Hold My Hand

x10 - Worry

The rest of their way was spent with them enjoying the comfortable silence.

Xueer was still trying hard to calm her heart, which proved to be hard, while Jiaqi rubs circles of the back of her hand from time to time.

~~~~~~~~~

No one bothered to question why the two of them arrived together again, with their fingers intertwined, or why Xueer's wearing Jiaqi's coat again.

Jiaqi let go of the younger's hand after they reached their room, to let her go to her seat.

She stood frozen on the door as her nerves try to tell her that something was wrong with her friends-with one of her friends-and it bothers her.

Keni has her head resting on Lingzi's shoulder as she plays with her phone, while the dark-redhead reads a book. Keran was scrolling through her weibo while Xiaotang has her head resting on her table, with her arms as a pillow.

She walked inside the room and stopped behind the long-haired noirette.

Keran and Sunrui, who turned around just after Jiaqi stopped walking, looked curiously at her.

Despite the attention, Jiaqi's eyes remained on Xiaotang.

There's something bothering her about the girl but she can't put her finger on it. Deciding to push it back for the meantime, Jiaqi continued to walk to her seat.

Sunrui and Keran's eyes followed her movements until she was seated. The two friends looked at each other with confusion then to Xiaotang and back at each other before shrugging their shoulders.

After a few minutes, the laoshi arrived and started their lecture.

~~~~~~~~~

"You're all unusually quiet today." A light ash brunette, named Xuyang Yuzhou, pointed at her fellow music majors. "Especially you two." She added, pointing at Keyin and Shuxin.

"Did something happen?" another brunette, Xu Xinwen, asks.

"We're just worried." Shuxin says.

"Is this about the competition?" Xinwen asked and they all nodded their heads.

"Want me to talk to grandma?" Xinwen asked.

"Will she listen to you?" Linfan asks.

"We can try to persuade her." Yuzhou replied and Xinwen nodded her head in agreement.

"I don't think you'll be able to persuade your grandma. She's already made up her mind." Yuyan told them.

"Did they join tho?" Xinwen asked.

The four girls nodded their head.

"Did Jiaqi join too?" Yuzhou asks.

"Do you really think she'll join?" Linfan asked back.

"Well, this whole thing was meant to be for her." Xinwen answered, Yuzhou nodded her head.

"It is?" Shuxin asked.

The two cousins nodded again.

"But why a big competition? Your grandma knows the Bees would join and we don't know what happened to those people." Shuxin reacted.

"We told her about it, all our cousins did. Even the ones abroad. But grandma stood by her decision. She said she'll add more guards, whether Jiaqi will join or not, and that this will help her." Xinwen said.

"This won't help her. This will kill her." Yuyan voiced out, a frown on her face.

None of them bothered to argue with Yuyan's use of words because they know that it can lead to that.