Chapter 7 - The Knight

As I told you before: Kai and I go all the way back to our childhood. We played together since I was a baby. My parents have a photo in our family photo album where we fell asleep together between all our toys, where I lied with my head on Kai's little tummy and Kai held on to me protectively.

Once in elementary school, a boy from my class pushed me off the monkey bars when the teacher wasn't looking. I didn't get hurt that badly, but I cried because I was a little kid. Somehow, Kai found out, even if the older kids played somewhere else, and he came running. The first thing he did was check if I was hurt and when he saw the bleeding scrapes on my arms and knees, he got angry. He asked the other kids where the boy was that pushed me, and they all pointed to him. Everyone knew that they had to listen to Kai and if you did anything to hurt me, you best bet you were going to feel his wrath.

Kai stomped over to the boy and then started fighting with him. That only made me cry worse because someone was getting hurt because of me, and Kai would get in trouble again.

That night, I made him a card. I wasn't good at writing or reading yet, so I asked my parents to help me. In the card I told him:

Dear Kai,

Thank you for always helping me when I get hurt or when I am in trouble. You are the best big brother friend ever!

But please stop getting into fights because of me. It makes me sad when others get hurt... and it makes me even sadder when you get hurt and in trouble.

So, next time I will not let you get into fights. I will not cause any more trouble.

Let's live peacefully!

Meiyi

When I gave him the card, he was immediately apologetic. He told me that he was sorry, but when someone hurt me, it made him angry. It made him so angry that he wanted to punch them. "A knight can't let anyone hurt the princess!" He said.

Who knew that he would follow that principle all the way through his life.

In high school, before we started dating, I sat outside with a group of my friends during lunch. We talked and joked around, until another upper-class man girl came to our table with two other girls.

"Meiyi, right?" Her hair was as perfect as her fake eyelashes.

I looked at my friends, and all of them seemed as confused as I was. "Yes, that's me."

She grinned, and something about her seemed ominous, "Nice to meet you. You're not as pretty as I thought."

She motioned for me to follow her. I stayed where I was. I had a bad feeling about this girl.

"Do as she says," one of her followers said with a threatening expression. My friends all stared, wide-eyed.

I got up and stood face-to-face with the threatening girl, "I don't have to do what anyone says, especially if they threaten me or my friends."

The upper-classman girl turned around, and looked at me with an expression that told me "How dare you?". I guessed that this girl thought that she ruled the world or something.

One of my friends spoke in a terrified voice, "Meiyi! That's Yaoyao and her gang! You can't speak to them that way! They'll hurt you!"

Yaoyao? That name sounded familiar. I wracked my brain.

Yaoyao! The girl that wrote Kai 60 love letters? That Yaoyao?!

I burst out laughing.

The threatening girl grabbed my collar. "What's so funny?"

I ripped her hand away from my collar, and then looked at Yaoyao. "I don't know. It's just that I can see why 'your honey' doesn't like you back."

Yaoyao's face grew crimson. She looked like she felt a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

She ran towards me, knocked me over and started throwing punches at my face. I shielded my face the best I could with my arms.

"You are f*cking nothing! You're ugly! You're fat! How can he like you and not me!"

I got out from under her and ran towards the stairs leading down to the sports field. People were taking pictures and videos, and I noticed that one of my friends had left, probably to get a teacher.

Before I got to the top of the stone stairs, the threatening girl and Yaoyao caught up to me and caught me by my clothes. Yaoyao pulled at my hair and scratched me with her long nails, and the other girl hit me.

As I tried to get away from them, I neared the stairs until my foot slipped.

But I was caught by a familiar pair of arms.

Yaoyao's widened eyes told me exactly who it was.

"What the hell is going on here?" Kai asked. He was in his basketball clothes, and he was a bit sweaty. He must have been practicing for the big basketball tournament. His entire team had followed him there, and were chasing away people who were taking pictures and videos.

"I-I- Honey?" Yaoyao said.

Kai looked disgusted. "What did you just call me?" He was still holding on to me as he spoke.

Behind him I could see the friend that was kissing a minute ago. So that's where she went. She smiled, mouthing, "I went to fetch your knight in shining armour." I rolled my eyes.

Yaoyao was speechless. Her one fake lash fell to the ground and her previously perfect hair was now a complete mess.

Kai looked down at me. His face was covered in sweat and his hair was wet and messy. "You okay?"

I nodded, "I'm perfect." Then I grinned widely.

Kai frowned and touched my face gently. I winced as he touched the scratches and bruises.

Yaoyao's threatening friend screamed in anger. "Stop touching that b*tch in front of Yaoyao!"

She leapt towards Kai.

I stepped out of Kai's grasp and punched her in the face. She fell to the ground, clasping her nose and I stood over her, "Don't you dare hurt him even more than you already have."

These girls have been stalking Kai for a long time now. He never admitted it, but it bothered him. It bothered him enough that it caused him a lot of emotional stress. His marks had dropped and he was overworking himself in basketball to escape from everything. I wanted to know the faces behind everything for very long now, so that I could put an end to it all.

Everyone's eyes were wide in shock. Kai blinked a few times.

I stood right in front of Yaoyao. "And you. Leave Kai alone. He's been through enough because of your delusional mind." Then I punched her in her perfect nose too.

I got in a lot of trouble for hitting those girls, but the principle let me off easy to only some detention when he found out the whole story. He expelled the stalkers and a restraining order was placed on them.

The night after the ordeal, Kai and I went to the movies, and then we went to our favourite spot where we could look over the whole city. Kai chuckled and said, "Wow, who thought the princess would save the knight."

I wanted to say something in response, but he stopped me with a kiss. My mind went blank and I couldn't remember what I wanted to say at all.

He pulled away and looked tenderly into my eyes, "Will you be my girlfriend?"

I blinked. "H-huh?"

"I like you, Meiyi. I've liked you since forever." He said, holding my face between his hands.

"F-forever?"

"Yup," he said, nodding with a smile.

I blinked again, still dazed. "W-why???"

He laughed, "I don't know! I just do, okay?"

I took him in. His always-messy hair. His handsome face. His gentle, kind eyes. Honourable, knightly Kai, always coming to my rescue. He was always there. Kai was always there.

~☆~

I sat by our kitchen island, nursing a cup of coffee. Kai smiled and kissed me goodbye as he left for work.

Kai was always there. But what good was it doing him? He was living his life to keep me safe and happy. Was he even living his life for himself?

Another question was: how would he handle it if I were to leave? If I ended our relationship and left him...

A tear fell into my coffee.

If I ended our relationship for his own good... would he be able to handle it? If he lived his life for me, and I took myself out of his life, how would he live?