He Is A Skater Boy

"Good morning!" she greeted everyone as she walked into the mess hall.

"Good morning!!" a collective of men's voices answered her back.

"Here!" Grand said arms stretched in the air, mouth stuffed with some bread.

"Ms. E, have some breakfast." aunt Lan Cheng said, putting a bowl of porridge in front of her, as soon as she sat down.

"Sorry, but I don't eat breakfast," she said, with an apologetic smile.

"Young Miss, I make everyone, and I mean EVERYONE eats all the meals in a day, inside this building, and from now on that includes you. Here's a fried donut, it matches well with the porridge, we call it cakwe, and you will be eating it for breakfast, under my watch," she said sternly.

Grand winks at her and handed her the Chinese spoon.

She accepts it and quietly eats the food in front of her. She saw the gentle smile of aunt Lan Cheng when she started eating.

"I told Bobby, you're back. He wants to meet later." Grand said, throwing her a side glance.

"You didn't ask me if I wanted to meet him," she said munching on the cakwe.

"Why you and Bobby ain't cool?" smirking, he asked.

"We're okay, I guess. I mean, from what I remembered he doesn't kick me out even though I'm not the best skater in," she answered.

"Also, I don't think he has a very good impression of me, to actually want to see me?" she said feeling guilty of her bitchiness in the past.

Grand threw his head in laughter, and said "For sure! But Bobby respected you as a skater, so I think everything is cool."

DT walked into the scene of Grand throwing his head laughing like a maniac beside Ellise. A line unwillingly appears on his forehead.

"You know how to wake up early now?" DT said, sitting down across the table with Ellise.

Ellise frowning looked at DT from the rim of her porridge bowl and said nothing.

"I'll go ahead and prepare, you can wait for me at the lounge," she said to Grand, stood up, and walked out of the mess hall.

Grand and DT were left at the table, staring at each other. Grand, looked away first, and said; "Dude, what's your game.?"

"Where are you going with, Miss E?" DT asked, using Ellise's chosen gamer name.

"Shopping. Why?" Grand asked

"You have free days, but how come she can go out too?" deadpan, asked DT.

"Ask the Boss, I don't have an idea," Grand said, marching out to wait for Ellise at the lounge.

---

"Is it really okay to wait here for Bobby?" Ellise asked, looking around the coffee shop with white elephants playfully playing in the ceiling.

"It's near Hongqiao so you don't have to worry about being late with your flight, also my friend who will bring your new phone is near the area, so it's the perfect spot to meet," Grand answered.

"I can't understand why Bobby would come to meet me when it's far from East City," she said, playing with her coffee mug.

"You can ask him later, he sent a WeChat message that he is on the way. Besides, I doubt it if he's coming from home at this hour," he said.

"Why do you find it so unbelievable that Bobby wants to catch up with you." Grand casually asked.

"I supposed because I don't actively take part with you guys back then," she answered.

"You hang out with us. Wasn't that enough to like you?" Grand frowning on how Ellise is making a fuss about catching up. "You also just hang out with DT, playing computer games in your apartment, right? That's why you're cool with him acting like he's your boyfriend or something." Grand said, deliberately fishing for information on why the usually indifferent DT was giving him a death glare at the welcome dinner party last night.

Ellise stopped her cup midway and gave Grand a questioning look.

"He was acting like he's challenging all of us to try to beat him in practice if any of us gets too close to you. Which is a strange way to act, when you aren't a couple or something. He's never the type to be the life of the party, but last night was extremely awkward, you know." he gossipy said.

"Hey, what's with that blushing face?" he said to Ellise who's chagrin with his teasing.

Ellise remembered how Grand can be so talkative back then, and unsurprisingly until now. She was saved from answering his annoying questions, when a hot guy approached their table, pulled a chair, and sat beside her.

"Yo, what's your CTF gamer name." asked the somber man with mischievous chinky eyes.

Ellise, blinks her eyes in front of this man, with a chiseled jawline, on full display with tight hair pulled into a bun.

"Bobby?" baffled, she asked.

"At your service." he bowed playfully and smiled that gave way to twin dimples at the right corner of his full red lips. This hunk of a man is the lanky Bobby back then?

She extends her hands for a handshake, but Bobby slightly slaps the back of her hand, grabs it for a shake, and makes a fist to bump, which she easily did, for it seems like her hand hasn't forgotten the seemingly intricate handshake ceremony of the all the kids at the skate park.

She stopped herself from ogling, and said "Miss E.", answering Bobby's first question about her gamer name.

"Fits you. What's with the bag? Are you running away right after seeing me?" he said with an impish smile.

"I'm flying to Xiamen," she answered.

"Hmm," he said nodding, showing no interest in asking why two years ago Ellise was one day just gone from their neighborhood.

Ellise was secretly relieved that she doesn't need to explain herself to these guys, that strangely treating her like she's an old friend. She isn't complaining but she finds it odd since she's far from being friendly back then.

"Bro, stop fidgeting, you're making me want to thwack your head," he said, grabbing Grand's head.

"I'm waiting for Little Xiao's message." pissed, he smacks Bobby's hand.

"Yeah, I bumped into Little Xiao a while ago and he said to hand it to you," he said, rummaging the pocket of his leather jacket, and handed Grand a box.

Grand quickly accepted it, then handed it to Ellise.

"Why do you want a RedMi x10 phone, Miss E." he scowled, asking Ellise."There are better phones out there."

"I don't have a phone, yet, and I want this one," she answered, while clumsily ripping the box opened.

Grand, took back the box from her, opened it, and gave back to her the gold-colored brand new phone.

She quickly opened and set up an account on her phone, opened her hand to Grand to ask for the sim card. After successfully putting the sim card, she dialed a number and said "Hi, this is Ellise, Tatay said I should call you today, I'm twenty minutes away from the airport." she said within one breath not giving the person on the other line a chance to talk, she listened for a few minutes and said goodbye.

She handed her phone to Bobby and said, "Give me your number, I'll be back after two days, I'll message you."

"Hey, how about me?" Grand said.

"Isn't today is your last free day from training," she asked.

"Ugh, don't remind me," he answered.

"I don't want an incompetent Captain," she said with a serious face that earned a hearty laugh from Bobby, and makes Grand scowled.

"Ellise your obliviousness is quite hurtful, you know." Grand feigning offense.

"Let's register you a WeChat account, it would be easier to reach you," said Bobby, downloading the said messaging app, without asking Ellise permission.

"Here fill out your deets, to finish it all up," he said, handing her phone back, then snapped a photo of her.

"Hey."

He gave her his impish smile, saying "Finished registering your WeChat account, so I could add you up."

"Yeah, add me as well, and let's take a photo too, so I could put it in my Moments," Grand said.

"You're brave now to share a picture of a girl on your Moments, you aren't hiding from your girlfriends now," she said.

"Boss told me to dump all my girlfriends when he promoted me to be a team, Captain. Look here," he said to Ellise.

Ellise smiles as Grand takes a selfie of the two of them but Bobby suddenly grabs Ellise's shoulder to put himself in the frame.

"Bro!" Grand protested with sheer annoyance with what Bobby just did. "Miss E, let's take one more photo," he said.

"No, I don't want to. Take me now to the airport, or I'll miss my flight," she said.

Bobby picked up her backpack and walked ahead of them. "Let's use my car."

"I also brought my car," Grand said, still grumbling.

But Bobby has Ellise's bag, Grand had no choice but left his car in the parking of the coffee shop and got in with Bobby's car.