Chapter 6: Escape!

"WATCH OUT!!"

Jay's panicked yell forced me to take my eyes off the rearview mirror, which I had been checking after I had zoomed (well, as fast as one can 'zoom' in a carpark anyway!) past the two angry pappz, to see if they were chasing us or worse still, taking photos of our getaway vehicle.
That was the last thing me or Jay wanted viz headlines screaming "Taiwan's Heavenly King caught in car with new J-Girl from Singapore!" or something to that effect. As far as I could tell, they had been too stunned to do so and had in fact, run the other way, shouting and gesticulating.

Adrenaline had kicked in and I looked in front immediately. With a swift turn of my steering wheel, I only just managed to avoid hitting another car which was backing out of a lot near the carpark exit door as I sped down the slope heading towards the exit gantry. I narrowly missed scraping the wall as well but patches of peeling paint showed where other drivers had not been that fortunate.

Jay had sat bolt upright in his seat by now and after giving me an admiring glance, was turning around to look behind. As he did so, his head came dangerously close to my left shoulder and I inhaled a whiff of his scent, which was definitely very pleasant. It reminded me of a recent report I had read where a fan who had been fortunate enough to hug him had declared that "He smells of awesomeness!"

"Ok, Ash my girl, now's not the time to be having such thoughts." a little voice whispered in my head, as I wrenched my brain back to the issue at hand and slowed down to approach the carpark barrier. My heart was thumping still but not with fear. Truth to tell, I was feeling a mite excited and thrilled but medical training had also instilled in me the ability to appear calm and unfazed in the most adverse of circumstances.

It was then that the sound of another car's screeching tyres became audible and I heard Jay mutter, "Not good. I think that's them. You'd better hurry up."
So that's why the two had been running the other way just now;  to get to their own vehicle and give chase, like vampires who had smelt blood. I bet they were already thinking of the scoop and handsome reward their boss was going to give them for this story.
Well, they had another think coming.

Jay turned back to face the front, at which point my car had already gone past the smoothly-uplifted barrier, thanks to the fact that I had a season parking lot there.
I looked at him and said, "Please put on your seatbelt. This could get dangerous!"
With my left hand, I was already pulling my own seatbelt down over my right shoulder at the same time and Jay seemed to realise the truth of my words, because he used his uninjured right hand to get his seatbelt down and clicked it into place firmly.

I drove out of the carpark and manouevered my way past the crowds of shoppers who were crossing the exit lane, hoping fervently that none of them would recognise my passenger, who had pulled his hood off and was calmly fiddling with the volume dial on the car's dashboard.
As he did so, the strains of Ju Hua Tai filled the car and I noticed him smiling with satisfaction as he also saw the CD boxes on the centre panel between our seats...November's Chopin and Still Fantasy were displayed there in all their glory. He started to say something but apparently thought better of it to allow me to concentrate on my driving.

Our troubles were not over yet, though as my habitual rearview checking showed that there was a car behind us stuck at the gantry we had just used. I had a sneaking suspicion it was the pappz and it appeared that the barrier was not lifting for them, something which I could not help thanking our lucky stars for as I cleared the mass of humanity outside the mall and hit the main stretch of Orchard Road.