“He isn’t Chun Wu?” Ella reiterated and scratched her eyes, feeling a bit sleepy. “You mean?”

“Just take it as I didn’t say anything, okay?” Selina said. “But you’d have to come with me tomorrow morning.”

Ella was left speechless. She actually didn’t like the idea. One reason is because she planned to stay at home all day tomorrow, but she knew she’ll make an advanced plan to escape Selina’s wrath.

--

“Ella’s substitute,” Chun mocked. “What?”

“Tomorrow morning sharp, I’ll text her and you’ll meet her up,” Jiro said.

“Hey, hey,” Chun startled Jiro with a crease on his forehead, “I ain’t meeting up with someone I don’t know.”

“Yeah, sure,” Jiro looked annoyed. “I’ll be keeping on guard until you wake up tomorrow in the morning.”

--

The next morning…

“Ella/Chun!!!” both in different places, yet in different situations, Selina/Jiro yelled at the top of their lungs just because the latter is missing.

--

“Ahhh!” Ella stomped her foot on the ground upon reaching the park and noticed that she wasn’t wearing a pair of flip flops.

She looked real tired and you just couldn’t blame her, because she had to wake up at 5 in the morning just so she could escape Selina’s so-called plans for her. She didn’t bother brushing her hair right after she took a quick bath, neither did she still pick out on what she’ll wear. Thus, here, in the park, she found out that her footwear mismatched. On her left foot, she wore her dog-fur slippers, while on the other side, she wore a slipper.

So, as to calm herself, in one of the benches, she sat, completely disregarding the fact that someone just sat along with her at the same time.

Slowly, she turned to her right and found a pretty young man. She was still in a dreamy state, so she blinked a few times before realizing how stunningly gorgeous this man was beside her. The sun, perfect as it is made his cheeks look like they were sun-glowed. He is flawless, she thought, but couldn’t care less.

And then her eyes trailed upwards until her eyes met his and they both laughed with no particular reason at all.

“Hi,” the unknown man greeted her and she could only nod, knowing that she was still tired.

“You look troubled,” the young man, the almost-perfect young man spoke once again.

“Well,” she paused. “You do look troubled yourself, too.”

“If you don’t mind,” he approached. “You can share them with me and we’ll see if I could help. After yours, I’d have to share mine too, you agree?”

And then again, Ella just shook her head in approval and started with her not-so Cinderelly kind of story…

“You see, really, it isn’t much of a big deal, but…” she paused. “Ever since my friends told me to do this particular dare, my mind kind of always goes ballistic thinking about millions of things to happen to me. It all started out with that…” she paused again and doubted what she said. “Wait!” she exclaimed and messed up her disheveled hair, to start with. “Scratch that first paragraph; I think I said them wrongly.”

He could only nod his head in approval and chuckle a bit, thinking that she looked cute messing up her own hair.

“So, wait, let’s get to the main point,” she started yet again. “It’s just that… it may sound very lowly of me, but my friend wants me to meet some unknown guy, someone who I don’t even know,” and then she bit her lower lip and cupped her own cheeks.

“Then?” he acknowledged, noticing that it’s been a few minutes since she last talked.

“Okay,” she paused, “uh,” and then rolled her eyes, because she doesn’t know what to say next, “And I ran away and I’m not, in any way, interested in boys!” she exclaimed, that made him look startled.

“Then, are you…” he looked at her and rose up a brow, “you know.”

“I’m not yet finished,” Ella cut in. “I’m not, in any way and will never be interested in boys until my parents approve of it!” she exclaimed. “Yes, that’s it!”

“Isn’t it a little too harsh on your part?” he enquired. “I mean… what if you like or love the man and your parents don’t approve?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked and rose up a brow at him too.

“Nah,” he replied and continued on with his own problem, knowing that. “Anyway, I think I have the same problem here. Don’t get the right thing wrong, but out of all the things that you said, only the second part is it that I could relate to.”

“Which?”

“The meeting up with an unknown gal that my friend set up for me,” he confirmed.

“No connection at all?” she enquired.

“What do you mean?” he asked back.

“You don’t know anything about her, not even her number?” she asked. “She’s completely out of your league?”

“Uh, no,” he said. “At least, that’s what I think,” and then he fished out his cell phone from his pocket and scrolled down to the number contact under ‘mystery girl’.

“I think,” she rose up her pointer and brought it to the air, “I just think you should call her and really clarify who she is. I reckon somebody telling me before that you’ll never know ‘till you find out, so maybe, just maybe, you might as well try.”

“You sure?” he looked at her with both amusement and confusion, thinking over what she just said.

“You know, I have this thought that you’re thinking I’m weird just because of the attitude I showed you a while ago,” she said. “Pardon me, but that’s just how I am when I’ve just got up from bed.”

“No, really, it’s okay,” he said. “So, again, do you think I should really call the mystery girl?”

“Yup,” without second thoughts, Ella nodded and in no time, he put her number on screen, ready to press the call button.