Ep. 4

Zhang Wei...

There was no way that Jialin could forget him, especially with the way he looked. He had the form of a jock. His blonde hair, olive skin and sharp jaw did nothing to deter his attractiveness, and that had made him known as one of the hottest guys around the college grounds.

However, that was not why Jialin was hesitant to be around him. It was something else entirely that had happened in the past when they were in the same high school.

"Hey," came a voice from her right. She turned, and she felt herself straighten in surprise.

It was sudden. Even though Jialin had been expecting it, it had been quick, and she still felt unprepared. Zhang had settled himself on Jialin's left with the computer designated for the student who had sat there switched on.

"Hi," she replied with an unsure smile before facing the professor at the front as he droned on about printer basics.

Usually, a girl would occupy the space beside her. But then, every I.T student in the class had been grouped according to their projects. The professor had come that morning and advised everyone to sit near his or her partners. And so, in the process, many were dislocated.

Jialin, like a few, had found herself situated far from her common spot. She usually sat in the middle where she was close enough to hear Mr. Wang but not close enough to be suddenly picked to answer a question; it was perfect for her. However, the project had ruined that. She was forced to sit at the back of the class. 

She found it foreign, but she knew she could get used to it. What she was not sure of was getting used to Zhang' presence.

Jialin eyed his form on her left. Zhang was facing the front, and his brown eyes screamed focus. Chunhua took her time to observe him, realizing that there was no doubt about his good looks. In fact, he seemed to have grown in the past years. His blonde hair had been styled into a spiky haircut that surprisingly worked well for him. The green T-shirt he had worn exposed part of his forearms, showing off the biceps that had increased in volume over time.

Jialin found it odd that he had worn the shirt since the room was always air-conditioned.

She suddenly turned away, realizing she had been looking at him for a couple of seconds too long.

'What the hell am I doing?' she thought to herself. She tried to listen to the lecture, but after a while, she gave up. It was hard for her to focus, especially with a certain someone sitting right next to her. She had to think of how to approach him. But then, what would she tell him after years of ignoring him?

"What do you think we should start with?" Zhang suddenly asked as he turned to face her. Chunhua had not been paying attention, and her thoughts seemed to jumble themselves in her brain.

"Uh... What?" she was able to make out. The person facing her furrowed his eyebrows.

"You are right. We should come up with a story first. Then that way, we can--"

"Okay. Okay. What is going on?" Jialin asked.

"Class dismissed!" Mr. Wang announced before Zhang could reply, and many students stood up to leave the room.

"So we can agree to come up with stories for our project, right?"

Jialin chose to nod her head in agreement.

"Okay. See you tomorrow."

Then Zhang proceeded to take off without saying another word. Chunhua's mind had caught up with his words, and she was going to ask him where they should meet up when he had upped and left. 

'The F?'

Chunhua was surprised. She furrowed her eyebrows, thinking that her former high school classmate was nervous around her.

'No,' she denied the thought. 'That can't be possible. What does he have to be nervous about?'

With a sigh, she gathered her things and turned to leave the class.

*************** ******************** ********************* *********************** **

The following day had arrived much quicker than Chunhua had anticipated. She had been dreading meeting up with Zhang, but the universe had made the hours feel like minutes. Her class had passed with barely any word exchanged between her and Zhang. In fact, their conversations seemed strained.

It was evident that neither wanted to talk to each other.

Jialin sighed as she scratched the back of her head. After class, she had made her way towards the campus library. She had situated herself in one of the secluded areas of the building, busy trying to think of a story that she and Zhang could use for their project. Nothing was coming to mind, and it made her want to smack her head into the table.

Apart from the project, Chunhua's class had been given an after-class assignment. Part of it was an essay related to her course, and another part involved reading.

She hadn't even started on either of them.

Jialin knew she wasn't in the mood of forming a story, and so she decided to focus on her school work. Just as she was about to type the heading on her small Lenovo laptop, she felt a presence occupy the seat in front of her.

She looked up from the device, and whom she saw made her form tense in surprise. Zhang had occupied the space.

"Hi," he greeted as he turned to his bag. He was taking out his own laptop.

Chunhua was tongue-tied, not knowing how to speak to him. He had surprised her again. She wanted to ask him why he had chosen to sit right in front of her when there were many empty spots in the library.

It had three floors for Pete's sake!

But then, she stopped herself. 

'When are you going to get over this?' she wondered. It was ridiculous for the both of them to keep speaking like strangers who were afraid of each other. They had an assignment that would take them months to complete. It would be time-involving, and if they didn't start on it soon, they would fail and find themselves repeating the semester.

"Have you started on the story?" Jialin spoke, and she was surprised to hear the clarity in her voice.

At her question, Zhang angled his head to look at her. He had already taken out his laptop and logged into his device.

"I have," he replied, much to Chunhua's shock. "I just have to make some adjustments to it."

Jialin found it hard to nod. She meant for that to be the end of the discussion as she turned to her laptop.

"What about you?" Zhang questioned.

"I've got nothing," Chunhua answered, and that had him furrowing his eyebrows at her.

"Okay... Just don't expect me to do all the work," he said. Jialin had been typing on her laptop, making the formats for the essay she would have to type when she heard Zhang' words. That forced her to stop and look at him.

His eyes were not even on her as he typed on his device.

"I'm not stupid, you know," she said. That ceased Zhang' typing, making him turn to look at her.

"I never said that."

"But the way you said it implied that I am incompetent in doing my own work."

"Wow. Incompetent... Do you even know what that means?" he said with a smirk. 

Jialin narrowed her eyebrows at him.

"I'm not the same person I used to be."

Zhang snorted. "Says the person who believed that the weekend lasted a month."

She found it unfair. Zhang knew about the troubles she had faced in her studies when she was in high school. Having him make fun of her for it just made her furious. It was one of the reasons why she had been avoiding him. He was a constant reminder of her early teen years, and she wanted to put them behind her.

With quick movements, she had placed her laptop into sleep mode. It was when she went to grab her books that Zhang noticed the change in the atmosphere.

"What are you doing?"

"Leaving," Jialin replied as she quickly grabbed her stuff to walk away from him.

"Why? Chunhua, I was joking," he said.

Jialin knew, but she did not want to talk about it.

"Chunhua--" Zhang cut himself off with a sigh.

She did not look back as she headed towards the stairs that led to the ground floor of the library. 

Chunhua was glad Zhang had said those words. It just proved that he would always see her as the thoughtless idiot she used to be.