For the umpteenth time, Masa stared at the message on his screen. "The potion may or may not have worked, but I think you'll surely want to meet my grandma!"
What in the world did Rynn mean by that? Did she want him to meet more of her family? Was her grandmother some kind of matriarch of the family whom you had to go through before even talking to the granddaughter, let alone dating her? Wait, why was he even thinking about dating? He was just interested in the birds of Malaysia, right? And apparently some rare migrants would bypass Malaysia and turn up in Singapore for some strange reason. Or at least, that was the impression he had from scanning through bird photos on Facebook.
Visiting Singapore might not be a bad idea. The island was smaller than even Okinawa and one could cover all sorts of different habitats in a day with its efficient transport system. And if he took a bus via Malaysia, that would cut down on his travel expenses by a significant amount. Now he was really glad they bought those teleports. Since Rynn had been so excited to see his school, he wondered how her school was like. Singapore was known as the "Garden City", so visiting one of the shopping streets might also be a novel experience. There was the famous Orchard Road—
"Hey, Masa!" A cheerful voice interrupted his thoughts. Taka popped his head into his room and gave him a cheeky grin. What now? His older brother never made that face unless there was something devious on his mind. Masa pretended to be studying, but Taka saw through his pretence as usual.
"What did you want?" Masa asked, not quite succeeding in keeping a sigh out of his voice.
Taka invited himself in and sat down on his bed, then stared at him with a serious expression, all his usual cheeriness gone. Masa raised an eyebrow. His brother seldom approached him in such a serious manner. "What is it?" he asked in a lower voice, more curious than annoyed this time.
"You see, my friends and I used to have this game project," Taka started after a short silence. "We had some disagreements and soon stopped working on it, and I left the team. But recently I found out that they had restarted it without me, so I was rather upset."
"Huh. That's understandable, I suppose," said Masa with a nod. "But why are you telling me this?"
"Well," Taka gave him a quick grin. "I asked the team whether they could let me back in, but they asked me for advice in exchange, so I would like your input. Do you think adjusting the difficulty of a game halfway would be fair to the players already playing it?"
"I'm no gamer, as you know," Masa pointed out. "Shouldn't you ask your university friends instead?"
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Let's put it this way," said Taka, glancing at the row of bird guidebooks on Masa's bookshelf. "What if you were already birding in a certain area and some guy released some rare birds there? Would you find it more interesting or would you get fed up and leave?"
Masa shook his head. "That's a travesty, you know. I'm not interested in 'plastic' lifers."
"I thought as much," agreed his brother, standing up. "Well then, thanks–“
"But well, I might stay awhile to observe the birds. After all, if they are exotic birds, I might not have another opportunity to see them in the wild," added Masa.
Taka was silent as he pondered on what his brother said. "Hmm, maybe that example wasn't a very good one. But anyway, thanks for your input. And send my regards to Rynn-chan."
"Wha–what does she have to do with anything?" sputtered Masa.
"Nothing, I've just noticed you have been texting a lot more than usual after you brought her over. Is there something going on between you two?" asked Taka with a smug grin.
Masa refused to meet his gaze. "Not really, she's just interested in studying overseas, so she's been messaging me a lot. It's a bit of a hassle, really."
"Hmmm...I see. Well, I'll leave you to your 'studying' then," said Taka, sticking out his tongue at Masa as a parting shot before he shut the door.
Masa stared at the closed door for a while before sighing and looking at Rynn's latest message on his phone once again. No, he decided that he wasn't going. Even with the teleports, it might take more than a day for him just to go to Singapore and return, so it wasn't worth thinking about. Still, there might be some interesting migrants at this time of the year...
Despite himself, Masa soon found himself on the MRT headed towards the Botanic Gardens. Getting across the Causeway from Malaysia had been an interesting experience, but once he was in Singapore proper, it had been fairly easy to navigate. As for how he managed to find a bus from Malaysia, he texted Muhammad beforehand and the butler had kindly driven him to the bus terminal in Melaka. From there, it was easy enough to hop on an comfortable coach to Singapore which was not unlike the highway buses in Japan.
That was all well and good, but as he walked quickly through the crowded MRT station, he was trying to ignore the curious stares directed at his outfit. He had come purely for the birds, or so he had convinced himself, so he was dressed in typical birding wear of a long-sleeved shirt and pants in dull, natural colours of green and brown. His cap even had a camouflage pattern on it. His binoculars were in his backpack, naturally, but even he was forced to admit that he stood out from the typical urban fashion worn by the youths around him. He gritted his teeth and walked faster, armed with the knowledge that he would be in his element soon enough, or at least once he exited this MRT station.
Thinking about the birds he was going to see also helped him take his mind of his current situation. A Hooded Pitta and a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo had been spotted in the Botanic Gardens. Despite hearing about sightings of the Fairy Pitta in the neighbouring Kochi prefecture, he had never seen it before. Pittas were colourful birds that some birders regarded as their holy grails, and although he didn't think himself a twitcher–a term to describe someone who chased after lifers–maybe he had to reconsider now that he had made such an effort to come here.
On the other hand, perhaps he had been chasing something–or someone–else in the first place. His heart skipped a beat as he heard his name being called.