At least Qing was not oblivious to the fact that I am so near to killing him. That my temper is so close to snapping that he needs to thread carefully to survive.
Qing: (staring at all the boxes of melons on our kitchen) Okay...I can see now that I overreacted.
Me: (holding tight to my temper) You think?
Qing: (wincing) Dayu ah...
Me: (raising my arms and hands) Fine! I admit it. I am an ungrateful selfish brat who couldn't appreciate every blessings given to me. But these (gesturing at the boxes of melons) this is on you. It encompasses everything I hate about you. Your arrogance, your money, your excessiveness, your sense of superiority. Fuck!
Qing: (sighing) Okay. I'm sorry.
Me: (livid) No! Don't apologize before me! I will apologize first! I will do it!
Qing: (taking a step away from me) Okay. Okay, you do it first. Apologize first.
Me: (taking a deep breath) I'm sorry. I'm sorry about the apple thing. About these melons. About what I said about you and how you use your money. Everything. I'm sorry. But these...
Qing: (hurried) I'm sorry. I'm sorry about this.
Qing came close to hug me. I whimpered and buried my face on his neck. I circled my arms around his back to embrace him as well.
Me: (muffled tone) How many boxes of melons did you order exactly?
Qing: Maybe...about twenty? To be delivered in five days.
Me: (leaning out to glare at him) Twenty boxes?! (calculating on my head) First day its two, then three, today is four...so tomorrow, they will deliver five boxes and then...
Qing: Six boxes on the last day. Twenty boxes in all.
Me: (clutching his shirt) You better cancel the other boxes! Do you hear me?!
Qing: They are already paid for, my Love.
Me: I don't care! If one more box of melons enter our door, I will leave you! Did you hear me?!
Qing: We can give them away!
Me: (not hearing him) Cancel those orders!
Qing: I can't. Sorry, Love.
I pushed him away to groan in despair. I hate my life. This is all it came down to. Boxes of melons. Argh!
(Dayu ah...)
Never date someone like Qing. I'm giving you lifelong lesson and free advice here. Never be with someone like your Baba. He is a lot of work. Being with him is frustrating and tiring. I know being with someone like me is not a walk in a park but Qing...oh, his methods of teaching someone a lesson could kill.
Qing: (hugging me again) Love, it'll be alright.
Me: Bury me with those melons. That's my last request to you.
Qing: You will not die.
Me: My blood pressure is through the roof I think I am going blind.
Qing: People do go blind because of hypertension. Stop being insensitive about that.
Me: Fuck you and who are you to call me insensitive?
Qing: Sorry.
Qing kept me in his consoling hug until I calmed down. He guided me to the living room to get me away from the boxes of melons that aggravate my blood pressure.
Qing: We could start sending the melons right away. We could make a list of people where we can dump the melons I ordered for you.
Me: For me? You ordered them for you!
Qing: But you asked for melons...
Me: (taking a deep breath) Stop talking before I explode.
Qing: Okay.
I snuggled close to him again. Qing chuckled as he kissed my forehead. That show of amusement from him irritated me.
Me: I will bury you with those melons. As a fertilizer.
Qing: I won't blame you if you ever do it.
Me: (groaning) What will we do with them?! Really?!
Qing: Give them away. To family and friends.
Me: (looking at his face) People close to us will know that something is up if we give them all melons. They will know, somehow they will know, that we are squabbling again.
Qing: I don't care if they suspect that we are fighting again. As long as we don't confirm it, they can waste their time forming theories about us. They won't know for sure.
Me: The Goddess next door will know for sure. I already whined at her.
Qing: (moaning) You...are too close to her. Can't you keep a secret from her?
Me: She is the most trustworthy person I know aside from you, our parents and my bestfriends. She won't tattle about me and our issues.
Qing: Great. Give her two boxes of melons for her loyalty to you.
Me: Ugh! What if your sister suspect something again? She caught our secret engagement, remember? Then there is your cousin. Zhu gege will think I acted like a brat again.
Qing: (smiling) And he will be right. But don't worry, he will complain to me. He will lecture me and not you.
Me: True. That's a relief.
Qing: Lets call for overnight express delivery to get those melons to your parents and friends in Heilongjiang. Lets also send some to my parents and sister.
Me: I'll give melons to my manager and assistant as well.
Qing: Cool. I'll do the same. So...how many more boxes do we have left?
Me: A lot more. Why did you order twenty boxes, really?
Qing: I was making a point.
Me: What point? That I am stupid?! We already know that!
Qing: Alright. Sorry. It was excessive. My bad.
I pouted and Qing chuckled again. He captured my face between his palms to kiss my lips sweetly. I pouted some more to get more kisses from him.
I have seven boxes of melons that night. We sent five of them to Heilongjiang. Three for my parents so they can give some to GrandMa and our other relatives. One box each for Meng and Xiao.
I sent another box to LiPin because why not? She sent me those heavenly strawberries some weeks ago, reciprocating her kindness is not such a bad idea. Then I knocked on the Goddess' door again to give her one box.
Goddess: (visibly controlling her laughter as she received her box of melons) You two are so funny, do you know that?
Me: Laugh all you want. As long as you'll take the melons, I don't care if you laugh at me. I hate them now.
Goddess: Ah, my Cute Neighbor. Why do you do this to yourself, really?
Me: I don't know. I must be really stupid.
Goddess: That you are. Anyway, thanks for the melons. Thank Hot Roommate for me.
Me: In fairness, they taste really good. And it's summer so it's perfect as a refreshing snack. (realization) Ah! That's what I will say! I'll tell people that it's our summer gift to them! If they ask why we are suddenly sending out melons, it's a summer treat for them that's why!
Goddess: Wow...you are really smart.
Me: (winking at her) Of course I am!
Goddess: Well, goodluck. I hope people will buy that reasoning you just thought of and not think that you guys are weird for ordering melons as summer gifts. Thanks again for, what you call it? Refreshing treat. (chuckling again)
It's not weird right? People send each other gifts every season, right? It's like shopping for Mama. She shops every season. Huh?
Anyways, Qing calls to divert the delivery address on his melon orders. He gave the addresses of his parents, sister, Uncle and Auntie Wang and Zhu gege. Most of the boxes arrived this afternoon and JiJi called me immediately upon receiving the melons.
JiJi: What did you feed Qing that he is sending melons to everyone?
Me: Nothing. We just thought that it's a nice gesture. He bought me some melons a couple of days ago and I said it'll be great if we send some to our families and friends so everyone could taste how good it is.
JiJi: Hmmm...is that it? Really?
Me: Of course! What other reason could there be for us to send out melons to everyone?
JiJi: I don't know. I just feel like something is going on.
Gosh, I am starting to dislike her strong intuition on things.
Me: Stop overthinking this. They are just melons. It's not like I sent out chests full of golds. That is not a bribe or anything. They really taste good and I want people I love to have them too.
JiJi: Okay. I love honeydew melons anyways so I'm glad you sent some to me. Thank you. I'll message Qing to thank him as well. Everything is alright, you sure?
Me: I'm sure. When can we have brunch together?
I changed the subject to distract her.
JiJi: Maybe the first week of next month. I'm swamp with things right now. JR is teething and he is as cranky as Qing.
Me: Very cranky then. Poor you.
JiJi: Oh, tell me about it. And my useless husband just encourage JR in his crankiness. He told me, our son deserves his moment of being stressed. Everyone has theirs so JR is entitled to some tantrums as well.
Me: Gege is weird.
JiJi: (laughing) He is and I love him so. See you in Baba's Father's Day dinner. It's in two days.
Me: Right. See you then.
After the phone call with JiJi, I started answering messages thanking us for the melons we sent and giving the same reason over and over why we sent them.
"It's a summer treat. It tastes good. We would love if you'll enjoy eating it..."
Thank goodness for my bestfriends. They just accept my gifts and didn't question what's behind it that much. They did chat with me via videocall to thank me for the melons.
Meng: Nushi loves them. She sent one to her parents and one to mine. Thanks Dayu ah...
Xiao: I gave one to my superior. But hey, isn't it expensive...getting them express delivered? We also have honeydew melons here...
Me: It's fine! It's fine. We are happy to send them.
Xiao: (smiling) Okay. Cool. Thank you for the melons.
Meng: Yes. Thank you. We will enjoy them.
See? Why can't everyone be like my bestfriends? Not looking for any ulterior motive on my every move. I just love them.
Ugh! We still have six more boxes to send out tomorrow. On whose poor souls should I dump those melons to? Does ZhiMing likes melons? I should ask him. Maybe our favorite photographer, Lee, likes melons. Maybe we could give him half a box. He didn't ask for any payment for the engagement photos he took for us. Maybe he'll accept melons as tokens of our appreciation to him.
Hmmm...
How about y'all? Do you like honeydew melons?
Wang Qing, really! He is really excessive, even in revenge.