CHAPTER 6: Taking The First Step

“AWWW, WHY ARE YOU SOO CUTE?!” Gui squealed as she picked a puppy up and held it gently. “Who told you to be sooo cute?!” Gui questioned the puppy as she smiled. Roof!

Gui’s eyes widen, “DID YOU HEAR THAT? HE REPLIED TO ME! AWW, YOU ARE SOOO ADORABLE!” Gui continue to squeal as the puppy stick out his tongue when Gui scratched his chin, roof!

Aaron watch from afar, observing their close interactions.

If he knew he would be stuck with dogs, he would’ve went over to the kitten section but he didn’t want to ruin Cal’s first date so he did a series of mental preparations to prepare him but all it did was  backfired on him once the dogs and puppies appear his line of sight.

Gui pause and turn around to face the anxious looking Aaron Yan who hasn’t said a word since they got to the dog and puppies section. She looked down at the puppy in her arms and walked over to him. With each step she took, he took a step back.

“Don’t tell me the Aaron Yan is scared of dogs.” Aaron shook his head, strongly disagreeing. “Then would you mind holding him?”

When Gui was about to hand the puppy over to him, the puppy responded by barking loudly at Aaron which caused him to step back. Caught by surprise, Gui giggled as she kept the puppy in her arms.

“She likes you.”

“He likes me.” Gui corrected him as she look over to Calvin and Genie interacting with the kittens. “It looks like Calvin and Genie are having fun over there.” Aaron look over to see Calvin and Genie waving at them, Aaron and Gui smiled as they waved back.

“Yeah, they are having a blast over there.”

“Of course, Genie is a cat-lover so he has nothing to worry about.” Gui glance at Aaron who cleared his throat, still standing away from the dogs and puppies. “Look,” Aaron look over to see Gui Gui pointing to the dogs. “What?”

“They want someone to love them.” Gui said as she tried to bring Aaron closer to the dogs but no matter how hard she tried, she can’t get him even an inch closer. Then the questions rises, “Are you scared of animals?”

“Me? Scared, no.”

“Then why are you standing so far away from them?”

“I like my space, my large, big space.”

“That’s not a good reason to be standing so far away. Look,” Gui held the puppy up and pouted. “They need our love.”

“I just don’t want to infect them.”

“Infect them? Are you sick?” Gui put the puppy down in its’ bin and went over to touch his forehead but he caught her wrist. “If you’re sick, I need to check your temperature.”

“Don’t touch me.”

“But if you’re sick, you need to let me check your tempera–”

“No. Just go back to the puppies.”

“Stop being stubborn.”

“Just go back to the puppies.”

“Why don’t you want me to check your temperature?” Gui tried to escape his grip but he didn’t budge. “Give me a good reason why.”

“Because...” He began, she repeated. “Because?”

“Your hands....” Again, she repeated. “My hands?”

He cleared his throat. “It is because your...”

“It is because my...?” Gui spread her hand out and there was nothing wrong with it. Fed up, Aaron stared at her.

“It is because you touched those puppies with your hands, you need to go wash your hands before you can touch me.”

“WHAT?! THAT’S IT?!”

“Yes, you need to wash your hands.”

“But these puppies are clean!”

“No they are not.”

“Yes they are.”

“Fine, let’s ask someone then.”

Aaron called one employee who was randomly passing by. “Hey, it’s safe to wash your hands before touching someone right?”

The employee started at Gui and Aaron before answering his question.

“Yes, we always wash our hands whenever dealing with pets but that should be a common thing. Always wash our hands before and after, to ensure that we are being safe and maintain our health.”

“Thank you.” Gui said as the employee left and Aaron instantly shot her his victory dance. “I told you.”

Gui glanced at him for a while before going around, petting puppy after puppy and dog after dog. While Aaron fill their bucket with dog food. “Eat up.” He said to each and every dog he passes.

While Aaron did that, Gui slowly look up to see him walk through each of their buckets, filling it up with dog food.

‘Was I wrong to think he wouldn’t care?’ Gui wondered as she looked down to see the big dog she was petting. Roof!

Gui’s smile instantly got bigger as she watch the dog’s tongue stick out. “Hand.” In response, the dog lifted his paw and place it on Gui’s hand. “Do you want to be friends with me?” Roof!

“Really?!” Roof!

“You are soo cute!” Roof!

While Gui kept herself busy with her new friend, Aaron caught a glimpse of Ying Jie leaning in to rub their noses together. Roof! Gui laughed as she stared at the dog who kept wagging his tail. A sign that he was happy.

“Who would abandon you? You are so cutee...” She glanced at his collar for his tag. “Snowball.” Gui whispered as she smiled, scratching the dog’s chin. “Who would abandon snowflake like this?”

“Snowball. Her name is snowball.” Aaron came over as he look at Snowball, petting her head. Roof! “Seriously, you just called out his name awhile ago and you mistake it for snowflake?”

Flashback

Genie ran over to Aaron, dropping the glasses in his hands.

She then smiled over to him as he stared at Genie’s sudden upbeat mood, “we cannot erase scars from the past so in order to get rid of them, you need to take tiny steps to get them healed. Gui is my friend who has low self-esteem, help her get rid of that scar and rebuild her self-esteem.”

Genie smiled as she ran over to Xiao Yu who was flying with Calvin and Jiro.

Rebuild her self-esteem? Where does he start?

End of Flashback

Gui interrupted his thoughts as she snapped him back into reality.

“I went overboard, I tend to do that when I am in an uncomfortable situation but that doesn’t mean that I hate being around you. I just hate being around players, that’s all. Just like this, we can talk and get to know each other.” Gui said as she scratch the dog’s chin. Roof!

“See, even snowball agrees with me!” Roof!

“Let’s ditch this place.” Aaron spoke up. “I hate being a third-wheeler so I’m thinking of ditching this place. Calvin loves to volunteer so it became his habit to make volunteer work his idea of dates, I bet no one would do that on their first date. But sure enough, Cal is doing it.”

“You seem to know your friends really well.”

“We grew up together. Our families are close so we got to know each other.”

Aaron responded as he took a piece of paper and start writing something before handing it to one of the employees.

“Can you give this paper to the two people in the cat and kitty room?” The employee blushed as she took the paper and agreed.

When she left, Gui chuckled as she glance over to Aaron.

“What?”

“It just occurred to me that maybe I don’t know you well enough, Aaron Yan.”

“How so?”

“I’m just thinking, why did my parent’s put me with someone whose personality is completely opposite from mine, how do we fit into everything? Basically, this is one B-I-G mess.”

Aaron smirked, “I told my parents once that I want someone who is fun with no strings attached but instead, they put me in a penthouse with a girl who is everything but fun. Like you, I am questioning my families match-making skills. Any who, you know what?”

“Mhmm?”

“I think these 6 months will be fun, don’t you think so?”

“We’ll see.” Gui pushed the rim of her glasses up.

“Anyways we should go, I don’t like standing here. It feels like I am disturbing their date.”

“I agree.” Gui nodded as she slowly followed him out of the animal shelter.

Gui didn’t know why she choose to follow him out of there, was it because she didn’t want to be the third-wheel? But it can’t be considered a third-wheel when Aaron was there with her? So why did she go out?

Calvin and Genie was completely absorbed with their date that they didn’t realize someone coming in.

The female employee tapped Calvin on the back and he instantly turn around to greet her.

“A man earlier said to give this to you.”

“A man?” Calvin look over to Genie who t