❝ ──chapter four,
it is love. ❞
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐗𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐘 𝐎𝐅 facing the teacher without submitting the project sunk in the next when sang yue was at school.
the teacher was kind enough to not yell at her infront of the whole class. he did accepted her 'excuse' of ms office crashing and told her she needed to be the record clerk as punishment in the high school sports day.
arms resting on the table, her head tucked under her arms as she tried to get some sleep. for the past week she stayed up writing the whole thing again. she was seated between jiaxu and sang yan. jiaxu was sleeping in the same position as her slept more on the edge to maintain space from the high schooler.
the sleeping beauties failed to notice a familiar person who came for registration for another sport.
at first sang yue thought of actually doing the job but when she knew the two males who were with her doing the same job as her. both jiaxu and her gave up letting sang yan do the whole stuff. normally he would've said no but he knew how little to no rest jiaxu gets between studying and working and his sister gets between studying and looking after he house. he assumed that she too had sleepless nights thanks to her studying which is why he was doing it all alone.
but not before playfully muttering something along the lines of his friend and sister being a traitor.
both jiaxu and sang yue were woken up when sang yan smacked his hand on the table loudly and started laughing.
"are you worried nobody knows that you're 155 cm?" sang yan said as his sister rubbed eyes next to him trying to get rid of the sleep from her eyes.
"mèimei what event are you participating in?" jiaxu asked with no trace of sleep.
"high jump" she answered quietly looking away from the trio. "a 155 cm participating in high jump" sang yan said humorously making sang yue snort. "the sunflower is cute" sang yue commented.
bashfully sang zhi wrapped her arms around herself trying to hide it and muttering about how she didn't chose it. receiving good luck from the familiar people she left embarrassed at the nickname her brother referred her to she left.
"you're so loud" sang yue complained as jiaxu agreed with her while her brother argued it was hilarious. she leaned on sang yan going back to napping as jiaxu went back to same postion.
after registering the last person sang yan was quick to rant about it his mother. stretching her arms sang yue walked out in the sun and her companions too stood up. she used her hands to shield herself from the sun. but someone put a hat on her head.
she turned around to see jiaxu telling her not to get sunburned. giving him a grateful smile she walked forward. standing next to her sister she made small conversations with her. sang yue yawned. she noticed jiaxu standing infront of her posing. he just motioned her to look back.
an amused chuckle left his lips when the sisters looked back in sync.
"what are you doing?" she asked her brother.
"what?! mom and dad told me to take photos" he argued. "then why are taking mine. take sang zhi's she's participating. and atleast make it look nice. why do you have to take it when i am yawning?!"
she saw jiaxu walk past her smiling brightly displaying his pearl white teeths. "you have to tell me when you look good or i wouldn't know" sang yan whined. she tried to take the camera from him demaning him to delete it.
but jiaxu snatched it and took it away from the siblings. "stop bullying my sister all the time" he announced. sang yue got what he meant while the other two sang siblings were left confused. deciding to go along with his game, sang yue folded her arms across her chest and said "did you hear that? my gēge told you to stop bullying me."
"who's your gē?" sang yan asked annoyed. but sang yue pointed to his bestfriend instead of him. jiaxu too stood with his hands on his hips asking "what about it?" proudly. "fine you can have her" he grumbled.
sang zhi went back to her streches after watching the scene amusing scene unfolding infront of her. sang yue watched as jiaxu tried to take sang yan's photos who told him to go away.
when asked for the participants to assemble for the jump sang yue wished good luck to her sister as so did sang yan and duan jiaxu.
sang yue just stood between jiaxu and sang yan as both them did the work. she couldn't belive las night she was plotting to faint and leave but damn this has been a treat. she thanked her ms office for crashing because she got to spend time with jiaxu. both sang and yue snickerd when jiaxu called sang zhi number 0155.
cheers erupted for number 0155.
the said girl ended up doing two fouls before falling and hurting herself. her siblings and jiaxu rushed to her. sang yan offered to carry her.
but somehow sang yue's middle school teacher caught the sight of jiaxu. "ehh sang yue's gēge" the elderly teacher said. sang yue and jiaxu shared a look before he greeted the teacher. "this is. . . " the teacher trailed off.
"my bābā" sang yue quickly answered before anyone could say anything. the teacher looked shocked at the revelation of such a young father. she grabbed his arms and left quickly leaving jiaxu alone.
"did you hit your head or this little demon got hurt am i that old to be your bābā?" sang yue heard ger brother grumble when they were slighty away from the sight of teacher
the teacher looked at jiaxu for confirmation. "my bābā" he said before running towards the sang siblings who were already arguing. "can you stop scolding me?!" she retorted.
"you've nagged me all day and this little demon is so bad at jumping" he argued.
"why are you drugging me into this?!" sang zhi said.
"I'll tell bābā!" sang yue exclaimed. while sang zhi whined about being attacked for no reason. "are you going to rat me out again?!" he yelled. sang zhi whined again when he was moving too much while sang yue argued back with her brother.
as much as jiaxu was fascinated with the banter the sang siblings had this was too chaotic. he meddled in telling sang yan to watch out for her leg.
"i don't want you to carry me!" sang zhi whined. "how will you walk with a sprain and should i rat out you about how you caffeine you consume?!" sang yan argued with his both sister at the same time.
sang yue gasped. "you already made me labour and move your things. you cannot rat me out on that!" she argued while sang zhi whined telling sang yan to put her down. "let me carry her" jiaxu announced. "sure you carry her" sang yan said passing sang zhi to his bestfriend. sang yue went with her brother as jiaxu took sang zhi to the medical station.
𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐂 𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐈𝐍 duan jiaxu as he searched each and every alley for his best friend's sister. when he went to pick her up the security guard had already infromed him about how grade 12th class 1 was empty. he tried calling. the number which he got the café that day when she transferred money.
"sir have you seen a female student? alone or with her friends?" he asked a guy on the street in a solemn tone. "i think she went into the alley up ahead alone" he said pointing towards the said alley. thanking the guy jiaxu rushed towards the alley to find his sang yue.
and sure enough he found the girl there. sitting on the ground her back against the wall and chocolate milk in her hand. head tucked under her arms, hairs hiding her face. he knew it was sang yue because he spotted a ring on her left hand's index finger. a ring he always saw her wore.
"sang yue!" he called out.
the said girl looked up and then stood up upon seeing jiaxu. if comfort was a person then it would be duan jiaxu. because why else would she feel a wave of comfort washing over her upon seeing him. why else would her anxitey calm upon seeing him. the sole answer was because he was comfort personified right?
her lips started to wobble as she saw him make his way towards her. she looked away trying to hide the tears. despite the mad look and tone of his voice she still felt comforted from his presence. "where were you? why didn't you answered your phone? didn't your gē told you to wait for me?" he asked receiving no answers.
he stopped when he saw her face. looking down trying to block her tears. "what's wrong? look at me" he said making her look her. concern laid in his eyes. "huh?" he asked again but the said girl just shook her head.
wordlessly he hugged her. patting the back of her head. and that's all took sang yue to breakdown. she cried and cried loudly mentally cursing herself on not being so smart. jiaxu smelled the odour of cigarettes on her but kept quiet about it.
the stress of studies got to her and she was thrown out of her first postion to fifth for the first time this year. she was worried her gpa would be dragged down too. she really wanted to just light up a cigar and smoke it away but she told sang yan that she will quit smoking. her replacements for the cigarettes was a chocolate milk. she had went to the cybercafe alone to get thar chocolate milk no one else sold.
sang yue started smoking in 11th grade when she way too stressed about studying. it was solely a stress reliving method. she saw the smartest people in her class use it as a coping mechanism and she did too. she swore to not be addicted and she wasn't. the first cigarette was the one she stole from sang yan and in guilt confessed to him about it. till now it's only him he knows and he was the one to suggest her to find a substitute for her cigarette.
but today was just too much so for the first time in a year she lit up a cigarette.
"it's okay. i am here" the older male patter her head. she rested her head on his shoulder.
𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐄𝐑 out of the alley he stopped at a shop to buy the two of them drinks. "thank you jiaxu gē" sang yue said whispered before drinking the refreshing drink. "did you smoked?" he asked. sang yue gulped. her mouth opening to answe but she closed it not having enough guts to explain and probably have another meltdown.
she simply hummed.
she knew this would probably make him think of her as a rebellious girl but she couldn't frankly care. it wasn't like he was going to rember her. she will move for her university and military training in few months. and it wasn't like he was gonna end up dating her that she needed to show him her good sides only.
"where is pack?" he asked again. "with me" she said. "sang yue i am not joking. you shouldn't be smoking at such a young age" jiaxu's voice rose of perhaps a vocatave at the end of his sentence.
"give me I'll confiscate it" he said holding out her hand to her. but she shook her head. "I'll had it over to sang yan gēge" she replied twirling the straw in her drink. "give it to me and I'll hand it over to your gēge" he inisted but she shook her head again.
"you'll complain to my parents" she said looking away from him. "i won't" sang yue looked him contemplating for a second.
"i visited your school as your gēgē and i hid it" he said. a sweet lie to coax her which thankfully worked as she took out her newly brought packet and lighter. she hesitated for a second "just give it to him when you're alone. not infront of qian fei gēgē and junwen gēge" she said the lighter and cigarettes still in her hand.
"i will give to him when i am alone" he replied as the girl dropped both the items in his hand. she saw him sip his drink before saying "how do you go home when your gē picks you up from school?" he asked.
"we take the bus" sang yue replied.
"a bus typical boring sang yan" he said. "wait a moment" he added before abandoning his drink and standing up. she saw him go up to the vendor and say something. he came back to her and took her bag saying "let's go."
"where are we going?" she asked. "i am seeing you home" jiaxu replied nonchalantly unbelievable the younger felt butterflies in her heart. he took her hand helping her standup and took her to the bicycle.
jiaxu took her drink and kept it with her bag in the front basket. sang yue sat on the backseat when he told her to and obliged when he told her to hold on tight.
she watched the falling cherry blossoms. sang yue loved nature more than anything. she loved the cherry blossoms, the rain even the stormy and gloomy part of it, the snow just everything. she extended a palm to catch the falling pink cherry blossoms. "hold tight. don't have a fall" he said. although she hummed she still extended her hand out for the cherry blossoms.
"have you taken this route to go home?" he asked. "no" the girl repiled, fascination evident in her voice that made the elder guy smile. "isn't the scenery nice?" he asked again.
the girl hummed still fascinated by the cherry blossoms as if she were a child seeing them for the first time despite being 18 years old.
"jiaxu gē where's my gē" she asked finally tucking back her hand in and holding onto him.
"i think he went to an interview" jiaxu replied.
"interview? is applying for internship?" she asked.
"no graduation is coming up so everyone is looking for jobs"
"what about you gēgē? have you found one?"
"i have found few but i still have to hear from them for interview."
"are you feeling better now?" he asked briefly looking back at her. the girl hummed. "you're in 12th grade after the gaokao exam you may find some rest but in university there will be more stress and academic challenges you need to find a way to decompress. for example cycling." he adviced.
although sang yue wanted to let him know how scary he made it sound she jusr hummed. the words shoved back inside her throat before having a chance coming out.
she still smiled at him. he looked back her as the two giggled before looking back at the road. when dropping her outside of the sang residence he told her not smoke and tell sang yan or him afterall they've been through this. sang yue agreed.
he handed her a 50 yuan bill. when she didn't took he took her hand and placed the money on it. it was for the same amount she brought cigarettes. "jiaxu gē what's this for?" she asked trying to return the money but the guy was adamant.
"you brought cigarettes for this much money right? since i confiscated a new here's the money for it" he replied.
"no jiaxu gē-" she tried to give him back the money but he asked "what will you say to your parents if you ask them for money and they ask you where you spent the last amount." that was all it took sang yue to be quite.
her parents did asked that sometimes trying to make sure she was not spending money recklessly.
"go home" he said when she didn't had anything to say. "goodbye jiaxu gē" she said entering her home.
sang yue her him getting on the cycle and leave. eyes not leaving him until he was out of sight. she saw the money in her hand feeling guilty.
upon entering her room. she went to her desk in a rather giddy mood. placing the money on it, remembering all the times she spent with him. and she realized she slowly fell in love with him.
the harmless crush now has turned into love. one she wouldn't act up upon. she took out the craft papers from the drawer. tearing a pink one from it. she wrote with blue glitter pen, 'i have a secret, i don't want to admit it but-' she giggled at the mere thought of it. '-i seem to have fallen for him - duan jia xu.' she wrote his name in english as she didn't knew how it was spelled in mandarian.
sang yue took the pink strip and folded it into a star, admiring it's delicacy in her hand for a moment. she turned to see the milk bottle he earlier gifted him. she added the star to it.
it's funny that just how last night she was thinking that was it love? and now she realized it is love.
•˚. *࿐ 𝑲𝑶𝑲𝑶𝑺𝑩𝑳𝑨𝑺𝑯𝑴𝑬𝒀'𝑺 𝑵𝑶𝑻𝑬 ▬▬▬ double update? *gasp* lol but mind you sang yue still doesn't know jiaxu is from yihe. she still thinks he's from nanwu. because in the drama sang zhi has a convo with jiaxu as the breakfast shop where she ask him where he is from and sang yue doesn't have this convo which is why she is assuming he's from nanwu.