Disclaimer: Nothing happened in this story is real, its just out of my over active imagination, so Ling and the rest of [Silver Ash], please don’t kill meJ
 

           It was pouring rain outside, the sky was dark and gloomy, and occasional lightening illuminated the city for a few second every now and then, all signs indicating that winter was approaching the city of Shang Hai.
 

           Walking on the wet street, a purple haired young man was cursing this very fact. “Ta-Ma-De!” Ling swore as he limped along the deserted street, one of his platform shoe was held in his left hand instead of on his left foot. Pretty soon he got so frustrated that he kicked off the remaining shoe on his right foot and also threw away the one in his hand. Ling waked on bare feet for twenty more minutes until he reached the hotel where he and the other members of [Silver Ash] were staying. Pushing the front doors aside as hard as he could, Ling marched in. As he walked towards the elevator, he could feel people in the lobby were looking at him and he knew why. It was not everyday that people get to see a man with medium length purple hair walking around the lobby of the hotel, plus his soaking we body is leaving a trail of water on the clean floor, but Ling could not have cared less, he just want this day to be over with.
 

           After he had pressed the button for his floor, Ling leaned back against the elevator wall and started playing with his wet hair. Playing with it brought him some degree of comfort in this wretched day.
 

           Just hope nothing bad happens tonight at the live. Ling thought as he stared at the blinking floor indicator, the elevator was now only one floor below his floor. Ling moved towards the door waiting for it to open, just then he felt the elevator slowed and then stopped completely, the lights in the elevator went out and was replaced by dimmer emergency lights. Uh oh, that’s not good, please don’t let anything happen to the elevator! Ling opened the emergency telephone box in the elevator and called for help, but all he heard was nothing but busy signal. The elevator had stopped between two floors and Ling was trapped inside without any way of communicating with the outside. Panic started to build up inside of Ling, he began to pound on the elevator and yelled for help. After a few minutes Ling realized the futility of his effort so he stopped and feel onto his knees with despair. This just had not been his day, all Ling could do now was to sit and wait for help. This just had not been his day from the very beginning of the day.
 

That morning

           Ling was awakened from his sleep by the sound of vacuum machine from the adjoining room. “Um, what time is it Lucy?” Ling sat up and scratched his head while yawning. That was a good sleep, thought the purple head vocalist. Hearing no reply from his roommate, Ling called again, still no reply. Probably went down stairs for breakfast already, thought Ling as he put on his glasses by the night table so he could read the time on his watch.
 

           “10 O’clock! But… but…,” Ling was surprised to find out that it was so late in the morning already, he glanced at the clock on his table which was suppose to wake him up at eight o’clock. There was nothing, no digital displays, no sound, nothing; someone had unplugged the clock. Lucy! It had to be that prankster; Ling will have to find a time to repay this little brat. Ling got dressed quickly, he and his band mates were planning on going out in the morning to do some sightseeing and later find some place to celebrate his birthday, his 23rd birthday, 23 already, time sure flies.
 

           After a few minutes of knocking on his other band mates’ door without any answer, Ling began to wonder if everyone had left to sightseeing without him. But perhaps they were in the cafeteria eating breakfast, Ling hoped. A quick check at the cafeteria on the ground floor confirmed his initial suspicion. His band mates were not in their room nor were they eating breakfast downstairs, they had left to sightseeing without Ling. They had all agreed to go together! Ling was upset and also felt abandoned. Then a sense of defiance settled in, if they don’t want me to join them, I’ll just go out by myself and have all the fun by myself! Ling quickly got dressed and grabbed his long black coat on his way out, closing the door behind him with a loud bang.
 

           Instead of sightseeing, Ling decided to find some amusement in the city, so he took a taxi to the business-shopping district in the heart of Shang Hai. Once he got there, Ling spent the whole morning walking along the sidewalks window-shopping, getting some design ideas for [Silver Ash]’s next set of costumes. To a fashion enthusiast like him, this was time very well spent. By noontime, he had already collected enough ideas for the next several sets of their costumes. Occasionally when he got tired of walking, he would stop into one of the many mini bars on the sidewalk to have a break and taste the various flavors of Shang Hai local beers. The cool drink was soothing after the long walks. To add to his amusement, occasionally some men in the bars would try to flirt with him thinking that he was a woman. Ling found it to be extremely hilarious how their flirtatious expression suddenly turned into shock as soon as they heard his voice. Ling was now glad that the others were not with him, else he was sure that [Silver Ash]’s adorable little guitarist, Lucy, would attract all these attentions, now that would not have been as fun, Ling thought amusingly to himself.
 

           Overall Ling had a very good time that morning. After a light lunch, Ling decided to treat himself to a movie in one of the theaters in town. . After he got the direction from the bartender in one of the bars, Ling started to walk towards the theater. As he was waiting by one of the intersections, more and more people started to gather around him, also waiting to cross the street. Some people were chatting especially loud behind Ling but their noises faded easily into the background as Ling had his mind on something else.
 

All of a sudden Ling felt a push from behind him causing him to stumble into the busy street. Immediately the high pitch sounds of screeching wheels sounded in all directions, Ling stared in horror as a white minivan headed straight towards him, he could not move as his whole body froze from shock and surprise. He watched with wide eyes as the driver of the minivan slammed on his brake, the minivan slowed but was still heading towards Ling pushed on by its momentum. Ling held his breath for what seemed like an eternity as the van began to decelerate, it was still moving slowly yet surely towards him. The gap between him and the van was closing rapidly; Ling closed his eyes in resignation. Miraculously the driver was able to stop his van completely, it was only a few centimeters away from Ling. Ling did not move for what felt like a long time, everything happened just so fast, he was totally caught off guard. But it only took Ling a few seconds to recover from the shock, he quickly checked himself to make sure that he was not hurt and stepped back onto the sidewalk; the traffic resumed their normal flow again.
 

Ling now faced the person who stood behind him, “What are you doing?” Ling asked in a tone that was as neutral as he could under the circumstances, he was trying really hard to control his temper. The person, dressed in a typical punk style with green hairs and was surrounded by his punk friends, looked at Ling nonchalantly.
 

“Oops, I must have slipped,” he then turned his head, not paying any more attention to Ling, his punk buddies were all snickering at the answer.
 

What kind of answer was that?! Ling thought angrily, his hand began to clench into a fist. If it was not for the quick reaction of the minivan driver, Ling’s birthday would have also been his death day. Ling stared hard at the green haired punk, that face void of any expressions, not a single trace of remorse or sorrow for what he had just done. Ling was boiling over, then all of a sudden Ling relaxed himself, today was his birthday after all, it should be a day of happiness, it was not worth it to get all worked up over a low life such as the person in front of him. Just then the lights turned green, Ling turned back towards the street and walked away.
 

Ling was determined not to let the event at the intersection ruin his otherwise fine day. Continuing with his original plan, he was now standing outside the movie theater waiting in line to buy a movie ticket. But the line seemed infinitely long due to the fact that there was a constant flow of inconsiderate high school students cutting into the line to get their movie tickets ahead of other people. Ever heard of waiting in line? Ling thought silently as he glared at the teenagers. Aren’t they supposed to be in school at this time of the day? Ling pondered at the thought for a while. Finally, after what seemed like an hour of waiting in the line he got the ticket and quickly walked into the theater. Once he got into the semi dark show room, Ling felt his anger rose again. The same inconsiderate teenagers, who had cut in line to get their tickets first and therefore the first ones to enter the show room, had now taken up the best seats in the middle and the rear of the theater, leaving only seats in the very front unoccupied.
 

Why those inconsiderate little brats, if they haven’t cut in line there will still be some good seats left for the rest of us! Ling clenched his jaw. Settle down Ling, just breath in and let it out, relax, relax it’s your birthday, no need to be so upset over such trifle matters, Ling told himself, just go and find a seat in the front and sit down. Just enjoy the movie.
 

However reality soon settled in, one could not enjoy a movie sitting in the front rows, the images were all distorted, people and things were elongated, plus one would have to crane his neck backwards into an uncomfortable position to look at the screen. To make the matter worse, those obnoxious brats in the back were making irritatingly loud noises and chatters with total disregard to other’s right to watch the movie in peace. Thanks to them, by the end of the movie, Ling was feeling stiff, cranky and irritated. As soon as the movie ending credits started rolling, Ling strolled up the aisle heading towards the exit at the end of the room. As he walked pass the inconsiderate teens, Ling glared at them so intensely that not only knife and daggers came out from his eyes, but laser beams, missiles and weapons of massive destruction as well. But the teens were oblivious to Ling’s “attacks”; they did not notice his glares as he passed them.
 

When Ling made it to the outside of the theater, away from those brats, Ling sighted in relief. But the Forces That Be seemed to determine to toy with him; a second later Ling heard the theater door burst open behind him and his “arch-enemies” rushed out to go to wherever it was that they were going. As they rushed pass Ling, several of them bumped Ling, knocking him onto the floor, yet none of them had stopped to help him up. Luckily he landed on his buttocks, which softened the fall a bit, but it still hurt a lot to fall on cement floor. Ling struggled a little getting up from the floor, it took a bit of getting use to wearing platform shoes. Just as he made it to the sidewalk right outside of the theater, Ling heard a shout behind him.
 

“STOP, THEIF!!”
 

Ling turned around just in time to see a large man running straight towards him with a police chasing right behind him. Ling could tell from the panicked face on the man that their collision was inevitable. Shit, not again! Ling barely had time to finish his thought before he was sent flying across the sidewalk, crash landed a few meters from where he originally stood. This time Ling was not so lucky, skidding across the cement sidewalk had created scrape wounds on his side and hands. Painfully Ling pushed himself up into a sitting position on the sidewalk and examine the extent of the scrapes on his body. By this time the police had handcuffed the suspect on the floor and offered his hand to pull Ling up from the floor.
 

“Are you okay, Miss?”
 

Ling grabbed his hand and began to stand up, “Yeah, thanks.”
 

“You’re a man!” The cop was surprised at the realization and his hand loosened unconsciously.
 

“Ah!” With the sudden lack of support, Ling fell back down onto the hard sidewalk with a yelp.
 

“Oh sorry Mi… Sir, I was just surprised.” The officer apologized and offered his hand to pull Ling up once more.
 

“That’s okay, I can get up by myself.” Ling did not take the cop’s hand this time and slowly stood up from the sidewalk for the second time in the same day.
 

“Okay then, eh… Thanks for your help in catching the suspect, good day.” The police officer tipped the rim of his hat and turned away taking the suspect away. The cop turned around to look at Ling a couple of times, in obvious disbelief and disapproval, before both he and the suspect disappeared around the corner.
 

Yeah, what a great day this has been! Ling thought sarcastically. Just then as if the Force That Be heard his sarcastic remark, and in His own twisted sense of humor He decided to show how much worse the day could get. As soon as Ling finished his thought, a strong gust of wind started to blow, soon dark and dense clouds started forming, the clash of thunders followed next, in no time the sky was pouring down on the city of Shang Hai.
 

Seeing this, Ling decided it was time to go back to his hotel. He reached into his coat pocket for his wallet to take out some money for a cab but found that his pocket was empty! Ling glanced around quickly, nothing. He then went back into the theater and looked up and down for his wallet, still nothing. Reluctantly Ling walked out of the theater, standing in the exact same spot where he fell down the first time, it dawn on him that those bratty teens probably did not accidentally bumped into him as they rushed out of the theater, it was more like intentional. One of those little bastards had taken his wallet! Those kids had long since gone so Ling gave up on the idea of chasing after them. Without money, the only options left were to either call the others to get them to get him or walk back to the hotel, which is about 2 kilometers away, and in this weather and the ordeal that he went through, Ling was not particularly looking forward to the later option. So he reached into his other coat pocket, and instead of pulling out a cell phone, he pulled out what was left of a cell phone. His second fell on the sidewalk not only caused various bruises on his body, but also cost his phone as the crash had crushed his phone under his weight. That meant Ling had no money to get a tab, no way to call for a ride, and leaving him with the only option of walking all the way back to the hotel in this cursed weather.
 

Ling could not control himself anymore; he finally released all his anger and frustration that had accumulated through out the day, “AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?!!!!!! WHY!!!!!!” He started to run as fast as he could in the rain fueled by his anger and frustration. Ling did not care that the rain was drenching him wet from head to toe, he did not care that the cold wind cutting his face either, they were actually helping to keep him cooled so he could release more of his anger. All of a sudden Ling felt a sharp pain in his left ankle and his field of vision changed from that of the street into that of the concrete sidewalk. For the third time in the day, Ling fell onto the sidewalk. He pounded on the hard sidewalk, as hard as he could, repeatedly. “STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!” Then, for the first time since he had woke up in the morning, tears of despair flowed down his face, instantly mixing into the cold rain. After a few more minutes, Ling realized that it was better to be lying inside his room than lying on this cold, dark street, so absentmindedly he picked himself up for the third time. As he stood up, he felt his left ankle was throbbing with pain, at close examination he found that he had sprang his left ankle during the fall and his platform boot was broken at the heel as the result. Taking it off, Ling held the boot in his left hand and started to limp along the sidewalk in the direction of the hotel. His left ankle shot out heart clenching pain with every step, but Ling bitted his lower lip and limped on.
 

After about an hour of agonizing pain from limping on his left ankle, the hotel was only a block away. By this time Ling’s left ankle had swollen quite a bit. His left ankle protested with every limp that Ling took, but he clenched his teeth and marched on towards the hotel…
 

Back in the elevator

           Reminiscing his mishap filled day had enraged Ling once more, he was not about to just sit there quietly and accept his situation passively. Ling got up and slammed his fist against the elevator door, “OPEN IT UP, DAMN IT!” He yelled. All of a sudden the normal operating lights came back on and the elevator started to move again. Ling was taken aback by all of this, and then a voice came over the speakers in the elevator.
 

           “Sorry folks, the elevators were temporary out of service due to a power outage due to the lightings going on outside, I apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused. But the elevator service has now been resumed.”
 

           Ding. The elevator had reached Ling’s floor, he stepped carefully out of the elevator and surveyed the hall a bit, Ling was still a bit confused by the coincidence in the elevator, and it seemed just too much of a coincidence, felt more like something from a dream. After a few minutes of convincing himself that he was indeed stepping on his floor and not dreaming, Ling made his way to his room. As he was near it, he noticed that the door was opened slightly, yet no light was coming out from the room.
 

           Oh no, don’t tell me someone had broken into the room. WOULDN’T THIS HORRIBLE DAY EVER END? Perhaps out of anger, Ling completely ignored his safety and grabbed a bronze candleholder from a table in the hall as a weapon and marched into the room to confront the possible burglar. As he flipped on the light switch in the room, an astonishing sight entered his eyes.
 

           Colorful balloons, signs, glitters, cards, cake and people, there were quite a few people in his room!
 

           “SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LING!” They said in unison.
 

           Everyone was there, his band mates, Mr. Lv, their producer along with the rest of the show crew. Everyone had on one of those pointy “Happy Birthday” party hats along with warm smiles on their faces. The candleholder fell from his hands and Ling covered his opened mouth with both of his white and shaking hands, in surprise and joy.
 

           “Thought we forgot all about your birthday, didn’t you?” Zhen asked with a grin.
 

           “Um hum.” Ling nodded his head slowly, still recovering from the initial surprise.
 

           “Well, we just made up the whole thing about going out sightseeing so it would give us an excuse to get out, but we can’t take you along…” the drummer began to explain.
 

           “…since we have to go pick up a few items for the party and what is a surprise party with you knowing it? So we went out in the morning without telling you to let you think we forgot about you and went out by ourselves, this way it would be a REAL surprise party when you come back.” The blue haired guitarist finished the explanation.
 

           “And no doubt you’re the one who unplugged our alarm clock?” Ling stared at little Lucy accusingly.
 

           “That would be little me, at your service.” Lucy did a cute little bow. But he jumped as he saw Ling was rushing towards him with his fingers opened wanting to choke him. Quickly, the guitarist ducked behind the bassist. “Ah! Help me Hong, Ling’s after me!”
 

           “You are so dead Little Man!” Ling now was chasing the blue haired guitarist in circles around Hong.
 

           “Sometimes one must face one’s mortality, Lucy.” The blonde bassist all of a sudden moved out of the way after he spoke, allowing Ling to easily catch up with Lucy.
 

           “Come here you.” Ling was holding onto Lucy with one arm and used his right knuckle to rub against Lucy’s ribcage.
 

           “Hehehe…stop…,” Lucy gasped, “that… hehehehe… tickles…hehehehe…stop.”
 

           “That’ll teach you to mess with my alarm clock next time.” Both of them were laughing now, “but thanks for unplugging it Lucy.” Ling let go of the guitarist and turned to face everyone, he licked his dried lips and began to speak. “This morning when I woke up late,” he threw an accusing look at Lucy then smiled, “and thought everyone had left without me, I felt abandoned, I felt miserable. In an act of defiance, I felt I don’t need anyone else to have a good time, I didn’t felt that friends are that important.” Ling scanned the crowd in front of him for reactions; they were all looking at him to continue. “Yet the mishaps that has happened throughout the day had turned the perfect day that I have envisioned into the exact opposite. This was the worst day of my life, as you can see I’m a wreck right now, I felt as miserable as I look. When I came through that door, I was in despair, this day just has not been fair to me.” Ling closed his eyes, trying to hold back the tears that were gathering in his eyes. “I thought nothing could get me out of this sorrowful mood, I only prayed that I could make it through the rest of the day without anymore mishaps. But as I enter the room and saw you guys, I was truly touched,” Ling put both of his hands over his heart, “my battered spirit is immediately lifted, my mood has turned a complete 180 degrees, and I can feel the warmth from our friendship.” Ling looked at those in the room again, and bit his lower lip lightly, “and I realized how precious your friendship is to me, that happiness is not about hogging it all for one’s own, but sharing it with friends and families. And I am truly blessed to have friends like you…” Ling did a graceful bow and as he finished his bow, his eyes were glittering with tears. In a shaky voice, Ling thanked everyone, “Xie Xie Ni Men!”
 

           “Alright already, enough of this sentimentalism, you’re making us all want to cry,” Lucy clapped his hands together, “I’m hungry, now let’s eat!”
 

           Zhen smacked Lucy on the back of the head, “not before the birthday boy makes his birthday wish and,” he turned to face Ling, “not before he checks out the gifts we got for him.”
 

           Ling’s eyes widened with joy upon hearing the word, “gifts?! You brought me gifts? Well then, let’s get the party going!”
 

           Everyone laughed, with that the birthday party was underway, with music, games and of course, Lucy’s favorite part, eating the birthday cake. Pretty soon, the party had winded down a bit, people were now in small groups around the room having friendly, quiet chats. Ling had just stepped away from one of these little circles to get a cup of drink. As he turned around to take in the whole scene, it dawned on him that this was just like his last birthday party, nothing fancy or big, just a nice, warm and quiet celebration with his band mates and couple of closest friends. Everything was about the same as last year except for one thing. Last year, he was celebrating with four of his band mates, this year there were only three. Ling felt a bit sad at the realization; he wished the missing band mate could be here. Just then the phone in the hotel room rang, as Hong was the closest, he picked it up.
 

           “Wei?” The blonde bassist spoke into the phone, his right eyebrow arched up a little in surprise, “sure, hang on.” He put the handset on the table. “Hey Ling,” Hong called out, “the Mounty’s checking in,” he pointed at the telephone handset on the table.
 

           “What?” Ling’s eyebrows were knitted into a knot with confusion, sometimes Hong’s words were just too hard to decipher. He picked up the handset, “hello?” Ling spoke carefully into the phone.
 

           “Hey Xiao Bei, Happy Birthday!” Said a familiar voice from the receiving end of the handset.
 

           Ling gasped in surprise, “Nancy?” His hand that was holding the telephone began to tremble a little. Tears of joy rolled downed the purple haired vocalist’s face.
 

           This turned out to be a happy birthday indeed.
 
 

Author’s note:              Okay, okay, it has a lousy plot, I know, but come on, it’s my very first fan fic. It originally started as a very vague idea, and personally I didn’t feel like I have spent enough time to developed it too well. If nothing else, I hope you had a good time laughing at the poor quality of storyline, I will try to improve next time. Now for some clarifications regarding some words I used at the end of the story.
 

Mounty is a nickname for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, to make sense of what Hong was saying, put emphasis on the word Canadian (Canada), and it shouldn’t be that hard to understand why Hong said what he said.

Xiao Bei is the name Ling used in the early days when their rhythm guitarist Nancy was still active in the band.
 

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