Not Sure, Not Me

8

"Do you want to make a wish, Jiaqi?" Xueer asked as she turned to Jiaqi, taking back her laptop case from her.

Jiaqi glanced at Xueer before she looked at the well.

"No... I make the same wish every year but it has never come true..." Jiaqi played with her butterfly hairband as she replied, averting her eyes away.

"Oh..." Xueer added as an afterthought,"You haven't tried wishing here, have you? Who knows, maybe it will come true."

"...Really? You think so? Should I? Okay, I should." Jiaqi took out her coin and started replicating Xueer as she made a wish.

Plop.

Jiaqi's coin had landed at the bottom of the well.

Xueer's eyes lit up as she watched Jiaqi. There was something odd about the charm that Jiaqi has but Xueer is only ever interested in weirdos.

"Can we go back now, Xueer?"

"Yes. Let's go."

→

"Goodnight." Xueer shot Jiaqi a smile as they stood outside Jiaqi's door.

"Goodnight..." Jiaqi bowed to Xueer as Jiaqi entered her dorm room.

Xueer quietly laughed to herself as she thought that Jiaqi really reminds her of a silly fox. Grabbing her toiletries from her room, Xueer headed to wash up for the night.

In her room, Jiaqi went to the far edge of the room and opened the windows, allowing the night breeze to greet her.

Jiaqi took in a huge gulp of the night air before she sat down on her chair and exhaled like that of a deflated balloon.

In the blanket of the night, Jiaqi rested her head on her arms. She faced the wall that moonlight touched and looking at the wall, Jiaqi thought that the empty white wall of her dorm room is well suited for the purpose of screening movies.

A movie soon started playing on the said wall through Jiaqi's mind's eye.

/Flashback/

Jiaqi was 7 years old when she met an angel, she believed.

"Hey!! Let me out! This is not funny... Help!!" Urgency could be detected in a child's voice.

The voice was from little Jiaqi, who was using all her strength in her small frame to push against the door of a small house in a playground.

This was Jiaqi's favourite playground in her village and the small house that she was in, was one of her favourite fixtures of the playground besides the swings that she loved to swing on with her well-loved panda soft toy.

However, at this moment, Jiaqi wanted nothing more than to leave her favourite place in the playground.

Night had fallen, fear had crept in Jiaqi's heart as she was trapped in the small house. Jiaqi kept pushing against the door of the small house, wanting to be let out, but three kids around her age, who she thought were her best friends, kept pushing against the door from the outside. Laughter came from her 'friends' as Jiaqi saw their faces twisted into sick smiles through the top of the wooden door, as the small house had a design of a small wooden hut.

"I am sorry, okay?! I just want to go home..." Little Jiaqi banged against the door with her fists clenched tightly.

"Look. Is this your panda?" Jiaqi's eyes widened in alarm as she rushed to the small windows of the small wooden hut which had frames, blocking Jiaqi from climbing out.

Jiaqi looked on in horror as the supposed ringleader of the group of three held Jiaqi's beloved panda by its neck. In the ringleader's other hand was a pair of sharp scissors.

"NO! NO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO DARK CIRCLES?" The floodgates in Jiaqi's eyes burst open as tears kept running down her face. Her small frame kept trembling.

Dark Circles was the name that Little Jiaqi affectionately gave to her first and only stuffed toy given to her by her parents before they passed in a tragic plane crash, on one of their numerous business trips.

To Jiaqi, the sight of Dark Circles being held so roughly and sharp scissors slowly nearing her panda was such a horrific sight but Jiaqi could not look away.

The ringleader took sick pleasure in torturing Jiaqi as could be seen from the slow way that she threatened to snip the panda.

"Why..." Little Jiaqi whispered.

Why was Jiaqi so unlucky? Why did everyone and everything precious to Jiaqi keep leaving her? Is Jiaqi the reason why everyone and everything keeps leaving her?? ...Should Jiaqi leave too...

Just then, Jiaqi saw black clouds form a distance behind the group of three. The black clouds got closer and the sound of footsteps got louder too.

The group of three as if sensing something was amiss, turned around, and the ringleader dropped Dark Circles and the scissors onto the playground ground as she stared wide eyed at the figure who emerged from the black clouds.

Jiaqi did not see the figure who emerged as she was pressed against the window of the small hut, looking down at Dark Circles, who was thankfully unharmed.

However, Jiaqi knew that from her peripheral vision, the group of three had disappeared following a sound similar to a snap of fingers.

As Jiaqi gathered her courage and slowly looked up from inside the hut, she blacked out.

The next thing that Little Jiaqi knew, was that she was awake in her bed with Dark Circles in her arms and a butterfly hairband on her left wrist.

/End of Flashback/

To date, Jiaqi did not know if the memory was a fever dream or a nightmare or reality that had long past.