109 Ditched

Fan Xinyue, a regular in a café, sipped on her coffee calmly as she looked at a picture on her laptop.

It was Zhou Lei's sleeping face!

There were also the figures of the people in the gimp suits behind him about to crash into the windows...

She analyzed the mark of the face on the gimp suit since that was the only clue left to the culprits.

After all, Big Tree, her only lead, had disappeared. She didn't expect him to wake up that fast. She even tried to ask Sir Zhang but he had disappeared along with Big Tree.

"...I should execute my plan immediately."

She stood up quietly, the bell ringing as she opened the door to leave.

.....

Zhou Lei walked to the mall in a slow pace. He didn't really need to hide from anyone since his face was perfectly hidden from the public eye.

He made his way as he whistled with cheer. After all, he was meeting his friend again! He couldn't get enough of the feeling of being with a friend.

What he didn't know was that normal friendship wasn't like this... and he wouldn't know this until much later.

His joyful whistling pleased the ears of every passer-by. Their moods lifted as his tune penetrated even the hardest skulls.

In a particular café...

"Goddammit, where is my order?!" A customer slammed the table, startling the waitresses and the other customers.

One waitress approached him. "Sorry sir, your order will be here shortly."

"Shortly? Don't you know I've already waited here for 10 minutes?!" The customer didn't hold back while his yelling ruined the atmosphere of the café.

The waitress didn't know what to do. She was just a new recruit that had only been here for a week.

She kept her head down as the customer complained and complained.

The other customers got ready to leave as well. Their moods were ruined by this one customer in a suit...

Until...

"♪~♪~♪"

A man in a hoodie passed by, his whistling piercing through the glass walls that separated the café from the outside.

"♪~♪~♪"

The air inside the little establishment lightened up as the jolly sound made its way to their brains.

Everyone who was about to leave felt themselves inclined to sit again. Their mood rose up at an unprecedented rate.

The waitress who had her head down felt that her heart got less tight, when she suddenly felt a feeling pressing down on her shoulder lightly.

"S- sir?" Her worry that left a moment ago came back as soon as she felt the sensation. She raised her head slightly to see that the face full of fury was gone, replaced with an amiable smile.

"Miss," the man spoke, with utmost politeness, "I'm sorry for my outburst earlier. I was just having a really rough time. Can you forgive me?"

The waitress widened her eyes in disbelief. The other waiters in the café have experienced the feeling of having a customer shout at them, but they haven't experienced said customer apologizing to them afterwards!

"I, uh..." The waitress didn't know how to respond to the man's sudden kindness.

"Please raise your head, miss..." The man stood up and tried to push her shoulders upward, albeit with as little force as possible.

The waitress just nodded and followed his instructions. "Th- thank you."

Witnessing the scene before them, the customers all clapped, much to the two's surprise. Even the manager and the other waiters joined in congratulating their reconciliation!

.....

Oblivious to all of the joy he implanted in people's minds, Zhou Lei arrived at the arcade in high spirits.

Even if Zhou Lei had whistled here, it wouldn't make much of a difference. After all, almost everyone here was having a good time!

He headed to the area where Dance Dance Revolution was located.

When he arrived, someone else was using the machine, while Lin Hanying was nowhere to be seen.

He took out his phone to check the time. "5:42 pm. Where is she?"

He tapped his feet as he listened to the music coming from the DDR machine while waiting for Lin Hanying to arrive.

After several days of practice, his feet were synchronized to the sound to a frightening degree. Of course, people didn't notice him at all since they were busy not caring.

There was also the fact that the person playing was just a newbie, and the only people who kept watching on were his friends who laughed at him hysterically.

Zhou Lei opened the WeChat app on his phone and sent a message to his friend.

"Where... are... you... no, no, no... Did... you... encounter... a problem? Wait, no, no, no..."

He struggled for quite a bit before he decided to just send a simple message

[Yo yo wats up its yo boi zhou Lei

im on wechat and im here to say:

where are you]

Eventually, the song ended, and the person got an almost perfect score... of zero. His friends teased him as they walked away.

Zhou Lei glanced at them before he stepped on the machine and inserted a quarter into it. Choosing the hardest song, he started practicing again.

Clang! Clang! Step!

He used his hands to balance himself while his feet went wild. So far, there were no misses.

Of course, this was only for a few seconds...

'Damn it...' Zhou Lei cursed himself in his mind for making an easily avoidable mistake.

He continued practing...

An hour later.

Beads of sweat poured out his body as he finished up. For some reason, Lin Hanying still didn't show up. Maybe she had some sudden problem to face?

Zhou Lei felt disappointed, but he also knew that it couldn't be helped. He could only be angry for a few seconds before he forgave her for ditching him.

Out of quarters to insert, Zhou Lei was about to get some more money from System when a thought came into his mind.

'...I've still got 2 days left, haven't I?'

Boredom seeped into his mind as he imagined the thought of practicing for an hour more without Lin Hanying.

In the first place, he didn't like dancing anyway. The one reason he started playing in the first place was the mission.

He hesitated to withdraw money from System until he caved in and turned the interface off.

Placing his hands into his pockets, Zhou Lei walked off the machine, barely achieving an improvement today.

.....

Let's go back to an hour earlier.

Fan Xinyue stood up quietly, the bell ringing as she opened the door to leave.

When she was at a considerable distance from the café already, one specific tune waltzed into her ears.

"♪~♪~♪"

Her feet froze in their place. She spun around as she looked for the origin of the sound, to no avail.

However, she was sure that it came from somewhere near the café. She headed back as quick as possible.

The bell rang as she opened the door. She walked back to where her regular seat was and waited there. "...This should be fine."

After all, this was a chance to see Zhou Lei! Outside of school, at that!

If one talked about meeting him inside the school, people could just brush it off as a regular occurrence since he came to that school everyday anyway.

However, when it was outside, that was another case.

If she met him in the MiniSoWhat Mall, people could just give the excuse of it being a coincidence. But that was only if she met him once.

If she met him twice, then they couldn't just shake it off as some sort of miracle, they would start thinking they had a special relationship...!

'Ahh!' Fan Xinyue started fangirling in her mind. Her face turned red from imagining... ahem, inappropriate stuff.

And so, she could wait as long as it takes to meet—

Ring, ring!

Fan Xinyue got a text from her mother.

[I don't know where you are right now, but be at home by 7:30 pm, kay?]

Correction: And so, she could wait as long as until 7:30 pm to meet him!