'I'm soooo embarra.s.sed right now!!!'

Was what Kang Sola had been thinking while fought for dear life.  She clung hard onto Xue Guangxi, swallowing her pride as a girl.

The water was lukewarm, but the commotion had her blood rush inside her veins.  Consequently, she felt the heat on the cheeks and neck as the adrenaline rush kicked in.

She was panicky, but all the more humiliated by what had happened.

"Lie on your stomach.  We'll go to the shallower part of the pool." Xue Guangxi instructed.

The girl bit her lip in silence.  What could she do in this situation but rely on Guangxi?

Her arms around his neck, she allowed him to tow her onto the safer sh.o.r.e. 

However, she wasn't so sure what else she had allowed Xue Guangxi to partake in her life.  He had been so involved with her circ.u.mstances.

A few days before, he saw her staring at the business card in her hands while she was waiting for him at their school's lobby.  It was the contact card of the person who introduced himself as someone affiliated to her father.  Kang Sola played with it absent-mindedly.

"Do you want to meet the person again?" 

"Huh? Who?"

Xue Guangxi sat beside her as he nodded towards the card.

Kang Sola sighed.  "Nah.  I don't think so."

"If you ever decide to pursue it, I'll go with you."

"Re-Really?" She sat up, turned to look at him, and even shook him on the shoulders.  To her surprise, she did not realize that her face had gotten too close to Guangxi's.  "Really?"

"Will you do that for me?"

As if burnt, he abruptly tried to lean back so that some distance would be defined again between them.  He nodded his head in affirmation.

However, the Second Young Master, unfortunately, lost balance and fell backward onto the soil behind him.  They were seated at that time on the cement fence of the winding garden that lined the school's walls.

"Ugh… Ouch!!" He sat up straight while ma.s.saging his back.

"Are you okay? Sorry!  Oh no!!!"

"I was flabbergasted by your ugly face!!!" He exclaimed jokingly as he placed his outstretched hand on Kang Sola's face gently, but covering its entirety, as a form of jest.

Of course, Kang Sola tried to dodge it and wiggled out of the way.  "Hey!" She turned to the right and her left, but then Xue Guangxi beat her to it.  He successfully pressed his fingers onto her now frowning face.

"Bleh!!!" In the middle of her pout, she revealed her tongue to him as retaliation.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Xue Guangxi only laughed so hard that he had to support his tummy from aching.  "HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

Kang Sola stared at him in complete awe.  'Xue Guangxi looks handsome when he laughs like that.'

'Oh no.  What did I just say in my mind?  Good thing I didn't say it out loud.' 

She cupped her gaping mouth with a hand, eyes already popping from its sockets.

'Good Lord!  What is happening to me?' She shook her head in annoyance and denial.

That was a few days ago when the two reunited in their school.  Perhaps absence truly makes the heart go fonder.  When he was grounded, Kang Sola had been made aware of his absence to harshly and strongly.  She suddenly became a loner, or rather an anti-social.  She tried to reach out to her girl-friends, but they were all too occupied with their usual activities.  "Why, your boyfriend's not there to accompany you?"

"He's not my boyfriend!" She had responded at the time, realizing that spending time with Xue Guangxi meant less time for her other friends.

Now that Xue Guangxi had returned to school, and even lived currently with her in the Chen household, Kang Sola had never been any happier.  She was engulfed in a certain type of ecstasy that was beyond descriptive semantics.

And now that he was in close proximity to her, and while he was feeling guilty of her near-drowning experience because of her lack of competency, she felt so embarra.s.sed and frustrated with herself.  'What good have I done to Guangxi in return of all his kindness to me?'

'I might not be half the good friend that he is.'

As Xue Guangxi did all the effort to reach the safer sh.o.r.e, Kang Sola wrapped her arms around her neck a little bit tighter and leaned her head on his shoulder.  'What a precious friend you are to me.'

"Are you alright back there, Sola?  We're almost there.  Just hang on."

"Actually, I know how to swim.  It's just that, I panicked when my toes did not feel the ground…"

Xue Guangxi smiled.  His brows arched a bit at her words.  "As you say.  Do you want to take it from here?"

"Uhm…"

"We can stay like this if you want to.  It's perfectly fine.  Sometimes, you need to rely on somebody even if you claim that you can do it yourself.  It's healthier that way.  Let me do this for you, Sola."

"You always help me out, Guangxi.  You're always there for me."

"Ennngggkk." The Second Young Master imitated the sound of a buzzer.  "Wrong.  Both of your sentences are wrong."

"I don't always help you out.  Most of the time you do, and in critical times, too.  And…"

Xue Guangxi stopped gliding as they reached the shallow edge already.  He turned around and faced the flushed Kang Sola.  "I was not always there for you.  I wasn't there when you needed someone to cheer you up, or to simply stand beside you when you faced your father.  I've complained about it several times to Xu-Jie and gave her tough times about it, too.  What she did was wrong.  But then, at the end of the day when it happened, you had to face it all alone."

He ended his spiel with a sigh.  He seemed troubled. 

Kang Sola cupped his cheeks with both her hands and stared in the deepness of his eyes.  "You've done so much already, Guangxi."

"Thank you." Kang Sola inserted her arms so suddenly at the gap on the sides between the lad's arms and torso.  She hugged him, full of grat.i.tude.  "You've done so much."

It was such a sentimental moment for the two.  It was also unusual.

When they parted, Kang Sola splashed some water onto her deeply companion.  "It's alright, Guangxi.  Let go of it.  Don't think too much about it."

The girl giggled in an attempt to cover up her own awkwardness.

"But-"

The boy was still caught up with his stupor.  'Sola hugged me.  Sola hugged me.'

Kang Sola splashed some water onto his face, stopping his speech in the middle.  And then she let out such a sweet and bubbly giggle. "Stop it, Guangxi.  It doesn't suit you at all."

"What?"

"Hehehehehe."

She splashed water again.  "Let's play!!!" Her giggles resonated some more.  She flapped her arms and moved around while occasionally splas.h.i.+ng some more water at her companion.  "Hahahaha!"

"That's what you want, huh?  That's what you want?" Finally snapping out of his guilt attack, Xue Guangxi readied himself for retaliation.  "Okay!"