I sighed as I stepped out of the stuffy studio bathroom and rubbed my head with a fluffy lime green towel. I turned to my right and switched off the toilet lights. The loud whirl of the ventilation fans slowed to a stop with that, and I walked to the sofa before collapsing on it and throwing my feet on the armrest.
I stared at the fan as it turned and turned, slowly drifting off to sleep.
-
She ran ahead, pulling on the lead as he tried to rein his dog in. He just got her recently, and as a new dog owner, he was being pushed around by her large brown eyes. Suddenly she stops, and sniffs his knee before standing on her hind legs to give him a hug. Bending down, he strokes her soft golden brown fur when she suddenly turns and drags him the end of the walking path besides a corner unit near the BBQ 2. He shakes his head and sighs to himself before resigning himself to being at the beck and call of his seven month old golden retriever puppy. She sniffs the grass patch outside the balcony of the corner unit as the light pouring out from the living room caught his sight.
Staring at how the girl laid so clumsily on the white sofa, he chuckles to himself as he peers though the white thin curtains. He could barely make out her features, from the back of her head, but the unmistakable green of the towel under her head was evident.
I wonder if she lives here?
But she's staying here, so of course she lives here!!!!
He sweeps his fringe back and bit his lip, berating himself silently as a slight reddish tint covers his face as he shakes his head. He looked left, then right. After making sure he was the only one on the pathway, he inched closer to the balcony trying to catch a second look-
"I'm just curious to see if she's around my age that's all," He spoke aloud, trying hard to justify his actions.
He peered through the leaves only to see her sitting upright with an adorable expression on her face as she yawns and shivers slightly before rubbing her legs. He watched with wide eyes as she pulls the fluffy green towel from her neck, revealing a thin dark blue bra strap-
In one smooth motion, he quickly turned away and squatted on the floor, his hands clutching his head as the blood rushes to his brain, making him feel dizzy.
What am I thinking of?!
Turning to his left, he sees his puppy staring at him, cocking her head to the right with confusion etched on her adorable face.
"Don't you dare judge me," He warns his puppy with a finger pointing out to her. She lunges at his finger and licks it excitedly as he smiles and strokes her fur before getting up. Struggling against the blush on his cheeks, he nudged his puppy as they ran to the lift lobby. As he got into the lift, he pressed the button for the thirteenth floor and looked at his feet as the door closed. He stared at his reflection in the lift doors, turning this way and that, looking for the blush he felt earlier. After making certain there was no longer any of that hideous reddish tint on his cheeks, he stood up straight and cleared his throat just as the lift doors opened.
-
"Brr-"
I opened my eyes and yawned, awoken by the cold. Rubbing my legs quickly to warm them up, I pulled the damp green towel from behind my hair and rubbed my head trying to dry my hair. I was just lying down for a moment, but I didn't realize when I felt asleep. I must have been really tired, I mused as I propped myself into an upright position, and rubbed my head with my towel again, yawning. My eyes drifted to the clock before I stood up in shock.
10 pm?
I haven't done any revision or homework! And I've only been lazing around the whole day- I hurriedly pulled my Biology textbook out of my schoolbag and sat back on the creamy white leather sofa seats. I've been determined to turn over a fresh leaf and start studying for my national exams, at the end of this year.
I flip through the navy blue textbook with corals- no wait it's a sea slug?- on it's front page, turning to the chapter I was worst in-
yes worst-
no I'm kidding I'm actually bad at almost every chapter..
except the heart chapter.
"Chapter nine point one- The Transport Structures of Flowering Plants, blah blah- the vessels are called transport or vascular tissues- ah! I know this one. The xylem and the phloem," I muttered out loud, trying to memorize their placements. The xylem is a long hollow tube stretching from the root to the leaf- I closed my eyes and saw a large bamboo like structure, with the sounds of what was maybe water getting majestically sucked up by a powerful force, and delivered at high speeds to the leaves, and the cells in them.
The bamboo structure had pits in them, which I suspect to be the unlignified parts of the lignified wall in a xylem vessel. As for what lignin is, I think it's a substance that strengthens the walls.
I walked behind the xylem vessel to see a similar shaped bamboo structure of a slightly pinkish color stuck to it. I listened closely, wondering it it was a phloem vessel-
"Yes you guessed right," a voice popped out from behind me as I lunged forward and turned around, putting my hands out to prevent whoever the voice came from-from coming near me. I had heard no footsteps, and that was reason enough to be suspicious.
A small figure resembling a fairy or elf of sorts flew towards me and waved before flying upwards to perform a somersault before coming to a halt in front of me.
"Who are you?" I asked, staring at the figure with open-mouthed wonder.
"I'm a fairy that lives in the plant you're in right now."
"I'm in a plant?" I felt like the fact that I was in a plant was more surprising than anything else.
"Yes, also you were wondering about the joints in the phloem vessel right? I can explain everything you need to know while you're here," The little fairy smiles.
"Also, call me Aphids. I'll teach you everything you need to know-"
I nodded my head instantly, bought over. Her kind and gentle black eyes and soft moss green hair gave me an impression of a really soft demeanor. Her small and short dress only further emphasized on her petite figure.
"I'll start from that phloem vessel you were staring at earlier is that alright?" She asks and turns to me for confirmation as I nod my head happily. "The phloem vessel delivers manufactured food like sucrose and animo acids from the green parts of the plant, mostly the leaves to the other parts of the plants." She gestured for me to come closer, before she swiped at a joint in the phloem, and several cute blobs rush out before the gap was instantly patched up. For a second, I almost thought I saw tall sharp nails but on closer inspection, her nails were short and blunt. Was it just my imagination?
She picked up two cute blobs, a yellowish one in her left, and a lavender purple in her right. They had cute eyes and mouths, the lavender one was even sucking it's thumb cutely, they were really adorable!!
"This one," She gestured with her head to her left, "is animo acids, while this one" She gestured to her right, "is sucrose. Aren't they cute?" She asked as she nuzzled one of the blobs. The blobs seem terrified of her, but I wasn't sure. Aphids was a lot larger anyway, maybe that's why. I thought to myself as I shrugged it off.
"Yui," She called me as I turned around-
"Yes?"
"We're not done yet, there's still the sieve tube and companion cells. If you thought sucrose and animo acids were cute, you will love the companion cell," Aphids smiled at me as I walked over. Using a finger, she gently traced a line downwards on the wall of the phloem vessel. It split open to reveal something that resembled a bamboo grove, but filled with translucent tubes with a large blob of white in each section. "Look," She whispered, "The translucent tubes are the sieve tubes, while the section separating them are the sieve plates. The large blobs are the companion cells," I moved in closer to look at the white blobs, that some how look like fat fluffy polar bears.
"Yep, they are indeed cute," I agreed with Aphids. "But I think sucrose is cuter, in my opinion- where's the sucrose and amino acids you got earlier?" I asked when I didn't see those two cute palm sized blobs.
"I returned them while you were looking," Aphids smiled as she tried to redirect my attention to the phloem vessel. I looked at her, and noticed something different. Aphids's beautiful moss green hair now had a subtle yellow glow to it, while her short creamy colored dress had a lavender tint to it.
I backed away from her as she looked at me.
"What's wrong Yui?"
I stared at her as I continued backing away.
"I never told you my name,"
"Oh? Is that so?" Aphids grinned at me, this time revealing a long row of sharp teeth. Her petite fingers grew humongous claws, and she lunged at me-
"AHhh-" I sat up from the sofa, breathing heavily.
Holy, that-
That was a dream?
"It felt so real," I muttered to myself as I wiped away a bead of sweat on my forehead. Well, at least I had dreamt something useful. Or... was it?
I pulled my phone from my pocket and opened google, and typed in aphids.
It turns out that aphids were a sort of insect used in translocation studies as it feeds on plant juices. It sticks it's long feeding stylet into the phloem wall to feed on sucrose and amino acids-
ok, this dream was kind of useful.
Though the Aphids I dreamt, didn't have a long feeding stylet...
Oh well..
-
As he steps out, he spots a small petite boy weaving laces into his school shoes on a bench outside his front door.
"Why are you still up?" He asks the little boy as the puppy rushes forward licking his face as he laughs, trying to keep his shoes from being bitten.
"M-haha stop it! Momo! Stop-"
He pulls on Momo's lead as she pulled back to stare at him with mournful eyes.
"Don't look at me like that, go in first," He shooes Momo as he steps forward, unclipping the lead from her brick red leather collar.
"Gor(1)-" The little boy whined as he was about to step into the house.
"What?" He turns to look at his little brother as he blinks at him and pats the empty space of the bench beside him.
"Help me do the other shoe leh(2)~" He blinks and smiles adorably at his older brother. "Please? Please please please please-"
"Kk, stop. Ryan Wong you stop right now, or I won't help you-"
"Okay!" Ryan beams and passes his older brother the other shoe and his laces.
He sighs, and sits on the bench in defeat as Momo comes back out, nuzzling his knee. He strokes her fur and pats her head before returning to the task at hand. Taking the shoe and laces from his brother, he then proceeded to thread them as Momo lies on the floor by his feet.
"Gor, I need to top up my ezlink(3) card, no money already, then today when I on the way home, I almost couldn't take the bus, but lucky this Jie Jie helped me pay for my bus fare-"
"Why you never tell me earlier?" The older boy interrupted with a frustrated sigh, rolling his eyes before pulling out a ten dollar note from his pocket and handing it to his younger brother. "You should have told me before it had gotten lesser than two dollars. Did you even say thank you to the Jie Jie?" He sighs again as Ryan beams.
"Of course! She lives in Forestville also leh," Ryan smiles as he leans towards his brother. "I think she's just a bit younger than you-"
"Ryan Wong Jing Jie!(4)" He turns to his younger brother with an annoyed expression on his face as Momo looks up at them in surprise.
"Okay okay, relax la Gor," Ryan says, with his hands in the air, feigning surrender.
A heavy air hung in the atmosphere for a moment of silence before the older guy broke it,
"If you see her again, remember to pay her back okay? Gor will pass you some coins later, buy her some ice cream or something, and you can get one for yourself too-"
"Thank you Gor, Gor the best!!" Ryan cheers as his brother shakes his head.
"More work, less talk, go."
"Okay, whatever Gor says~"
[Notes ]
1)Gor- A way of addressing older brother- well the correct way to pronounce it is Ge Ge, but I don't why most of us use "Gor" here haha
2)Leh- Singlish slang word that is possibly borrowed from a local dialect.
3)Ezlink card- It's like a card that contains money in it, and you tap it on the (cough money sucking cough) card readers to pay the appropriate transportation fare.
4)The little boy's full name. Called out by his brother to express his anger or frustration at this little brother.