Mr. Liu, the ADHD guy

Me, Kevin, Chester, and Peter were sitting in the McDonald's across from our college. We had been waiting for Liu for 30 minutes.

"Is he really going to be here?" Peter asked. Peter was a short dude with wire-rimmed glasses. He hoped that he could become a director in Hollywood one day.

"I think we should leave. Mr.Liu never understands how this world operates. Or we can say he never tries to." Kevin says sarcastically and with a very high pitch. Kevin was the skinniest you can ever meet. He was 6 feet tall but weighed 120 lb. If you see him face to face, you would think that you are talking with a skeleton. He dreamed of becoming a government employee and firmly believed that he would die at forty.

"We are here to help him. He has not attended any classes for two months, and he has missed all the exams. Something definitely happened. Also, I want to stay a little longer because the table right next to us has some hot girls. They must be freshmen," Chester said. Chester came from a wealthy family in the southern part of Taiwan. He loved everything about Korea and hoped he could marry a Korean lady one day.

"Let's wait for ten more minutes," I said. This McDonald's was usually crowded around Friday evening. Most college students either studied, hung out, or even dated in this place.

"Hey, I saw Mr. Liu! He is standing next to the door and peeping inside." Chester yelled.

Soon after Chester and Mr.Liu made eye contact, Mr. Liu stepped into the McDonald's and pretended he was looking for us. When he had finally done the acting, he walked toward our table.

"Greeting my brothers. My sincere apology for being late. My mother suddenly contacted me about some family issues." Mr. Liu said a classic Liu-ish excuse. No matter what mistake he made, he always blamed family issues. According to what he delivered, his grandmother was sick three times, and his sister was married five times this year. His excuses are so unconvincing and brainless that they almost make him an honest man since everyone knows he is lying.

"Hey, cut the bullshit! You are trash as always, bro. Stoping lying and put yourself together." Peter shout. Peter was a short and skinny dude. He had both pitbull and sparrow souls at the same time. He would not hesitate to fight with a man but was always shy when talking to his crush as a sparrow.

"Dear Peter, you describe me as trash. However, the trash you were referring to is the trash image in human civilization. For me, I do not accept by society. Therefore, I do not think I am a piece of litter. Also, in ancient China...' Mr. Liu began to articulate, which triggered Peter's anger even more. I could see that Peter held his fist and aimed for Mr. Liu's mouth.

"Come up, stop it, you both. Mr. Liu. Where did you go these three months? You didn't answer any calls. You didn't go to any classes. You didn't even go to the midterm and final exam." I asked and controlled Peter's wrist before he attacked Mr.Liu. Mr. Liu is a relatively big guy. If they did fight, I still think Peter had no chance even though he had a better fighter mentality.

"Well, that is a clever question. So I downloaded a computer game about the three kingdoms of China......" Mr. Liu said.

"You played a PC game for an entire semester? I mean.... literally one whole semester?" I said surprisingly.

"Not exactly. I also spared some time to consume food and manage my urinary system......." Mr. Liu said.

"So you have no idea that you are fucked. You failed all courses, and the University is about to kick your fat ass out of school?" Chester said.

Mr. Liu suddenly turned his face into Chester. He stared at him like a zombie. Surprisingly, when we expected another "family issue" excuse, he started to pule.

"I knew I had a problem, guys.......I don't know. Those video games are not even fun for me. I don't know why time passed so fast. I usually got up and only wanted to play for fifteen minutes, and then I lost time. When I recalled about class, it had been fifteen hours. I felt so guilty and thought that maybe today's class was unimportant. But the very second day, I did the same thing again." Mr. Liu said it trembly.

"Why don't you just shut down the computer? We all sometimes played too much League of Legends and skipped one or two classes. I do not think it is that big of a deal." I said.

"It felt like I was stuck in a loop and could never find a way out. Actually......., if today you guys don't find me. I was....... thinking of finding a painless way to suicide.' Mr. Liu said.

You might think that Mr. Liu did not answer any phone calls, did not show up for any class, and did not even contact his mom for three months. How did we even find him? This went back to twelve hours ago.

12 hours ago

Before having a class, some students would arrive in the classroom ten to fifth minutes early. That day was a Friday, and it was one of the coolest days of the summertime in Tainan, so more students arrived early.

Suddenly, the cleaning lady of our department flung the classroom door open and began to yell, "Mr. Liu! Is Mr. Liu here? Does anyone see Mr.Liu"

"Mr.Liu, he has not shown up for a long time. We thought he dropped the school or something." One bespectacled girl answered.

"If anyone saw Mr. Liu, tell him to pay back my 3000 NTD. He borrowed money from me and disappeared." The cleaning lady said and slammed the door.

I always knew where Mr. Liu lived, but I had never visited that place. Mr.Liu decided to live by himself in a shared apartment after being banned from living in the dormitory because he forgot to clean his room. (It was before summer vacation. When everyone needed to clean the room for the end of the lease, he did not do anything but went home directly) I decided to visit him to see what was really going on.

Since he would not pick up any phone calls, I directly went to the building. It was a building that you would see in some Asian horror movie. Dark, narrow, and humid. There was a restaurant that only sold lunch boxes on the ground floor. You might imagine that place smells like dead fish. Conversely, the smell in the air was always like a mix of grilled chicken, cooked rice, and oil.

The entrance of the building was right next to the restaurant. The ground was wet, and the steel gate was never locked. I went straight into the building to the fourth floor and saw a red-painted steel door standing in front of me. The doorbell was broken, so I knocked on the door. A guy wearing his slipper with greasy hair and pink eyes opened the door.

"Hey, what can I do for you" The guy said.

"I am looking for Mr. Liu. Does he still live in here?" I asked

The guy suddenly showed a second of a nauseousness and said, "Liu, you mean the guy in the third room? Are you his classmate? Can you tell him to pick up the phone? Someone calls him like 12 times a day, but he never picks it up. Also, his room smells so awful that it feels like someone dies there. Also, he always plays computer till three am....... " The guy said.

"Yep, I think that is him. Is he home right now?" I responded.

"Ya, unless his computer is playing by itself. His room is at the end of the hall." The guy pointed in the direction.

I walked toward the door and knocked. Immediately the gaming sound stopped, and I heard the noise of folding laptop, wearing pants, and throwing trashes.

"Hey Mr. Liu, this is Ray. What the fuck are you doing?" I yelled. After 5 seconds of silence, he opened the door. A mix of trash and leftover odor burst out from his room. Mr. Liu stood there, wearing a white shirt with many stains.

"Greeting, my friend. I have not seen you for a while. These days, I was not in school because I went out of town." Mr.Liu said with an apparent lie.

"FUCK, feels like someone died in your room. Go take a fucking shower now, and we need to meet you at the McDonald's at today's 7 pm." I held my nose and said.

"McDonald? Why am I required to go to McDonald's?" Mr. Liu asked.

"Hey, this is your last chance. Go to McDonald's and tell us what happened. Also, did you pay back the money for the cleaning lady...... Anyway, let us meet there at 7:00. Fuck, and what happened to your room. I got to go." Even though I held my nose, the crazy smell relentlessly attacked my nostrils. I ran out of the building and thought, "Fuck, he did not get out of his apartment for at least a month"

In the McDonald's

"Suicide? What makes you want to suicide? You decided not to go to any class. You decided to play computer games. You live 3 minutes away from the campus, but you chose not to go. You choose to lie about where you were when people tried to find you. And now you are crying and feeling like a victim. I am sorry, but I do not understand." Peter barked.

"At first, I did want to go to school. .........But I skipped a class; then I felt guilty. So I thought maybe I should not even go to the exam since I would never pass. Why should I even do something destined to fail?" Mr. Liu kept puling. His eyes were so red, and we are pretty sure that he had not slept for at least a week.

"Well, you can always start over again. The school allowed you to have two chances of failing more than half of your course. So you still got one chance," Chester patted Mr.Liu's back and said.

"Hey, but if you really want to be trash. You will still be trash for next semester. A leopard can't change its spots." Kevin said.

"What are you saying, Kevin?" We all said it surprisingly.

"For example, My dream is to work for the government and die at forty years old. I never change my dream, and now I am 22 years old. I still got 18 years. Mr. Liu, I believe if your dream is to play computer games, jerk off, be trash, and die. I think you should stick with it," Kevin said.

If you think Kevin did not give a shit about Mr. Liu, you are wrong. Kevin was Mr. Liu's first friend in college. They used to play basketball together and treated each other like bbf. However, Kevin always uses some unorthodox and goofy methods to inspire people.

"I understand you all care about me." No, we don't, Peter murmured. "I will try to start over again. I knew I fucked up. But I know what to do now. Now, let me treat you guys to this supper." Mr. Liu said and picked up the wallet on the table.

"Hold on, Mr. Liu, that is....." I said.

"Needless to say, Ray. You guys treated me so well. Five sets of Big Mac with large fried and coke are what I can return at this moment" Mr. Liu stood up and went to the counter.

"Ray, you tried to say something?" Peter asked curiously.

"Ya, that was my fucking wallet." I said.