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“How did you crash again?” Mei looked on in disbelief as a lone tire rolled loose and down the street, the tuk-tuk collapsed just outside of the noodle shop. MK was sitting at the counter, Tang sticking brightly colored bandages all along his scrapes. “This is the third time this week.”
“Come on, Mei, you know that being Monkie Kid is hard, yo.” MK held up his arms in a mock pose before wincing and dropping back into Tang’s reach.
“Nope, not taking that as an answer.” Mei strode over to the door standing in the frame with a determined look. “I’m coming with you for the rest of your deliveries today.”
“What?”
“If someone’s attacking you, then I’ll stop them so you can keep going. If it’s something where you’re, like, not sleeping enough, I’ll shake you awake. Come on, go fix the thing and we’ll get going. I don’t think Piggy will let you get out of work because you busted the tuk tuk again.”
MK nodded, hopping down and shrugging his shoulders back into his roughed up dress shirt. Mei offered a thumbs up to Tang as he packed up the first aid kit, following her friend to the streetside. He pulled the staff out of his ear and stamped it once on the ground, the pieces of the vehicle glowing as they spun back into place. Mei gave MK a questioning look at how normal the tuk tuk is.
“It’s not like we’re fighting anyone,” he replied. “I don’t need a big robot.”
“Boring.” She slunk into the passenger seat, which was really just the half of the cushion that MK wasn’t on. He set his legs on top of hers just so he could reach the pedals without shoving her off. Mei fully expected this to be another day with those metal twins leaving caltrops in the road or something of the sort.
MK stopped at the first red light, pointing to a far off sign. “Hey, real quick, what does that say?”
“Huh?” She leaned forward, not having to squint like he was. “Sheh Street.”
“Cool, thanks.” MK turned right, whistling a new tune. Mei raised her eyebrows, slowly turning to him.
“MK. Were you not able to read that sign?”
“Yeah, I think the paint rubbed off or something.”
“What? No, that sign was ridiculously clear. The most clear.” Mei watched him shrug, turning again onto the turnpike and maaaaaybe he shouldn’t drive out here? “MK, I really think we should turn around.”
“Psh, it’s all good.” He waved his hand in dismissal. “I can see most of the signs, and there’s so many everywhere, that it doesn’t matter in the end.”
“But you have some you can’t read.”
“Yeah, some. The ones that are worn out and far away.”
“I’m telling you, that wasn’t old, you just couldn’t read it!” Mei crossed her arms as he stopped, getting out of the tuk tuk and opening the back to take out a warm order of noodles. Mei scanned her surroundings as he dealt with his job. Okay, they’re mostly in a big apartment complex, so there aren’t too many signs she can use as a good test. She peeked over to the person’s door and gasped, zipping over to be on MK’s back. “Quick, the sign at the end of the hallway! What does it say?”
He squinted like an old man, scrunching his nose. “It says something about in case of s-j-n-e? Is that code?”
“In case of fire! From context, you should know it’s fire! You can’t fucking read, MK!” She leaned over his head with his face squished between her hands. “You can’t read!”
“Uh…” He hopped from one leg to the other, passing over the noodles. “Sorry about her, um…” MK faltered as the customer, unimpressed, shut the door on them. “Wow. Rude.”
“Don’t dodge how you can’t read signs that are barely ten feet away! That hallway was a baby hallway, at best, and you couldn’t see shit!”
“Mei-”
“Nope. We’re going to Tang.” She decided to be in charge of the tuk tuk, shoving him behind her and driving at a speed she found appropriate. Tang was standing on the road, nearly run over and clutching his chest.
“Never drive like that again,” he gasped, leaning into the entrance of the noodle store.
“Tang, give me your glasses, now.” Mei snatched them off his face and pushed MK’s headband away so it wouldn’t screw up the temples of the spectacles. He blinked, looking lost as he wondered about the new world.
“Everything’s a bit clearer.” He tilted his head, holding his hand out to his face. “Do most people see the world like this?”
“Yeah, it’s a prescription.”
“It’s still blurry, and it’s kinda giving me a headache-”
“That doesn’t make it the right prescription.” Tang took the glasses, immediately checking them for smudges on the lenses. “I have a different prescription for each eye, so it may be that one of these is a close match to what you need and the other isn’t. My right eye’s pretty weak, so you are probably closer to that one…is this why you take so long on deliveries?”
“I thought everyone had to get that close to signs to read them.” MK shrank under their doubtful looks. “Hey, it’s not like this gets explained! Pigsy never took me to check for this stuff since he can’t prove I’m his kid or anything. We were more of a sit-on-the-kitchen-counter-to-get-your-vaccine kind of family.”
“I’ll get him to take you to the eye doctor,” Tang decided, tucking his arms in his sleeves and dipping back into the store.
Mei slid to MK’s side with a smirk. “Sooo. Does this mean that whenever you missed the enemy, you thought you hit them or something?”
“Agh! Shut up.” MK’s face reddened, backing away with a defensive stance. “Look, I would’ve figured this out sooner if I didn’t have junk like golden vision messing with my eyesight.”
“I thought that just lets you see weak spots.”
“Yeah, and zooms in on them until they get all fuzzy and bright. I can’t do that every time I need to see a sign on the road…although I doubt that would work, when it glows.”
“Maybe you screwed up your eyes insisting on drawing in the dark every sleepover.”
“Maybe you should get yours checked too, since you’re so close to the screen when you’re streaming.”
“Hey!” Mei stuck out her tongue, MK sticking out his in turn. “Dragons have perfect vision.”
“Suuuuure.”
“Make sure that your glasses match Tang’s!”