“Hi everyone,” Hong greeted cheerfully, introducing Yunlan to yet another group of her friends.

She talked with almost everyone in school already, and seemed to have made it her mission to find him some friends that he could really like; being a Sunday, Yunlan really wanted to relax slacking off at home, but she had dragged him along.

This time they sat at a table to eat with her friend Wang, her new boyfriend Sang, and a couple of other guys called Da Qing and Lin Jin.

Yunlan sat with them without great hopes, he knew how these things usually went: he would find them boring or vain or stupid, and probably ask her to stop trying to find him a group while he was doing perfectly on his own.

He expected them to talk about girls as if they were Casanova, or sports as if they were world champions, or even worse about their new flashy car for the whole duration of the meal, because that’s how these meetings usually went, so he was quite surprised when things didn’t go as he expected.

Wang started telling Hong how she met Sang while he looked adoringly at her, Da Qing started ordering food for a regiment while Jin talked of the new video-game he was playing recently.

When the food arrived and they started eating, the conversation at the table was something like this:

Wang: "He never said a word to me, then one day he presented me with this bracelet that he saw me looking at the day before, isn’t that sweet?"

Sang: (Smiling at Wang.)

Hong: "How romantic, I wish ‘someone’ was like that too."

Da Qing: "This fish is so good, we must come here again."

Jin: "You can also kill fish, but crabs are better, actually you get extra points if you join a party and kill the big crab called Ganglef."

Da Qing: "I like to eat crabs too, where do they prepare it?"

Sang: "What’s a ganglef?"

Wang: (Smiling at Sang.)

Hong: "I have a new lipstick that’s a sort of crab-colour, but I like the peach-colour more."

Da Qing: "I don’t like peaches so wherever you eat them I won’t come, I want to eat fish."

Jin: "I could make my own game one day, giant peaches with fangs would be fun."

Da Qing: "Ehi! don’t eat my fish!"

Hong: "I didn’t! I only took a little to taste it."

Jin: "You could use cutlery instead of swords... no that would be too weird."

Da Qing: "You’re what’s weird, if you’re not going to eat that I can help you."

Wang: "How generous."

Sang: (Laughing at her joke.)

Jin: "You’ll see, when my videogame will be a best-seller you’ll regret not listening to me."

Da Qing: "I would only regret wasting all that delicious fish."

Yunlan laughed despite himself. What kind of people were these guys? Hong looked at him with a growing smile while the others paid him no attention at all.

He couldn’t explain why, but he felt really comfortable with them, and he also found them very amusing.

Hong had a victory smile planted steadily on her face and he knew he was done for.

Wang looked at them and felt she had to do something to make her friend’s boyfriend like their company, so they could hang out together more often. She really enjoyed Hong’s friendship, but she knew that Yunlan had precedence over everyone else, so if she could get him to like them, she could see her more... she really wanted to start a conversation with him but the problem was that he hadn’t said a word yet and she had no idea what kind of guy he was, what could a guy like him like to talk about?

“So... have you joined any sports club yet?” she tried asking him, not really caring about sports at all.

“No, I haven’t,” was the discouraging answer.

Sang looked at her disappointed face, then looked at Yunlan. “Have you heard that we’re gonna have a test next week? There’s a new computer-science teacher, and he’s going to test us the first day we meet him.”

This seemed to interest Yunlan, and he replied, “I’m not really good with computers, are you sure?”

Wang gave Sang a big smile while Jin said, “I’m a genius with computers, want to study together?”

Da Qing: "Ugh, study..."

Jin: "I could have my mum prepare us lunch then we study in my room, she’s a great chef."

Da Qing: "I’m in! I’d love to study together. Does your mother know how to cook fish?"

Sang: "I could use some help too, honestly, I’m like a man from another era when it comes to technology. Can we come too?"

Wang’s smile grew even wider when he included her in his request.

Jin: "You’re coming too right? We could all study together, it’ll be fun."

Hong: "Thanks, of course we’ll join you, right Yunlan?"

When Yunlan agreed immediately and they started to leave after finishing their meal, they had to wait for Wang and Sang because she had launched herself on him to kiss him with all she’s got. Sang didn’t really know all that was behind her enthusiasm, but he wasn’t about to ask her now...

“You liked them, didn’t you?” Hong asked him while they were finally alone.

Yunlan couldn’t suppress a smile. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

Then he seemed to remember something and teased her.

"So that’s Wang, huh? Why did you use her name? You could get her in trouble with her boyfriend... and me too, for that matter. He seems a quiet one, but something tells me I don’t really want to get between him and Wang."

Hong shrugged her shoulders.
"It was the first name that came to my mind. She’s pretty and nice and I like her, and she didn’t have a boyfriend yet when I said that... I should probably warn her though, you never know, rumours might get to him after all."

Yunlan didn’t like that idea. "Better warn them both; she’s your friend, she’ll understand right?"

Hong seemed to think about something for a while, then she said: "What about we tell all of them? They can be our friends too, you said you liked them..."

"That Da Qing was funny, he seems to think about eating all the time and yet he’s thinner than me."

"Yes, he’s funny," she agreed. "Jin was nice too..." she added.

She had lowered her voice a little bit and he looked at her strangely.

“Do you... is it possible... you like Jin??” he asked her bluntly.

She blushed a little, which was uncommon. She had gone out with a few guys in the past during their alleged “break-ups” but it was never serious.

“Do you want to break up with me?”

She gave him an exasperated look. "Oh come on, it’s not like we’re dating for real, would it be so terrible if people knew you were single?"

He seemed to consider this, and the horror look on his face made her laugh out loud.

"You’re really something you know? What’s the worst that can happen?"

Sighing, he gave up. "Fine, we can officially break-up, but there’s no reason to tell anyone that it was never for real ok? I don’t want to be forced to explain myself."

With a bigger smile than he thought was appropriate, she said, “Agreed, your reputation will be safe with me.”

~~~

The first time he saw Shen Wei again it was in the school cafeteria, sitting alone as per usual, with a book opened in his hands.

“Is that even a textbook?” Yunlan asked out loud, and Hong followed his gaze.

“I don’t know, can’t really see from here.”

Da Qing turned around too and said carelessly, “It isn’t, he likes to read a lot of weird stuff, as if studying wasn’t boring enough.”

Hong: "Can you see the book from this far away?"

Da Qing: "I have very sharp eyes."

Yunlan kept looking at Shen Wei, he wasn’t sure why but he felt curious to know more about him.

Suddenly he noticed a big guy walking closer to Shen Wei, nodding slightly before he kept walking away.

Yunlan: "Who is that guy?"

Hong, rolling her eyes: "Why don’t you go talk to him, if you’re so interested?"

Yunlan: "I was simply asking a question!"

Wang: "Who, Chu? He looks like a bully, so I never talked to him."

Sang, alarmed: "Don’t!"

Jin: "I can get you basic information from the school files, if you want."

Hong: "You’re so good at this stuff!"

Yunlan, rolling his eyes and pretending he didn’t care: "No, it doesn’t matter."

Wang: "Why don’t we go on a double date? Wouldn’t that be fun?"

Da Qing and Jin together: "Ehi! what about us?"

Hong: "Actually, we’re not a couple anymore, we broke up."

Once again, Yunlan thought that her cheerful tone was quite inappropriate, but he didn’t dare to say anything.

Jin looked intently at both of them.
"You did?"

Yunlan thought of trying to repay her for helping him all these years in his own way. "Yeah, apparently she has set her eyes on someone else..."

Hong elbowed him but Jin kept looking at them. "Really? who?"

Yunlan: "She said someone I know, but she didn’t tell me who."

He thought it was best not to push his luck too far, she could be really scary if angered. Still, he couldn’t suppress a little wink...

Sang: "And you’re not... angry?"

It was Wang’s turn to elbow her boyfriend.

Yunlan: "Naaaah, many fishes in the sea if you know what I mean."

Da Qing: "Uhm... fish..."

Yunlan, laughing: "Exactly!"