The two adults smile as they have their eyes lock with each other. As Mingyu starts to study Xiaoliang's face, she notice the bandage on his right cheek. He had told her earlier at college that he got the bruise after getting into a fight with Liqiang, yet he didn't told her the reason behind their fight since he didn't want to add more stress to her. However, Mingyu had found out about the fight, since a student posted the video of the fight on their Wechat group. By this, the whole college knows that Xiaoliang was trying to defend Mingyu after Liqiang bad talked about her, which made her feel touched.
"Umm..how's your bruise?" Mingyu ask as she stares at the blue bandage on Xiaoliang's right cheek.
"Yeah, it's better now," Xiaoliang says in a chill tone. It was obvious that he didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but for Mingyu, it was a big thing since it clearly shows that he was hurt because of the bruise.
Without a word, Mingyu gets up from her seat. Xiaoliang turns his vision to look at the girl standing across him, looking all cute in a plain white t-shirt and baby blue pajama pants. Her hair is tied into a messy ponytail, which makes her beautiful jawlines more visible.
"Wait for me. I'll be back in a second," Mingyu says before she upstairs, leaving Xiaoliang with no chance to reply.
Hmm...I wonder what she's up to. Xiaoliang thought.
At Mingyu's room...
Mingyu opened her drawer and grabs her medical kit, where she keeps all her medical stuffs including ointments, bandages, and stress relief supplements. After closing the drawer, she tiptoes back downstairs with the medical kit in hand, and walks over to Xiaoliang. She places the medical kit on the table and opens it, much to Xiaoliang's confusion on why did she brought down her medical kit.
"Here, it's for the bruise," Mingyu says as she pulls out an ointment from the medical kit.
Xiaoliang looks at Mingyu with a confused look. "Umm..It's ok. I already have a bandage on it so I'm good."
"I also have a bandage right here," Mingyu says as she pulls out a bandage along with some alcohol wipes. "This ointment really helps with the recovery."
"It's ok, Mingyu. I can clean this bruise at home," Xiaoliang says, with a rather shy tone. Though he had always appreciated Mingyu's attention to him, yet he didn't always feel comfortable with himself when she's being too kind to him. Little did Mingyu know, that often times he feels embarrassed with himself whenever she's being too concern of him. Xiaoliang never wanted to be pity by others, especially women. He believed that as a man, he has to take care of himself, and not ask for anyone's help. Other than that, growing up with being ostracized by his relatives made him realized that no matter how much he has to struggle, he only has himself and won't expect any help or pity from others.
"Why wait for you to return home when we can clean it right now?" Mingyu ask. She bends down to face Xiaoliang who is sitting and removes the bandage on his right cheek, revealing the visible bruise that was covered. She grabs an alcohol wipe and starts cleaning the bruise on his right cheek.
As she continues to clean the bruise, Mingyu took this chance to silently admire Xiaoliang's features. His mysteriously alluring eyes was the first thing that caught her attention. An unusual feeling starts crawling in her heart, making the ryhtm of her heartbeat faster than usual. To Mingyu, it's odd to feel her heart beating faster yet with no anxiety involve. Usually, whenever her heart beats faster is because her anxiety is rising. That is, until tonight where she experience the feeling of her heart racing with the anixety being replaced with comfort.
Little did Mingyu know, Xiaoliang had also been struggling with the weird feeling running inside his chest. Though he had stare at Mingyu's chocolate brown eyes before, he decided to move his vision down after he felt his cheeks burning, and it's not because the bruise hurt. To him, the pain of the bruise is nothing compare to the adrenaline of trying to hide his own weird feelings, while silently hoping that no one who notice his blushing cheeks which are pretty obvious.
"Tell me if it hurts," Mingyu says, before putting away the alcohol wipe and grabbing the ointment. She carefully applies the ointment on the bruise.
Mingyu's POV...
As I continue to apply the ointment on Xiaoliang's bruise, somehow the butterflies just keeps getting wilder in my stomach. At this point, my heart feels like a turbo fast race car racing through the streets, making itself dizzy without even trying. The vibration I am feeling when my hand touch his soft cheek sends chills down my veins, but at the same time he awakens some sort of fear behind comfort. While his present slowly makes me feel more comfortable, it generates some sort of feeling of fear in my heart which I couldn't figure out at the moment. With all these weird feelings mixed up inside of me, I try not to think about it since I don't want to let these feelings put me into more trouble.
Reality check to myself! Xiaoliang is just a nice guy who I could be attracted to, but that doesn't matter because even if he knew about my feelings, he won't even choose me out of all choices. It's time to stop thinking of him in certain ways and just see him as a normal friend.
After I finished applying the ointment, I grab a new bandage and puts it on his bruise. At this point, my eyes are clearly avoiding his as I only focus on his bruise, and nothing else.
"Done," I say, before closing my medical kit.
"Thank you," he says in a low tone, slowly turning his head down to look at the ground.
I turn my head to look at the quiet boy staring at his white shoes at this point, completely avoiding my face. It made me wonder if I had offend him when my vision refuse to stare into his. A feeling of guilt starts kicking in, as I find myself now feeling restless at the sight of the quiet boy looking all down.
I sigh. "I'm sorry if I happened to offend you."
Xiaoliang quickly turns his head to face me, his eyes looked a bit nervous yet surprised at the same time. I could tell he didn't expect me to say that to him.
"What? No! You didn't offend me at all," he says. His voice sounded like a mixed of nervous and worried. He then takes a deep breath and scratches his nape, with a guilty look written all over his face.
"I'm sorry if I made you think that I offend you. I didn't mean to," he says with a guilty tone.
I sigh. Now he's making me feel guilty for accusing him just now. I wanted to say that maybe I was being too sensitive, but to think again, I should have understand his choice. He had his reason to avoid my eye contact, and I shouldn't make a big deal out of it.
"I'm sorry. I just thought I offended you," I say in a low tone as I turn my head down.
"It's ok. I wasn't being very polite. No wonder you thought that I was offended when I'm not. I should be the one to say sorry," Xiaoliang says.
His soft voice tinkles through my ears. The vision of his beautiful eyes starts running inside my mind, making me want to get lost in those brown eyes again.
"Honestly, I'm overwhelmed by your act of kindness. I wish I could call you my big sister, but hey, we're the same age," Xiaoliang says before letting out a small chuckle. From the way he sounded, I have a feeling he was trying to reduce the awkwardness of our misunderstandings.
Hearing this, my cheeks starts to heat up. Again he succede in making the butterflies inside of me go crazy. Feeling embarrassed, I turn my head away from the now smiling boy, yet I wasn't planning to go silent.
"Well, you can always call me "Jie Jie" if you want. I won't mind," I say, trying to sound chill as if the awkward tension had reduce. Aftet that, I took a deep breath before turning my head to look at Xiaoliang who pretty much looks clueless at my statement.
I cross my arms while having my gaze at him, trying to create a chill yet confident look. I didn't want him to assume me as a weak woman who only knows how to cry and feel insecure from time to time. It's rather funny knowing that I actually care about how he views me, when I had given up about how people will see me since years ago. After being abused for years, I eventually came to a state where I was too exhausted to explain anything to anyone. Eventually, I don't care about what other people will view or accuse me as. Yet, standing in front of this quiet boy tonight triggers my desire to create a stronger image of myself in front of him. Somehow, I feel like I need to portray a woman with confidence.
But other than all of that, there is one question still lingering in my head, which I haven't find the answer myself. Deep down, I still wonder...am I trying to portray someone else who is better than me in front of him? Or am I trying to show him the other version of me without anxiety? But after the tough years, does that version of me still exist? Another thing is...does he only see me as a big sister figure?
"Mingyu," Xiaoliang calls me all of a sudden. He forms a shy smile on his face.
His soothing voice snaps me back from my wondering mind. I move my visions to him, again trying to act like I got it all together.
"Yes, what is it?" I ask him.
"It's getting late. I should go back home now," Xiaoliang says. He gets up from his seat and grabs his backpack.
"Thank you for tonight," Xiaoliang says with a small smile on his lips.
I smile back at him. "You're welcome. Let me walk you to the door."
Xiaoliang nodded, and I lead him to the exit of the noodle shop. As I open the glass door, the breeze of the night gently blows to our direction, giving me a calming feeling inside, reminding me that I always prefer night time over day time, since I can be vulnerable without getting bullied.
I turn my head and see Xiaoliang looking relaxed while enjoying the breeze. I notice his eyes are now staring at the night sky. I turn my gaze to the sky, and noticed that there are a few stars scattered across the sky tonight, making the dark sky look luminous.
While his eyes are still lost with the night's beauty, Xiaoliang takes a deep breath with a soothing look on his face. He eventually turns his head to my direction, where our eyes meet again, and for a thousand times, my heart starts racing again, and fearing that it might race too fast that he will find out sooner.
Xiaoliang smiles. "Goodnight, Mingyu."
I stood in silence as I watch him walk over to his car. Somehow, my heart is experiencing an oddly mixed up feeling. It feels like all sorts of emotions are being thrown into one bowl, which is my heart, and stirred roughly to one.
"Xiaoliang!"
Just when Xiaoliang was about to enter his car, I had impulsively called him out. He turns his head to face me while raising one of his eyebrow, instantly making my cheeks heat up. His gaze is making me rethink about my action just now. I wanted to say a part of me regretted my impulsive decision, since I am now standing with a flustered feeling.
"Actually...it's ok if you want to call me "Jie Jie". I don't mind," I say. My vision slowly moves down from his eyes to the ground, not wanting to keep up the eye contact which only makes the tension more awkward.
Xiaoliang chukcles. "Ok. I'll see you tomorrow, Jie Jie. Goodnight."
I turn my head back to see Xiaoliang entering his car. He closes the door and turns on the engene, before finally driving off the neighborhood. I watch as his car starts to disappear from my sight. Slowly, my heart starts going back back to its normal pace, but at the same time it brings back the solitariness that wasn't presented in my mind when I was with him. When I think about it again, when I'm with Xiaoliang, I happen to forget some of my old thoughts, but get lost in the new thoughts he awakened.
As the breeze of the night gets colder, I turn around and go back inside the noodle shop. After entering it, I locked the door and decided to clean up the table, only to see a peach envelop along with a note.
Thank you for your generous hospitality. Please have a good rest and don't be too tired. Goodnight, Wang Mingyu.
- Cheng Xiao Liang.
Upon reading the note, I turn my vision to the peach colored envelop on the table. Curious, I grab the envelop from the white table and opens it. Other than a letter inside the envelop, to my surprise, there is money inside the envelop.
My eyes widen when I pulled out the cash from the envelop. Speechless, surprised, I stood in silent as I stare at the cash in my hands. I had told the boy multiple times that I was gonna treat him a bowl of noodle, yet I didn't ask him to pay for the dish. As desperate as people assumed me to be, but I don't go around forcing people to purchase my noodles. Besides, I was suppose to treat him tonight, but why is he being the one giving me the treat? I have to return this to him tomorrow.
I put the cash back inside the envelop. After that, I clean up the table and wash the dirty dishes, not wanting my momma to wake up all confused in the morning, which could make her yell at me in which could lead to interrogation from her.
11:10 PM...
At Mingyu's room...
I finally finished my homework. I put my books back in my gray bag, along with the envelop in which I'll be returning to Xiaoliang tomorrow. I zip the bag and put it on my study desk.
Knowing that I had finished all my work gives me a relief. I check my clock to see that it's already pass 11 PM. No wonder I'm already sleepy. I walk over to my single bed and lay down, getting myself in the most comfortable position. I pull up my white and blue polkadot blanket and turn off my night lamp, waiting for myself to fall asleep.
To be continue...