9 Meeting At The Louvre Part 2

October 24, 20XX (Wednesday)

Musée du Louvre

"So, what's this one about?" Yang pointed at the painting.

"There's a short commentary on the white card below it." Mei Li pointed at the white card below the painting with its information.

Yang grinned without restraint, "I prefer if you tell me."

"…and if I don't know about it?"

"Then we'll move to another painting."

'SHAMELESS MAN!' Mei Li shouted to herself, repeating it over and over yet not showing her vindictiveness on the outside.

"So, what's this one?" Yang repeated his question.

"That is a painting, isn't it more obvious?" Mei Li decided to be sarcastic with this shameless man. If she wasn't grateful for him, letting her enter the museum with him, she would have already left the grinning man to himself!

"What's this picture's name and history?" Yang rephrased his questions immediately, to the absolute delight to the petty side of Mei Li. She really liked winning her small victories over their banters, no matter how one-sided it felt for her. It would be greater if she could wipe that large fake smile he had like yesterday at the cafe!

She needs her Savage mode turn on especially for him!

"La Crucifixion du Parlement de Paris, don't know anymore…"

Mei Li would have like to stay and marvel at one of the oldest paintings in the museum but the thought of the man next to her asking more questions she was afraid she couldn't answer, irritated her. She left the painting, walking to follow the crowd of tourists with the same dark-eyed man following her a step late.

"What about this one, it's famous." Yang pointed out after he stopped.

"Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks."

The short and concise explanation made Yang's grinning face falter to the serious one he bore at the cafe before she walked out. She rejoices to herself in another victory.

"You know more, do tell."

'Shameless man expecting me to be at his beck and call!' Mei Li thought of different ways to leave the blue-eyed man to himself.

"It's one of the two paintings of the same subject, the other one is in London's National Museum."

And so Yang decided to point out some painting for her to comment on with the same fake grin she grew to loathe, which made her blood boil with irritation since she did not have the silence she wished.

When they arrived at the wing that housed the Mona Lisa, the two gaped at the large crowd of tourist that gather in front of the painting like Paparazzis to celebrities. Mei Li should have known that there were many tourists, it is one if the most know… arguably the most known painting of the world.

"What's this? Looks like the Last Supper in Milan but bigger and more…. crowded."

"The Wedding Feast at Cana by the Italian artist Paolo Veronese. I only know that it's done in Mannerism style of European Arts. Aside from that, you hope to get more if you read the card."

After the short explanation, Mei Li visibly nodded with the firm decision to push her way into the front of the crowd to see Mona Lisa nearer. She stood with her petite form at the back of the overwhelming crowd while Yang watched in amusement as she tried to mould into the flow of the tourist only to be push or pulled back into her original place.

Yang's amused grinning face gradually vanished as Mei Li tried in vain again and again. She was pulled then pushed but then tried again. She even fell two times yet she still stood up to try again. The nice fake grin had turned into a helpless smile.

'How stubborn! what can she accomplish with that petite and frail frame!' Yang helpless stood watching her feeling both admiration and defeat. Admiration because she had made him more interested in her and Defeat because the steel in her backbone was the kryptonite to his Superman heart.

Yang stopped her nth try with a soft tug at her wrists. He stood infant of her and then pushed through the crowd with brutal force, dragging with him the wide-eyed painter at his back as if to protect her from the crowd.

'He can be a gentleman then…' Mei Li thought with a soft smile as the subtle fragrance of Yang's male cologne sipped through her sense of smell. The distance between them became nonexistent especially reaching the front as the people at the back tried to push forward.

Mei Li caught a short view of the serious face, which was the same as the one he had when she was lecturing him on his alcoholic intake when Yang had manoeuvred her to his front. Finally facing the Masterpieces of Mona Lisa, Mei Li could not help but compare the expression of the Mona's to Yang's.

She felt like slapping herself when she realizes that the subtle smile the masterpiece had could not compare to the serious face of Yang's. The way his eyes would focus on a person and how the light would make his eye's iris dance with every emotion made the boring dark eyes of the Mona Lisa pale in comparison.

'…if only I had met you first before Chen Zhong.' Mei Li helpless thoughts disrupted her from marvelling at the masterpiece she had been hoping to see all her life.

She shouldn't have come with him. Now she's acting out of character because of him.