-Zhang LiYin-

That familiar voice hit me as I turned around to see my high school friend, Jay Chou. I was surprised to see him in China. Last time I heard, he was headed to Taiwan to take over his father’s business.

“LiYin! I’ve missed you! It’s been so long since I last saw you! It’s been… five years?!” He counted on his fingers with a huge grin on his face and then gave me a big hug.

“Jay! You’re strangling me.” I coughed as he let go of me. He’s still the same childish kid he was back in school but he grew to be very handsome. I looked at his now, styled up hair glistening with hair products. His outfit was consisted of a plain white t-shirt with a black vest and a pair of fade out jeans.

“How have you been? You never contacted me after we left high school.” He chuckled as he let go. He still hasn’t too notice of Jaejoong yet.

“Uh… it’s been good and bad. What about you?” I laughed.

“My life is great. Parents left the company in my hands while they are travelling around the world on their jet. I’ve learned a lot these few years. I just regret that I lost all connections with my high school classmates especially the cute ones like you. Actually, the reason why I’m in China right now is that I’ve been having some business trips around Asia. I’m going to be here for a while.” He explained his appearance.

“Wow, seems like you’re having fun.” I laughed.

“Who’s that?” He suddenly asked, pointing to Jaejoong who was standing a few feet away from us, staring at us.

“He’s my friend from Korea. I went to Korea for a while and I just came back. His name is Jaejoong.” I told him.

“Jaejoong? He looks really familiar.” He said as he kept starting at Jaejoong.

“You’ve probably seen him on newspapers. His full name is Kim Jaejoong. His parents own Korea’s largest hotels called ‘Heaven’s Paradise.’” I explained.

“That’s Kim Jaejoong?! I thought he would be an old man in his fifty’s. Not a young one in his twenty’s.” Jay exclaimed.

I laughed at his reaction.

“But hey, don’t get too stressed over work like him. He’s practically a workaholic. I’m amazed he decided to follow me to China and leave his work behind for a while.” I smiled.

“Yeah, well, even superman needs to relax sometimes. Say, you want to have dinner with me some night, catch up on past times?” He asked with a smile as his attention turned back to me.

“Sure, sure. That’d be great. I’ll give you my number.” I said as he passed me his phone.

“Great, I have to go now, but I’ll call you up soon and we can eat together. Bye.” He shouted as he ran backwards to his car.

I waved goodbye to him until he hopped into his car and drove away until I couldn’t see him anymore.

“So… who was that?” Jaejoong asked with a clueless expression.

“Just an old friend from high school. His name’s Jay Chou.” I told him.

“Jay Chou? I’ve heard of him. Taiwan’s multimillionaire.” Jaejoong responded after hearing his name.

“I’m not surprised.” I said in a monotone as I thought for a while.

“Come on, let’s go grab some lunch.” I motioned as I got in the car. Right before starting the car, I sent a text message to all my friends on my contact list to let them know that I’m back. There are many things I want to catch up on.

-----ONE WEEK LATER-----

“We’re going out tonight! We’re having dinner with a couple old friends. So, grandma you don’t have to make us dinner tonight. I shouted as I put my coat on and headed out the door. I was able to contact a couple of my old friends. They agreed to come out and have dinner with me. Jay was also going to be there. After going to Korea for so long, I’ve missed my friends in China. But somehow, it didn’t feel right that Eunji was not here with me. All my friends knew that I was best friends with Eunji. They’re bound to ask me why Eunji didn’t come back to visit.

When we arrived at the restaurant where we agreed to meet up, I saw someone waving at me. As I looked carefully, I noticed it was Cici, one of my family friends. I’ve known her since we were in diapers because our parents were friends with each other. Cici was the type of girl who would go shopping for hours and spend hours picking an outfit. But she was also the type of girl who got straight A’s in school.

“Cici!” I shouted as I ran up to her and gave her a big hug.

“LiYin! Took you long enough to contact me again! After you sent that message to me I tried calling up everyone to come and meet up. But sadly, most of them were either busy or aren’t in China.” She replied back with a little pout.

“It’s alright. I’ll be here for a while, so we have lots of time to catch up.” I smiled as Jaejoong and I took a seat. It seemed like we were the only three that had arrived so far. The others were probably on their way.

“Well well, who’s this LiYin? Your boyfriend? You never told me you had a boyfriend, especially one so hot!” Cici complemented Jaejoong.

“This is Jaejoong. And no, he’s not my boyfriend.” I laughed as Jaejoong and Cici shook hands.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Cici. Do you have a girlfriend?” She asked straightforwardly.

“Eh… no, I don’t.” Jaejoong answered quietly with his face blushing.

“I’m single too.” She winked at him.

“Okay, let’s not talk about this tonight. We’ve got so much to catch up on Cici!” I stopped their conversation. I don’t know why. But when I watched Cici flirt with Jaejoong, I felt a bit sad.

The next couple of minutes, each of my old friends started to come through the restaurant door and walked over to where we were. One by one, I greeted them with a hug and a huge smile. They were all happy to see me again. The last one to come was Jay. He was in his business suit because he had just finished work.

“Glad you finally made it mister business man.” Cici laughed as he took a seat next to her.

“Alright, now that we are all here, I just wanted to say it’s good to have LiYin back!” Cici cheered as she stood up and put her glass of beer in the middle of our circle.

“To Cici.” Jay said as he also stood up and raised his glass. One by one all of us raised our glasses and cheered.

“By the way, LiYin, seems like you got yourself a hot boyfriend.” My friend Lin responded.

“He’s not my boyfriend, just a good friend.” I laughed. Everyone thinks Jaejoong’s my boyfriend.

“Well then, if he’s not your boyfriend, can I have him? He fits my taste very well.” Cici joked.

I laughed as I chugged down a glass of beer. That feeling was there again. I don’t want Cici to date Jaejoong. Things won’t work out for them anyways. Jaejoong lives all the way in Korea while Cici lives in China.

“You’ll have to ask the girl he likes first. He says he’s got someone on his mind lately.” I smiled.

“Aww, really? Too bad then.” Cici pouted as the rest of us laughed, even Jaejoong.

“So Jaejoong, do you have plans on extending your hotels across Asia?” Jay asked him.

“Actually, I’ve already got a couple in Japan too. But I was thinking of also branching out into China for the next project.” Jaejoong replied.

“Well, if you ever have any interest, you can always call me up. My field goes all ways. I can help you if you want.” Jay smiled as he handed Jaejoong a business card.

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” Jaejoong replied as he put the card into his pocket.

“LiYin, stop drinking. You’ve drank a lot already.” I whispered to LiYin as she was already drinking on her sixth glass of beer that night.

“Don’t worry Jaejoong this is only beer. The alcohol percentage is not very high. I can stand it.” She laughed.

“Alright then! Let the drinking games begin!” Cici shouted as she asked the waitress to bring some dice.

-Jaejoong-

After about an hour, some of the people started to leave. All that were left were Cici, Jay, LiYin, and I. Both Cici and LiYin were wasted and drunk. Only Jay and I were left awaken. I didn’t drink much because I knew LiYin would end up like this. If both of us were down, who would take care of us?

“I’ll call my driver to drive you two back home. You don’t know the way around this city, so it’s best to leave LiYin’s car here and come back tomorrow morning to get it. I have my own car here, so I’ll take Cici back home.” Jay suggested. I nodded.

We waited for Jay’s driver to come. I helped LiYin into the backseat and put a seatbelt on her. Then Jay told the driver LiYin’s address. After that, Jay left to drive Cici home and LiYin and I were on our way home.

“Aish… next time don’t drink so much LiYin.” I mumbled as the driver started the car and took us home.

“Junsu… I don’t care about you anymore. But Jaejoong… Cici… Jaejoong… don’t… want… together…” I heard her mumble.

“LiYin, do you hate Junsu and Eunji?” I asked her quietly. Usually if a person is drunk, they tend to tell the truth.

“I would never hate Eunji. S-she’s my best friend… I…can’t… hate… Junsu… but I feel pain today… Jaejoong and Cici…” she mumbled softly as her head lay on my shoulder.

“Cici and I?...” I asked her again, confused. But this time I got no response. It seemed like she had already fallen asleep on me.

I thanked the driver as I carried LiYin out of the car. I took out my key to the house and opened it quietly. It was already quite late. My guess was that LiYin’s grandma was already asleep. I tried holding LiYin’s waist and walked with her up the stairs. But she kept wobbling around. I ended up picking her up bridal style so that we wouldn’t make any noise as we walked up the stairs. When we got to her room, I wasn’t able to open the lights because my hands were full. I walked over to her bed and slowly placed her down. And just as I was about to let go of her, her hands held my neck tightly, not letting me go.

“LiYin…” I shook her a bit just so she could let go of me. The position we were in was a bit awkward. Our faces were literally half an inch apart from each other. I could smell the alcohol coming off from her.

“Uhnnnnngg.” She groaned as she held onto me tighter.

“LiYin, I’m not Junsu.” I said.

“I know you’re not Junsu. You’re… Jaejoong.” She giggled quietly.

“You’re drunk LiYin.” I mumbled.

“I…am…not…drunk… you idiot…” She mumbled back.

“Right… and I’m not in love with you…” I joked.

“Fine, if you won’t let go of me, don’t regret it.” I warned her quietly. She just giggled in response as if she didn’t care. Then I started to tickle her waist, my fingers easily poking her stomach and sides.

She started to groan and her body was moving around a lot. Her head kept moving up and down. Suddenly, her lips met mine by accident. I widened my eyes to see that hers was the same. We stayed like that for five seconds until she closed her eyes and flopped back down on the bed, her lips leaving mine. It seemed like she got tired and just dozed off.

I stared at her for a full five minutes before I snapped back to reality. My head was thinking that we were dreaming. But my lips were telling the truth.

“Are you really sleeping? Or just faking it? I hope you remember tomorrow morning. I hope you find out that I love you…” I whispered before standing up and walking back to my room.