Jun Yang exited his father's study and the wooden door closed with a click behind him. His mind was still clogging with the information that his parents had just dropped on him. The young man walked up the stairs that led to his bedroom on the second floor. His steps were heavy like they were tied down with lead.
Jun Yang opened the door to his room. Jun Yang's room was neat and clean. A bookshelf that mirrored the ones that were situated in his father's study sat in the corner of his room. It was filled with business books. Jun Yang could not say that he had read all of them already. Most of them were purchased by his father. Previously Jun Yang only thought the neat rows of books looked quite impressive and spoke much of his culture but that day, seeing them again, they were like life sentences that foretold his future.
Dragging his feet into the room, Jun Yang turned his head away from the bookshelf and sat on his bed. The bed creaked accepting his weight.
Jun Yang did not know what to think. A part of him even questioned why he was acting this way, why he would have this feeling. Jun Yang was primed since he was young to be the heir of the Jun empire, that was a knowledge that he had known since he was young. Therefore, he should have seen this coming so why was he feeling this sense of resistance?
Jun Yang was suddenly reminded of what Feng Qi said when they were discussing the class assignment for the play, Fences. At the time, Jun Yang remembered feeling a certain way, so could that be the moment when Jun Yang realized what he was thought to believe and what he really believed were two completely different things?
Feng Qi proffered the speculation where the family tradition that was thought to be good might not really be good because the person was merely taught to believe that it was good.
In spite of himself, Jun Yang released a light laugh. This whole situation felt so surreal. His situation was now no different from a fictional character. What else could he have done other than laugh?
Jun Yang thought back to the one-sided conversation he just had with his parents and he realized one term had been repeated again and again. It was the heir of Jun family, the bearer of the Jun family name.
All the responsibilities fell on his shoulders due to this name. Jun Yang knew it was unfair to his parents but he could not help but wonder if they had ever seen him as their son or merely the heir to the family.
They had planned his entire life for him on the basis that he was the heir of the Jun family. If he was removed from that identity, would they have cared about the direction of his life? The scary thing was Jun Yang had no confidence in that answer. He was afraid that the answer might not be the one that he wished.
In any case, the die had been cast and such was the hand that he was dealt. Now, Jun Yang had to decide what he wanted to do moving forward, whether he wanted to follow the plans given by his parents and if he did not, what else could he have done to salvage the situation.
When Jun Yang was still caught in the rumination of his mind, suddenly there was a knock on his bedroom door. Jun Yang was caught by surprise by this sudden intrusion. Was it his parents who still had something else that they had not told him?
Jun Yang answered, "The door is not locked. Come in."
The door creaked open and to Jun Yang's surprise, the guest was not his parents. The young man was not expecting this guest even though her name had been brought up several times during the conversation in his father's study. It was her childhood friend, Pei Ling.
She had changed out of her school uniform and was wearing a dress with floral print that reached down to the top of her knees. She stood at the door and greeted Jun Yang shyly, "Good afternoon, Jun Yang." She acted like a shy little girl in love, which was completely different from how Jun Yang usually saw her.
This placed Jun Yang in an awkward position. He had not seen his friend in this type of state before. Since they hanged out together quite often since they were young, Jun Yang had always seen Pei Ling as a friend who happened to be female. He had never envisioned pursuing a romantic future with her and Pei Ling never acted like she had interest in that either.
Jun Yang played along to the rumours going around the school saying they were couple and he assumed Pei Ling saw those rumours the same way as he did, which was not to treat them seriously. However, seeing how the girl was acting that day inside his bedroom, Jun Yang had to reconsider if he had misread all the signs.
Jun Yang tried to make the atmosphere between them to be as casual as possible and thus, he acted like nothing was out of the ordinary. He asked Pei Ling to take a seat and make herself comfortable.
Pei Ling walked into Jun Yang's bedroom. Jun Yang assumed she was going to take the seat by his study table but the girl strode directly to his bed and sat down next to him. When she was seated, she even turned her head shyly away from Jun Yang.
Jun Yang was flustered. He did not know how to handle this situation. Suddenly, in that moment, he realized the young woman that was sitting in his bed was no longer the little girl that he played make-believe games with.
What he saw as a platonic relationship might mean something different to other people. Jun Yang wondered if there was still time to confirm their interpretation of this relationship and if there was a misunderstanding, was there time to rectify it.
"Jun Yang, have you heard from your mother about the…" Pei Ling paused like it was a great embarrassment for her to bring this up, "plan that our parents have for us?"