She knew the probability of seeing Xue Guangxi today was quite high. They shared a cla.s.s during this semester, and that cla.s.s was scheduled to take place that day.

'Let's just hope he skips school today.' She was becoming optimistic. 'He should still be recovering from his hangover.'

She relaxed a bit.

While combing her hair and checking her appearance on her dresser's mirror, her eyes swept on her lips. It was a bit swollen. She squinted her eyes.

When she was applying a little bit of make up to make herself presentable, she intentionally skipped her lips. They were left bare, without balm or gloss. She did not want to touch her lips.

She was devastated. Who wouldn't be in that situation? She felt hara.s.sed.

She simply did not want to see Xue Guangxi that day.

She went down towards the lobby, and outside of her dormitory. She fetched her bike then headed towards the Humanities building where her first cla.s.s was.

Kang Sola's first cla.s.s was Communications 3. It was the subject where Xue Guangxi and Kang Sola were cla.s.smates. It was scheduled at seven thirty in the morning.

Because it was still early, she was expecting that Xue Guangxi would really skip the cla.s.s.

However, the moment she stepped into the cla.s.sroom, he was there already, sleeping on his desk. What bad luck it was! They were seated beside each other.

She asked a girl cla.s.smate to exchange seats with her. The cla.s.smate agreed, because she had been wanting to sit next to Guangxi who was popular in school.

Actually, Kang Sola and Xue Guangxi had decided to sit beside each other to ward off the girls who wanted that seat so badly. Since they were friends, Kang Sola agreed at the time.

However, now…

She did not want to be near him. He was dangerous.

Xue Guangxi's phone alarmed at twenty five minutes past seven. When he opened his eyes, he heard someone address him, "Xue Guangxi, hi! I'll be your seatmate from now on!"

He turned his gaze to look at the unfamiliar girl. 'Who's this?' He looked around the cla.s.sroom. He saw Kang Sola at a corner. They locked gazes momentarily. However, Kang Sola hurriedly cut their gaze short. She looked down on her notes.

'She's pretending that she did not see me.'

Xue Guangxi had a splitting headache. Although he was drunk, he could remember bits and pieces of what had happened. He knew. He remembered.

He sent a text message to Kang Sola. 'I'm sorry about last night. It was unintentional. Let's talk about it.'

He saw Kang Sola's reactive face. It could not help but betray her, indicating that she had seen the message. Xue Guangxi waited for her response, but nothing came.

At the end of the cla.s.s, he hurriedly approached her. She was evading. She ran outside of the cla.s.sroom hurriedly.

For days it went on like this. Whenever they see each other, Kang Sola pretended that she did not see him, but in fact she did with her peripheral vision, and she would always take a sharp 180 degrees turn towards the other direction. Xue Guangxi, on the other hand, just let her be, his eyes always flickered with indignation and remorse. He thought it's best to leave her alone for the time being. He respected her implied wish to be alone and away from him.

A week pa.s.sed. It was without progress.

At first, Xue Guangxi gave in and left Kang Sola be to allow her to sort out her feelings. However, it had been a week already. Guangxi wanted them to talk about it. He was deeply perturbed and could not last any longer with the cold treatment.

--

Kang Sola prepared for her cla.s.s early in the morning. She checked her reflection in the mirror. Once her eyes came to scan her lower face where her mouth is, she noticed that the swelling had subsided already, but she's still affected emotionally. She sighed deeply.

She left her dormitory shortly after towards the vacant lot at the side of the dormitory to get her bike. Upon nearing the site, she stopped in her tracks and took two steps back.

Beside her bike stood Xue Guangxi.

She turned around, ready to walk toward the direction of the Humanities building where their cla.s.s was. It was the day when they will have Communications 3 as first cla.s.s, where both of them were cla.s.smates.

How ironic, when that particular subject they shared had just discussed the different ways to communicate including verbal and non-verbal cues such as the body language, and here they were, trying to tell each other what they had been feeling deep down inside without uttering any words for a whole week. Too bad, their body language, especially the young female, was inclined towards the negative.

Xue Guangxi ran after her and grabbed her arm.

"Sola, can you stop evading? Let's talk about it."

Kang Sola shot him a sharp glance, then she withdrew her arm from his grip forcefully. "Okay."

They went towards the 24-hour-open café by the side of the dormitory. It was intended for students who would pull all-nighters from studying. At seven in the morning, few people were at the café.

They sat in a corner booth across each other. Guangxi ordered two coffee for the both of them. He did not even ask her.

"Sola.. About the kiss.." He started. Xue Guangxi's voice was raspy, shaky. He trailed off, not knowing how to continue.

Kang Sola did not utter a word. She was looking down at her lap.

Then he proceeded. "It was a mistake. I'm sorry. We're still friends right?"

Kang Sola clenched her fist. She looked at Xue Guangxi. "Friends don't randomly kiss each other."

Xue Guangxi's brows twitched. "I know, that's why I said it was a mistake! Can you let it go just this once?"

"It must be that simple to you, because you've kissed a lot of girls before, and that instance with me just adds to the number, and does not matter to you at all. But not to me. That was my first kiss, you stole it! You ruined it! It was a mistake!" She was shaking her head vigorously, and was extremely embarra.s.sed. 'Why am I explaining?' She thought angrily.

"I didn't plan it to happen. It was too fast, I was impulsive. I'm really sorry. It was unintentional. I was drunk, I…"

"What do you mean by unintentional? We cannot be friends after this. Friends don't betray each other."

"Friends.h.i.+p is not one-sided. For all I know, you only talk to me whenever you need something from me. Or to throw tantrums at me. Get angry at me. At other times you had been aloof. What we had might not be true friends.h.i.+p at all. So let's stop this whole travesty. You go on with your life and I go on with mine."

Kang Sola stood up, ready to leave.

"You're the second."

Kang Sola halted, staring at him with confusion all over her face.

"You're the second girl I kissed. I don't simply go around and kiss just anyone, contrary to your belief."

"Our friends.h.i.+p is genuine. I want to keep it."

"I'm sorry if you think that I only talk to you when I need something from you, but that's not the case. I was simply busy. But whenever I have free time I always look for you. I'm sorry, too, if I frequently lose my temper whenever I'm with you."

"But yes, I need you. You make me laugh. Not how you put it, no. I don't just laugh at you or make fun of you. But you make me laugh. You get it? You make life seems a little lighter."

"I'm sorry I stole your first kiss. You must have hated me. I cannot blame you. I crossed the line I should not have crossed. Forgive me, Sola."

"Just don't cut ties with me please."

Xue Guangxi grabbed Kang Sola's wrist. How stupid of him to have done what he did.

Kang Sola withdrew her wrist strongly and took a step away, increasing their distance. "You said so yourself, Second Young Master. Didn't you advise me to stay away from you because you're trouble? I decided to heed your advice." She walked away.

'I was talking about a different kind of trouble back then!' He pounded his fist on the table.

[1] The t.i.tle was the first line of a stanza of the song 'Last Christmas'. It meant that after encountering a misfortune, a person becomes more cautious of the consequences of such, in the event that it will happen again