Gege, Will You Be My Bride?

four

"You forgot something?" Shi Qingxuan asked, wondering if her cheerful tone sounded as artificial as it felt. He Xuan merely looked at her for a moment, before leaning in his seat and fiddling with some buttons. A moment later, cool air rushed in and helped clear a little of her mind's haze. He had turned on the air conditioner.

"It is a warm night," He Xuan explained, somewhat stiffly. Shi Qingxuan almost smiled. His awkwardness had always been adorable to her.

"Ah... it really is, thank you."

Shi Qingxuan waited impatiently for him to leave. He did not. Gosh, can a girl not even feel miserable in peace?! He shuffled around awkwardly in his seat some more, and picked out a bottle of some kind of drink.

"Coconut water?" Shi Qingxuan read the label out loud as He Xuan handed it to her.

"Yes, keep hydrated. It helps."

With that, he turned around and left. Shi Qingxuan stared dumbly at the bottle in her hand for a long time, before uncapping it and taking a sip.

It was a bit warm, but it soothed her parched throat nonetheless. Soon she had finished the entire bottle, and with each sip her feelings got even more messier.

While it was true that he often acted indifferent towards her, she still had trouble believing that he did not care about her at all.

Shi Qingxuan had always been watching him after all.

Watching too closely to miss the subtle softening of his gaze when they fell on her. Or how hard he would try to not laugh at her stupid jokes. And that despite his complaining, he would always listen to her ramblings. It all had to mean something, right?

She laughed derisively at herself. Getting so worked up over the bare minimum, real smart Qingxuan!

Dejected, she slumped her head against the window and wondered why she had fallen so deeply for such a man.

Well, she had always been into tired looking, grumpy and stoic older men. This particular description was not very tasteful, and it often elicited weird reactions from her friends. But it was true, as all of her fictional crushes so far could attest. Levi Ackerman, Nanami Kento... the list went on and on. Which was why she had found herself struck speechless the first time she saw He Xuan, almost a year ago.

.

It had been raining heavily.

Shi Qingxuan decided to bunk her classes that afternoon. It was not an important lecture anyways. Just a photography class she had joined for fun.

She had the time of her life running around in the downpour and jumping over the little puddles when she noticed someone running into the corridor. The sound of wet shoes against the stone tiles was particularly loud.

Her legs half way into another puddle, she turned around to find a man who was equally as drenched as her, but he looked far more dignified in comparison.

Shi Qingxuan internally cried at the unfairness of it all. It was just her luck to run into a hot guy while she was frolicking around in the muddy, black waters.

The man's black, now wet, shirt was stuck snuggly against his chest. Beads of water droplets rolled down his thick eyelashes, tracing the sharp contours of his face. His hair was tied back in a high ponytail, the tight hairdo made his features look sharper than they already were.

A few loose strands stuck to his forehead and neck. Shi Qingxuan had the stupid urge to brush them away and trace the lingering water droplets with her fingers. His eyes were pitch black, endlessly deep. His gaze was sharp and piercing, and Shi Qingxuan felt giddy from the strange intensity of their eye contact.