Not At First Sight

She was used to this.

Qiao An did not know which one is sadder - The fact that she used to lift heavy things alone or the fact that she was alone.

Qiao An had four bags of groceries, two in each hand and those groceries were freaking heavy. She started to regret her decision to take all the groceries in one go. Lately, she was feeling so lazy to do anything, including buying groceries. Today that she finally had the mood for groceries, her diligence was short-lived.

Qiao An lived in a four-floor apartment, and she lived alone on the second floor of this D-block. It has been a week since she moved into the neighbourhood and she did not know anyone. Somehow, during this time, she missed her three best friends.

Since Qiao An lived alone and she was too lazy to make the second trip to get her groceries, she had to bring all in one trip. Qiao An was sweating, and she knew that her make-up must have melted up to this point.

The weather in City L is hot -too hot for her liking. She blew her see-through fringe as it obstructed her view since she could not use her hand to tuck it to her ear. Her fingers were aching, and the groceries could drop at any moment.

The thing she feared the most come into action on the first floor when her poor finger could not lift the heavy groceries anymore. Qiao An's finger just gave up, and her groceries dropped on the floor. The fallen groceries made a loud thud. So, Qiao An had to look at her surroundings - to make sure that none of the residents on the first floor was around to see her.

Some of the jar food and oranges she bought scattered out from the groceries bag when it dropped on the floor, and one of them rolled to the front door of house D1006 - the house directly below her apartment. The resident of house D1006 seemed to be around today as the door was slightly ajar.

Qiao An realised that since the day she moved into the apartment complex, the house showed no sign of being occupied by a human. Qiao An thought that D1006 was vacant, but that did not seem to be the case now.

Qiao An bent down to pick up the orange from the door when she heard a voice from the inside approaching the front door.

"I heard something from outside. Maybe it's the furniture that I ordered last time…"

Qiao An panicked, and she picked up the orange quick, but a beautiful lady suddenly opened the door. The lady was looking down at Qiao An and Qiao An was looking up awkwardly. Her position was peculiar now. It was very suspicious. Qiao An stood up straight slowly as she maintained her eye contact with the beautiful lady.

The beautiful lady and Qiao An stared at each other for a moment. Then, the lady suddenly had the look of epiphany on her face.

"Hey, it's you". The beautiful lady smiled excitedly towards Qiao An. Seeing that Qiao An did not respond to her, the lady continued talking excitedly "Qiao An. It's me, Amy. We went to the same high school. Remember?"

Qiao An did feel that the lady in front of her was quite familiar. When she mentioned her name, Qiao An seemed to recall something about her.

Amy Shen.

She was one of the top 10 students in her high school. The last time she remembered, Amy Shen was a popular girl in school as she was beautiful, smart and friendly. Even after ten years, she gets more beautiful than Qiao An could remember.

Qiao An tried so hard to remember any other information about Amy, but she could not because they were not close. Qiao An was also one of the top 10 students in her school for her grade, but she never actually talked to Amy before as they were not in the same class.

"I didn't know that you are in City L. What are you doing here? Working?" Amy Shen was excited to meet someone she knew from her high school. After working in City L for a year, she did not see any familiar face around.

"I just moved in one week ago. You move in too?" Qiao An was quite awkward towards someone she was not familiar with. She wanted to keep the conversation at a minimum so that she could go back to her own house, but it seemed that Amy Shen did not intend to end the conversation yet.

"I'm here for over a year. I'm renting this house with my brother. You remember my brother, right? Oh my god, I am so happy to see you. We could hang out together next time if we have time. Where do you live?" Amy Shen was genuinely happy to see Qiao An.

Qiao An felt that telling Amy Shen that she lived upstairs in inevitable as they were bound to meet each other in the future anyway. "Upstairs. D2006"

"That's great! We could visit each other often. We can talk about…" Amy Shen wanted to talk more, but a very tall guy appeared from the house.

"Who are you talking to?" The man stopped talking. Then, he looked at the female who was standing outside with orange on her hand.

"Brother, do you remember Qiao An? She went to the same high school with us" Amy Shen kept on looking at her brother and Qiao An. Even though there were a lot of people went to the same high school as them, her brother must be able to remember Qiao An as Amy Shen always talked about Qiao An to him.

"She seemed familiar, though. You just moved in?" Shen Jun Shen was talking calmly.

Qiao An was just an acquaintance, and there was no need for him to be happy or excited upon seeing her. Since Qiao An seemed to echo his feeling, the conversations between the three of them were cut short. Qiao An excused herself, and the siblings entered their house.

That was the official introduction between Qiao An and Shen Jun Shan.

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Ten years ago…

Shen Jun Shan first saw Qiao An was during his PE class. Both of his class and Qiao An's class were having the same period for PE. Qiao An looked a bit different in high school as she was chubby and she pulled all her hair up to show her broad forehead.

Shen Jun Shan was playing soccer with his friends while a group of female students watched them from the sidelines. Since girls were watching them, one of Shen Jun Shan's friends was overly excited to show off.

"Shen Jun Shan, today I will show you my super-ultra-fast kick. I will score ten goals today". The captain of the opposite team stood head to head with Shen Jun Shan and right after he declared that he'd score ten goals for today, he proceeds on kicking and dribbling the ball.

Shen Jun Shan run after the captain, and when the captain was about to kick the ball hard, Shen Jun Shan pulled the shirt of the captain to prevent him from kicking the ball. However, the captain of the opposite team managed to kick the ball, but the direction was slightly off.

Out of the blue, a girl in ponytails walked in that direction. Being unlucky she was, the ball hit her right on her face. The girl fell on the spot, and a lot of the girls went to see if she was alright.

The girl stood up on her own without any help from the other girls. Shen Jun Shan and the captain of the opposite team approached the girl as they felt guilty about her. As they approached the girl, they could see blood dripping from her nose.

As they about to reach the girl, the girl suddenly walked hurriedly from the scene while pinching her nose. Shen Jun Shan and his friend did not manage to say anything, and the girl walked away just like that. Both of them could only watch her from there.

And that was how Shen Jun Shen first met Qiao An.