When they finally reach their room, Keran loudly opened the back door, which resulted with her earning a smack on the back of her head by both Keni and Jiaqi.
"Who the hell......slams a door......open.....after being late." Jiaqi said in between heavy breaths.
Before Ma laoshi could say a word to them, Jiaqi beat her to it.
"Ayi.....wait...wait a second." she told the laoshi, the 'Ayi' slipping out of her mouth.
Xueer who heard about this for the first time, looked slightly surprise. 'Ma laoshi's also her relative. She didn't say anything about that.'
Slowly, the three of them felt the consequences of running a total of eleven kilometers. They all slumped at the floor while they catch their breaths.
"I'm dy-"
"Not that word, Xu Jiaqi." Keran said.
"Right right." she remembered. "I can't take it anymore." Jiaqi corrected herself.
Lingzi, who has been staring at her three late friends, couldn't help the little smile that crept up on her face. Same thing with Yanni and Xiaotang. 'I missed seeing this.' they all thought.
"Before Ma laoshi scolds you, can I just ask, what's up with the outfits?" Sunrui, who noticed the similarities of their clothes, asks.
"This wasn't planned....We were on a hurry, obviously.....We didn't bother changing." Keni answered.
After successfully stabilizing their breathing, Keni and Keran automatically helped Jiaqi with standing up and seating her at her seat, with the latter saying her thanks after.
"As much as I missed seeing you three together again, why were you late?" Ma laoshi started the interrogation after both Keni and Keran sat on their respective seats.
"We woke up late." Keni honestly answered.
Ma laoshi raised her left eyebrow, not convinced with the answer. "You three live minutes away from the campus. Even if you woke up late, you wouldn't be arriving in the middle of your second period, considering how worn out all three of you looked like."
"Well," Keran looked at Jiaqi for permission, who only nodded her head. "We ran for like, ten kilometers, laoshi." she answered, purposely leaving out the other kilometer.
"You slept there!?!?" is Lingzi, Xiaotang, Sunrui and Yanni's immediate reaction.
It took Ma laoshi a full minute to figure out what Keran meant. When she did, her widened eyes that was filled with worry turned to Jiaqi who has her head resting on the table (still panting).
"Jiaqi?" Ma laoshi called for her.
"I'm fine." Jiaqi assured, knowing what her aunt meant.
Ma laoshi turned her attention back to Keni and Keran. "How did you end up there?"
"We also don't know, I swear. We were also surprised. We only noticed after Mr. Zhang called her." Keran immediately explained.
Ma laoshi didn't bother to question the explanation since she knows that that's most likely to happen.
"Did you really run all the way here? Mr. Huang didn't give you a ride?" she asks.
"Laoshi, we wouldn't be here if we didn't ran. We would be at the hospital if Mr. Huang gave us a ride." Keni answered, a subtle reminder of Jiaqi’s condition.
'Well, a panic attack would probably be worse than that in this situation. She said she's fine too.' Ma laoshi thought. Before she could say another word to them, she was cut off with her phone showing a notification from Mr. Zhang.
"You also didn't have breakfast." Ma laoshi's strict aunt side said in a low voice making all three of them flinch.
'Were done.' the three of them thought. They raised their hands in a pleading manner and simultaneously said, "Please have mercy."
"You had to run for ten kilometers and you decided to not have breakfast before you left? I thought we all had come to a silent agreement that all of you will properly take care of yourselves after all the things that you've been through."
"Laoshi!" Yanni unconsciously raised her voice as she stops their laoshi.
Ma laoshi caught her mistake and apologized. "I'm sorry. That's was out the line."
She looked at the three students who are still pleading at her and sighed, "Eat something proper on your recess then come to me for your punishments." She looked over at Jiaqi and sighed again, "And someone bring her to the infirmary after."
"Let's continue the discussion. Xu Jiaqi participate in class."
Jiaqi nodded her head and listened to the class when Ma laoshi started to discuss again.
Keran asked Xiaotang and Sunrui about the topic while Keni does the same with Lingzi. Jiaqi only had to listen for a bit to have a full grasp on the lesson before she started to actually participate.
Xueer tried getting Jiaqi's attention many times but the latter has her full attention on Ma laoshi.
After a few more times of trying, Xueer gave up and focused on the class.
~~~~~~~~~
The school bell rang to remind the laoshis about the students recess time.
"That's it for today." Ma laoshi said as she packs her stuffs.
She turned around to look at Jiaqi and smiled at her. "Good job today. I hope there's a next time for your participation."
"I wouldn't want to answer all the questions. I'd like to give the other's some chance." Jiaqi joked.
"Okay, genius." one of their classmates playfully said back making the whole class get filled with light laughter.
Being able to answer all the questions thrown at her, despite arriving at the middle of the class, Jiaqi was undoubtedly gifted with intelligence. No one questioned how Jiaqi was able to stay at the top five of her class even if she doesn't participate in class. They have seen the effort she puts in her written works. Her exam marks would play between having full marks to having only one to two mistakes.
The only reason she failed to keep her crown at being the top is because of her lack of performance grades, which is mostly derived from their dance performances.
Currently, Lingzi is at the top while Keran's in second. But with Xueer's addition and Jiaqi's revival, the fight for the top position is fierce.
"I'll take my leave now. You three," Ma laoshi called as she looked at Keran, Keni and Jiaqi one by one, "eat a proper meal, okay?"
The trio nodded their heads as the class says their goodbyes to the laoshi.
When Ma laoshi left, Xiaotang turned to Jiaqi. "I've been meaning to ask this since I noticed it but, why are you wearing clothes that are a lot bigger than you? Specially the jeans." she asks.
"It's Kun's clothes. Keni pushed me in his room." Jiaqi answered.
'Kun? Who's that?' Xueer thought.
"Her room's at the second floor. Pushing her all the way up to her room is time consuming. And don't expect me to carry her." Keni immediately defended after Xiaotang's eyes land on her.
"Calm down. No ones coming after you." Lingzi said. "Let's go. Ma laoshi said to eat a proper meal. And I'm also hungry." she added while she takes Keni's hand and pulls her to the cafeteria.
Xiaotang put her arms around Keran's shoulder and followed after the two models.
Xueer went to approached Jiaqi, but stopped when the latter called for a different person.
"Rui ge, help me." Jiaqi said to Sunrui.
The noirette rushed to Jiaqi and sat in front of her, her back facing the blue-haired dancer. "Hop on." she said after patting her back.
"Where first? Infirmary or cafeteria?" Sunrui asked the girl on her back as she stands up and fixes their position.
"Infirmary." Jiaqi answered.
With her answer, Sunrui and Jiaqi sets off to the infirmary, leaving Xueer wondering behind.
Yanni saw the whole thing and sighs to herself. 'This was expected. Especially after what happened yesterday.'
While she was busy with her thoughts, Yanni's phone lit up.
Silly Little Fox:
Take care of her for me please.
Yanni sighs once again. "Xueer, you wanna come with us?" she invited.
The younger peeled her eyes away from door where Jiaqi and Sunrui left to. She forced a smile on he face before looking at Yanni and accepting her invitation.
Seeing the disappointment in Xueer's eyes, Yanni sighed for the third time. 'This will be a loooong.....month. Sigh.'
~~~~~~~~~
After getting her legs checked and a free massaged by the department's doctor, Sunrui and Jiaqi went to the cafeteria with the former pushing the latter in a wheelchair.
"Wheelchair? Did it break?" Keran asked them when they arrived in their table.
"It didn't. But Dr. Wang said to rest it for the rest of the day." Jiaqi answered.
Yuqing, who came back from getting a sandwich and a whole meal for Jiaqi, questioned her friend's state.
"What happened to you? And is that Kun's clothes?" she asks while she places Jiaqi's food in front of her, receiving a thanks after.
"I ran for ten kilometers. And yes, this is Kun's clothes." Jiaqi answered before digging in to fill her empty stomach.
Yuqing looked at her ridiculously after hearing about her running for ten kilometers.
"Ten kilometers!? Where on earth did you go????" Questions Yuqing while taking a seat beside Keni, who has almost finished her food.
"That place." Jiaqi answered before taking another piece of meat in her mouth. "This is so damn good~" she compliments.
Subconsciously, Yuqing forcefully slammed her hands on their table making some of their plates bounce up.
"Hey, hey, calm down. You're destroying my peaceful eating time." Keran complained.
"You're telling me you went to that place and you didn't even invite me???" Yuqing ignored Keran and asked Jiaqi.
"I'm my defense, I passed out as soon as I hit the cushion." Jiaqi replied. "And tone down, please. I already have enough eyes staring at me. I don't want to garner more attention." she added making Yuqing sat back down.
"You being in the cafeteria AND on a wheelchair is enough to have heads turning on your way." Yuqing said.
"And, I don't need more of that. Eating while tons of eyes stare at you is very uncomfortable, y'know." Jiaqi said back.
"Okay, but back to the topic, how'd did you end up there?" Yuqing asked again.
Keni—since she's done eating—decided to let Jiaqi peacefully eat her food as she tells her the whole story of what happened yesterday.
"Ohhhhh, that's why Linfan was sulking when she picked me up earlier. Her jiejie got to interact with you first when she's literally just meter's away from you." Lingzi said.
Before any of them got to react, Anqi's loud cheery voice greeted them. "Hey guys, hey Jiaqi. Is it okay of we join you?" the little chilli asks.
When Jiaqi didn't hear anyone from their table answer Anqi's question, she looked up from her food to see everyone looking at her.
"What?" she asks.
The other four simultaneously raised their brows at her making Jiaqi looked at them weirdly.
"What? What do you want?" she asks again. Yuqing gestured at their new arrived friends to answer Jiaqi.
The fox looked towards them and saw Yuxin, Anqi, Xinran, Yanni and Xueer also looking at her. When her eyes landed on Xueer, Jiaqi immediately looked away and turned to Yuqing, staring and giving signals to each other.
"Sure, you can seat here."
As soon as Jiaqi said that, she grabbed her plate and placed it in her lap while Yuqing stands up from her seat and went behind Jiaqi's wheelchair to take her away from that place.
"Why'd they suddenly leave?" Poor clueless little Anqi wondered out loud along with another clueless Xueer who stared at Yuqing and Jiaqi until they were no where to be seen.
The rest of the table looked each other before letting out a sigh.
"Good luck with this one. You all know that I'm not the person to depend on when this happens soooo I'll leave her in your hands." Xinran said making the others groan in displeasure.
Xueer turned her head to Yuxin's side when she also heard the girl groan. "You also know what's going on?" she asks.
"Perfectly." she groaned again and let her head fall on the table.
That day, every time Xueer tries to come close to her, Jiaqi would avoid her. When Xueer tries to get her attention, Jiaqi would ignore her. And during the dismissal, instead of waiting for Xueer, Jiaqi went home with Sunrui.
The whole practice went smoothly for Xueer—with no Qi Zhu standing anywhere close to her—in courtesy of Yuxin and Ruohang who was asked by Jiaqi to keep the damn child away from Xueer.
When they finished, (without Jiaqi asking her to do it) Keran automatically took it to herself to bring the girl home. And the next day, Jiaqi messaged Keran to ask her to take Xueer to the campus instead of walking with her like the usual.
By this time, it was very clear to Xueer that Jiaqi was avoiding her. But because she didn't know that it was Jiaqi who's been asking her friends to take care of her (not that they wouldn't do those if Jiaqi didn't tell them), Xueer felt....sad.