18 "chen"

3AM at night we were in Zhao Jingchen's car as drove towards the hospital. Zhao Jingchen was driving and I sat in the passenger seat with Lanyard and Hacker at the back. Lanyard was holding a napkin on his wound to stop the blood as Hacker ate his stupid kebabs he refused to leave behind. And because of this stupid man I even had to change cars.

The stupid bully Wen Lili who no one can win from is actually hemophobic. Who could have thought?

"Give me one." I said. All the hustle today made me drained as I saw him stuffing his mouth with no worries, I grew hungry.

Hacker looked at me alarmed and moved his plate more towards himself, "My dad hit me with his golf club."

Fine then. You're pitiful.

I sighed. I wanted to give up and not act out but the scent of food wafted towards me as I heard the sounds of his oily mouth chewing.

"I'm hungry." I looked at Lanyard pitifully. I really couldn't stop myself.

"Stop being a brat. We have to get him to the hospital. He could have a concussion." She said pointing at Hacker.

"Lanyard."

"Call the other girl. Tell her to pick up something for you." The silent Zhao Jingchen suddenly spoke up. I had almost forgotten he was there and felt a little embarrassed for my behavior. I don't know why I felt so irritated right now.

"Oh." I dialed Chief's number, our cold war a thing of the past now. It was when a phone vibrated in my back pocket that I realized that I had kept her phone in my back pocket when she suddenly felt dizzy and nauseated at the side of Hacker's blood.

"Her phone's with me." I turned again towards Lanyard whose whole attention was on Hacker right now.

"Call Senior Ling then."

I kept looking at her silently waiting. She looked at me with an eyebrow raised before realization daunted on her.

"I have his number, wait I'll call him."

"Or you can give it to me and I'll call." I blurted before I could stop myself which made her look at me slyly."You need to keep pressing on his wound. What to do if he becomes stupid?" I rushed to justify.

She passed her phone to me smirking as Hacker looked between us without any clue of what was going on.

"What do you mean?" Hacker asked. I turned around without answering as he kept pestering Lanyard to tell him what she meant. Zhao Jingchen gave me a side look which made me realize that not everyone is as stupid as Hacker to not understand the little conversation. I focused on opening Lanyard's phone and finding Ling Bingchen's number. Her having his number was no big deal, they were in the same department and Lanyard was someone who efficiently took everyone's contact when she met them. Never know when you need someone.

I snorted at her habits earlier but now I want to thank god she did it.

I copied the digits into my phone before calling. He picked up on the third ring.

"Hello."

"Senior, this is Qiu Yu."

"Hmm, what is it?"

"I'm sorry but can you tell Chief to pick up some food for everyone? Everyone is a little hungry."

"Who everyone? It's obviously only you." Hacker quipped from the back and Lanyard rushed to shut him up.

I don't know whether he heard Hacker or not but he chuckled. It sounded so nice that my hand almost went to tap record on my phone so I could keep this sound for myself to hear every day.

"Hungry?" I refused to answer him.

"Okay, do you want burgers?"

"I had it for lunch today." I whispered. Hacker snorted from the back as he remembered the lunch I had made him pay for.

"Then, pizza?"

"En."

"Okay, wait for me."

"Senior." I said as I realized he was going to hang up. "This-This is my number."

He chuckled again.

"Okay, I'll save it."

I felt my cheek redden. I didn't mean that.

I mean I did but you didn't have to say it.

"Okay."

I hung up the call smiling big when I realized that the car had stopped at a red light and everyone was looking at me. I immediately bit my lip, looking down at my phone.

I single mindedly texted Qiu Zhoufan telling her we had found Hacker and that I'll come back tomorrow to return the car. Only when the car started moving again did I have the courage to open my call log again. I tapped on the last number to save it into my contacts.

I looked at the contact name section before typing a single word "Chen" and saving it. This was a big thing for me as this was the first time that I had saved someone's contact with a nickname. Though we all had a nickname for each other: Lanyard, Hacker, Chief and mine was Rain though they rarely called me that; but in my contacts, they were all saved properly by their given name.

I knew I minded Chief being alone with him in the car. I minded him associating with other women. I didn't realize it but when I heard his voice on the phone I realized that I wanted to own it. I wanted this voice to only laugh at my words, only buy food for me, and only call my name.

I was being selfish again. Selfish for something that might have been someone else's originally.

"Say, if I burn my hand right now would they care enough to stop?"

Stop. Stop. Stop it, Qiu Yu.

I opened my contacts again before changing 'Chen' to 'Ling Bingchen'.

~

Ling Bingchen found the closest Pizza Hut and parked the car, getting out of it. Wen Lili followed still chattering away. This woman really could talk. She had talked the whole way here and still had things to say. This was the last person he thought Qiu Yu would befriend but here they are.

"I actually never thought you would be Senior Xiao's roommate. It's such a small world. That day you saved our Yuyu from the car, thank you for that by the way, I thought we would never be able to see you again and thank you but fate is fate. We really can't overturn it. But how small is the world right? You turned out to be Senior Xiao's roommate."

"En." Ling Bingchen replied half heartedly as he lined up at the cash counter.

"But Senior, you help me tell your roommate to stay away from my Yuyu. My Yuyu doesn't like someone like him. He has peach shaped round eyes. My old grandma said that those kinds are the most frivolous. It's better to stay away from them."

Yuyu doesn't like you either; who are you calling 'my'? Ling Bingchen furrowed his eyebrows but didn't say anything. Wen Lili saw the change and thought he was feeling indignant for his roommate so she rushed to explain.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying he's a bad man. They are just not very suitable. But him calling her all the time and finding excuses to meet her and duping her is not very proper, right? Yuyu has already refused him but he keeps lingering like a ghost. It must be scary for a girl right. My Yuyu is a fragile girl who can't stand all this. I shouldn't be saying this…."

Then don't say it. Ling Bingchen looked forward at the line that just won't move forward.

"But Senior, he's almost like a stalker. Not only him. Actually to tell you the truth, a lot of Yuyu's pursuers are. Senior Xiao, Do Duoxie, there's a Su something-something guy I keep forgetting his name! Then there is Pin Jian from political theory. Do you think she only attracts these kinds of people? Though Senior Xiao is the best out of the lot and does have good future prospects but what can I do? Yuyu doesn't like him so even my hands are tied."

"Three large meat lovers' pizza. Hold the cheese in one. What beverage do you want? Ling Bingchen ordered before turning to Wen Lili to ask. Only then did she realize that they had already reached the counter.

"Milk tea."

"Four milk teas and one coke. Also add a few sachets of ketchup to my order. We'll be taking it away, thanks." Ling Bingchen finished before taking his card out and swiping it. They moved to the side waiting for their orders. Wen Lili noticed that the woman at the counter kept looking at Ling Bingchen but he was busy looking down at his phone. As expected of their college's treasure. He was gone for a whole year but was still the most popular man on campus. Wherever he went, he was like a lion to whom all the lionesses of the pride was attracted to.

Though Wen Lili was not a lioness, she couldn't help but look at him too, purely to appreciate a fellow creature. He was so good looking but still so restrained it's like he was a gift wrapped and sealed tightly waiting for its owner to open it up. Boy, did she want to be there to see the unraveling. He's so well put together, it would be fun to see him all frazzled. The way he handled Yuyu today, he'd be so good to his girldfriend. Wait….

Yuyu!

"Senior! I forgot Yuyu is lactose intolerant. She can't drink milk tea!" Ling Bingchen looked up from his phone.

"I know. The coke is for her. The pizza without cheese is for her too."

"Oh." Suddenly Wen Lili felt that Senior Ling seemed a little smug when he said this. She inexplicably felt a little put off by the fact that he seemed to be one step ahead of her. Wen Lili is very good at taking care of her friends but with this Senior Ling, it seemed like she didn't need to.

"Senior, you handled Yuyu's panic attack so well today. She has never had an attack in front of us so we never knew so the situation was a bit out of control right. Thank god you were there. We should give you a big meal for helping us today. Can you teach me how to take care of her in this situation? What if next time you aren't around to help her?" Though her words were very nice but the way she emphasized it, it seemed that Wen Lili was hinting that she would be the one always around Qiu Yu, taking care of her and not Ling Bingchen.

"Okay." Ling Bingchen was not bothered though. This person was a whole wrong gender for him to bother about. The oblivious Wen Lili, though, was very satisfied with his answer.

"How did you know though, Senior, what to do? Have you experienced a similar situation before?"

Suddenly Ling Bingchen remembered when it had happened before. He had been walking towards the cafeteria when she had dashed past him. He knew that she should have been practicing for the piano recital the next week right now so he followed her to see what was wrong. He saw her run into a small alleyway behind the school where no one really went to.

He didn't want to leave her alone but he knew that he would be noticed if he followed her into the lane but he wasn't ready for that. He didn't have the courage yet to walk forward from behind her to walk beside her. His heart wouldn't be able to take it. So he hid around the corner to look at what she was doing.

She was squatting on the street, her whole body shivering. That's when he started panicking. She wasn't the kind to be breaking down or showing emotion so he knew something was very, very wrong. He forgot all about his insecurities and plans and ran towards her to help her.

At that time, he didn't know what he was dealing with. The more he touched her to calm her down, the more she struggled. The more he crowded her, shaking and screaming at her to snap out, the more she couldn't breathe, the more she couldn't see. It seemed like everything kept falling apart the more he tried to bind them until she ended up passing out.

"Yes." Ling Bingchen replied to Wen Lili, not explaining further before he took their order, crumbling and throwing away the paper the cashier girl passed him with her number on It; and walking out towards the car.