The Date (3)

After Feng Qi said that, the whole classroom went silent. Mr. Sam was the first one to recover.

The frown that was etched on Mr. Sam's face was pierced with frustration and a slight anger. With a measured tone, he said, "Mr. Feng Qi, please just read what is on your page and keep your personal business out of the class. Thank you."

Feng Qi answered readily and with conviction, "But that was exactly what I did. I read what was written on the page." Feng Qi was implying that the invitation to a date was something that was written on the book that he borrowed from Jun Yang.

As that realization travelled through the class, murmurs and whispers could be heard like souls rising up from long-forgotten graves. People started to chatter softly among themselves what this news implied. Some of them tossed sneaky glances at Jun Yang, Feng Qi and of course, Jun Yang's rumoured girlfriend, Pei Ling.

This possible love triangle was prime gossip material and the students gathered around it like flies around decaying food.

Jun Yang jumped up from his seat, proclaiming rather urgently, "I did not write anything like that on the book!" Then, he charged to grab the anthology away from Feng Qi's grasp and flew back to his seat. With a huff, he turned his face out the window, away from the questioning gaze of his classmates.

Jun Yang looked all flustered, while Feng Qi stood there with a cunning and amused smirk on his face. Pei Ling who was seated behind Jun Yang, gripped the pen tightly and she looked like she was fuming.

Mr. Sam did not quite know how to handle this situation. He considered just tossing all three of them out of his class but in the end, he decided to handle it like it was nothing serious and move on. He was a teacher and he believed he should stay away from the private relationship of his students.

He cleared his throat and he turned to Feng Qi. "Mr. Feng Qi, please take your seat, you have contributed more than enough to the class for the day. Thank you."

Feng Qi obliged. Mr. Sam then sighed silently to himself and moved his attention elsewhere. He called another student to recite the poem and promptly put the issue behind him.

…

That afternoon, the school was ablaze with rumors. The top student of Xing Ming Academy was in a seemingly homosexual relationship with the truant of the class? People salivated over news like that.

Jun Yang was too ashamed to show his face around school after class. He could see the question on people's faces and he himself did not know how to answer those questions so how was he going to answer them from other people?

Therefore, like usual, Jun Yang took his usual means of dealing with issues like this, which was to escape. Right after the bell for the last class rang, Jun Yang shoved everything in his bag and escaped from school like prisoner who was given release. Normally Jun Yang was the last one to leave school so this discrepancy gave quite a bit of material for people to gossip about as well.

"Does this mean that there is actual validity behind the rumours?"

"There has to be. Or else why would Jun Yang run away from us if he's not afraid of being stopped and asked?"

"Maybe we should go ask the other main characters for more information before we allow this rumour to spread even further."

'The other main characters' in question were of course none other than Feng Qi and Pei Ling.

Even though technically Feng Qi was the one who kickstarted the whole thing, his status was at such a fringe part of the social circle that no one actually thought about approaching him. They were not that familiar with the guy to ask him personal question like his relationship status.

Therefore, even though Feng Qi had a laidback attitude about him, no one accosted him to ask for clarification until he packed up his school bag and left Xing Ming Academy.

In other words, the student's main target was Pei Ling. However, things were not going so smoothly on that front either. There was a natural sense of superiority to Pei Ling but normally she hid it so well that other people would not have detected it.

However, that day, there were practically thunder clouds gathering around the young woman. She seemed ready to lash out at anyone who wandered too close so no one dared to ask her any question. Even though the other students were curios, curiosity did not cloud their judgment.

Eventually, Pei Ling stormed off and the students of Xing Ming Academy were left in a state of confusion and amusement.

…

Tomorrow was the weekend. In other words, the supposed date that Jun Yang 'asked' Feng Qi on was actually going to happen the next day.

That night, the young man rolled around in his bed and there was a definite frown on his face. Jun Yang looked up at the ceiling of his bedroom. He had already switched off the lights but he could see the light from the city outside dancing on the ceiling refracted through the window of his room.

'Is he joking about the date or not? He must be joking right? If I show up at the mall tomorrow and he's not there, wouldn't I make a complete fool out of myself?' Jun Yang tossed to the other side of the bed, hugging the pillow close to his chest. 'But what if he's being totally serious and I fail to show up? Will he wait for me? Will he be disappointed in me if I don't show up?'

'Argh! He is so annoying! Why must he do this to me?!' Jun Yang cursed at the young man who had managed to completely occupy his mind.

His mind went back and forth. To go or not to go… Eventually, Jun Yang fell asleep before he came to a decision.