“It’s been so long since you’ve last hung out with us!” Meiyun, one of the close friends Meiqi has had since her middle school days, exclaims as the two of them walks down a busy shopping district on a weekday evening.

Meiqi merely smiles in response.

“It’s crazy. You work in the afternoon for six days a week, and evening dance classes for two of those days. You call this a holiday?” Meiyun continues rambling.

“Hey, I’m better than you lazy asses,” Meiqi chuckles after her own comment.

“I’m lazy? Well I tell you now what I've been accomplishing!” Meiyun raises her voice, as well as her heels to stand on the tips of her toes, but that does not make her look any fiercer. Meiqi cracks up at the behaviour, a common habit of the shorter girl.

“Well, I’ve missed this,” Meiqi, still laughing, lightly pats Meiyun’s head.

“So how’s working so far?” the third friend in the trio, Chaoyue, asks unknowingly. “And dancing, right? You’re paying your for classes with the money earned right?”

Meiqi nods, “It’s been amazing so far. I can’t believe we only have another month left,” Meiqi laughs.

“You’re actually enjoying it,” Chaoyue replies with slight surprise. “I mean, it’d be a nice experience, but you’ve been doing this for three months, aren’t you tired?”

“I like going to work,” Meiqi says as an immediate response. She nods after hearing her own words, agreeing wholeheartedly, all the more when Xuanyi appears in her mind as she remembers her current motive to continue working. A smile creeps on her lips and her cheeks turn red without her knowing at the thought of Xuanyi.

“Woah there, Meiqi, look at that smile,” Meiyun pokes Meiqi’s cheeks, and only then does she realise that her face is warming up.

“Stop it,” Meiqi snaps and tilts her head away, lightly glaring at Meiyun.

“You can’t just be doing this for yourself, can you?” Chaoyue poses a question that throws Meiqi off. Just how obvious can she be, or do her friends really know her that well after six years?

When Meiqi doesn’t answer, she earns a triumphant statement from Meiyun which irks her (as usual).

“I knew it! Who is it? A coworker? Senior? A regular customer?” Meiyun stops when Meiqi’s footsteps stop, for she knows she’s hit jackpot.

“A lucky regular customer who now has Meiqi’s heart,” Chaoyue joins in the tease.

Meiqi sighs and shakes her head at her two friends, to which they laugh their heads off.

“Well it’s alright, you know,” Chaoyue says next, “to like someone.”

“Seriously, stop,” Meiqi brings her palms to her face. “I can’t be liking her. I don’t even know who she is,” Meiqi explains and sighs once again.

“That’s completely fine!” Meiyun reassures Meiqi, to her surprise, since it’s something she’d not usually expect from this friend of hers. “There are just times when seeing someone every day that you don’t even know just brightens up your life. Even just by the looking at them, it does make your heart flutter, doesn’t it? And that’s actually completely fine, it’s not like we’re creating any trouble. Even if you end up falling in love, that’s not a crime either.”

“You sound experienced. Has that happened to you before?” Meiqi replies with a tease, hiding her gratitude and relief from the words she has just heard. Meiyun’s words click in her mind like sound judgement- in fact not,hing has made better sense to Meiqi ever since her first encounter with Xuanyi, the moment when she’s first experienced the butterflies in her stomach.

“Can’t you thank me like a normal human being?” Chaoyue cracks up watching Meiyun snap in return.

The next day Xuanyi returns, as usual, and Meiqi delightedly welcomes her with an overjoyed smile that makes Xuanyi guilty. She’s been spending the past week brooding over how she’s going to break the news to Meiqi, and now it seems even more impossible after witnessing Meiqi’s face lighting up as a sun seeping from behind the clouds upon her arrival- an act that melts her heart all the time.

“I won’t be needing a drink today,” Xuanyi says, to which Meiqi tilts her head in confusion, yet another behaviour of Meiqi that Xuanyi finds extremely adorable.

“I won’t be coming anymore since the summer holidays are beginning next week,” Xuanyi declares after a deep breath.

Meiqi stands at the counter motionlessly with a hardened expression. What about the summer story? Meiqi feels pathetic and amused at her thoughts, but she knows she’s felt her heart shatter.

“I’m sorry about that,” Xuanyi must have noticed the way Meiqi has received the news, for Meiqi sees how apologetic Xuanyi’s expression now is. “I figured I could really get a break from caffeine now that I don’t have lessons or specifically, late classes to stay awake for,” she explains, “but let’s meet elsewhere! Should we?”

“Really?” Meiqi is more stunned now by the suggestion that follows. Meeting up and going out with Xuanyi? Meiqi subtly pinches the side of her thigh. She feels the sting; it’s for real, Meiqi marvels.

“Do you want my number?” Xuanyi asks next.

“What?” Meiqi blurts, unsure of what her ears are hearing.

“Come on,” Xuanyi chuckles at Meiqi’s clumsiness. “If not, I want yours,” Xuanyi fishes her mobile phone from the bag slung by her side, spends a while on it and hands it over to Meiqi with the screen on “Add New Contact”.

Meiqi’s hand is trembling as she keys in her mobile number in disbelief. Xuanyi remains tickled by Meiqi, stifling a giggle.

“But why?” Meiqi asks, still bemused, when she hands the phone back to Xuanyi.

“Because you’re cute,” Xuanyi decides to let the playful reply emerge from her lips, but she knows she means it. Xuanyi feels like she knows where her feelings are directed to, but decides to leave the concern for later. “Because we’re friends now and summer holidays should be spent with friends,” she adds next with a wink.

Meiqi bursts into laughter seeing the wink, and Xuanyi is relieved that the former is now more relaxed, worried that her approach may have alarmed Meiqi.

“Yes, let’s,” Meiqi smiles, her eyes sparkling in excitement for the summer ahead, as she reaches for the mobile phone in her pocket and requests for the same.

Her eyes trail Xuanyi’s face as Xuanyi keys in her number on Meiqi’s phone. A small smile creeps on Meiqi’s lips as she subconsciously cheers up just by looking at Xuanyi.

Meiqi doesn’t realise how Xuanyi’s mere presence makes her feel over the moon, nor how much the exchange of numbers has made her day, but she continues the rest of the day as if she’s earned a million-dollar lottery ticket, as if everything in the world is in her favour that even the sun becomes her favourite.

Xuanyi wakes up every day excitedly, eagerly checking on her mobile phone once she’s up in the morning. Dismayed each time, Xuanyi carries hope and remains patient.

Until Xuanyi’s fingers are beginning to itch.

Just why hasn’t Meiqi texted her yet? Xuanyi wonders, troubled. She rolls in her bed for a while before deciding it’s pointless. With a frown, she gets up from her bed to begin her day.

“Morning!” she is greeted by her roommate, Fu Jing, whose belongings are sprawled over the floor with a huge suitcase open up in the middle. Xuanyi casually finds her way through whilst returning the morning salutation.

“Right, you’re returning tomorrow right?” Xuanyi rubs her eyes while asking.

“Today,” Fu Jing shakes her head and laughs in response.

“Right, what date is it today?” Xuanyi scratches the back of her head.

“It’s the 25th,” Fu Jing plainly answers while arranging the items in her suitcase.

“Right,” Xuanyi mumbles and looks down, plopping herself down on the sofa. Wait, that’s a week of not hearing from Meiqi! Heavily disappointed, Xuanyi lets out a grumble.

A confused Fu Jing looks up and narrows her eyebrows at Xuanyi. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much,” Xuanyi mutters, but Fu Jing can still identify the way she’s glaring at her mobile phone.

“You sure?” Fu Jing chuckles.

“Yeah,” Xuanyi grunts, before returning to her bed. In a fit of frustration, Xuanyi tosses her phone at her bed and let herself fall into the bed.

Wait, why am I so worked up over this? Xuanyi questions herself.

Her eyes dart across every corner in the ceiling of the room. A following question pops up next: Could I be into her?

Xuanyi’s jaw drops. Immediately burying her face in her pillow, Xuanyi violently kicks the air and squeezes the sheets beneath her.

“I don’t even know what kind of person she is,” Xuanyi mumbles and releases a huff, pouting as she ponders.

Then let’s find out! Something tells her excitedly at the back of her mind. Xuanyi reaches for her mobile phone again and proceeds to open a chat with Meiqi. Part of her tells her in hopelessness that Xuanyi is merely making a drama in her mind, but Xuanyi finds the fun in it and decides to follow through.

[Hey, when would you be free?] Xuanyi types as she lets the excitement take her over, not bothered anymore that it doesn’t make any more sense for her to be all over someone she has not spoken over ten minutes with. When she hits the ‘Send’ icon, Xuanyi rolls in her bed as her mind is clouded by thoughts of the clumsy yet kind-hearted part-timer, as Xuanyi chooses to think of her from their minimal interactions.