Mina has been in and out of Hong Kong for the past one year. She was doing a master degree in MIT. There has always been a discussion among the friends that she might not come back after the study. Last time when we traveled together in Mexico, Mina cut her trip short to fly back to Japan as her grandma was critically ill. She did manage to see her grandma for the last time. Ever since she wanted to go back to Tokyo, close to the family. I heard all these from Lorena and Dany. I was never close to Mina. She was more of Lorena’s friend. They knew each other when they just came to Hong Kong and had this yearly trip tradition way before we all started to travel together. Lorena and Dany were also a long-time friend of Will, Mina’s boyfriend. Mina and Will actually met on Lorena’s birthday junk. Because of all these common friends and close proximity in Sai Ying Pun, I hang out a lot with Mina and Will.
Mina was a typical Japanese girl when you pictured a Japanese in your head — warm smile, extremely polite and always in her best behavior. I felt distant from her — her behaviors were too perfect and I sometimes felt she was judgemental. Yet since she was always right, you can’t hold the overly opinionated attitude against her. And I suppose I might be the only one who felt this way. But one thing I did admire her was her consistency. I’ve seen people who pretended to be something but followed a set of rules convenient to themselves. Mina genuinely operated this way. One thing struck in my memory was an episode from our Ipoh trip. We just came back from the outside to this resort. We asked the reception to bring a spare key to us but it took a while. We started to take turns getting into shower. While I was drying my hair, someone was knocking on the door. From the window, I saw it’s the hotel boy in our courtyard to bring us the spare key. I was still wrapped in a towel and my hair was dripping. I really didn’t feel like to open the door. We didn’t need that key at that moment. He can come back later or I will pick it up when I was dressed. I ignored the knocking and continued to dry my hair. Then Mina stormed out of the shower, wrapped in tower, hair dripping. She was a bit angry, “Sabrina, you should open the door.” She opened the door, smiling, and took the key. I forever remembered Mina always kept her high standards. In a good way.
It was also the group dynamic. I was the youngest one, below 30, and the rest were all above 35. I was like a little sister. They took care of me like a little sister and they gave me lessons like a little sister. I took them all in. For the past few years, I was confusing and struggling most of time. I kept learning. If I believe people got a point or I respected them, I listened to them patiently and never had a hard feeling if I was corrected. This attitude has also made people comfortable to be more direct with me.
When I said I never had a hard feeling, it was 99.9% true. The 0.1% was about Mina. I never liked her tone, like giving me lessons all the time. Sometimes I did do something wrong, while sometimes she thought I was wrong but I wasn’t. Yet my role in the past four years was that little sister who constantly screwed up — I never spoke up. Regardless, all of that was purely emotions. In my mentality, I was and am always 100% respecting Mina.
When Mina graduated from MIT, she got an offer from Mckinsey Tokyo office. She was surely leaving Hong Kong. Will, the stubborn Scottish who always planed to go back to Scotland to run his family’s farm, gave in in the end to move to Tokyo too. All these years I was like hanging out with my big sisters’ friends with them, yet their leaving still created a big hole in my ecosystem in Sai Ying Pun. All the morning cabs we shared to Stanley, all the gifts we exchanged on Secret Santa, and all the corridor parties on 4th floor — they have become my friends too.
Lorena and Viv acted very calm like they knew the day would come. Viv talked to me, “of course they will leave Hong Kong.” Lorena was very positive and has already started to plan her Tokyo visit to them. Dany was disappointed, “our SYP gang is gone.” As I was overwhelmed by uncertainties at the time — no job and no idea what I will do, I didn’t get too sentimental.
Before Will left town, he moved all his plants to my rooftop. They were his babies. I was officially a foster mom.