How could he feel like that for a stranger, even though she was a stranger he had a strong urge to know better?
Wei Lan, Shin Lin, and their two friends, Min Zhe and Ming Sheng, had moved to the pool area just to chat when they heard a voice they did not recognise singing a ballad. One by one, people around the pool started gathering below the deck where the band was set up. The deck was a floor above but overlooking the Olympic sized swimming pool.
Wei Lan and company also moved inside, curious to see whom the amazing voice belonged to. Wei Lang will never forget his first time hearing Yan Ran sing. He wondered how it was possible that such a powerful voice could come out of that small body. Moreover, there was something beyond her voice that compelled one to listen, like she had everyone in a spell.
Coupled with the way she loaded every word with emotion, she had such an amazing stage presence. He had not been able to do anything else but stand there and listen to her, eyes transfixed on her. Her eyes were closed like she was all by herself in a world she had created.
When she opened her eyes mid song, he wished that her gaze was directed at him. She was singing about longing for a love lost. He was absolutely mesmerised and felt powerless to escape her charm. When she finished singing the song he had clapped so loudly that his friends snickered and teased him mercilessly.
Before she left the stage Yin Yue had taken the microphone from her and had proudly introduced her to the crowd as Rene, the next big solo artist who would hit the airwaves. The crowd clapped, screamed, cheered and whistled.
Yan Ran had laughed self-consciously, bowed and thanked the crowd. Wei Lan was struck by how her name sounded as sweet as she looked; her shy smile giving one the feeling of being bathed in a beam of light.
As Yin Yue and Yan Ran moved away from the band, people thronged around them, wanting to be introduced to this new sensation. His friends moved away from the deck, but Wei Lan lingered around waiting to compliment Yan Ran on her singing.
As fate would have it, Ying Yue and Yan Ran moved away from crowd and watowards Wei Lan and he felt himself starting to sweat a bit. He had never been nervous around girls before and this girl unnerved him somehow. If he had been more tutored in the ways of love, he would have seen the love heavy truck coming at him but because he did not, he met it head on.
"So Wei ge, what did you think?" Yin Yue asked proudly. "Is she amazing, or is she amazing?"
Feeling heat crawling up his neck and face Wei Lan stammered, "Yan Ran, you are fantastic… I mean your singing not you… I mean …not that you are not beautiful, because you are." He cleared his suddenly dry throat and wondered when he has turned into another socially ditzy Shin Lin.
He felt like blabbering fool.
If Yan Ran noticed this, she gave no clue.
"Thank you, Wei ge," she replied flashing him a knock out smile.
Ge? Did she just call him Ge? Wei Lang had wept internally.
Of course he could not let this go. He needed to make her understand that his thoughts of her were nothing remotely resembling brotherly.
"Ah..h Yan Ran… ," he began but realized he was talking to no one as Ying Yue had already pulled Yan Ran away eager to show off her talented friend.
Wei Lan almost swore aloud at his sister's boundless over-enthusiasm. He had purposed to teach his sister in the ways of setting his brother up with girls. How could someone be so clueless?
In the end he had sighed and he walked reluctantly back to his friends, who greeted him with knowing looks and a lot teasing.
He took all the teasing good-naturedly but he could not help how his eyes had wandered around constantly searching for those long black and blond tresses the whole evening. Suddenly he had even found Zhi Ruo's company not appealing anymore. When she had joined their group, she had found her presence unwelcome.
Zhi Ruo's vanity and snobbish behaviour which never bothered him before started irritating him to no end. It was funny that all along she had never been clingy but that evening had decided to act like anglerfish, sticking to him for the rest of the night. As a result, he had failed to get another chance to engage his sister's friend.
Maybe that was his punishment from the heavens. Regardless, he had no time to feel guilty. Although he and Zhi Ruo had gone on a couple of dates, they were really not exclusive. They actually had never expressed feelings for each nor shown any possessiveness towards each other.
Suddenly he bemoaned his wasted life. There was just something about Yan Ran that made him think she would be different from the girls he had always hung around. She was absolutely gorgeous and talented but still had seemed down to earth. He had had a feeling that she could mix with people from all walks of life.
Wei Lan wanted to know everything about her. Before the night was over, he had purposed to make it his life's mission.