By Chance

When the night deepened, Luo Nuying and Long Mei fell asleep with their heads propped against each other. 

"I should take her home," Jin Qing said to his friend Nikolai. 

Niko glanced at them both. "Judging by your mood, I would think things aren't going well with her. But her being here also tells me that's not the case. Then what is it?"

Jin Qing stared down at the coffee table in his friend's living room. "A lot is going on in my mind. Things I need to work through. But something that has been bothering me is that I fear Mei will go back to hating me one day," he confessed to his friend in fluid Russian. 

Nikolai released a breathy chuckle. "Do you see the way she sees you, my friend? That girl likes you. Whether she knows it or not, she wants you."

Jin Qing was wallowing in his self-pity. "You don't understand. Long Mei hated me for years. Why would that change?"