An Opportunity

"Leave!" she said angrily as she tried to stand up from the chair, but DT suddenly kneel in front of her, and in her panic, she was ended glued on the chair with her mouth opened.

"Don't pretend that you don't know what you did!" DT angrily shouted in her face. "Haven't you seen the scandal? It's been in top search in Wiebo for a week now!" he said.

"It was on a top search, because of the Singapore competition! Who cares about your relationship with Asya. You're both single and you can date to your heart's content!" she angrily shouted back, with tears falling from her traitor eyes! As she was screaming, a voice at the back of her head said that her tears are just because she is hungover. Not because of the small tinge of jealousy in her heart. Not even a bit.

Of course, she knew, the dating of DT, - the number one Chinese CTF player for two consecutive years now, and Asya a member of the first Chinese CTF team that won the Asian championship ten years ago, that now works as a game commentator for CTF competition in China, and as manager of SH team, another big club of CTF players in China. SH team used to be the number one team of CTF players in China, until the recently concluded game in Singapore where DT and his teammates for the first time won the championship and became the representative of China for the next year's World Championship game, is the talk of the town. Not only because WIZ and SH teams are known rivals but because of the big year gap between the people involved.

It won't be an issue if this is in another part of the world. Sad to say it is Asia. There are still old-fashioned ideas between age gaps. Most especially that the older in the relationship is a woman. People will probably be more forgiving if the man is the older one.

In Weibo, China's most popular social media platform, it's been weeks that the topic of DT, twenty years old, and Asya twenty-eight years old dating, is selling like popsicles on a summer day. The recently concluded CTF championship fuels the fire in the CTF circle. The issue is accepted as badly as Ellise thought. Asya is strongly criticized as seducing a young DT.

People are leaving malicious content for Asya while DT is being praised as someone who can covet a beautiful, and mature woman. The hypocrisy of society. But right now, Ellise is in no position to criticize anybody, especially she is the instigator of the said scandal.

Of how Ellise knew the relationship between Asya and DT, is merely an accident which happened last February, on her birthday.

She celebrated her birthday with some people she met at the Amanyangyun bar, in a five-star hotel about thirty minutes away from Hongqiao International Airport. The people she was with are strangers. They don't even know it's her birthday. Ellise just doesn't want to be alone on her birthday so she chooses to check in a hotel near the airport with the idea that there are probably some foreigners she could hang out with. Which she did. But as the night progressed, Ellise felt tired of acting happy to entertain a bunch of strangers just so she won't be on her own. She excused herself and decided to just go to her room and get wasted alone.

Around three in the morning, she already finished all the Merlot in the room, she dialed in the room service to bring in more bottles. But, she got bored waiting and decided to wait for the waiter in the hallway, and from the threshold of the room next to hers, was a girl standing on tiptoe, hanging to a tall young man's neck while they kissed passionately. Ellise doesn't mind it. She grew up in Europe, things like that are normal. But as the waiter approached, the woman suddenly let go of the man's lips and neck. Strengthen her dress, said her goodbye discreetly, and walked the opposite direction from the elevator.

Which Ellise finds strange if she will leave, why walk away from the elevator. She grabs her wine bottles, gives the waiter a tip, and when she's about to close her door, she meets the eyes of the man from the next room, and Ellise suddenly sober up, as she feels a cold sense of recognition. The man is the reason why she's in China! He acknowledged her with a curt nod and returned his gaze where the woman walked away.

Ellise hurriedly closed her room, leaning on the door while clutching the bottles of Merlot in her arms, she thoughts for a reason why the woman and the tall man is obviously looking like some characters in a family drama, cheating on a hotel far from the city to rendezvous with their secret lovers. In the haze of Ellise's drunk brain is a humming of another drama. This time it involves her as the villain.

For the tall man is someone Ellise clearly knew. She first saw him in Norway at the University of Stavanger, for the ACM (The Association for Computing Machinery) competition. He bagged the first place. And Ellise, with her fifteen years old heart, feels a feeling she can't explain. She stalked the man, and his group up to the airport, listening to them speaking in Chinese. Ellise can't believe that she would find herself eavesdropping to that man again.

When the footsteps return to her neighbor's door, an impulsive Ellise grabs the door handle and flings the door open. Her neighbor was surprised by the sudden sound and was standing stunned right in front of Ellise's door. It looks like he walked the woman to the elevator and is now returning to his room.

As they both stood awkwardly in the hallway, Ellise heard herself say "What would you do if the public knows your relationship?"