Lanyard's real name Lian Qian and got her nickname due to her weird love for lanyard phone covers. Since she got her first phone when she was 13, she has always liked to buy covers with lanyard holes and put different lanyards through it and hang it on her neck or her purse. Lanyard is also my oldest and closest friend. She lived in the same housing complex as me and we had grown up playing together. So I knew that either she came to know another one of my sins and came to straighten me up or she needed my help very, very urgently when she came running to me during lunch break.
"Yuyu, you look like an angel today. You look like my saving grace."
"I'm wearing black."
"Yuyu, you always help me unconditionally, I'm always so grateful to you."
"No, I don't help you. I don't want to right now either, so keep your gratitude. Lanyard let me go; they'll run out of chicken legs."
But Lanyard heard nothing and kept dragging me with her.
"Fine! First tell me what it is," I gave in. When she stopped and stared at me, I started getting a really bad feeling in my heart.
"Yuyu, accompany me to talk to Senior Xiao, okay?" I immediately turned around. Senior Xiao is one of my relentless suitors, and when I say this I feel no sense of feminine pride or satisfaction at all. Lanyard said that I should be happy that Senior seems to confirm my irresistible female charms but fuck! He was like this annoying fly hovering over the beautiful, sweet pastry me, making other costumers stay away from me.
"Yuyu, please, please, please. Just 5 minutes. I just need a favour for him."
"You want to bribe him using me!"
"Seeing that my Yuyu is so expensive, he has to pay up."
"Then you pay me for the 5 minutes!"
"Me and you are one soul in two bodies."
"Lian. Qian."
10 minutes later I was dragged over to the tea store outside college. Senior Xiao was sitting with another man opposite him. He was facing the door and called us as soon as he spotted us.
"Qian Qian, Xiaoyu, here!" He waved.
When we walked over, I was shocked to see the man sitting with Senior Xiao. Days of running around everywhere, looking for him, and here he was sitting calmly.
"Leader, this is our junior sister, Lian Qian. And this is her best friend, Qiu Yu. Girls, this is our Leader, Ling Bingchen. He just came back from an exchange program in Japan. He's our batch's honorable treasure."
"Hello, Senior Ling. Nice to meet you, I'm Lian Qian," Lanyard said and I followed her in greeting, looking as calm as possible but my heart was beating so hard that my lungs were getting cramped for space, especially when Ling Bingchen said 'Hello' in his slow, low voice.
Thankfully, the waiter came over to the table to ask for the order.
"Xiaoyu likes the milk tea, right?" Senior Xiao asked enthusiastically and I nodded hesitantly, glancing at Ling Bingchen who sat in front of me.
"Yes, yes, Senior, our Yuyu likes milk tea best." Lanyard rushed to please and Senior Xiao's child-like face beamed with happiness.
"One milk tea, two black teas and a strawberry milkshake, please," Lanyard ordered after asking for everyone. The waiter was a boy younger than us, probably a high school student. He glanced weirdly at the yellow lanyard hanging on Lanyard's neck, holding her phone to her stomach. She was wearing black overalls and coordinated her phone cover with her yellow sneakers. He looked up at me staring pointedly at him for being rude, he seemed to blush and walk away.
"Xiaoyu, what happened to your boyfriend? How is he?" Senior Xiao asked. I looked at Lanyard with my confusion all over my face. What boyfriend? Why didn't I know that one existed? Lanyard looked at me and laughed nervously.
"Broke up, broke up, all history now."
"Huh? Broke up so fast? Didn't they start dating last month Qian Qian?" Senior Xiao eyes widened as he looked at me as if his world view had gone through a change. Ling Bingchen looked at both of us silently with his cold eyes as if he was scanning us, his mouth hooked at the corner almost barely.
Deal with this beautifully, if you want to remain beautiful. My eyes flashed Lanyard the message telepathically, as my nails dug into her jeans clad thigh. She calmly looked at me from the corner of her eye.
"Their personalities didn't match, Senior. Our Yuyu is very introverted and needs someone who would understand her silent wishes. You can tell just by looking at her eyes if she wants it or not, likes it or not. Yuyu obviously liked blue, but he got her the pink cotton candy. Yuyu likes BBQ but he took her for Western food. Yuyu likes suspense thrillers but he took her to a romantic comedy movie. I mean if you want to break up then break up, why do you have to torture Yuyu like this? I finally had enough of watching her crying because of him and giving him so many chances and forgiving him. This child grew up sheltered. I couldn't bear to make her sad my whole life, how dare he, right Senior? So I said, Yuyu either you leave him or stop being my friend, because you're breaking my heart like this. So then they broke up," Lanyard said in one breath and picked up the water provided earlier to take a sip.
"Hmm, breaking up in this situation is the right thing to do," Ling Bingchen commented, his face expressionless but his eyes glinted with amusement. I nodded and Lanyard smiled happily saying, yes yes of course. I slowly let my claws leave her thigh and she gave a sigh of relief and rubbed the pain off.
"Wait, that's not right. Didn't you say he's her childhood sweetheart? How come he knows nothing about her?"
Everyone remained silent, and you could almost hear the sound of crows cawing awkwardly in your head.
"Uh....Senior, please help me with my assignment." Lanyard rushed to change the topic," Yuyu was sick and I took leave to take care of her and coincidently missed the classes in which teacher talked about Debentures and now she wants me to write about it."
Good. First I had a boy friend, now I fell sick.
Senior Xiao nodded and both of them started talking in low voices over the laptop that Lanyard pulled out. Ling Bingchen sat back on his chair and got busy, doing something on his phone. He wore a simple dark blue t-shirt today unlike the shirts that I had seen him always wear before. His whole aura was more casual today. Even his hair wasn't combed to the side neatly but lay on his forehead, casting a shadow on his dark eyes. I noticed that he had straight eyelashes that were long but didn't curl up. They seemed like swords guarding the secrets in his eyes and made the two pools pop out in a gentle sort of way. He was so beautiful, my heart hurt.
He noticed my eyes and looked at me. It was that stare. The same stare that he always gave me when no one was looking. The kind of stare that held me in place like a person standing in front of a speeding car, the kind of person who can't do anything but accept their fate: the kind of stare that told me that maybe those swords won't hurt me as much, if I were to try digging.
"Won't you come into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly.