New Friends

After a few weeks of attending school, Emma had already managed to familiarize herself with her surroundings. However, because she was reclusive and didn't want to stand out, she never went to the cafeteria for lunch during recess.

She had always brought lunch from home and ate in her classroom while studying for the next subject. Sometimes, she would eat while preparing the tutorial materials for her five students. Emma didn't want to accept charity by taking money from Haoran and his friends without doing her work well. Therefore, she was trying her best.

Mary and Nadya were two of her closest classmates because they sat next to her. They had noticed that Emma never left the classroom during breaks and wondered why she wasn't interested in socializing. Nadya even suspected that Emma didn't have money to buy lunch in the cafeteria, so she tried to approach the girl and invite her.

"Hi Emma, ​​do you want to have lunch with us at the cafeteria?" Nadya asked carefully. "Today's my birthday, and I want to treat you and Mary to a meal."

Nadya and Mary exchanged glances, trying to assess Emma's expression, whether Emma was offended or not by the offer.

Emma was stunned by Nadya's invitation. She looked at her lunch box before looking at Nadya. Emma saw her sincerity and felt moved by it. She slowly nodded. "Thank you. I'll be happy to go with you."

"That's good, then! Come, I'll show you around on the way to the cafeteria." Nadya became excited as she pulled Emma by the hand out of the classroom. Mary immediately followed them from behind.

Over the past few weeks, Emma and her classmates' interactions had been limited to good mornings and good afternoons; a few group discussions about school assignments but nothing more. Emma wasn't accustomed to having friends because all this time, she had been isolated from the other children in the orphanage by Ms. Mabel's orders. Hence, she didn't know how to approach people or make friends. She eventually found comfort in being alone and minding her own business.

However, as these two classmates were friendly to her, her shunned heart slowly melted away. She tried to pay attention to Nadya's babble and occasionally smiled in response.

When they arrived in the large cafeteria, there were several food counters and dozens of chairs and tables scattered around, Emma immediately felt many pairs of eyes staring at her. She was beginning to attract the attention of the people eating and waiting in line for food. She didn't like this feeling.

All this time, Emma had always tried to arrive early at school and hurried home without attracting attention. She moved fast every time so not many students had seen her up to date. She didn't like being the center of attention, and that's one of the reasons why she avoided crowded places like the schoolyard and the cafeteria. Today, however, because Nadya had kindly invited her to lunch, she'd felt bad if she had said no.

"This is our school cafeteria. You can order anything. My treat," Nadya said happily.

Emma nodded. She tried to ignore the watchful eyes coming from different directions. "I'll have what you have," she said with a smile. "You must know better which one is good."

"Okay then," Nadya ordered a delicious chicken steak for herself and Emma, ​​while Mary ordered chicken rice. They brought their order cards over the counter and searched for an empty table to sit at while waiting for their food to be delivered.

"You're beautiful, do you know that?" commented Mary, who had realized the many pairs of eyes were looking at them. "You look unique. If I may ask, where did you come from?"

Emma said, "France."

"Oh, so do you often go to Paris? No wonder you want to go on a study trip to Paris," Nadya said. She nudged Mary, who was sitting next to her. "Hey, you chose to go on that study trip to China, leaving me to travel to Paris alone. Fortunately, Emma is going too. I now have someone to go around with in Paris. Later, I'll take Emma to go shopping with me."

"You know I only chose the study trip to China because I've heard Haoran will go there," Mary replied, pursing her lips. "Yolisa, in class F, said she saw him registering for China."

Emma glanced at Mary when she heard the girl mention Haoran's name. 'Did Mary like him?' Emma thought.

Nadya looked at Emma and sighed. "My friend here has awful taste in boys. She has liked Haoran Lee from class 2F since last year. She fell in love with him just because Haoran helped her that one time. But what can you get from such a man? Last year he was in class 2F, and this year he's still in the same class since he failed to advance again! People said he intentionally left all his answer sheets empty, but who on earth would do that?" Nadya grumbled as she nudged Mary. "Please try to obsess over a better guy. Haoran's a hopeless case. Find someone rich and smart, not just handsome. Good looks don't pay bills."

Emma wanted to cough when she heard Nadya's words. Rich and smart? She hadn't met anyone richer and smarter than Haoran in this school. Based on her observations for the past few weeks, Haoran was actually more intelligent than Cedric—the so-called smartest kid in class 2A.

'If you only knew, Nadya,' she thought, smiling faintly.

"Who do you consider rich then?" Emma asked Nadya eventually. She became curious why Nadya had called Haoran a hopeless case. If Haoran, who lived in a huge, opulent villa, wasn't considered rich, then what would make Nadya consider someone wealthy enough?

Emma had heard from Alex (in one of their gossip sessions whenever Alex drove her home after the tutoring session) that Haoran's father was the owner of Lee Industries Group. Their family was the fifth wealthiest in Asia. Surely, there must be only a few people who could be considered more affluent than the Lee family, right?

Nadya smiled broadly. Her eyes seemed to glow when she mentioned a name. "Example is Allan Wu. His father is one of the directors of the largest corporate group in Singapore. Maybe you've heard of Lee Industries? That's where his father works, and his family also has some shares there. Ahh, he's not only rich, but Allan's also very handsome."

Emma gave Nadya a look of disbelief. Did they have no idea who Haoran really was?

Jeez... Emma just realized it wasn't just her who's deliberately lying low at school. Apparently, the students at St. Catherine didn't know that Haoran was the son of the owner of Lee Industries.

Still, she kept that information to herself. She didn't make any comments at Nadya's words. Since Haoran did this on purpose, he certainly wouldn't like it if people found out who he truly was through her. Not to mention, that was none of her business.

"Uhmm... is that so?" Emma eventually commented. "Is this Allan Wu smart?"

"He's very smart and has always been in class A. Unfortunately, he's in his final year now. Ah... I only have one more semester to see him." From the way she talked about the guy, Nadya seemed to have fantasized about this guy named Allan. Her face was filled with smiles, and her eyes sparkled when she talked about him. A moment later though, that expression turned murky as Bianca's figure appeared from the cafeteria entrance. "Ugh... it's also unfortunate that Bianca's wrapped her claws around Allan. They're close because they're both members of the student council. My Allan's the president of the student council while Bianca is his vice-president until the end of this semester."

Emma followed Nadya's eyes. At the door, she saw Bianca coming in with three classmates, whom she noticed were always behind Bianca, almost as if they were her cronies.

Bianca happened to look at Emma's direction at the same time, and for a moment, their eyes met. Emma looked away indifferently since she didn't have any business with the girl.

Mary leaned in and whispered, "You know, Bianca thinks of you as her rival. Ever since you came to our school, she's no longer the queen in class A."

Emma didn't respond to Mary's words and just smiled.

"Our food is here," Nadya said suddenly.

A waitress came with a tray containing their orders. She made sure everything was there, before arranging the food on the table and gave a copy of the receipt. "Have a nice meal," said the waitress, "Excuse me."

"Thank you," replied the three girls in unison.

"Happy birthday, Nadya!" Mary clapped excitedly.

Emma also nodded. "Happy birthday, Nadya. Thank you for the food."

"You're welcome. Let's eat."

They ate while chatting about the next lesson. When Emma's food was almost finished, she felt thirsty and excused herself to the others to go and buy extra drinks.

"I want to buy a drink. Do you need anything?" Emma asked, getting to her feet.

"I'm good. My mother said you shouldn't drink too much after eating," Mary answered.

"I want lemon tea, please," Nadya said. "Thank you."

Nadya handed her card to Emma, ​​but Emma refused.

"No, I have money, really."

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

Emma walked to the drink counter and ordered two lemon tea. While waiting for the drinks to be prepared, she looked around and found Alex, one of her tutor-students, walking toward her.

"Hey, you're here. I've never seen you in the cafeteria before," commented Alex. He ordered some drinks too and waited alongside Emma.

"My friend treated me to lunch," she answered honestly. "I'd feel bad if I said no."

"Oh, you're so stingy. You only want to eat outside when other people pay for you," teased Alex, revealing his dimples as he smiled.

Inwardly, Emma complimented how good-looking this guy was. Yet at the same time, she suspected that this guy wasn't attracted to women because of his delicate nature.

"Oh, by the way, I just found out that a classmate of mine purposefully chose the study trip to China because of Haoran," Emma said. She glanced at Mary who was still busy eating and chatting with Nadya. "I can't imagine how disappointed she'd be once she finds out that Haoran's going to Paris instead."

Alex followed Emma's direction and then chuckled. He said nonchalantly, "Ah, that's none of your business, right?"