Music to my ears - Zhuo Zhi

Chapter 12 - Dramatic

It was a few days later when, surprise surprise, Jiale called Zhuo Zhi over for some advice.

Now that Zhuo Zhi knew about his sister, Jiale was able to invite the guy over to his house anytime he wanted.

Zhuo Zhi sighed to himself. He was right after all, Jiale really did blow Dachi's actions out of proportion.

Currently, Jiale was in the middle of recounting his side of the story, much more dramatically than necessary.

"So first Dachi didn't pick up when I called him a few days ago, but I didn't think too much about it.. But then yesterday he brushed me off when it was time for our meet up, saying he was busy! What should I do??"

Jiale gasped, following up with another, in Zhuo Zhi's honest opinion, outrageous thought. "Do you think Dachi is avoiding me??"

Zhuo Zhi sighed again, exasperatedly, before putting his thoughts out bluntly. "Jiale. Have you ever considered that Dachi may just actually be busy?" Jiale blinked.

"Look, Dachi won't always have his phone on him all day just to respond to your messages, or hang out with you all the time. As much as you might not want to hear it, his life does not revolve around you."

Zhuo Zhi softened slightly at the look of Jiale's fallen face. "Don't worry about it, really. Knowing Dachi, I'm sure he'll make it up to you someway or another anyway."

"Dachi's life may not revolve around you, but you're still a very important part of it. You're a very important person to him. You should know this by now." Zhuo Zhi paused to take a breath.

"It's not like Dachi to do something without a reason when it comes to you. I'm sure Dachi was truly just busy."

"Alright if that's all, I'm going to get some water real quick. Try not to overthink even more while I'm gone," Zhuo Zhi excused himself.

As he wandered down the hall the guy wondered, Just how does Zhihao deal with Jiale all the time like this?

Speak of the devil. Just as Zhuo Zhi had that thought, he heard a soft melody floating through air from downstairs.

Padding down the stairs, Zhuo Zhi headed towards where the music that had drawn his attention was coming from.

He finally found Zhihao, who hadn't yet noticed him, at the piano, completely immersed in her music. I didn't know she played piano too.

Zhuo Zhi quietly watched as Zhihao's long fingers seemed to effortlessly dance along the keys, singing a smooth, sweet tune.

He waited until Zhihao's fingers paused for  second, at a rest, before revealing himself. "Not bad at all."

Zhihao's fingers slipped off the keys as she whipped her neck around, wincing at the sound of the wrong keys.

"Zhuo Zhi? What are you doing here?" She turned to face him with her body, furrowing her brows.

"Jiale called me over to be dramatic about Dachi," he swiftly answered. "But your playing, it's good."

Zhihao rubbed her neck, embarrassed. "Ah, thank you." She didn't expect to have an audience today and felt a bit awkward about it.

Zhuo Zhi tilted his head in acknowledgement. "Right, well, I'm going to go back now. I get the feeling that your brother is overthinking things again, even though I just told him not to."

Zhihao snickered. That he probably was.

Zhuo Zhi turned on his heels, heading back upstairs to Jiale's room after he grabbed a water bottle, to where Jiale was blathering about Dachi again.

Zhuo Zhi, as always, was right. How he wished he wasn't right.

~~~

After another long hour of reassuring Jiale that Dachi was definitely and most certainly not avoiding him, Zhuo Zhi finally decided that it was time for him to leave.

As much as he was friends with Jiale, Zhuo Zhi didn't feel like repeating the same phrase with different wording for a seventh time today.

Before leaving, he decided to bid a quick goodbye to Zhihao, who was still at the piano, practicing.

Zhuo Zhi casually leaned against the door for a couple of seconds, hands in his pockets, as he waited for Zhihao to pause her playing again.

When she finally did, Zhuo Zhi said, "I'm going to go home now, I'm too tired to put up with your brother any longer."

Turning around to face the man, Zhihao laughed. "Yeah, I know that feeling. I'll see you later?"

Zhuo Zhi nodded. "Will you be coming to our next match? We're going up against Guo Zi."

Zhihao thought about it for a second, a twinkle in her eye. "Only if you win."

The man gave her a cheeky smile. "Well I have to win now that you said that."

"Not like I wouldn't win anyway, haven't you heard? I'm a genius," Zhuo Zhi added on as an afterthought, snorting.

Zhihao merely rolled her eyes at the preening man before her.

"Right, ok. You can go now, the door is that way," Zhihao pointed in the direction of the front door.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. No need to show me out, don't worry." Zhuo Zhi walked out, flashing the back of his hand as a goodbye.

~~~

A/N: Couldn't go without a chapter about Jiale being dramatic and Zhuo Zhi tiredly explaining to him that he's being dramatic lmao

I love their dynamic

I made Zhuo Zhi a bit softer when consoling Jiale, compared to the other fanfics I've read where he's so blunt to the man lmao just cause I like having soft Zhuo Zhi. Next time I'll keep it more realistic tho

- Apple <3