Waiting for Liu Junyi at the hospital lobby was Jinhai, who stood with the sun gently hitting his tan face. He had his phone in his hand as he leaned against the wall by the window. "Jinhai, let's go," Junyi said as he passed Jinhai by. It was a silent walk to Junyi's car. They were friends, yes, but Jinhai was not the type to pry into personal matters.
From Liqing's office window, she had a clear view, with the exception of a few stray leaves from a nearby tree, of the carpark. She just so happened to be looking out the window when Junyi was there. Upon seeing his car, she keeled over, laughing. "Oh my God, there's no way..." she managed to say in between fits of laughter. A wide beam was on her face as she watched his brown car exit the parking lot. She felt a sense of solace, he hadn't forgotten about them.
-
Liu Junyi - 17 years old.
It was a Friday. Junyi was turning 18 on the Saturday of the coming weekend, but he knew his father would never allow him to spend it with his friends. It would hurt his seemingly endless pride if he did, and the one who would reap the consequences would be Junyi.
Still wearing their uniforms, they had lunch and toured the streets of the city like they were tourists. No one said anything about Junyi's birthday. No one had to, everyone knew that day was their celebration with him. Everyone had a gift hiding in the safety of their school bags, waiting for the right time to give it to him. Their chatter never simmered down, not even when they stopped by a park across the street from a car dealership.
The sky was a beautiful montreal blue, a mix of light and dark at the same time. The shadows hid dimly behind them as they concurrently stopped in front of a large pond, the moon's reflection right at their feet. Then only did the chatter end. This wasn't something they had done before, yet here they were, doing it as if they had rehearsed it a million times before, as if it was their last moment together. It was the last birthday of his that he would spend with his friends, but how did they all seem to know? At the time, he had no clue, none of them did. Yet fate appeared to have known.
Yingjie, one of Junyi's old friends, was the first to step out of that moment. He squatted down and pick up a pebble, flinging it at the surface of the pond. It jumped, leaving ripples behind as it did. Junyi and a few others joined in, their laughter slowly joining the picture. "Junyi, let's compete! I want to see how good you've gotten since I first taught you," Yingjie said, playfully nudging Junyi. "For what? I will only compete with you if we bet on something." Junyi crossed his arms and looked at Yingjie slyly. "Hm? Like what?" Yingjie wondered aloud, looking around.
"What about... if you have to get a brown car in the future?" Yingjie suggested. Donghai, another old friend, hit Yingjie on the back. "Why bring up the colour brown?" They all knew, Junyi hated that colour. His father often wore brown leather shoes, and when he saw them at the doorstep, he always dreaded what was on the other side. Other than Yingjie and Donghai bickering in the background, it had fallen silent.
"I'll do it, but only if you jump into the pond if you lose." They were flabbergasted. Junyi was willing to try new things, but he never ever did anything out of his comfort zone. "R-Really? Deal!" Yingjie immediately accepted his offer. They had discussed it without Junyi knowing before, how to help him feel a little less repulsed when he sees brown, but couldn't come up with anything. There was absolutely nothing wrong with hating a colour, but he didn't just hate it, he feared it. They could all tell even though he never verbalised his fear.
-
Mo Changchang sat to the left of Chen Aiyu while Chanming sat on the other end. Changchang's face was furrowed as she watched Chanming intently, trying to decipher what he was thinking. Her eyes darted down to his hand as he moved a chess piece. Aiyu was their coach, helping whoever seemed to be losing whenever she could. "This is fun. I feel like God," Aiyu said, chuckling friskily as she watched Chanming move his piece to the exact spot she told him to place it at.
"This doesn't make sense. Since when did Aiyu become so good at chess? We taught her how to play it, like, 2 months ago," Changchang said as she ruffled her green hair. But while she was saying this, Chanming moved his bishop to C6. Considering his other pieces' positions, it was a checkmate. "Checkmate." He threw his body back and leaned against the chair as he crossed his leg over the other, his index and thumb rubbing his cleanly shaven chin.
Changchang's hand flew to her mouth before a devious look crept its way to her face. "Hmph, act as prideful as you want. A checkmate doesn't mean you've won! Aiyu will help me now that you're winning, hee," she commented, side-eying Aiyu as she did. But rather than the tip she was eagerly awaiting, she received an Aiyu that was contemplating whether or not she really wanted to help Changchang. "Hmm... I don't know. I think I want this game to end." Oh, if it was what the great goddess Aiyu wanted, it was what would happen.
Just as she uttered her wise words to Chanming, there was a knock on the door. A young nurse came in soon after, a bowl of steaming hot porridge on the metal tray in her hands. "Pardon me," she said, walking over to them. Changchang quickly lifted the chess board from the table and put it on the soft sheets instead, a few chess pieces knocking over as she did. The nurse thanked her, subtly placing the bowl onto the table before leaving.
"Changchang, have you eaten lunch yet?" Chanming asked while packing the chess board back into its cardboard box. Changchang shook her head. "No, we can go get some now. Why are you packing up the chess board by the way? We're not done here!" He laughed playfully. "Funny joke, let's go get some food." Hearing this, the corners of Changchang's mouth tilted down and she folded her arms, feigning anger when she didn't really care. Meanwhile, Aiyu had already started eating the porridge. Her gently hunched shoulders slouching down as she sighed. "Can you guys bicker somewhere else? I would prefer to eat this delicious porridge in solitude," she said, swallowing the last bit of her porridge.
Changchang's arms unfolded and she flashed Aiyu a smile. "Sorry, we'll have lunch and be right back. Enjoy your porridge!" The feeling of being so relieved seeing someone just being a normal person was so new to her, because throughout their friendship, Aiyu never showed any form of vulnerability. Chanming grabbed his coat which had been hanging on the back of the chair and said, "Scratch that, let's head back home to freshen up after lunch. I'll grab your things as well, Ai." To this, she nodded.
Changchang grabbed her things as well and was the first of the two to leave. As Chanming slid the door shut, he turned back, hearing Aiyu call him. "Can we talk later?" The tightness that had been in his chest since the night before seemed to dissipate hearing this. He had been worried she would shut off and return to the way she was before, or even worse, so he felt such reassurance with her reaching out first. "Of course."