the band would arrive shortly and I would introduce you to the band,” Miss. Chut smiled at us as all of us were punctual for the appointment with the band.

As I saw the band come in, I could not help exclaiming, “I cannot believe you are in this band!”


Who did she see in the band? Find out more in the next part!
I hope you all enjoyed reading! Thankies!!