When Ying Jie woke up the following Monday, she felt as if someone finally understood her. Aaron had gone with her to the two places where she was most emotional, and he still stayed by her side. Therefore, she decided to write or poem. Or… At least to try writing one. She found her old, black notebook in her bag, and looked at it for a while. The pages had started to turn a bit yellow, though she was uncertain if it was because of an old age, or the influence of nicotine. It still had a few very ugly coffee spots on it, but that was what gave it its special charm; the reason she loved it. But what should she write about?
She could write about how her beloved bittersweet coffee medicated her soul. Or she could write about shallowness? Maybe she should write about the sadness and anger her father made her feel, when he didn’t accept who she was… How much she liked smoking? Or how little she cared about what everyone else though?
For some reason, none of her old topics made her feel instant inspiration. Instead, she felt as if she was trying too hard. They could all be categorized in three categories; cheesy, childish and completely dumb. Or as she usually called those three things; CCCD.
If she just could come up with something interesting and new… Something inspired… Something unique… And why in the world did Aaron’s face keep on appearing in her head? It wasn’t like the way his beautiful hair that kept falling down in his almost black, mysterious eyes, and his soft, red lips, or his gentle and calm voice could make a poem…
“Ying Jie? Ying Jie, breakfast is ready… Wong made eggs and bacon today” she heard Aaron’s voice say behind her. Speaking of the devil…
“Oh, no thank you; I’m not much of a breakfast-eater… I’m never really hungry in the morning, you see” she forced a smile to appear on her face; nothing was going according to the plan. Where was her inspiration?! “But a cup of coffee would do wonders, though… I prefer to drink it black” she added, and started to braid her long, dark brown hair. Aaron quickly kissed her on the cheek.
“Shall happen, princess” he smirked, and started tickling her. She laughed.
“Stop it - stop it - stop it - stop it” she repeated, without really meaning it. Of course Aaron didn’t stop; no one ever stopped when they were prayed to stop, when it came to tickling.
“I won’t” he smirked, and continued. “Not until you say the magic word, at least…”
“Please! I beg you! Mercy!” she laughed, but nothing happened. “Alakazam?” and he stopped.
“How in the world did you guess that? It took Hebe half an hour… How in the world did I end up with a girlfriend, with a mind as twisted as my own?!” Aaron faked a blaming look on his face, and Ying Jie laughed loudly.
“Well, at least I’m not as childish as you… And how in the world did Hebe manage to think straight, after being tickled for hour?!” Ying Jie asked in vain. She honestly wasn’t considered a huge fan of Hebe, but if she had been thinking straight after half an hour of tickling, Ying Jie couldn’t help but admire her a little bit. Or more than a little…
“Well, not exactly tickling…. But… something else… as bad as tickling…” Aaron’s voice turned lower and lower for every word he said, and Ying Jie smirked.
“Oh… I see, Casanova. I see that I’m totally the one with a twisted mind” she smirked.
“You…” he just said. Then he gathered her arms, and pinned her up against the wall. Only for fun, of course. “What are you gonna do now?” he smirked.
“Stay calm for a while to trick you, and then scream, so your workers will think of you as a bigger ert than they ever thought you were” Ying Jie raised an eyebrow and smirked at him; he had lost. He even knew it already, and let her go.
“You win, I guess” he smiled, and quickly kissed her. Then it knocked on the door. Less than a second after, a maid entered the room.
“Here’s your coffee, miss…” she smiled, while placing a perfectly decorated teacup on the table next to Aaron and Ying Jie. Though it was a teacup, the contents of it were not to mistake; just the smell made it very clear. Coffee. Perfect, black coffee. “Oh, and your school uniform washed and dried too… Young Master, I would recommend you to leave the room while Miss Wu is changing; there’s less than half an hour until you should be at school…” the maid said. Ying Jie looked as if it was obvious that he was going to leave, while Aaron just smirked.
“That’s a very good idea… Thank you, Loretta” he said, while leaving the room. Ying Jie was baffled for a moment, but then she started getting herself together and dress. Luckily she didn’t wear more makeup than black eyeliner, and a thin layer of mascara on schooldays; she didn’t have to spend too much time on her look. She tied her black doctor Martens boots, and walked out to Aaron, who was also dressed in his school uniform.
“So… I’m the new one here; how do you go to school?” Ying Jie asked, looking curios.
“I drive of course… Isn’t that the only way, when school is so relatively far away?” Aaron asked, looking at her as if she was crazy. She felt a little weird about the way that he eyed her.
“Of course not… Well, you may find it strange as I have money too, but the subway is a great way of getting to school” she smirked. “Of course I get that you’re scared of getting dirty; there’s a few weird types on it, but that’s what makes it so interesting.” She found a package of cigarettes from her pocket. “Am I allowed to smoke in the house?”
“Of course you are…” Aaron said, looking skeptically at the black lighter she fished out of her pocket right after his reply. “But you ride the subject? Seriously? That’s kind of… Not what I imagined” she chose his words carefully, afraid of her reaction if he said something wrong. He didn’t exactly approve of the subway as a real transportation form. Actually long from.
“Oh, you have a lot to learn, Young Master” Ying Jie said, while blowing out smoke of . Aaron coughed a little, but she didn’t notice it. “Finally… I haven’t smoked in two days!” she exclaimed; she was very addicted.
“Oh, so I have a lot to learn, my odd little girlfriend” Aaron said, pulling her for a kiss.
“Oh, trust me; you don’t want to kiss me when I’m smoking” Ying Jie said, raising one perfect eyebrow. She blew out smoke again, and looked thrilled.
“Which is exactly why you should quit, if not for your health…” Aaron said, sighing deeply; he knew that this one was lost before it was even started. It was a stupid subject to bring up, but he couldn’t help but to worry about her. Smoking was dangerous, and it was a stupid risk to take.
“That’s much easier said than done… Trust me, if stopping to smoke was easy, everyone would do it.” Ying Jie looked at him with clear annoyance in her eyes. “But of course you don’t wanna believe that; you probably think it’s something to keep up my tortured soul-poet image, don’t you? If that’s the case, you wouldn’t be the first one… Hebe once said it very directly to me. She’s very straightforward, your ex girlfriend.”

At school everything went surprisingly well. No one made evil comments about Ying Jie to her face, and she was actually rather happy. She was even invited to eat lunch with some of her classmates. Of course she rejected; she was never really good at forgiving, but she still enjoyed the day. The most surprising thing, though, was that neither her father nor Jennifer showed up to find her. At lunch, she was extremely happy to see Aaron again.
“Hey sweetheart… So, how was your day?” he asked her, while kissing her on the forehead.
“Terrible; I’ve been missing you so, so, so much!” she said, while looking up at him with a smile on her face. “So… How was your day, apart from the obvious absence of me in your presence?”
“Well, I’ve obviously been thinking a lot of you, and then I’ve had some classes, obviously…” Aaron smirked. “But everything is good now; you’re here…”
“Yeah, I am…” Ying Jie smiled, and took a bite of her fresh sandwich; she loved Aaron’s chef’s cooking!

What the couple didn’t know was that someone was watching them closely. Someone who for once was all alone; her ”friends” wanted nothing to do with her, when they found out that Aaron and Ying Jie were hanging out. Instead, they were trying to persuade Ying Jie to become one of them. Like it would ever happen.
Then girl was listening intensely to their conversation, while straightening out her uniform skirt. While sitting all alone, she thought about how stupid the standards in her circle were. It didn’t matter than Aaron had dumped her, but now that he had gotten a new girlfriend, everyone was tripping to hang out with this girl.
Hebe frowned a little when she realized what was going on. No one threatened her social position, no matter the cause. Especially not girls like Wu Ying Jie; who would ever pick her over Hebe?
Well, apart from Aaron… No one.
Hebe walked determinedly towards the table of Aaron and Ying Jie, with a sugar sweet smile on her face. She looked fakely happy, but she did that pretty often.
“Hebe? What are you doing here?” Aaron asked Hebe, looking like a question mark.
“So, I guess that rumors are true… You guys are getting pretty serious, aren’t you?” Hebe asked, looking at Ying Jie. “I’m Hebe Tian – which you know already.” Hebe made a weird nod with her head.
“Well, hello Hebe… Nice to meet you, I guess, though I don’t really get the formal stuff…” Ying Jie didn’t exactly look comfortable, but she didn’t want to reject Hebe directly in front of Aaron; that would be romantic suicide, as much as Hebe was committing social suicide by talking to her.
“So… What do you like to do in your free time? Do you have any particular interests? I mean… Apart from writing poems of course…” Hebe smiled.
“Not really… I’m not that into doing physical stuff, and I cannot play an instrument… Writing is pretty much the only thing I’m good at…” Ying shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, we could form a band, the three of us… I mean, no one wants to talk to me anymore, and the talent show is coming up, and if you can write then you could probably put together some pretty great lyrics… And like, almost everyone can learn how to sing, so you could be our lead singer, and I could sing like, back up and play the drums, and Aaron could like, play the piano… And I pretty much think that Jiro can be persuaded into playing the guitar for us – Jiro is easy to talk into things.” Hebe looked so excited that Ying Jie didn’t have the heart to turn her down; now her weird and eccentric poems would become weird and eccentric songs… Given that Jiro could be persuaded.
“Sure… But we’d need a name…” Ying Jie looked like she was thinking.
“What about… Well, let’s say… What about calling us, like, Merlin’s angels?” Hebe shrugged while asking, clearly knowing that it wasn’t very good.
“I was thinking… Social suicide.”