3 AT THE BAR

"You're going out looking like that?" Xue Guangxi raised a brow as he gave Kang Sola's appearance a good look from head to foot once, twice, repeatedly, ever so many times.

Kang Sola narrowed her eyes at Xue Guangxi's remark. 'What's wrong with my look?' She wondered. She's pretty much convinced she rocked the night-life party vibe.

She had styled her waist-length balayage hair into two large side-buns in the same style of Streetfighter's Chun-Li. Under those large hair buns, two large hoop earrings shouted their presence. The lady wore her signature tattoo-choker on her bare jadeite neck – a necessity that proved itself worthy of that place because it would look empty without it there. More especially now that the lady sported a black off-shoulder crop top under a denim jacket that appeared one or even two sizes larger than her fit.

"Yes. What's the problem? I think I look good. Do I not?" Kang Sola lifted her chin, challenging Xue Guangxi who had waited for almost two hours for her to get this look ready.

"Hehehe." He started with a nervous laugh, followed by, "Yes and no. What the hell is on your face?" He pointed deliberately, straightforwardly, but with all the caution in the world. He understood a thing or two about women and their appearances. One wrong, offensive word against a lady's best efforts to look amazing would probably lead to a guy's eventual death, figuratively, of course.

"Since when did you have freckles?" He gradually inquired, curiosity made the better of him. "Have you been staying out in the sun for too long? Just what are you doing when I'm gone?" The last sentence was loaded with concern.

He added, "It's adorable, of course. I'm just curious about it. I don't think I've gotten a pretty close look at you to even notice it before. It isn't bad, it's just… Uhm… New to me, that's all." He's truly being careful enough.

"Oh, that!" Her lips curled upward in an amused smile. "That's makeup. It's a fad these days."

"FAD???!!! You consciously put freckles on your face?! Seriously?" His mouth gaped as he gawked at her, incredulity winning over.

"Yeah, why not, right?" Kang Sola coolly brushed him off. She checked herself for one last time in the mirror.

Xue Guangxi's face shouted 'What the heck?' He raised his hands and head upwards as if questioning the heavens to help him comprehend the ways of women and their logic behind such acts. He shook his head as he closed his eyes and pinched his nose bridge. He tried hard to regain his composure.

'Why would you intentionally blemish an otherwise perfectly blemish-free face?' Why? What on earth happened when I was gone? How can such an idiotic idea be a fad? A fad?! Unbelievable.'

"Why do you look like you're upset?" She jested. His reaction looks funny and satisfying to her.

He kept on shaking his head. It seemed like a huge culture shock on him.

"You've come from the very place where fashion exists as a way of life. Why do you look so surprised?"

He shook his head a few more times, more belligerently than the situation even requires.

Kang Sola could not help but laugh. "If you're done coming to terms with it – or even if you aren't, let's go. We have to go now or we're going to be late." Kang Sola started for the door. "But then again, being fashionably late isn't much of big deal either." She added as she pulled the door open.

He hadn't recovered yet from the freckles incident, and here he stood, stunned beyond belief. His eyes almost popped out of his sockets. 'I would never get used to the party-party version of Kang Sola.'

Several years ago – seven years, to be exact – Kang Sola did not even enjoy staying at a bar. It's him who liked partying every single night, and during those times, even if he dragged her out of her comfort zone she never enjoyed any of it: the booze, the loud music, the smoke, the dressing up, the mingling with people. She would get bored in the middle of the raving crowd, or get suffocated by the smoke from the machine, or get uncomfortable being surrounded by strangers. One way or another, she would find an excuse to leave early.

The first time he returned from his studies abroad for vacation – about some six years ago – his face wore that same stunned expression when he saw her all prepped up for the bar. She said she had come to like it in his absence. She said it reminded her of him in some way, like he's still with her, doing all those crazy fun activities. She said it in her matter-of-factly way with a shrug of a shoulder.

Her statement made her look cool, but it somehow stirred Xue Guangxi into wondering if he had got something to do with the change, but eventually brushed the silly idea out of his head. 'Nah. So conceited, Guangxi. It's not because of you…'

'Is it?' Thinking back now, he had all the time in the world to figure out if indeed it had anything to do with his departure at all. After all, he would be going to stay in Beijing for good.

"Mother, we're going!" She called out towards the second-floor landing.

"Okay! Take care! Enjoy the night, dears! But not too much to be regretting it in the morning!" She chuckled. Jiang Biyu, the matron of the house appeared a minute later near the second-floor landing.

At the bar…

Upon entering, Kang Sola waved at the group of friends she spotted to be sitting in a booth near the veranda. She gave the ladies a gentle hug and the guys a fist bump.

"This is Xue Guangxi, the friend that just returned home today. Welcome him well, my friends! Cheers!" She made a toast and drank off.

The others did the same. Greetings were exchanged, and introductions made.

First, she introduced the girls, "That's Tsai Yawen and that's Zhou Yin." Then he pointed at the men, "These are Wu Xiang, Ye Chang, and Tang Yong."

"Hi!"

"Hello!"

After the pleasantries, Team Sola proceeded to interrogate the newcomer.

"So, you're from France?"

"Yep."

"Ooohhhh." The astonished crowd shouted in unison. "Cool."

"Sola, how come we've only met him now? You said you were friends for a long time." Tsai Yawen curiously asked. She instantly found Xue Guangxi quite good-looking.

"Yeah. Unfortunately, he left before I met you, guys." She answered absent-mindedly. She didn't even see Tsai Yawen make cute alluring faces at Xue Guangxi, which the latter paid no mind.

"Really now? So your friendship is older than ours." Wu Xiang enigmatically commented as he scrutinized Xue Guangxi with sharpness.

The latter tilted his head. He's not pleased with the man's tone nor his actions. He returned his stare and they gauged each other inconspicuously.

"How did you meet?" The girl Zhou Yin asked with curiosity, eyes wide and with a grin that dominated her radiant clear face.

"We met on campus and got ourselves into a bike accident." Xue Guangxi started the tale while shooting Kang Soal a side-glance. The lady prodded him to proceed with a nod of her head. "I was walking along this narrow pathway with my headphones on. Enter Kang Sola riding her bike – frantic, and shouting at me to get the hell of out the way, but I couldn't hear, you know? I was wearing my headphones."

"How foolish." Wu Xiang, Kang Sola's male friend, side-commented.