Cafeteria Trouble

'A phone???' Yi Fan was ecstatic.

Most of his classmates already had a phone and showed them off to the poor kids who couldn't afford them. They would constantly play multiplayer games and have tiny competitions of whose phone was better in terms of size, gigabytes, and model. Though Yi Fan did not feel compelled to be equally materialistic, he still felt a little envious of those undeserving owners. However, Yi Fan now owned the best phone in his class!

He gleefully smiled and almost laughed aloud, genuinely happy in getting such a gift. He quickly pressed the power button on the side, knowing full well how to use a phone from watching classmates all these years. It took a long time for the phone to power on, and Yi Fan wanted to tell it to hurry up!

Suddenly, the black phone powered on, its heavenly white screen glaringly reflecting off of Yi Fan's brown eyes. In the middle, an ink-black logo glistened in its glory.

The boy in his cute animal pajamas couldn't take off the grin on his face.

Quickly, he went over the process of face id, password, screen interface, etc. After completing all the required information, the first thing he did was go to the app store and download all the free games that looked interesting.

In the Mo family, they had a family computer where Yi Fan and Yi Fei often played together. Unfortunately, Mrs. Mo limited the children's time to only an hour per day. It was quite boring as they didn't have much to do other than tediously studying and doing bulky amounts of homework.

"Oh, are you awake?"

Yi Fan instantly put his phone down, recognizing his benefactor. He grinned with his bright white teeth, and despite the pain, passionately removed the blanket and jumped onto to Mrs. Mo to give her a big hug. Mrs. Mo, not expecting her sick son to be so energetic, mouthed a big "oomph" in response.

Yi Fan rubbed his delicate face against Mrs. Mo's leg, clearly thankful for receiving such a pricy gift.

"Do you like the present I gave you?" Mrs. Mo asked. She had a loving smile on her lips, tenderly patting Yi Fan's soft hair. Her worries were easing seeing that her son was finally awake.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Yi Fan looked up to Mrs. Mo's face, smiling with all of his might.

"Well, I'm happy my son is happy, but look at you. Skin and bones! I already prepared lunch, so give me your phone while you eat. I need to put some contacts on speed dial." Mrs. Mo purposefully said. "Remember, if you get into any trouble, press 0. It's the emergency call center—"

"Zero zero zero, no problem!" Yi Fan enthusiastically shouted, thoughtlessly interrupting Mrs. Mo. He then hastily ran towards the dining room with the phone still in his hand making Mrs. Mo ardently shake her head, contemplating if she had made the right decision.

--

It was the next day. Yi Fan came back to school, and the day went as routine as any day went. Teachers went on teaching classes, not passionate nor dull in their lessons. Meanwhile, some students were diligent in listening and taking neat notes while others were evidently hiding a comic in their textbooks or using their phones.

Despite it being barely 8 o'clock, the youthful students were already considerably fatigued and disinterested. Some of the students were beginning to nap on their wooden desks while others were sneaking in a bite of their snacks.

After a few restless hours, the old school bell rang, and famished students hastily ran straight out the door. However, more students were relaxed in their seats, grabbing their already prepared lunch boxes. Inside were plentiful, scrumptious dishes of traditional Chinese food. The moms were obvious good cooks who liked making piquant and delectable meals for their children.

Meanwhile, a few cute girls cheerfully approached Yi Fan, who was still meticulously organizing his school supplies.

"Yi Fan, do you want to go to the cafeteria with me?"

"Yi Fan, I have honey chips! Do you want some?"

"Yi Fan, are you free after school?"

Irked by their excessive talking, Yi Fan sluggishly stood up and started to walk to the cafeteria. Yi Fan completely ignored the girls, not bothering to say a word. Instead of these ugly girls, Yi Fan wished he could've just eaten lunch with Yi Fei. However, the elementary school had different lunch schedules for their grade levels and so, Yi Fan could only meet up with Yi Fei during the short breaks and after school.

In the cafeteria, Yi Fan had grabbed a cup of water, mushroom soup, marinated beef, and rice, and started to look for an empty lunch table. This was because he didn't want to talk to anyone today because it was too much of a bother and he also didn't really have any friends. Suddenly, he spotted Xiao Ming and his feisty group of friends nearby. They were laughing and joking about something on one of their phones, probably a meme.

Yi Fan crudely smirked, seeing that the phone was the third newest model. Being a kid and all, Yi Fan was quite petty despite what others typically thought of him. Walking near them with a gray lunch tray full of food, he decidedly flipped out his brand-new phone to collect his daily chest.

"Ah, I didn't get a 5 star!" Yi Fan said out loud, eyeing the group for their reaction.

However, the group was too busy looking at funny memes off the internet to hear what Yi Fan had said. It frustrated Yi Fan, and he was going to give it another go before noticing the sudden abundance of girls surrounding him.

"5 star? Are you playing Chocolate Legends?"

"Hey, my brother plays that game!"

"Oh, Yi Fan! Isn't that the newest model?"

He noticed a familiar-looking girl amongst the crowd, mainly because she was right up his neck. She affectionately held onto his arm as she continued to talk, smiling pleasantly at Yi Fan. Yi Fan tried to shrug off her firm grip, but she was remarkably determined not to let go. This all happened as other girls obnoxiously continued to talk off their mouths, ardently drowning Yi Fan in unpalatably sweet words.

The commotion of chatty girls finally made Xiao Ming's group notice Yi Fan, though for a different reason than intended. The cluster of boys looked spitefully at Yi Fan, seeing the rather pretty girls' feverish attention on him. Though they were still quite young, they had already grown out of the cooties stage and were already curious about the other sex.

"Yi Fan, what's your phone number?"

"Oh, I want it too!"

"Let's exchange WeChats!"

Xiao Ming unawarely discerned Yi Fan's directed displeasure against the dense crowd, and he stopped his harsh glare in acknowledgment. 'Yi Fan doesn't like girls?' Xiao Ming pondered. 'Maybe I should go help him out.' Then, he assertively pulled Yi Fan out of the close-knit huddle at an opening, causing Yi Fan to fumble in his steps. When Yi Fan looked up to see the perpetrator, Xiao Ming gave him a mischevious smile.

"Hey, Yi Fan doesn't like you girls. He still thinks you have cooties!" Xiao Ming daringly pointed at Yi Fan. "You like this kind of guy? Go away!"

What?

"No, you!"

"I still like Yi Fan!! He's cool!"

"Yeah, unlike you!"

Yi Fan ambiguously looked at Xiao Ming, unable to comprehend the current situation. Why was Xiao Ming helping him? No wait, was this considered help? He firstly took off Xiao Ming's dirty hand, having a distaste for any sort of physical contact. He was already hacked with that gutsy girl.

What was her name? Oh yeah, Ming Xi.

"If you don't leave Yi Fan alone, then I'm going to pull down my pants!" Xiao Ming boasted.

"Iya!"

"Go away, you freak!"

"I'm going to tell the teacher!!"

The garrulous crowd of girls then covered their eyes and fleetingly ran away with tails between their legs. Xiao Ming proudly looked on the sight, clearly satisfied in his clever handling. But to the person he had generously helped out, Xiao Ming just looked like an uncultured giraffe.

Yi Fan was extremely horrified by Xiao Ming's vulgar ways, his neutral image of Xiao Ming negatively impacted.