"Remember, I stayed behind after school to help the art club with decorating the classroom."

  Leon rolled his eyes, swinging his art bag as he walked. "Yeah, okay. You've told me ten thousand times already."

  Vicente smiled and caught a stray paintbrush that flew out of Leon's bag. "Thank you, Leon. Are you sure you don't want to come along?"

  "Nah. Mother will kill me if I skip my math tutorials," he grumbled, "she must think my grades are more important than my sister." Leon looked at him. "Are you going to take photos?"

  "I'm going to see if I can buy any." He pulled his purse out of his pocket. "I brought some pocket money."

  They reached the school gates, and Leon went off to the nearby bus station, waving at him as he left. "See you tonight."

  According to the map in his general studies textbook, the nearest metro station was only a block away from his school, and Vicente managed to reach it after five minutes, thankful that his school bag was light. He followed his plan and switched lines two stations later, arriving at Xishan Kindergarten ten minutes before Ling's performance was to begin.

  He scurried around excited parents and fussing teachers, careful not to push over the tiny kindergarteners milling around his feet, and followed the line into the school hall.

  Teachers were standing outside the entrances, accepting what looked like slips of paper from the adults' hands. As he neared, he noted the bold words on every slip of paper: "TICKET".

  An expectant hand was held out in front of him.

  Vicente looked up at the teacher, who stared back with tired eyes and a bored half-smile. "Do you have a ticket?"

  He shook his head.

  "Well, then, I'm going to have to ask you to — "

  "Please," he interrupted, "even if I can't have a seat, may I at least stand?"

  The teacher looked at him for a while before sighing. "Stand at the back, then. You should still be able to see the stage from there."

  Relief flooding through him, Vicente muttered a quick "thank you" to the teacher before making his way into the hall and standing against the wall. The rest of the parents passed him without looking, engrossed in conversation and flipping through the programme. He looked at the stage, at the colourful set and the bouquets lining the side, and awaited the performance's beginning.

  Soon, a swell of music began to blare from the speakers as the hall dimmed, the spotlights glowing like lanterns. A row of kindergarteners walked out onto the stage, some of them waving at their parents. Bouncing behind her classmates was Ling, dressed in a frilly crimson dress and smiling brightly enough to light up the world.

  The audience burst into applause. Vicente smiled at his sister (though he was quite sure she couldn't see him), clapping and clapping until his hands felt like they were going to fall off. He thought of cheering, like he always did for Leon during his sports competitions, before deciding otherwise. Nobody else is cheering anyways.

  A middle-aged woman, presumably the headmistress, stood behind the podium. Beaming, she addressed the audience. "Parents, teachers and esteemed guests, we are gathered here today to celebrate the graduation of some very talented young boys and girls. Now, it's time for them to move on to a new stage of life." She turned to the cluster of students. "Children, I wish you all the best in primary school, and I do hope that we'll meet again!"

  The audience, once again, burst into applause.

  He watched as the headmistress ambled to the side of the stage, where a teacher was standing with a handful of diplomas. He watched as every student walked their way to the headmistress, shaking her hand, grinning and accepting the diploma. He clapped politely for each of them, listening as the photographer's camera snapped proud photos.

  "From class C, Huang Yue Ling."

  Ling traipsed towards the headmistress, shaking her hand eagerly and taking the diploma. She took the roll of paper with one hand, spun towards the audience and smiled toothily, bowing.

  Snap. The photographer took a photo of her.

  Not caring if the grown-ups glared at him, Vicente jumped up and down, clapping and waving his arms at Ling. Thankfully, nobody cast him any glances, but Ling waved back, much to the audience's amusement.

  The polite applause returned, and Ling made her way off the stage.

  For ten more minutes, the rest of the kindergarteners walked on stage to receive their diplomas. When the last student from class E stepped down the stairs with a face-splitting grin, the master of ceremonies returned on stage. "These children have all worked very hard for this very day, and it's time to reap the fruits of their labour! Now we present class A and their short drama of 'Cinderella', so please give them a huge round of applause!"

  Vicente stood patiently as class A played out their drama, time passing agonisingly slow. As the group of five-year-olds bowed to clicks of the camera and claps from their parents, he cast a glance at his watch. 4:23.

  Exactly one hour and thirty-seven more minutes until his parents were to return home.

  Five minutes and one skit from class B later, it was finally time for class C to perform. He couldn't help smiling as he saw Ling, walking out of backstage with a spring in her step. Once she took her place, standing at the centre of the stage and teetering as she stood, her bright eyes began to roam around the hall.

  When her eyes met Vicente's, they lit up.

  At that moment, he forgot Yao's apologetic smile, Leon's derisive nonchalance and his parents' ignorance. When the music began to play and Ling started her dance, practically radiating joy, he wondered, though he hated himself for it, how disappointed she'd look if she hadn't been able to see him.

  But those thoughts soon faded away with the cheerful, bouncy music, and he found himself clapping along to the rhythm as Ling spun, hopped and twirled on stage. No longer was she dancing in her cramped, dimly-lit bedroom wearing her ratty school uniform, but in a fancy concert hall with her new dress. But it makes no difference, Vicente thought, she's happy all the same.

  At the very end, when Ling stood with her classmates and curtsied daintily, he cheered alongside everyone else.

...

  The rest of the ceremony passed in a blur, speeches and sharings droning on and on until Vicente's watch read 5:30 and he found himself being pushed by the sea of parents walking out of the hall. One hand clutching his bags, he stumbled out of the hall and into the school courtyard, searching the group of students for his sister.

  "Brother!"

  Seemingly out of nowhere, Ling slammed into him, wrapping her arms around him in a bear hug. "You'rehereyou'rehereyou'rehere!"

  He dropped his bags, awkwardly patting Ling's head. "Hi," he said, "I, er, saw your performance. You were great."

  She tugged at one of the ribbons tying at her pigtails, giggling. "It's better than when I did it at home, right? Did you clap?"

  "Of course I did."

  "Did Yao and Leon clap, too?" Ling looked around, her smile faltering just slightly. "Where are they? Where are Mother and Father?"

  Unwilling to tell her the truth, Vicente took her hand and steered her into the hall. "Do you know if we can buy photos yet?"

  "Um..." Ling teetered back-and-forth. "I think my teacher said that we will get photos tomorrow. No need to buy them."

  "Oh. All right, then." He dropped his purse back into his bag. "That's good. Do you want to stay and talk to your friends, or do you want to lea — "  

  At the corner of his eye, he caught the jet-black blazer of Yao's school uniform. Then he caught Leon's favourite red bag, his father's briefcase.

  Before he knew it, Yao was striding into the hall, one hand still holding his math textbook and the other windmilling around. "Jia Lin!" He grabbed his shoulders, the textbook falling to the floor. "You — you actually — I never thought you were serious!"

  He opened his mouth to say something. Nothing came out.

  "I was so worried when you didn't come home, even after Leon finished his tutorials, then I thought of Ling and her performance and how you wanted to watch her, and oh my goodness, you could've at least told me!"

  "But you said you couldn't come along," Vicente said, finding his voice, "and Leon has extra classes, so I decided to go alone."

  Yao rubbed at his temples and bent down to pick up his fallen textbook. "Don't run off on us next time, okay? You scared me half to death! Now let's go." He marched off with their parents, Leon staring off into space and Ling talking a mile a minute. "Time to go home."

  Vicente trudged out of the hall and away from the school building, the chatter of parents and children suddenly ear-splitting. As he sat down in his parents' car, he noticed his mother's hand on Ling's shoulder, his father lecturing Leon on his latest quiz scores, Yao's eyes poring over his textbook.

  Not a glance at him.