❝ ──chapter three,
is this love?. ❞
𝐓𝐎𝐎 𝐁𝐔𝐒𝐘 𝐓𝐎 notice her sister's green eyes boring holes of insecurity and jealousy behind her back, sang yue smiled as jiaxu handed her the polar bear.
the group exited the mall when qian fei bumped into his old acquaintance and ditched the group to have a walk with him.
sang zhi was unnaturally quiet which went unnoticed by her siblings but jiaxu was quick to pick up on it. "mèimei are you not feeling well?" he asked. "no. . . why?" she tried extending the conversation.
"you've been quiet" he replied so nonchalantly as if her heart won't burst from his words. "no i am fine" a very flustered sang zhi brushed off the conversation, walking faster to catch up with her siblings who were arguing about something.
arriving at the car sang yue was quick to reserve her passenger princess throne. sticking her tongue out at sang zhi to tease her. well that backfired as sang yue watched her get into backseat with jiaxu.
sang yue whipped out her phone wanting to read the story about eyuridice and orpheus now. "sang yue" jiaxu called out as sang yan started the car.
the said girl twisted her body so that she was facing the back seat but eyes still glued on phone reading a sentence about how orpheus spiraled into depression after his dear wife died.
"yes?" she finally looked up, backing away when she realized how close his face was to her. since she had turned around and he had leaned forward they accidentally came in close proximity. clearing her throat and ignoring about how her heart was beating so fast that she thought it might pop out. "yes?" she asked again.
"you know you haven't greeted me since you came" he said. it made both sang yan and sang yue laugh while the passengers in the back seat looked at them with confusion.
sang zhi watched how close her elder siblings were. despite having almost the same age gap she had with him her elder sister was definitely closer with her brother. her stomach chruned with envy. she saw yue hit sang yan for muttering something and making her laugh even more.
even her laugh was so contagious that made you smile by just simply looking at her.
"why why" jiaxu asked looking dumbfound.
"no i had a meal with gēgē so does it matter?" she asked smiling brightly. "of course it does and why are you both lauging?" he asked. "well.. sorry but hello jiaxu gēgē and ask sang yan gēgē why we were laughing" she said smiling and turning back in her seat.
the rest of the drive was full of making jokes while sang zhi kept quiet. sang yan pulled over to drop his sisters at the sang residence.
"you have money to order dinner right?" he asked sang yue. who shook her head in no. sighing, he opened his purse to give her money as she refused to take the money jiaxu offered to her.
taking her brother's money, "gēgē i actually had money but thank you for this!" she said trimuphly before closing the door and blocking him from entering the house so he wouldn't take back his money. she waved him goodbye through the glass door.
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 while sang yue was getting ready to meet zhao chen her sister came to her. "yes?" sang yue asked but upon seeing the comb and hair ties in her hand sang yue understood why her younger sibling was in her room.
"sit" she motioned for the younger to sit on her vanity stool. the sisters made small talk as sang yue did zhi's hairs. "so whom are you meeting?" she jokingly.
"zhenru we decided to go to the mall today!" sang zhi exclaimed. "have fun then" her older sister replied as she finished placing ribbons in sang zhi's hairs. after admiring herself and thanking her sister she skipped out of the room.
sang yue smiled at her sister and took her laptop as she too prepared to leave. she met fu zhengchu outside of her house who suggested to go the café in the same mall they went yesterday. sang zhi had left the house long before her.
the two walked in silence. sang yue hopped to finish it today as it was the deadline while the guy on her side wished that i won't be over forever.
zhao chen pushed the door for her muttering a ladies first and received an awkward smile from the girl next to him.
"welcome" the familiar cheerful voice welcomed them. the owner of the voice turned around and saw his best friend's another sister with a guy standing next to her.
"sang yue?" he said. the said girl greeted him. "are you here on a date?" he asked. the younger girl panicked and refused vehemently breaking her companion's heart. "we're here to complete our english literature project" she clarified.
chen disheartenedly greeted the elder guy but received a rather calm greeting from the taller guy. "do you work here?" she interrupted. jiaxu raised his eyebrows and hummed in response and that's when sang yue realized how stupied her question was.
of course he does! why else would he be in a barista unifrom cleaning the kitchen if he didn't worked there. she cursed herself mentally for asking such stupid question.
"here. see what would you like to eat. you can order later find a table first" he said handing them the menu. sang yue took the menu from him.
she sat on one of the empty tables and zhao chen sat infront of her. her eyes spotted her younger sister there and so did the latter's. she smiled slighty and waved at her. while zhao chen focused on the menu deciding what to order. the pretty lady infront of him stole glances at her crush.
the guy slipped the menu towards her. sang yue nodded, fixing her bangs she looked at it. it was quick for her to decide. tangyuan, a traditional chinese dessert made of glutinous rice shaped into balls, it was on of her favourite desserts.
"I'll go and order" sang yue said but before she could stand up her younger sister came up to her. "what's wrong?" she asked.
"jiějiě you see i and zhenru ordered desserts but jiaxu gēgē didn't allowed me to pay. could you pay for me?" she said innocently.
agreeing to her sister's request sang yue stood up to order. "what would you like fo order?" the older male asked in his usual calm and soothing tone.
"a tangyuan and mooncakes" she replied passing the menu at him. fishing out her phone from her pocket she scanned the code to pay which left the guy surprised. the machine announced the amount paid by her.
"why are paying extra?" he asked. "zhizhi said you didn't allowed her to pay so i am paying on her behalf" she explained. the older male chuckled. "you don't have to" he added.
"umm. . . yes i do" she replied. during their conversation jiaxu actually took a look at her outfit. boot cut jeans with a tucked in white shirt and her sleeves rolled up. he noticed her wearinh dainty golden earrings and her watch.
the shirt just happened to be his. it was the shirt junwen borrowed because it looked good on him but accidentally left it at sang yan's house. he ruled out that sang yue raided her brother's close and found it there.
"mèimei" he said dragging out the last syllables.
"thank you jiaxu gēgē" she replied before walking back to her seat. zhao chen tired make conversations unrelated to the project but it just resulted it in being dismissed by the girl.
the two worked in silence after he gave up. . . well until a catastrophe hit. "huh?" she muttered confused and then it hit her "fuck fuck shit no." her ms office crashed and decided to loose her work worth of 4 weeks including her project work.
hearing the panic in her voice both jiaxu and chen looked at her. "why why what's wrong" chen asked only to be met with her eyes filled with horror.
"microsoft glitched and shut down. i lost all the work" the horror in her voice visible and the same panic rushed through his veins. "you're joking right i just submitted the project!" he exclaimed.
"why would i joke about it?!" she snapped back. jiaxu, who sensed some disagreement between the 12th graders decided to approach them but stopped in his tracks as he noticed sang yue leaving.
zhao chen too packed his things and followed her. he stopped right infront of her blocking her way. the timing might be wrong but the adrenaline rush was too much. it was now or never.
"sang yue i don't know you can tell it or not but i really like you" he confessed. "no" the girl replied nonchalantly. she tried walking away but was stopped again.
her sank to her stomach as she saw zhao chen explain how he like her from the moment he saw, in 1st grade. he was full on sobbing but all sang yue could think that is love really like this.
he noticed jiaxu standing behind her who asked if he was interrupting something. chen too it as his cue to leave.
"you're still in highschool sang yue. you cannot date now" jiaxu's words blended out. he looked at her with concern when she didn't replied and just leaned over the pillar. resting her head on her arms on the pillar enjoying the wind which blew her hairs.
"i am not dating him. i tried rejecting him but he just went on to explain how he loves me and then you came" she explained without looking at him. jiaxu chuckled having witnessed a familiar scene earlier today with a different sang sister.
"i guess sangs really have lot of people liking them. mèimei i explained this to you sister but let me tell you too this. it is nice to have people like you. you can thank them for liking you before gently rejecting them. but you cannot be harsh" he explained.
"i tried to be gentle" she said.
"he was crying!" he exclaimed, feeling a wave of deja vu from the earlier scene.
"i said i tried!" she chuckled and finally looked at him.
"jiaxu gēgē is love really like this?" she asked but quickly went back on her statement. "nevermind why am i even asking you. gēgē wouldn't know"
"what do you mean by 'gēgē wouldn't know'?" he asked feeling slightly ridiculed.
"you never dated so you wouldn't know. i think i should ask qian fei gēgē or sang yan gēgē" she replied.
"i know it all right?!" he chuckled defending himself against his best friend's sister's insults.
"i don't know where but i remember reading it. the writer wrote, 'love is very weird. it's like a windy and gloomy storm yet the sunshine after the storm. it—" he was interrupted by the latter.
"jiaxu gē those are my words!" she said remembering from the essay she wrote. the taller guy simply shrugged. "by the way check you phone" he added.
the girl did as he told checking there was a notification of jiaxu transferring her the same amount she paid at the café.
"jiaxu gē!" she exclaimed. "people will think i extorted a high schooler. use it buy yourself whatever you want except those caffeine cans or your brother will kill me. i returned with an extra yuan for all the glances you stole at me" he explained.
"no wonder you don't have customers" she muttered. "hmm?" he asked. "it's because you're running a shady shop" she commented.
sang yue was the type of person who didn't knew how to deal with her feelings so she resorted to annoying the crap out of them. however jiaxu was rather hard to annoy due to calm and mature demeanour.
"because i gave you an extra yuan? mèimei you should instead thank me" he said earning an eye roll from the younger. "gēgē i totally understand you. old people tend to make up stuff for their lost memories at their decreasing age. i won't be mad at you afterall you're getting very old" she retorted.
"i will also ask sang yan gēgē to repay you on my behalf" she added. "you know treating you both and your friends won't put me in red" he said now standing in the same position as her.
"jiaxu gē i just think it's little hard for you to work multiple jobs because you're short on cash. if i can help—" she stopped for second before realizing how it was sounding. "but don't overthink it. if it were my brother i would help him too. i swear" she continued.
"so you feel bad for gēgē?" he asked. despite his usual tone sang yue just somewhere knew she messed up.
"no" she denied quickly trying do as much as damage control as possible. but how was she supposed to when her crush was leaning his back against the railing. thinking about her probably pitying him. "sorry. are you mad?" she asked giving up on her damage control.
"i am not" the guy replied giving her his signature duan jiaxu smile. since sang yue was taller than sang zhi jiaxu didn't needed to lean down much to get to her eye level. he still leaned down nevertheless.
"thank you sang yue. you know you need to be nice to me now. I'm touched that you did this and the thought behind it. but i am not that broke. how about this when gēge is so broke that i couldn't afford to feed myself I'll brorrow money from you okay?" he said said as the girl nodded.
"all right, i need to go back and work at my shady shop" he replied making the girl chuckle. "do you know how to get to the nearest bus stop?" he asked.
"yes"
"can you go home by yourself?"
"yes"
"goodbye then" he said. his gaze lingering over the younger feeling touched by her kindness before he returned to work.
sang yue saw him go back looking at the notification of transfer. regretting her words about how he probably thinks she pities him when she really wanted to help.
𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐑 house she found the busy house. her parents had returned and sang zhi was skimming through their bags to see what they got.
giving her parents a quick hug and messing up sang zhi's hairs she ran to her room. even after having dinner and a long hot shower she still couldn't get today's incident out her head.
she still kept on thinking was love really like this? loving someone regardless of how they treat you. loving someone and still being ready for rejection yet the rejection hurting more than anything.
hair still dripping from the warm shower. she took out her essay booklet to reread her essay.
'i smiled at the storm while sitting on the bustop. the girl sitting next to me just told me how she hates love now because she was rejected.
i truly think love is a weird thing. i said to her and continued saying it's like a windy and gloomy storm yet the sunshine after the storm. it makes you happy for sacrificing little things so that your lover can smile.
it's something you can never see but sense of it's feeling is so overwhelming that you belive you can see it. defending each other from other like you and me against the world. taking blames for each other. it's so pretty like all those little smiles and giddiness. it makes me happy but again it breakes me knowing someone who gave me all that will break my heart in uncountable pisces.'
one question still lingering in her mind. is this love?
•˚. *࿐ 𝑲𝑶𝑲𝑶𝑺𝑩𝑳𝑨𝑺𝑯𝑴𝑬𝒀'𝑺 𝑵𝑶𝑻𝑬 ▬▬▬ trying to be regular lol. the reason these chapters are long because i try to write about a whole episode but that'll be too big i try to little more tha half. it not just about showing how sang xue interactions with other characters but also showing her personality.