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Aaron, Jiro, Wu Chun and Calvin pat themselves dry.

“Let’s just wait for the rain to stop.” Wu Chun points to the café in front of them. “Loser buys.”

“Oh you are going down man!” Jiro shouted out as he smirks. Aaron and Calvin shrug as they joined in; playing a quick game that took five seconds to decide the winner. “Rock, paper, scissors!” and before they knew it, they all showed rocks except for Calvin.

“NO WAY CHEATERS, YOU GANGED UP ON ME?!”

Calvin asked as they walked in, picking a random table to sit while Calvin crosses his arms, displeased. 

“You guys teamed up huh?”

“Believe what you want, we did no such thing to you. You just happen to lose at that point, don’t blame the game.”

Calvin rolls his head as he made his way over to the counter, ordering a bunch of random drinks for them.

.

.

“Let’s go!”

“Go where?”

Reen smiled as she drags her friends into a café. She sneaked a piece of paper out of pocket and sighed dreamingly. If her mother finds out that she snuck this piece of paper out of one of the candidate pile, she would be in heaps of trouble. But what could she do? She just has HAD to see him! So she had to do this discreetly.

As her friends knew what Reen dragged them out for, it could only mean one thing: it’s all for a guy.

“So who’s this guy anyway?”

“Yeah, who is this poor guy who caught your attention?”

“HEY! HE IS―See for yourselves!” Reen shows them the picture and the girls giggles. “Reen, I’m sorry to burst your bubble but this guy looks like a fake, he doesn’t look real to me...”

“NO WAY, THIS IS PRINCE CHARMING! I had to sneak this away from my mom since she didn’t allow me to have him.”

“Reen… There is no way Mr. Prefect is going to be here.”

The girls look at their surroundings and deeply sigh.

“No, it says that this is his go-to café.”

“People can change, their preferences can too! For an example, you said you didn’t like the wearing anything Vi Wu makes but now look, you are wearing it.”

“Have you guys not seen the Ultimate XII Goddess Collection from Vi Wu? C’mon, how can you not fall in love with it? Anyways, I believe in him, he will come right through these doors and―” Just then, “REEN! YOUR BAG!”

Reen got up to see a man holding her bag. “THIEF!”

Before the man got away, he bumped into someone holding a tray of hot drinks.

“I can’t forgive someone who resorts to crime; I’m going to call the cops.” He holds the man down and took his phone out while Aaron took the bag away from the man. “Cal, you should’ve taken this away from the guy first before making the call.”

The café’s manager quickly walks over to him, shaking Calvin’s hand. Aaron turns around to see a girl his age standing beside him so without hesitation, he toss her bag back at her. “THANK YOU FOR SAVING ME!” Aaron directs it to Cal. “She is thanking you.” He told him as Calvin smiled, “Your welcome!”

Aaron was about to walk back to his seat when the same girl steps in front of him. “Thank you for returning my bag back to me, I thought you were going to run out the door with it.” He laughs. “I didn’t do anything special. My buddy over there did the work so tell him.”

Reen stared at him in disbelief as he returned to his seat. She was hoping just maybe, he would recognize her but the more she spoke to him, it turns out that he didn’t know who she was. It didn’t sit well with her so she walks over to him and his group of friends.

“You don’t know who I am, it’s okay. I’m Reen Wu.”

She waited for him to get the hint  . . .

“So?”

Wu Chun sat back as Jiro punched him playfully on the arm, ‘how can you say that you her?’

“Hi, I’m Jiro.” Jiro introduced himself as well as introduced Wu Chun and Aaron to her. Then Calvin returned to the table and held his hand out, introducing himself once again to her and vice versa. “And I’m Calvin.”

“How did you know he was going to steal her bag?”

“I didn’t, he just happened to bump into me and tipped over the tray.” Calvin smirks, “along with your drinks! HA!”

“And the loser can become a hero!” Jiro calls out as Wu Chun looks around the café, there was people already talking about what a great deed a high schooler just did. “Great catch Cal. Don’t expect a gold medal now.”

“Tsk but… I am expecting front page spread on my heroism on tomorrow’s newspaper!”

“Heroism my .” Wu Chun called out as Cal laughs.

“Insulting a hero? I am going to report you!”

They laughed joyfully as Calvin scratches his head, walking back to the counter to order another set of drinks. Only to have the manager come forward; giving them free drinks on the house because of Calvin’s heroic act.

“See, I am a hero!” Calvin calls out as he smiles happily.

He picks up the tray of drinks and turn around to see Reen standing before him.

“What school do you guys go to?” She spoke out of curiosity.Calvin glanced at her uniform, just one look and he could tell that her uniform was made with high quality materials. To add, she didn’t look like someone who lived in this neighbourhood.

“Sheng Ying Academy.”

“Oh that school is our sister school! My friends and I go to S.Y.I Academy, what a coincidence!”

“S.Y.I Academy? Then you guys must be from influential families.”

“You can say that.”

“Why don’t you guys come join us, we are going to―” Just then, Jiro walks over to them and smiles, pointing to the window. “Sorry, this friend here needs to join us for practice. It was nice to meet you though, be careful on your way home girls.” The boys quickly say their byes and rushed out of the café with the drinks.

When the boys walks closer to the elementary school they went to, they could hear the whistle blow and the little kids came together to form a group in front of a lady who was smiling happily.

“Who is ready to start playing?”

Everyone yelled out happily, cheering each other on as the lady laughs. When she spotted the boys come running into their field, the kids caught it and cheered happily.

“Sorry we are a little late Miss. Cherry, we got caught up in something!”

“Yeah, Cal lost the game and brought us drinks.”

“These fools, I still believe they cheated! I lost on the first game, how ridiculous does that sounds?”

“At least you became a hero!”

Miss. Cherry just shakes her head, laughing as she brings the group together. “Alright Alright! Let’s start by splitting into two teams with two captains!” In a split second, the boys split themselves up. Aaron and Jiro high-fived each other and they did a group cheer altogether.

Wu Chun and Calvin ran around in a circle with their little troopers and chanted their team name loudly.

Miss Cherry smiles as she held the soccer ball out in the middle of the field, preparing the game.

Jiro and Wu Chun looks at each other, Aaron and Calvin tried psyching each other out and once the whistle blew, everyone spread themselves out and began playing.

“C’MON, C’MON!” Reen calls out as she ran over and hid herself behind a tree.

She applauded herself for being able to follow them up to this point. Right after they left the café, she didn’t know what possessed her to follow them so when she found out where she came to, she found herself chasing after them. Half of her was curios while the other half was excited, she hasn’t found this much excitement in a long time and to see herself exert half of her energy to follow them. It came to a surprise to see the boys playing soccer with a group of children. If her mother catches her, she would scream and shout if she ever discovered her daughter was in a place like this.

“You should’ve joined the track team! You run fast Reen!”

“Yeah Reen, you would’ve made the school proud! Anyways, why do you care so much about these boys anyways?” Her friends question her motive and all Reen did was shrug; she too herself has no idea as well.

“Well, they are pretty hot for a couple of guys, gotta give them credit for that.”

“You think so too?” Seeing how Reen responded so happily, her two friend’s laugh. “Yes, we do Miss. Reen~”

“WHOA!” Jiro calls time-out and the whistle blew, a child skid across the field and Aaron jumps in reflexively. He caught the child just in time and everyone stopped to see another hero.

“ARE YOU GUYS OKAY?”

“AARON GEGE, ARE YOU OKAY?”

“YOU ARE ALL YUCKY NOW!”

Aaron laughs it off as he helped the child up who was ready to start crying. Aaron bent down and smiled, patting the child’s head. “It’s okay, it’s just a game!”

“ARE YOU OKAY BUDDY?” Jiro yells out to him. “YEAH MAN, YOU’RE ALL YUCKY NOW!”

Wu Chun high-fives a little girl who said it first while Cal scratches his head. “Looks like is more than one hero today!”

Aaron walks over to the sidelines, standing next to Miss. Cherry. “No pain, no gain right?” She just laughs.

She noticed that the team are no longer fair, so she stops and looks at Jiro. “JIRO, DO YOU WANT TO SIT OUT OR DO YOU WANT TO GO HEAD ON WITH WU CHUN AND CAL?!”

Jiro smirks as he stretches. “WHO DO YOU TAKE ME FOR? I AM JIRO! BUT IF I WERE TO HAVE A CAPTAIN, I NOMINATE THIS LITTLE GUY AS OUR CAPTAIN!” Jiro patted the little boy who Aaron caught earlier. Aaron and Miss Cherry smiles widely as she look over and nods, “ALRIGHT, GET READY AND―”   

*Whistle!*

Reen eyes shot open, she wanted to run over to him and ask if he was okay but she remembered she followed them here. It would be extremely awkward to admit it out in the open so she held her hands together and hoped that he was fine. Her two friends could only smile, reassuring her that he was fine and he was fine. Reen let out a sigh of relief when she sees him comforting the child before walking over to the sideline.

“Don’t tell me, the guy you are falling for is the guy who just slid through the mud!”

“Whoa hold up, I thought you liked that Calvin guy, remember? He’s the one who saved you from that guy who almost stole your bag earlier!”

Reen shook her head and smiles. “…. I found him…”

“Who?” Her friends look at each other and gasped. “HIM!?!@?# $%^%~”

Reen nods happily as she turns around and watches the game from afar.

After silently watching the boys practice, she found her cellphone ringing.

“It’s my chauffeur; I promised him I would return to the café to pick me up.”

“Then let’s go, our parents are scary when they are mad.”

Reen had to agree, as much as she wants to stay longer, she knows that her mother can be difficult to handle if anyone finds out where she’s been so she forced herself to turn the other way and leave.

Aaron took off his shirt and tossed it aside, he reached into his bag to grab his sport jacket, zipping it up as he watches the game. “Heads up!” Aaron looks over and caught the water bottle Miss. Cherry threw over to him. “Thanks.”

“How’s that wound?”

“This is a small injury; there is no need to get so worked up about it.” Aaron caught her gaze and laughs. “It’s a different feeling~ We are all practicing everyday so it’s nice to play around like this!

“Then feel free to come anytime! Since these kids miss playing with you guys~” He laughs as he got up. “We’ll try.”

Miss. Cherry just laughed at his eagerness to get back into the game so she looks over at the game to see Jiro block Calvin as their little captain took a chance to shoot. “WOOOO! WOOOO! WE SCORED YEAHH!” Jiro high-fives the little boy.

Wu Chun laughs, bringing Jiro into his a headlock. “WHO TOLD YOU TO BLOCK ME HUH?!”

Aaron ran over to his teammates and drops down to the little boy, “you have potential little guy, how about you be captain for the entire game. I’ll back you up!”

“WOO WOO! LET’S GET THIS GAME STARTED!”

Miss. Cherry held up her arm and everyone spread out, full of energy despite how long they have been playing.

*Whistle*

.

.

.

Sheng Yi drops his stuff on the floor and the head butler immediately shook his head. Catching his signal, Sheng Yi rolled his eyes, walking back to pick up his things and gave it to the head butler.

“Happy?”

“Your father is waiting for your arrival.”

“What is it this time?”

Sheng Yi asked as he opens the door to see his father turn around, facing him with a happy smile on his face. Something tells him that whatever his father has for him, it reeks of poor judgement.

“You came back already? Welcome home son.”

“I’m home.”

Sheng Yi called out in a monotone; he sat down to see his father drop some papers in front of him. He picks it up to see one the mess he had made at the club. He gathers all the papers and it was all of his partying and incidents of bullying and pranks he ever done. “So what? I thought you didn’t give a rat’s about these things.”

“These papers came to me this morning. I don’t care what you do outside. It’s your business but keep in mind that you are still my son. So I am willing to strike a deal with you since your hobbies are starting to get out of hand.”

“So in other words if I keep a clean record, you’ll let me do what I want?”

“There are conditions.”

Of course there is.

“What conditions?”

“As long as you do not tarnish my rep and yours, I will stand by your wishes. I can turn on a blind eye to whatever you wish for but when the time comes, you have to heed to my one request.”

Sheng Yi leans back to stretch his leg on top of the table, testing his father’s terms. If he never built the terms, he would never allow him such inappropriate behaviour he was doing. Seeing how determined his father was, Sheng Yi crosses his arms. One thing was true about his father; he is a man of his words.

“I’m giving you a clean break Sheng Yi.”

“And what do you have to gain from this?”

“Your future.”

He was expecting more.

“My future? What does this have to do with my future?”

“You’ll know when the time comes. So do we have a deal?”

Sheng Yi stares down at the papers and clicked his tongue. He hated being pushed to a corner; it was like having all the weapons at his disposal and not using a single one.

“First on the list, whatever you see on these papers will be erased from your records. You are going to start clean so begin acting the part.”

“Is there any changes to my inheritance?”

“For now, nothing has been made.”

“Then I’ll excuse myself now.”

Sheng Yi went up to his room to change out of his school uniform. He tosses it to the side and grabs a change of clothes, abandoning his good student cover to revert back to his normal, troublemaker self. He made one last check and walks out of the house.

When the door closed behind Sheng Yi, the head butler looks over to Mr. Qiu to see him examining a document.

“You didn’t give it to him?” Mr. Qiu put the paper back into the envelope and slips it into his desk. “He’ll know when the time comes.” He looks out the window to see his son getting in the car. Erasing any records of his son’s ill behaviour was the first step to clearing a path; for his future. “One step at a time, let’s just take it one step at a time.”

.

.

.

Sheng Yi gently drops the flowers he brought. If he was any younger, he would’ve cried but now that he is older, he has a little more self-control but it took a lot to gather his strength to come to the cemetery. On the side, he knew someone came by earlier since the flowers looked like they were brought recently. ‘It was either his father or the head butler.’ Whoever came is not important, to Sheng Yi, as long as he remembers, that is all it matters. “Mom, I have come to visit you.”

“Father is still the same. Why does he always do this to me? Why am I in this position? Is it because he is a prime minister and I am his son? These are all titles; I have nothing to do with it other than the fact that he… he is my father. That is what you would say to me. He is my father and I should listen him. I’m not mad at him, I want to be furious but I could only go so far…”

Sheng Yi knew that this was place was the only place for him to calm down and pour his doubts and troubles openly. No one will hear him or threaten him, it puts him at ease.

“Anyway I have to get going. Whenever I have time, I’ll come back.”

He looks at her picture on the tombstone for a moment before turning around and walking to his car.

He glances over his shoulder to see someone at the cemetery. Curious got the best of him when he stepped out of the car and made his way over.

“Hello? Hi, I just happen to past by and its late. I was just wondering if―” Sheng Yi softly inquired as he reaches over to touch her and he pull back, the girl got up and looked at her cellphone at the time. “OH NO!” She sneezes and quickly grabbed all her stuff but when she felt someone grab her arm, she froze. Instinctively, she grabs her bag and hit the person who was holding her.

“STOP, STOP! YO STOP NOW! I AM ONLY TRYING TO HELP.” She turns around to see the one boy the entire school is raving about, Qiu-Sheng-Yi.

“YOU! What are you doing here? And at this hour too?!”

“What about you, what are you doing here so late?”

“Oh please, this is a cemetery, what else would you do here?”

Sheng Yi laughs, he just answered his question indirectly.

“I’ll give you a ride back home, it’s late and the buses are probably slacking.”

“It’s okay; I can get home just fine.”

“No one has ever declined my offer and here you’re declining my offer when I am just trying to be a nice guy, I don’t bite.”

“It’s okay, I can take the bus.” She sneezes and his eye brow arched. “I don’t take no for an answer but nice try though.”

Sheng Yi grabs her bags and threw it into his car, then he opened the door for her and waited for her to get in. “C’mon, your parents will be worried.” Gui just stares at him, wondering if he put a locating device on her somewhere. They only met twice and he is already dropping his formalities.

The longer he stood waiting for her to get in, he thought he was going to drag her into his car but when he saw her walking towards him, he smiles.

This will be the only night he will give in to his angel-self. Looking back, he wondered why he stopped and decided to offer someone a ride. He normally doesn’t offer any rides to anyone. This moment will repeat in his mind, he will question himself in hopes that the more he ponders about it, the question will pop up.

“Where do you live?”

“Just drop me off here.”

“Here?” Gui gave him the look and he complied. “You live here?”

“I just have to walk a couple of steps. But yes, this is where I live.” Gui reaches over to take her things. “Thank you for giving me a ride.”

“Hold on.” While he was driving, he can’t help but wonder if he was right. So he climbs over to touch her forehead. Gui’s eyes widen as she felt his hands on her forehead. “You don’t look so well, should I bring you to the clinic instead?”

Shocked by his sudden touch, she jumps out of the car, shaking her head.

“N―N―No! It’s ok―okay! Thank y―you for the ride!” He just looks at her and she turns around. “Well t―then, b―bye!”

As he watches her leave in a hurry, his lips curl into a smile. Maybe the thought of them being friends won’t be such a bad thing. He thought as he smoothly drives out of the parking space.

Coincidentally, when Sheng Yi pulls out of the driveway, Aaron appears. He adjusts his backpack and smiles. Who knew playing with kids would be so tiring? He has been stretching for the past hour and he still felt tired. I just need sleep! With that mindset, he opens the doors to the apartment building to see someone leaning against the wall.

“Miss are you okay?” She nods but he was still skeptical. “Are you sur―”

Just as she was about to collapse, he caught her in time. “Miss are you okay? Miss?” He asks as he lifts her head and his eyes widen, “Emma… Emm―Wu Ying Jie…” He whispers her real name softly. When he said her name, it seemed to roll of his tongue smoothly. She slowly opened her eyes and smiles, “…Dad…?”

‘Dad?’

Without thinking, he quickly carried but just as he was about to walk out the doors, she shook her head.

“I don’t… want… to… go…”

“We need to get to a clinic.”

“No… I don’t want to… Just…. Home… Let’s go home…”

Since when do patients get to pick and choose where they go? Aaron knew she doesn’t like the smell of hospitals but who has time to stand and argue? So he abandon his original plan as he press the elevator, hoping it would come to him fast. After watching the numbers reach their floor, Aaron quickly walks into the elevator and presses their level. He turn to his side and smiles to an elderly couple who was eyeing him.

“Your girlfriend?” Aaron doesn’t know how to respond to their question so he just smiles. Once the elevator doors opens, he quickly bid the elderly couple and ran to their door. He placed her down to reach for the keys but when he heard someone coming out of his house; he bent down to carry her down the hallway. When they were safe, he helps her down while he sneaks a look. ‘Who’s in my house?!’

“Geez, what kind of house runs out of vegetables? Now I have to go and buy some!”

Aaron deeply sighed, it was his dad.

Once his dad walks into the elevator, he bends down and carries Ying Jie over to the front door. 

‘Man, I am glad Coach pushed us hard on his exercises!’ He pushed the key in and walks into her house, locating her bedroom.

‘Man, Aaron! What did you get yourself into? You sure have guts!’ He continues to scold himself as he begins going through her things, looking for medicine.

Unknowingly, he opened the drawer that was next to her bed and closed it seeing that no bottles of medicine was there but just when he was about to leave the room, he stops. He walks back to her drawer and opened it once more. There it was, it wasn’t the medicine he was trying to find… but it was something else….

Flashback

Grandpa Yan walked back to his grandson, putting him on his lap as he dangled the pendent in front of him. The little Yan Ya Lun stared at the silver chain; the pendent was glass, a glass clock.

“What is this?”

He shook his head as the glass pendent glisten in the sun. Grandpa Yan laughed loudly, placing his grandson on the floor as he walked over to the clock he was working on. Ya Lun smiled as he looked up his grandpa. “When my friend and I were making it, we decided to take it apart and pass it down to our grandchildren. And here I am, passing this glass clock over to you.”

“Why?”

“When you grow up, find the person who the other parts.”

End of Flashback

“I found them Grandpa... I found it.” He looks over at Gui and closes his eyes. “… It has been you, all along…”

AUTHORS NOTES:

phew, what a long chapther hey?