"AssDo you think I'm ever going to give up on you?" Chang asked Wang Fang as they drove.
"I don't know what you're talking about. How do you mean?" Fang reacted innocently.
"Stop acting not to have an idea of what I am trying to say."
"Well, I wouldn't know if you didn't come explicit with your words."
Chang had called Fang to send him the address of the hotel where she works. She knew his reason for wanting to have her work address was because he was planning to come get her after work. With not much time wasted, she sent him the address after hanging up the call.
At exactly 9 p.m., Chang was already there to pick her up.
So while they drove, he just couldn't get his eyes off Wang Fang. He was busy staring at her. Fang pretended not to have noticed that Chang had been stealing a look at her.
"Fang, I like you a lot, and I want a relationship with you. If you don't mind, I can give you some time to think about it."
"That won't be necessary; I'm not interested," Fang responded.
"Is there something you are not telling me about you? Would you like to talk about your past relationship?"
"I believe you didn't come to pick me up from work because you wanted to learn about my private life."
"Not really, but that won't be a bad idea if I know."
"It is. You don't have to know everything about me. I barely know you, yet you feel entitled to know things about me."
"You barely know me because you don't ask questions about me; it is always me wanting to know you. You haven't given us the chance to know more about us."
A few minutes later, they had already driven to Fang's house and had dropped her there before leaving for his house.
************
"You didn't tell me you were coming; that is unlike you, man!"
"I was in the neighborhood to see a friend of mine; unfortunately, she was not at home."
"Did you check your time before thinking of coming to see a lady?" Chang asked
"I did. I had plans of seeing her, then leaving first thing tomorrow morning."
"Hold on, are you trying to say you were planning to spend the night at a lady's house?" Chang asked curiously.
"You know I wouldn't try that. I had plans of seeing and spending some time with her and then coming over to your place to rest my head till the next morning before I leave."
"If I may ask, who is this lady you have come to check on? Because the last time I checked, you were single and had no female friends. Just your few female staff, and I know none of your female staff stays around."
"You're right. But you do remember I said something to you about a lady I saw along the road trying to get a cab one night, and I helped her get to her destination?"
"Yes, I do. Don't tell me she leaves around."
"Of course she does; she is not leaving far from your residential building."
"Ooh, I hope I get to meet her someday. Wait a minute, how far have you gone with her? Has she accepted you yet, or are you still pushing?
"Not yet. I'm still on it. She's been acting too weird lately. She hadn't been taking my calls for some time now. I'm worried about her, and that's the reason why I have come to check up on her to know what the problem is."
"That is good of you. But what could be her reason for not taking your calls? What if she had already accepted someone else?"
"I'm going to feel bad about it if that should happen. I have fallen deeply in love with this lady, and I don't know what would become of me if I couldn't have her.
"I think you should try harder this time around," Chang advised.
Chang had driven home and met Jinyong's car parked in his parking lot. He was a bit surprised, though, because it was unlike Jinyong not to try to reach him before visiting.
He got out of his car and went straight to where Jinyong's car was parked, where he met him operating his phone while waiting for his arrival.
Jinyong had not bothered to call Chang to let him know that he was around because Chang's gatekeeper had assured him that his boss (Chang) was in town and would soon be coming back home.
Wang Fang had not taken Jinyong's call the Saturday he had called her because she thought he was calling to let her know they would be hanging out the next day. She didn't want to say no to his request, so she didn't bother returning his calls.
Aside from that Saturday, he had been trying to reach Fang uncountably, and Fang had not been taking his calls. He became so worried about her that he had to visit her on Monday evening because he thought that was the best time to get to meet her at home. But unfortunately, Fang was not yet back from work.
Seeing Chang, he felt talking to him about Fang once again would give him more ideas on how to have her.
"You have to help me out on this. You know how you run these things, and you are my closest friend who understands me so well that I am a novice when it comes to expressing how I feel about a lady." Jinyong explained.
"Exactly my point here: I know you better than you know yourself. And you can't dispute that fact." Chang said sarcastically.
"My problem with you is that you do not know when I am entirely serious about something. You think everything is a joke." Jinyong said angrily.
"And when did you start taking this love and relationship thing this seriously? If you are as serious as you claim, I wonder why you haven't been able to have her."
"Are you going to help me out or not?"
"What exactly do you want me to help you with? This is not as serious as you think. Take a chill pill, bro! Relax, and you'll get what you want."
"I don't just know what to say to you. I just told you Wang Fang hasn't been taking my calls for some days, and you are asking me to take a chill pill and relax.
"Let's just say she has been taken by someone else." Chang Mocked
"That can't happen; my fang can't be taken by any other person. I love her, and she knows that."
"Why are you sounding like a teenager who has just fallen in love for the first time? I'm speaking facts, and you are saying things based on how you want them to be."
"Can I reach her through your phone?" Jinyong asked
"Why with my phone? Besides, it's too late to be doing that. What if she's already sleeping?"
"I wouldn't know until I called her. I know it's late already, but I just want to find out if she's intentionally ignoring my calls or if there is something wrong somewhere."
"Can't it wait till tomorrow morning? You can do that before you leave in the morning."
"I think this is the best timing; she might be very busy in the morning trying to get ready to go to work. I wouldn't want to disturb her with my call in the morning so that she doesn't go late to work."
"Alright then. You can have my phone." Chang stretched his phone toward Jinyong.
Jinyong collected Chang's phone and started punching in Wang Fang's phone number. While he was on it, he was surprised to see that Chang had Fang's number.
He was confused at this juncture and didn't know what to say to Chang. He was tied between proceeding with the call and not letting Chang know what he just found out.
"Is her number not going through?" Chang asked when he noticed that Jinyong was just holding the phone and not placing it on his ear.
"I don't know. Maybe I should just leave it till tomorrow morning, as you advised," he said with a voice that depicts calmness and a confused state.
"Are you sure about that? You just said you wouldn't want to disturb her with your call tomorrow morning because that might make her go late to work." Chang reminded him.
"Yes, I did say that. I think I changed my mind. I'll do the calling tomorrow morning instead." Jinyong responded
"So why the sudden change of mind? You always find it hard to act like the man that you are when it comes to relationships."
"Please, that's enough! I'm an adult, and I hate to be told how to live my life or take my decisions." He yelled at Chang unintentionally.
He wasn't himself at this time; he could not contain his anger; he just had to yell to give Chang a clue that he was mad at him.
But was he going to ask Chang how Fang's number got to his phone?
"Jinyong? Is anything bothering you? Why do you have to be this loud? Is there something you are not telling me?" Chang asked curiously.
Jinyong wasn't going to talk about it with Chang, at least not now, if at all.
He ignored Chang's words and went straight to the visitor's room.
He was just trying to control his anger, and the best way to do that was to walk away.
That was the first time Chang had seen his friend this mad. When Ruoxi Yang broke up with him, he was only depressed for some time, but he never raised his voice to yell at Chang.
Jinyong was alone in the visitor's room, imagining what must have been going on between Fang and Chang.
He was so engrossed in his thoughts to the point he started talking aloud to himself, unknowingly to him.
"What if Chang is the reason why Wang Fang has been ignoring his calls? What if Chang knew why he had yelled at him and was only pretending not to have known anything?
Why was he trying to stop him from using his phone to call Fang in the first place?
"I repeated her name in front of him twice, and he didn't make any effort to ask me more about her, knowing full well that he had a number in his phone that he saved with Fang." He soliloquized
Chang had no idea that he was interested in the same fang as Jinyong. It didn't even occur to him that they might be talking about the same girl.
Chang had promised to call Fang before he slept, but he was not in his best mood to do that anymore. He went to this room, took a cool bath, and went to bed.
The next morning, he went to the visitor's room to check on Jinyong and maybe have a word with him about his reaction last night. Possibly ask him to call Wang Fang if he is still interested in doing that.
He went to the visitor's room and found no one there. He rushed down to the living room, and Jinyong wasn't there. It then occurred to him that he had woken up very early and had opened the door and left without letting him know.
He went outside to be sure of his assumptions and found out that Jinyong's car was no longer in the car park where he had parked it the previous night.
He got back inside the house and picked up his phone to call him and ask about his whereabouts.
He dialed Jinyong's number more than five times, but he didn't take his call. He then sent a text message to him to ask him what the problem was, why he left the house without letting him know, and if he was worried.
The message went through, and Jinyong responded to it by sending Chang a text in return.
"You are a betrayal. I trusted you, but what did I get in return? Betrayal"
Jinyong's text put Chang in a more confused state. He wondered how on earth he had betrayed his best friend.