I’m sitting quietly as the taxi pulls up in the back lane of our apartment complex, and I noiselessly pass him the money for the taxi ride. I pull the beanie sitting on my head lower and shuffle quickly into the lobby, where the security guard greets me by nodding his head. I nod back and then get into one of the free elevators.

How did she even get into the apartment complex? Was the security guard sleeping when he was meant to be on duty? Why is she even here? What business do I have with her now?

When the elevator stops at our level, my palms suddenly grow sweaty. I hadn’t seen her in over 3 years, and such sudden contact with someone I used to be so close to just makes me edgy. From what I hear from my parents, she still takes care of my grandparents for me, especially since my parents are both busy with work and such.

I’m thankful for what she’s done but there’s no reason for her to continue unless she still harbours some kind of hope that we’d be together again. After a few harsh months, I’d come to the conclusion that our pathways in life will never meet again.

As I’m walking along the corridor to our apartment, I see a figure sitting on the floor with their heads in their hands. A sinking feeling falls into my stomach – I recognize that hair and body shape any time.

It seems as though my footsteps caught her attention, because she whips her head up and breaks into a big grin when I walk closer. I don’t show her anything – not even an ounce of emotion. I’m not too sure myself, but the feeling of distaste flitted through my mind, because she just decided to randomly show up during my break.

“Yi Xing!” she exclaims, jumping to her feet. She steps forward and reaches in for a hug, but I lean away and open the door to the apartment instead. She awkwardly laughs it off, rubbing her hands on the sides of her pants. “How have you been?” she asks again, picking her bags up from the ground when I step into the apartment and hold the door open for her.

“Better than ever.” I reply curtly, closing the door and locking it. I take my shoes off and slip into my slippers, before shuffling into the kitchen. Joon Myun so happens to walk out, greeting me with a wave.

“Oh, Yi Xing, you’re home!” he says, reaching over to pat me lightly on the shoulders. “And I see you’ve brought home the girl from outside too. How weird…” he trails off, giving a false, plastered smile to Rui Ning before walking back into his room.

“Sit, I can only give you water because the boys will kill me if I touch their soda’s.” I say, passing her a glass of filtered water. Looking extra keen, Rui Ning settles into a chair and takes the glass from me. I make sure that our hands don’t touch.

A few long seconds of silence pass us.

“What do you want?” I ask, looking out of the living room window and into the distance. “There must be something important for you to come all the way here. And I know you must’ve squeezed the address out from my grandparents, because I know for damn sure my parents would never give you my location.”

Rui Ning’s facial expression falters, and I see hurt in her eyes.  I blink the weird sensation about to bubble in my heart, and thankfully the front door lock clicks, taking both our attention away.

“Guys, I brought home some pizza!” Zi Ying’s voice rings out, and I hear cheers from Baek Hyun and Chan Yeol’s room.

“Hyung, how come you left so early? We had to carry all these heavy pizzas without you!” Se Hun whines, grunting as he lifts up 5 boxes of pizza unto the table. Rui Ning jumps a little when Lu Han let’s go of the coke bottles, and when Tao shouts for the boys to come out.

“Xing, they forced me to bring the game over so you can verse Se--, oh hello, nice to meet you,” Zi Ying notices Rui Ning’s presence and politely greets her. It’s obvious that Rui Ning doesn’t understand Korean, because she carries a blank expression when she’s obviously meant to answer back.

I’m irritated with her lack of concern and forcefully spit my answer out. “She’s greeting you, so don’t be rude and introduce yourself.” I say, frowning and looking away. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t gotten involved with her.

“Yi Xing, it’s all right – I don’t really mind,” Zi Ying softly reprimands me, before smiling sweetly at Rui Ning. “Sorry – I thought you were Korean. I’m Zi Ying, Tao’s older sister. Nice to meet you!” she tells Rui Ning in Chinese, who now understands her perfectly.

“It’s okay, I’m sorry for not saying anything before. I’m Xi Rui Ning, Yi Xing’s childhood friend.” She replies.

“Would you like to stay for lunch? Well it’s more like a late lunch, or early dinner, whichever you prefer.” Zi Ying laughs lightly, pointing to the pizzas. By now all the boys have gathered in the living room, watching the three of us with wide eyes.

Rui Ning is about to answer but I cut her off instead. “No – she’s not staying for dinner.” I answer, picking up Rui Ning’s bags and leaving them by the front door. “She’s got something else on, so she’s quite busy. Right, Rui Ning?” I grit my teeth and lie right through them.

I can tell Rui Ning’s quite taken aback by my answer, but agrees with me nonetheless. “Xingxing is righ--,”

“It’s Yi Xing. My name is Yi Xing.” I cut her off again.

“Sorry. I mean, Yi Xing is right. I just came by to pass him this.” Rui Ning replies, opening up her duffel and passing me a bright red envelope. Before I could even see what envelope meant, Rui Ning was saying her goodbyes and leaving the apartment.

“Well, that wasn’t weird at all,” Baek Hyun breaks the silence that Rui Ning left behind. “What’s the thing she passed to you?”

“You mean this?” I say, passing him the red envelope. “I don’t know, why don’t you open it?”

“But it’s for you, hyung,” Jong In says, taking the envelope from Baek Hyun (who was about to open it) and passing it back to me.

I wave my hands. “I don’t care; Baek Hyun can open it for me.” I say, attracting weird glances from the rest of the group. When I hear the ripping of paper, I look over and see another bright red card in Baek Hyun’s hands.

“What does it say? I don’t understand,” he says, passing the card to the nearest Chinese member, which was Lu Han.

“Oh, it’s a wedding invitation. That girl must be inviting Yi Xing to her wedding!” he adds excitedly, clapping his hands. I reach over and grab the invitation card, staring at it in shock.

“To: Mr. Zhang Yi Xing, his family and friends,

We, Heng Guo Yang (the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Heng Shi Meng) and Xi Rui Ning (only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Xi Wang Qin) are proud to announce our holy matrimony.

We would be honoured by your presence(s) to witness our tying of the knot on the 18^th of December 2012, at the Marquee, Chang Sha province. Temple service will be held at 5.30AM at the Ma Ling Tong temple, Chang Sha province.  

Please R.S.V.P. by the 18^th of October.

Gifts and monetary packets are most welcome in the building of our new home.”

I don’t have any words to say, especially not after reading the card. Zi Tao takes the card off me and reads it out loud, before Zi Ying translates it into Korean for the other boys to understand.

The first person to leave the little group is Kevin, who sighs when he passes by my chair. He grabs a pizza box and neatly arranges them on the dining table.

“C’mon the food is getting cold, let’s eat,” his deep voice rings in my ears, but I can’t seem to will my legs to move to the kitchen. All the boys are excited at the prospect of food, but my appetite has disappeared into the depths of the nearest black hole in space.

I quietly walk off to my room, but as I pass by the front door, I see a small note stuck underneath my shoe. Peering around, I move when I see no one looking at me.

“I’m staying at the Inter-Continental Hotel. I’ll be here til Saturday. I hope to talk to you before I leave.

-          Rui Ning.”

“You should see her. Give her the chance to properly explain things.” Kevin quietly tells me, before leaving me to walk off to my room.

~*~

I leave the apartment quietly when I feel bold enough to confront her. I had called the manager to drop me off at the hotel, under the disguise that my father had paid a surprise visit after learning that it was our break.

When I got to the reception counter, I asked to call Rui Ning’s room to inform her that I was here and to meet me in the V.I.P. room of the hotel restaurant. After thanking the man at the counter, I quietly make my way over to the restaurant to wait.

I didn’t have to wait long until Rui Ning turned up.  She was dressed casually in a flowy periwinkle coloured skirt and a simple camisole and cardigan. She still looks and behaves the same way. Sometimes what I don’t get is why I see her in such a bad light. Was it because she was the one who forcefully broke up with me? Or was it because she threw me out here with no one to talk to?

I’m not too sure myself.

“Before you talk, I just need to tell you this.” She starts, clenching her hands into fists. “I’m not for this marriage. It’s just something my parents feel will secure me for the future. They keep telling me that I’m not getting any younger, and that I need to find a good husband to support me. I am perfectly fine on my own. I run my own childcare centre, and I am making good money out of it. I think my future husband is after it and I know his true character. I don’t know why I’m telling you this, Yi Xing. I don’t know who else to talk to.”

There are tears streaming down her face and I’m frozen in my seat. What did I just hear?

“This is all arranged Yi Xing. Help me – I don’t want to go through this… I can’t do this to myself or my family. He’s going to eat up everything I have, even me! And when he’s done with me, he’ll eat up my parents too! I don’t know why my parents are doing this… He must’ve done something to them to make them think this way!”

“Wait, stop. Calm down.” I tell her, but am telling it more to myself instead. “You mean this is all arranged? It’s not mutual?”

Rui Ning nods while patting her face with a serviette. I lean back into my seat and scoff. This is a joke. How can they do this to such a pure, innocent girl? And to think I thought her parents were good people. I mean, do they not care for her?

When I look up, I’m suddenly looking into Rui Ning’s vulnerable eyes and in that instant, in that moment; I knew what I was meant to do. Zi Ying didn’t matter anymore. She was there because she reminded me so much of Rui Ning. So much of someone I had been hiding in my heart the whole entire time.

It’s not until 2 months later that Yi Xing finally decides to drop the bomb about Rui Ning moving to Korea. I’m not sure if the hardest part was listening to Yi Xing ramble on about how great Rui Ning was, or the fact that he told me that I reminded him of her. I didn’t know where to place my finger on and it was slowly biting me away, although I knew that it shouldn’t.

But I think the hardest part was hearing him say that I wasn’t needed in his life anymore. Not in that way, anyways. I wasn’t supposed to be phased by it, come on – he never really acted more than what he was meant to… but still; he gave signs of opportunity.

A knock on my door sends me reeling back from my thoughts. As the door opens, the laughter and chatter from outside is amplified momentarily, before it is shut close. Wu Fan is leaning his back against my small door, hands in his pockets, eyes looking for mine.

“Are you feeling all right?” he asks, not leaving his spot. I don’t know if I’m acting on my emotions, or that I’m just feeding what my heart wants, but I’m suddenly walking up to him at such a speed that I don’t have any time to think before I wrap my arms around him tightly, breathing in the warm, musky scent that I’m so familiar with.

The heart is deceitful and always making you act upon your impulses, but right now I feel there. That place that is more welcoming than home, or a soft, warm bed can do to you. It’s the place where you feel belonged, no matter what flaws you have, or mistakes you’ve made. It’s made me realise that no one else can give me this except for Wu Fan.

He stands up straight and pulls me off him. I look at him in confusion.

“Sorry, my belt was biting into my skin.” He says, pulling his pants up a little higher. The urge to giggle is very strong. “Hug me again,” he asks, taking my arms and wrapping it around his waist. “That’s more like it,” he sighs, resting his chin on my head and holding me close.

“Don’t be sad – I’m always here for you. I promise to work hard for you. I know it’s taken a while to realise it, but I’m going to do it. I’m going to be better than every single guy out there in the world. I want to show you that I’m the one for you.” He tells me, holding me at shoulder’s width.

He then reaches into his t-shirt and pulls out the silver chain resting on his neck and at the end dangles two silver rings. He takes it out and slips his ring onto his index finger, before taking mine and wearing it for me.

FML. This is actually ending LOL.

To all the people that commented, thank you :3 I'm going to personally reply to each of you on your personal wall :D