"Why is Jinyong acting weird?" Chang asked rhetorically.
He just didn't want that to bother him that much since Jinyong wasn't ready to tell him what he did wrong.
He threw his phone on his bed and headed to take a bath before going to work.
It was exactly 9:30 a.m., and he had not called Fang since the previous day. He felt bad about it.
He knew that Fang was already at work by this time and wouldn't want to disturb her with his call. He opted for the option of sending her a text of apology for not fulfilling his promise to call her.
He then picked up his phone on the bed that he had earlier dropped and texted Fang. He apologized and also told her that he would be coming to pick her up after work.
*********
It was 9 p.m., and Chang had gone to pick Fang up from her workplace after working hours.
"Chang, you don't look happy; is anything wrong?" Wang Fang asked.
"Yeah. Everything is fine," Chang responded.
"Alright then, if you say so."
"How was your day at work today? I hope you didn't stress yourself too much today.
"My day was pretty good. No stress at all," she responded.
"That's nice to know."
"Are you sure you are okay? You look troubled. Don't you want to share your worries with me?" Fang asked, trying to show some
concern about what was bothering Chang.
"Okay, if you insist on knowing, after dropping you off yesterday, I got home and found my friend waiting for me.
He said he had come to see his female friend, whom he didn't get to meet, and decided to spend the night at my place.
He said the girl had been avoiding his calls and decided to use my phone to reach her. Just when he was already punching in her phone number, he suddenly realized that it was already too late and he would call her this morning.
I do not know what made him change his mind, and I could not find him this morning. I tried reaching out to him, but he wasn't taking my calls and ended up sending me a text saying that I am a betrayal."
"Wow! Did you bother to ask him what you did to him that made him call you a betrayal?"
"Not really; I didn't bother texting him back. I think that should be a face-to-face conversation."
"And do you know this friend of his?"
"Not really. He only talked to me about her. He's so interested in making her his wife if only she would accept him."
"And what is the name of this friend of yours?"
"He is Jinyong, and the name of the girl is Wang Fan... Wait a minute! I hope it's not what I am thinking."
Immediately, Chang said that Fang knew that she was the girl since he made mention of He Jinyong.
"What exactly are you thinking?" She asked pretentiously.
"You are Fang, and the girl my friend claimed to have come to see last night stays in my neighborhood. What if, while he was trying to dial the girl's number with my phone, he discovered that your number was saved on my phone?"
"I think you are right. I know him. At a point, I thought he paid you to stalk me. My suspense came on the very day you took my friend and me to Divino Bar and Restaurant. I have been there with him once."
After hearing all that Fang had said, Chang developed a mood swing immediately. Was he going to let go of Fang to keep his friendship with Jinyong?
He got to a point where he was beginning to lose it, so he decided to stop the car just to talk to Fang while looking at her eyeball.
"Fang, please don't tell me you are going to turn down my request because of my friend."
"What are you talking about? Is that the reason why you stopped driving all of a sudden?"
"I had to stop driving. This can't be true;
please tell me you don't know who my friend is, and he has never asked you out."
"I'll be lying if I tell you that I don't know
Jinyong. But what I do not understand is how the two of you would be asking one girl out."
"What then are you saying in essence, Fang? Do I have a chance with you?"
"The two of you have no chance of being with me, and that's final."
"Please don't say that, Fang; I love you, and I can't afford to see you slip off my fingers."
"Are you taking me home, or are we just going to remain here and talk about things that are not irrelevant?"
"You can have some time to think about it, and I promise not to disturb you while you're at it."
"That won't be necessary. I don't want to come between you and your friend, and I don't find anyone of you as my spec.
Please start this car, or else I get down and look for a cab to get me to my house."Fang threatened
On hearing that from Fang, he quickly kickstarted the car and got Fang to her house before going to his house.
On reaching his house, he was seriously confused about what to do. Maybe he should just let go of his friendship because of Wang Fang, or should he just let go of her and focus on the friendship that had been existing before Fang came into the picture.
If at all he is going to create enmity between him and his friend, how sure is he that Fang will accept him?
He picked up his phone and called He Jinyong, but he didn't take the call and didn't try to return it either.
"Maybe I should just text him to find out why he had called me betrayal," Chang said aloud to himself.
He quickly sent He Jinyong a text to ask him what the problem was and why he had called him a betrayal.
He waited for Jinyong to respond to his text message, but no response was forthcoming from him for more than an hour.
*********
Days later, Jinyong could not continue treating his friend the way he did and decided to visit Chang to let him know his reasons for calling him a betrayal in the content of his text message.
"Shouldn't I just speak to Wang about this whole thing before talking to Chang?" He said it aloud to himself as he drove to his office.
Jinyong wasn't ready to let go of Fang, but he couldn't truncate his friendship with Chang either; they had come a long way to want to let such happen.
Getting to his office, his mood wasn't friendly at all; his P.A. had noticed that and asked him what the problem was. Trust Jinyong; he didn't utter a word to her.
That was his personality; he barely shared his worries with people who tended to show concern for him.
"What is about to happen? I can't be the reason why they would stop talking; how in the first place did I get to meet these two?" Fang asked herself aloud.
It wasn't the weekend, and the thought of calling her girlfriend, Zhang Min, crept into her mind. This was the third day of the week, and she didn't permit that she would be absent from work the next day.
"Maybe I should talk to Zhang Min about this whole thing over the phone. No, no, no, it won't make sense that way." She talked aloud to herself.
*********
It was the weekend, and Wang Fang wasn't going to work. She thought it was the best time to call Zhang Min to show up at her place. She needed to do the right thing in order not to end the friendship between Jinyong and Chang.
She put in a call to Zhang Min, as she always does, to ask her to come to her place.
"Don't tell me you want me at your place this weekend because it's not going to work this time around." Zhang Min uttered it as soon as the call went through.
"Hey, don't say that! You know why I'm calling, and besides, it's the weekend, which means you ought to spend the weekend with me."
"You've gone senile. So you have now made it mandatory for me to be spending the weekend at your place?" Zhang Min asked angrily.
"Min, dear, please do this one favor for me, and I won't disturb you again with my problems." Wang Fang Pleaded.
"If I may ask, why are you inviting me over for the weekend? What's up with you?"
"I need to talk to you about a situation at hand right now; if I don't involve you in it, it's going to be very difficult for me to come up with a solution, and you know it."
"Can I get a clue on what this is about?"
"Please just come, and I will tell you everything."
"Of course, you would tell me everything. Do you have an alternative?" Zhang Min mocked
"You are beginning to see yourself as someone I can't do without, and that's not it; I just like confiding in you."
"You see, you're so full of yourself; you just want to confide in me, yet you can't offer solutions to your problems.
You know my house, and you should do the coming."
"Don't be so mean; you know how much I hate coming that way."
"I'm being mean, right? So I should be the one doing the coming all the time? I can't even recall the last time you visited, and you are saying you hate coming this way for no reason.
Anyways, it is said that he who needs something should be humble to get what he needs; on the contrary, you always make me feel like I am the one who needs your advice."
"Min, don't tell me you are not coming."
"Of course, I am not; if whatever you want to discuss with me is so important, then you should do away with your pride and come this way." Zhang Min requested
"This isn't fair, and you know it. You are trying to use my weakness against me, and I don't like it."
'Is that what you think, Fang? Why do you always feel and act like you are being mistreated and taken advantage of? You know you are the one who takes people for granted, especially me.
Anyway, we can't be doing this whole quarrel thing all the time.
If you can't come to my side, then forget about it."
"Let's not drag this any further; I'll come, but
I'm not spending the night."
"If you can't spend the weekend here, I see no reason why you should be coming then."
Fang was still on call with Zhang Min when she heard the bell ring.
"Someone is at my door; please don't hang up; let me know who the person is."
She went to get the door and was not that surprised to see Jinyong standing in front of her; after all, she knew this would happen since she had been trying to get through to her and no response was forthcoming.
"Min, can we talk later? I have to go now."
"I hope there's no problem. Who is at the door?" Min inquired
"I will call you later; nothing bad is happening to me."
"Alright then, if you insist."
She looked at Jinyong and knew at once what had brought him to her house.
"Please come in, she uttered.
Jinyong walked in and sat in one of the chairs. He stared at Fang for almost a minute before saying something.
"How have you been doing for the past one week?" He asked.
I've been doing pretty well. I've been busy with work." She responded
"Too busy to take my calls? Did you go to work last weekend?"
"I didn't. You called, right?"
"Yes. I was surprised you didn't take my calls, and you didn't deem it fit to return them either. What is wrong?"
"I'm sorry about that. So how have you been? How's work so far?"
"Believe me, not if I tell you that I have been doing great. You placed me in a state that I can't just explain. You got me all worried about you."
"Really. I'm sorry."