42Chapter I: White Wishes
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The young woman sits on the bus seat as she stares out the window where she watches the beautiful sun's rays shine across the clear blue sky over the suburbs of Sydney.
She sighs wearily and closes her eyes for moment.
"Everything has changed since my mum died ten years ago. I miss you a lot, mum. And I still love you so much", Sumlalee Hua Mao whispers softly.
At the young age of twenty five Sumlalee inherits the looks of one who is from Chinese/Thai heritage. Her petite frame reaches 170cm tall. Her long raven hair tied into a high ponytail. Her hair is long and raven hair tie into ponytail. And her large chocolate coloured eyes stay closed. Her smooth and pale olive skin is flawless, holding no signs of makeup. She never wore make - up at all. Usually she never smiled, not since her mother passed away ten year ago.
After what seemed like a few minutes later, she opens her eyes and takes a few deep breaths to rid of the nervous in the pit of her stomach.
Half hour later, the bus stops at her location, she finally stands up from her seat then walks toward to the open door of the vehicle and steps out of the bus.
"Finally! Hope that I'm not late for work!" Sumlalee thought, worried she glances down at her blue watch to check what time it is.
8:20am.
"Ok! I've only got 10 minutes to go before my boss gets worried about my absence.", Sumlalee thought.
Sumlalee holds onto her bag tightly and starts to run as fast as she can towards Cosy Corner. She's spent every day since she graduated high school working there as a waitress, she loved every minute of it.
While running around the corner a young man heads towards her direction, coffee in hand, oblivious to the young woman running straight at him. Still taking no notice of the man, Sumlalee bumps right into him, causing her to fall and the man's coffee to spill.
Sumlalee stares wide eyed as the coffee soars into the air.
The coffee pours over the young man's white shirt. Sumlalee gasps, shocked at the mess she's created. Opening her mouth to apologize, a buff looking man rushes to the man covered in coffee
"Pri -"
"What have I told you before?", the coffee covered young man cuts the buff looking guy off, his eyes glaring at him.
"Sir, are you alright? Do you want to change into a new shirt, sir?", the buff looking man asks. He seemed much older than the other man, to Sumlalee he seemed more middle aged.
The young man nodded and turned towards Sumlalee. "You stay here and we need to talk, Miss".
Sumlalee opens her mouth, ready to protest but stops as his scowl deepens. Shooting him an evil glare she crosses her arms and taps her feet impatiently. The young man ignores Sumlalee's scowl and enters a parked limo. Shutting the door behind him, he changes into a fresh clean shirt.
"Geez. Arrgh! Damn him", Sumlalee thought angrily. Her eyes continuously checking the time.
A few minutes later, he opens the door and steps out of the limo and walks toward to Sumlalee with a smirk on his face.
"Oh my goodness. Why is he smirking at me? What is wrong with him?", Sumlalee thought confusion filling her head Oh how she wanted to slap that smirk straight of his face.
Finally stands before her, still smirking he looks down at her, curiosity filling his eyes, his brown coloured eyes.
"Hey. I just wanted to say I'm sorry if I made you think I'm a jerk. How about I walk with you to wherever it is you were planning to go in such a hurry. What do you say miss?" The young man says softly as he grins down at her.
"Hi. Actually, I think you're asking the wrong woman for a phone number. I'm not interested in you, sir. No thanks but thanks for asking. Good bye." Sumlalee states. Completely satisfied with her response, she walks off towards her workplace.
The young man stares at her disappearing figure in shock. An angry expression takes over his face as he watches her walk away from him.
Sumlalee came to a stop at the traffic light, she pressed at the button. In all honesty she pitied the guy, what with his lame attempt at asking her out. She was in no condition for a relationship or a date. This guy tried way too hard for her liking. The little green man flashed across the street, taking it as her cue, she makes her way towards the café.
Not once does she look over her shoulder, nor does she realise that the man from earlier is following her every move. Reaching her destination, Sumlalee pushes the door open and walks into the café. Instantly she is met with breathtaking scent of fresh baking
The café is a medium sized building residing next to the busy roads and major shopping centre. Due to its useful location the café is quiet a popular place for people to relax, eat and sit in comfort.
During summer and warm weather, the café will put out the tables and chairs under the shelter of the canopy up back in the garden and upfront, just for the pleasure of the customers.
The reason why Sumlalee loves to work here is because her boss and co-workers treat her with respect; they welcomed her with open arms and cherished their friendliness.
Sumlalee walks towards the locker room to put her personal things in her locker; she hears the front doors bell ring, indicating the arrival of a new customer.
"I will be there in a second!", Sumlalee calls out over her shoulder and rushes into the locker room, throws on her black apron on top of her black uniform. She slips of her sneakers and puts on a pair of comfortable black shoes. Pinning on her name tag, she makes a dash out the door.
Finally Sumlalee rushes into the main building and walks towards the table holding, where the new customer sits. With the customers back towards her, she clears her thoat, in attempt to gain their attention.
"Hello. Good morning. What would you like to order this fine morning?", Sumlalee chirped happily. Her hands reach for a notepad and pen from the pocket of her apron. She waits patiently for the customer's order.
When the customer turns around to answer her question he smiles flirtatiously at her.
"Hello…again. I want a big breakfast and one large coffee please. That'll do miss." The young grinned sheepishly at him.
Sumlalee feels like she wants to slap his face a plenty just to wipe the grin off his face.
"I can't believe that it's same man who hit on me less than half an hour ago and he still thinks that I might change my mind about him right now. No way. That will never happen in my life.", Sumlalee thought.
He waves his menu in front of her face as she gives him a cold stare, writing down his order on her notepad, she grimaced at the to herself. He was the last person she wanted to see.
"Your order will be coming in 20 minutes, so be patient, sir." Sumlalee says as polite as she can, turning around to leave his table she feels his hand on her shoulder. Anger now boiling inside her, he touched her.
"What the hell is wrong with him? Why can't he leave me alone, seriously?" Sumlalee thought angrily.
She turns around but his lips land on her own, her eyes widen in shock and disbelief. Immediately breaking his attempted kiss before he goes too far, she steps back staring at him with a disgusted look on her face.
"Come on, I know you wanted it when we met for earlier. And I'm sure we will run into each other again because fate has brought us here, babe", the young man grinned, cockiness written all over his face.
Angrily Sumlalee takes a threatening step closer towards him. Raising her hands she slaps him across his left cheek. Even her own palms stung from the sudden contact.
"What the hell was that for? I didn't say anything to rude to you!", the young man bellowed in confussion, his palm resting on his sore cheek.
"Pfft! You can't fool me, sir", Sumlalee said aloud over her shoulder as she walks off toward to the counter to lay the order on the light brown counter as she gives the chef a friendly smile.
The chef nodded as he returns her smile and grabs the order from the counter then he begins to cook it right now.
Sumlalee left the kitchen counter and goes in behind the register to help one of her co-workers to take over the register while she goes off to have a smoke for a few minutes.
Sumlalee can feel the young man's eyes on her all day and all day she ignored him. Her hate towards him could not be defeated. And his contious presence in the café, annoyed her.
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While the afternoon creeps in, a beautiful young woman steps into the café. Qiao Mei Lee flips her silky raven hair over her shoulder and scans for a familiar face. Her eyes narrow down at Sumlalee who stands behind the counter, attending to the register. She watches as Sumlalee's eyes pierce into slits as she watches a customer carefully. The young woman senses Sumlalee's trouble with one of the customers
The young woman rushes towards Sumlalee's side and asked her friend what the issue is. After Sumlalee embraced her friend she recounted the details of what had happened earlier. Walking up to the young man, the woman taps at his shoulder.
"Hello, sir. What is your problem? Why do you keep irritating Sumlalee for? Leave her alone and go find something else to entertain you all day. Go NOW!"
The young man turns around to give her a cold glare before standing up and walking towards the cafes front door. Without looking over his shoulder he opens the door, walks out and slams it behind him. Not a single word muttered.
"Hey Sumlalee. Are you ok? I think you should let your boss know what happened to you otherwise that guy might try stalking you. Trust me. Be careful, Sumlalee. And who's he anyways?" Qiao Mei Lee asked worried.
"I don't know who he is and don't worry about it because he won't come back to bother me again, Qiao. Let's go have lunch and talk about anything except him please?" Sumlalee pleads to her friend.
Qiao nods her head as she put arm around Sumlalee's shoulder and says softly, "Are you ready to go now, Sumlalee?"
"Not yet. Give me five minutes and we can go after that? Sound good?" Sumlalee asked softly.
Qiao nodded as she went to sit down on the brown couch and stares out the window for a while.
"I hope that Sumlalee's step mother treats her good, with love and respect. And I hope that her step-sister treats her nicely one day, despite her father never being at home very often to witness how they treat Sumlalee that way", Qiao sighs worriedly.
Sumlalee and Qiao have been best friends since the second grade when they met at their primary school.
Sumlalee and Qiao always stick together through bad times and good times because they always have time to catch up with each other whenever they have free time to spend time together to talk about anything in their life for hours.
Few minutes later, Sumlalee comes towards the couch where Qiao sits, watching the view from the window as she is lost in her deep thought.
Sumlalee looks at Qiao closer.
Just like herself Qiao is twenty - five years old but a full chinese young woman. Similarily to sumlalee, she is petite however is 150cm tall. Her hair's short and pitch black. Her eyes are a light shade of brown. Her skin is of a pale olive complexion.
Sumlalee and Qiao have different interests, hobbies, opinions but they have gotten along so well all these years.
"Hi! Sorry to keep you waiting. Let's go now", Sumlalee says smiling.
Qiao nodded as she finally stands up from her seat, she links her arm with Sumlalee's arm and together they head towards the open door of the café.
The two young women step out of the café and walk off to have a great time just to keep Sumlalee's mind off from the problems at home.
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the night came in when Sumlalee sits on the chair near the two single beds in the room, reading a book to her three little siblings who are tucked in bed dressed in their pyjamas. They listen attentively to her, as their eyes begin to droop.
Sumlalee smiles and closes the book when she notices that her three siblings are fast asleep. Standing up, she creeps towards the young girl, cradles her in her arms and walks towards the open door. She tip toes across the house and heads towards the second bedroom.
Finally, Sumlalee is enters the second bedroom next door to her bedroom and her siblings' bedroom, as she flick the light on she walks into the bedroom to tuck the little girl in bed. Pulling doona up to the girls chin, she tucks the young girls favourite plush toy next to in, sumlalee places a kiss on her forehead.
"Good night, Xiao You. And sweet dreams. I love you, little sister."
"Good night to you too and love you too, Sumlalee", Xiao You whispers softly.
Sumlalee smiles lovingly and walks out of the room, flicking the light off she shuts the door behind her, but leaves the door slightly open just in case of an emergency.
Sumlalee re-enters the third bedroom, she picks up one of the young boys and tucks him in, followed by the other boy. Covering the both of them with their favourite blankets she plants a kiss one each child's foreheads.
"Good night, sweethearts and sweet dreams. Love you both", Sumlalee whispers to the duo.
"Good night, sister. And love you too", Angaraka and Klanan whispered at the same time.
Sumlalee nods her head at the two and walks out of their bedroom as she flicks the light off and just like with her sister's room, she left their door open ajar.
She walks into her bedroom and turns the light on as she went to her desk where she switches the sewing machine on. She pulls her chair out to sit down on as she finishes sewing the pink dress that belongs to her step sister who complained that the size was too small or the size wass too loose since she bought it a few weeks ago. Her step sister had dropped it on sumlalee's lap, demanding her to fix it up. Sumlalee has been a slave and personal maid to her step-mother and her step-sister ever since she was twelve years old, despite her father never noticing the crual acts since he married to her step-mother nine years ago because he thought that Angaraka and Klanan need a mother. Sumlalee shakes her head sadly and work on the dress wearily.
Around midnight, Sumlalee finally finishes the dress; she put it on the mannequin so she can show her step-sister that she already fixed it for her. Sighing she crawls into her bed and pulls the blanket over her body to keep her warm.
"Please, god. Please save me and my siblings away from my step-mother and my step-sister immediately. I beg you, god. Please save me. And I wish I am in a different world and a different lifestyle to make our life more easy, please god", Sumlalee prays in a whisper. After that, Sumlalee closes her eyes and falls sleep.
Author's note: Hello, readers. How are you all? Hope that you will like it. And hope that you will enjoy read it too.
By the way, I hope that you will stick with me to the end too.
Big thanks to my wonderful friend who edit it for me and she is amazing person too.
Sorry to keep you wait so long. Hope this chapter is the worthy of your wait for it too.
Is it good chapter? Is it bad chapter? Let me know please and thanks
The next chapter will be up on next weekend or in second week of weekend so please be patient with me and keep your eyes opens for the next chapter will be up soon.
The song for this chapter is "White Wishes" by BoA
Big thanks to wonderful review from previous chapter is Crystal99, Curlysquirt95 and Miss – You
I appreciate it for your amazing support.
Have fun and take care. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy it. –hugs – From LEC PS Keep writing always :D