9:10 PM...
Xiaoliang's POV...
The road is somehow more quiet tonight, which I actually enjoy. After the awkward dinner with the Chen family, Yifei eventually told me that she already talked to her mother and she approved of her hiring me, much to her father's disapproval. Tomorrow will be my first day, in which I have to drive her to college early in the morning, and drive her back home in the evening, unless she wants me to take her somewhere else. Tomorrow I have to wake up earlier than usual, since I have to prepare breakfast, head to the subway to get to Yifei's house, and then drive her to college. But even if I have to get up earlier tomorrow, tonight I wouldn't mind spending a few minutes out somewhere before going back home. While I am on the road, the thought of visitting someone who I've had grown closer with comes crossing my mind. She often reach out to me during lunch time, just to share her lunch with me. No matter how many times I tried to decline, I don't really get why she still insisted to share her lunch with me. Behind her anxious gaze, deep down I know she is so much more than just an anxious girl. She is caring and full of concern, it made me wonder what made her so anxious in the first place. Could it be her parents' divorce? I don't know. But for me, I started to feel insecure after receiving the amount of insults from my relatives after losing my parents.
As I continue to drive through the quiet night, my eyes spot a 24 hours convenience store on the street. I figure that I wanted to bring a little surprise for Mingyu, and so I decided to stop by. After parking my car, I walk out of the car and enter the store. The store is quiet, with only one cashier and one staff swipping the floors. I start to take a look around, wondering what could be a nice surprise for her. I don't really know much about what she likes, but I did remember her saying that her favorite steamed buns are chocolate steamed buns. Pretty much that explains why she brought chocolate buns today. By that, I think I could assume that she likes chocolate. With the thought of that, I walk over to the chocolate counter, where various chocolates are being displayed. With the amount of choices on the counter, I start to wonder what kind of chocolate she actually likes. All these choices in sight just makes me more confuse.
But again, I realize one thing, that I can't spend too long here, since it means I'll arrive at her place more late, which means she could probably be asleep at the time. Knowing that I need to rush, I decided to buy 5 chocolate bars with 5 different variants, which includes dark chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate, almond chocolate, and fruit nuts chocolate. By this, she can try various tastes of chocolates. I walk over to the cashier and make my purchase, before walking out of the convienience store. I enter my car and put the small bag of chocolates on my passenger seat.
As I continue to drive to Mingyu's place, my mind couldn't help but wonder about how will she react to the small surprise. Remembering that she is often so anxious, hopefully some chocolates can help her escape her anxiety for a moment. Even though I know that it's really not much, but I just hope that it can make her feel better.
It didn't took long for me to arrive at a house with a signboard in front of it. From the outside I could see the lights of the first floor are all turned off, yet when I look up to a window on the second floor, I can see that the light is still on, signaling that someone is still awake. After I parked my car, I got out of my car and stand in front of her house while looking up to her window. The air of the night feels breezy tonight, giving me a calming feeling. On the other hand, I hope this doesn't seem creepy that I showed up in front of her house in the middle of the night, but I just wanted to give her a surprise. Besides, I felt guilty for turning down her offer when she told me that she wanted to make me a bowl of noodles. Hopefully my presence tonight will surprise her. Without anymore hesitation, I pull out my phone from my pocket and call her.
Meanwhile...
Mingyu is in the middle of doing her homework, when her phone suddenly started ringing. She grabs her phone to see who is calling her at this time. It's Xiaoliang, which made her wonder about what would he want to say at this hour.
"Hello!" Mingyu answers the phone.
"Mingyu, what are you doing?" Xiaoliang's soft voice says through the phone.
"I was doing my homework. And you?" Mingyu ask.
"I was heading back from Yifei's place, when I happen to stumble upon a familiar house," Xiaoliang says, before letting out a small chuckle.
"Oh, I see," Mingyu says, though deep inside she didn't quite get what he meant when he told her he stumbled upon a familiar house.
"I think someone is waiting for you," Xiaoliang says. Again his gentle voice tinkles through her ears like the most gentle melody, making her heart feel a certain warm feeling. Though she didn't quite understand what he said before, she always felt comfortable at the sound of his voice. If she had to be honest, she liked his voice very much.
"Really? Who?" the clueless girl ask with curiousity. For a second she thought that Xiaoliang is trying to tease her.
Xiaoliang chuckles. "Look at your window."
Spontaneously, Mingyu turns her head to her window but sees nothing. Upon seeing nothing on her window, she starts to feel more confuse.
"I see nothing," Mingyu says.
Xiaoliang forms a smile at the thought of the innocent girl being clueless. He wanted to giggle at her cute action, but decided to hold it back since he didn't want her to think that he was trying to  make her feel clueless. With anxiety being obvious, Xiaoliang knew that someone like her need to be treat with extra care.
"Look down at your window," Xiaoliang says through the phone.
Still confuse, Mingyu walks over to her window and looks down, only to be surprise to see Xiaoliang waving at her from outside her. Though she is still surprised, she forms a small smile at the sight of the quiet boy standing outside her house.
"What are you doing here?" Mingyu ask through the phone.
"I thought I stopped by as I passed your house," Xiaoliang says while smiling.
Mingyu giggles. "I'll come down in a second."
"Ok," Xiaoliang says.
Mingyu hangs up the phone and puts it back on her study desk. She walks out of the room and tiptoes her way downstairs, not wanting to wake her exhausted momma up. After reaching downstairs, she turns on some of the lights, grab the door keys, and heads over to the big glass door. She unlocks the door and opens it, revealing Xiaoliang who is now standing in front of her door smiling. She smiles at the tall boy.
"Come in," Mingyu says in the softest tone, since she didn't want her mom to wake up in shock knowing that she has a sudden guest in the middle of the night.
As Xiaoliang walks inside the house, he notice that the vibe of it had changed since the first time he visit. When he first visited her house to pick her up, the house was transformed to a modest style noodle shop. At the time, a lot of people had come for a bowl of their famous pork noodle. By that, the noodle shop became a loud and busy place, yet the alluring aroma from their delicious dishes had become the main reason why the place just keeps getting more crowded until closing time. Yet, all of that change after closing time, in which the crowded noodle shop became an ordinary quiet house in the neighborhood.
"My momma is asleep," Mingyu says.
"Yeah," Xiaoliang says. He had already figured it out before Mingyu told him, since she was speaking so softly, and not to mention that it's pretty late. He assumed that her momma must have been tired after a long day.
Xiaoliang then puts his small shopping bag on top of an empty table. He then pulls out the chocolates he had bought for Mingyu and hands it to her, making her look surprised.
"These are for you," Xiaoliang says as he hands Mingyu the chocolates while smiling.
Mingyu stares at the various chocolates with wide eyes, before accepting them from Xiaoliang's hands. Her surprised facial expression soon fades as she forms a small smile on her lips. Deep inside, she is confuse on how did Xiaoliang knew that she liked chocolates. That was something she never told anyone about, except Junhao. So to receive her favorite sweet treat from him made her feel a bit of happiness inside. The only question that is still running inside her mind is how did he know she liked chocolates? Did he ask Junhao? Or did Junhao tell him? With these thoughts running in her head, her smile slowly starts fading as she suddenly feels guilty that he had approached her tonight just to give her chocolates. She is afraid that she had troubled the tall boy. Without her concern, her anxiety starts rising as she  suddenly feels her hands starts shaking while cold sweat starts coming out of her body.
"Mingyu, are you ok?" Xiaoliang ask as he stares at the anxious girl with a worried look.
"I'm ok. But you didn't have to trouble yourself so much," Mingyu says with a guilty tone.
"It's fine. I just thought that you would like some chocolates during your free time," Xiaoliang says. "It was no trouble at all. Besides, I wanted to visit you tonight."
Hearing his comforting words, Mingyu puts the chocolate bars on the table. She takes a deep breath, while trying to replay her daily affirmation in her head to reduce her anxiety. Growing up with anxiety made Mingyu depend a lot on her affirmation to remind herself to always keep going. Though replaying the same old words doesn't always calms her down, yet at least 70% of the time it helped her reduce her anxiety level.
I am strong. I can do this, and I will survive no matter what. I will cure myself. Mingyu replayed the affirmation in her head while closing her eyes.
After that, Mingyu takes another deep breath before opening her eyes again to face Xiaoliang, who is now staring deeply into her deep brown eyes. Mingyu decides to look back into the tall boy's eyes. Usually when people starts staring at her, Mingyu would chose to look away since staring at people triggers her anxiety. However, she found it funny that even though she always feels a weird feeling when she stares at Xiaoliang, yet she never felt anxious or even in fear when she finds her eyes on the tall boy. Somehow, his stares gave her a comforting feeling, and staring at him gives her a safe feeling.
Xiaoliang notice that Mingyu is staring back at him, which made his heart skipped a beat. He could see that her eyes are filled with comfort, and a small amount of hope. That is definetly not something he sees everyday. He usually finds the girl looking anxious, with her eyes looking hopeless with fear. To stare deeply into her eyes and spot something new was a surprise to him.
"Umm...ok," Xiaoliang says while turning his head away. He didn't want her notice that his cheeks are now red like a tomato after the deep eye contact they shared.
"I shall be going now. Goodnight," Xiaoliang adds. As he is about to walk away to front door, he suddenly feels a strong grip on his right arm, making him turn his head. He sees that Mingyu is holding on to his right arm.
"I want to make you a bowl of pork noodle," Mingyu says, while still holding on to his arm. "Can you stay here a bit longer?"
Xiaoliang forms a smile at the sight of the Mingyu holding his arm tightly. He didn't expect her to react like this so suddenly, but he didn't mind at all. In fact, he actually likes her spontaneously cute actions, which he thought is adorable. Yet, as much as he wants to spend some more time with her, he knew they have other things to do. They still have homework to finish, and not to mention he has to wake up earlier tomorrow morning.
"I still have to do my homework. But thanks anyway," Xiaoliang says with a small smile.
"You can do your homework here. Just take a seat and I'll make you a bowl of noodle," Mingyu says, with her hands still holding tightly to his arm.
Xiaoliang's smile gets slightly wider at Mingyu's child-like behaviour. Without any other words, Mingyu pulls Xiaoliang over to an empty chair, before walking over to the kitchen to get a drink for him.
"Here," Mingyu walks out of the kitchen with a glass of water in her hand. She places the glass of water on Xiaoliang's table.
"Thanks, Mingyu. But I really need to go back. I have to do my homework," Xiaoliang says. Even though he actually wanted to spend more time with Mingyu tonight, but he knew he have other things that needs to be
"I already told you. You can do your homework here," Mingyu says. "Besides, I already told you I was gonna make you a bowl of noodle."
Xiaoliang chuckles. "I appreciate it, Mingyu. But we can always do that some other times."
"It won't take long. Besides, I'm also not done with my homeworks. I was actually thinking that...."
Mingyu pause for a moment as she feels herself starting to feel nervous all of a sudden. She was about to ask Xiaoliang if he wanted to do their homeworks together, but hesitates after she thought about it, making her anxiety rise. Xiaoliang notice that her arms are now slightly shaking, in which she tries to stop them by holding her hands tightly. Her eyes are now staring at the ground, with her forehead starting to sweat all of a sudden.
She's getting anxious again. Xiaoliang thought.
Looking at the girl's current state, he knew that what she is experiencing are symptoms of anxiety. He knew that her anxiety starts rising upon her trying to say something to him. The sight of her being anxious makes Xiaoliang feels sorry for her. Though he planned to not put any care or concern to anyone (except his grandma) after entering college, he never expected to meet an anxious girl who would caught his attention, and makes him concern about her in a way. It was beyond his expectation.
Realizing that Mingyu isn't gonna speak up anytime sooner, Xiaoliang finally thought he would stay a bit longer at her place, just like she insisted. For him, it was a surprising choice he made, since the main purpose of it was so that she wouldn't be anxious anymore. After experiencing depression after his relatives constantly puts him down after his parents death, Xiaoliang had chose to not concern about anybody since he didn't want to get hurt again. But tonight, he felt like he needed to make the choice for her, just to make her feel better. He feels odd that suddenly, he wants to make someone other than his grandma actually happy. This was something new.
"Fine, I will stay for a bit," Xiaoliang finally says, making Mingyu to turn her head slowly to face him. Her eyes are widen, but he could tell that her eyes are the mixed look of confusion, shock, and bitterness. Even though she didn't cry, her eyes already speaks how she is silently crying inside.
Surprised, Mingyu's anxious look slowly fades as a smile forms on her small lips.
"I'll make the best noodle for you," Mingyu says while smiling at Xiaoliang, in which he smiles back.
After a few moments of smiling at each other with awkwardness, Mingyu heads back to the kitchen to make Xiaoliang a bowl of her momma's famous pork noodle.
To be continue...