"You bastard, you cheated on me! I hate you," Hong yelled at him in the corridor.

“No, you don't, you know you like me,” said Yunlan, calmly.

“Wang told me everything. You told her I had broken up with you! Well, you know what, your lie is coming true! I never want to see you again!” she yelled again.

“Come on baby, you know you want me, you know you like it, what I can do to you...” Yunlan said, all honey.

She looked taken aback for a second, the hint of a smile appeared on her face before she remembered to be angry, but she could not hide it.

“Well... you’ll have to be especially good to me to make me forgive you.”

“How about tonight?” he asked with a smirk.

Hong didn’t reply, she just turned around pouting and kept walking until she reached her friends, and when she reached them, they saw she was smiling.

Zhu Hong was very popular and had many friends, but Zhao Yunlan had always been her best friend. Their fathers worked together, and happy news for them, they were both transferred to Dragon City, so the kids didn’t get separated.

It would have broken their hearts, but they knew there wasn't a high chance of that happening because their parents were also friends, and very close, that's why they grew up together since they were little.

Yunlan looked at the people close by who had listened to their conversation and smiled too, before walking towards the school library. It was usually very quiet there, and he could study and relax, be himself without worry.

This time was no different, there were only a couple of students there, a younger girl and a guy with glasses. He paid them no attention whatsoever and sit by himself.

The next day they were together as always, they got the books they needed for the next lesson and started walking to their classroom.

"Oh I’m so sorry," said an unfamiliar voice after bumping into Yunlan making his books fall down.

The guy was tall, with a pair of glasses that gave him quite the intellectual look, and his voice was incredibly soft and kind. He immediately helped to pick up the books, despite Yunlan assured him that it was alright.

When he handed them to him, his hands held onto the books an instant too long, enough for Yunlan to look at him puzzled, but immediately he gave him a shy smile before raising a hand to adjust his glasses - that honestly didn’t look like they needed adjusting at all - then he lowered his gaze, murmured: “I’m really sorry,” and walked away hastily.

“Do you know who that is?” Yunlan asked Hong after his eyes had followed him until he had disappeared inside a class.

“Of course I know,” she said with a ‘duh’ tone of voice as if it was a stupid question. Yunlan rolled his eyes, how could she know everyone already? They came to this school at the same time!

“If you had a social life, you’d know too.”

She looked straight at him, this was something they often discussed about. She liked to party and meet new people and have many friends, while Yunlan seemed to dedicate his life to study. He wanted to make something of himself, he wanted to repay her mother of all the love she always gave him to compensate her husband.

It’s not that his father didn’t love him, it’s just that he didn’t really know how to communicate with him, so while he always made sure that his family had everything they might need, emotionally he seemed more distant than he really felt.

Fact is, universities cost a lot of money so he needed a scholarship, therefore Yunlan had always been the top of his class, had always studied hard although he made everything he could to make people think that he was the cool guy that thought of school as a bother.

“Yeah yeah, so why don’t you tell me?”

“His name is Shen Wei, apparently he comes from a powerful family but he doesn’t take advantage of it, he studies hard and keeps to himself, never really talks to anyone, so people have stopped trying. They just think he’s weird and leave him alone.”

“He must be lonely then,” Yunlan murmured out of nowhere, not really sure why he cared, and Hong gave him a strange look.

“Why would you care?” she asked, but they had reached their class, so he pretended not to hear her and went inside.

After school, Yunlan and Hong walked home together as always; they went to his house to do their homework together.

This school apparently had a bigger program and they were a bit behind, and he was eager to catch up. Once alone in his bedroom, she threw her school bag on a chair and looked at him with a curious look.

“How do you come up with everything you say to me? It was really realistic,” Hong said laughing.

“I... well basically I just listen to guys talking in the locker room... you know how guys are, they talk a lot about these things...” Yunlan said a bit embarrassed, scratching the back of his head.

“Yeah, I know how guys are... well I know how they think they should be because society taught them that’s how guys are...” Hong replied, playing the mature-girl card.

Yunlan rolled his eyes; personally, he thought it was much more fun to play the kid-card, but he supposed girls were different.

“Have you spent a lot of time in the boys’ locker room?” he asked her with a smirk.

She made a face at him, contemplated for a second about answering “not enough” then thought better of it, and threw herself on the bed.

He looked at her and smiled, before opening his books. She gave those a bored look.

“Why don’t you find yourself a girlfriend? You’re handsome, you’re funny, I don’t understand why you never ask anyone out. I know that YueYing likes you so much that a hi from you would be enough to make her confess to you,” Hong asked looking him in the eyes.

“Not while I’m going out with you,” was his smug reply.

She didn’t look satisfied with his answer so he sighed. “You know I’m not interested in going out with girls. Nothing wrong with them, I’m just more interested in my own school life.”

Hong stared at him long and hard, before asking, “You know... if you’d rather go out with a guy that would be ok too...”

Yunlan finally raised his eyes from his books.

"Where does that come from?"

“I don’t know... you seemed rather interested in that guy this morning...”

“I simply asked you if you knew him!”

“Geez, no need to get like that... do what you want, as if I care.” But both of them knew that she cared about him, deeply, as he cared for her.

“Let’s study now,” he said hoping to change the subject.

“Simply wanted you to know that whatever you like, it’s ok for me,” she muttered as if talking to herself, so not to anger him.

Hiding a fond smile, he said, “You better study or we won’t be in the same class anymore next year.”

That seemed to do it, she looked alarmed and started listening to his explanations. Maybe this wasn’t the right time to tell him that she kinda wanted to go out with someone else...