"The rain still hasn't stopped." Lu Mingfei had been sitting at his desk long after school let out. The classroom was completely empty; even the student on duty had already gone home. The only things keeping him company were the humming fluorescent lights and the girl sitting beside him.
Erii sat there looking utterly bored, flipping through the notebook she and Lu Mingfei used to chat, then glanced over at Lu Mingfei. Seeing no intention on his part to leave, she picked up her pen and began to sketch.
Lu Mingfei picked up Erii's notebook. Drawn on the page were a little girl and a small pig. She had clearly brought an umbrella, yet she hadn't left, lingering in the classroom just to keep him company.
"Aren't you leaving yet?" Lu Mingfei wrote.
"Waiting for someone," came the brief two-word reply.
"?"
"Waiting for you," another two words.
"What are you waiting for me for?" Lu Mingfei asked, surprised.
"Didn't Lu Mingfei forget his umbrella? I'm walking Lu Mingfei home," Erii wrote.
"It's always the guy who walks the girl home. Since when does a girl walk a guy home?"
"Then Lu Mingfei can walk me home." Erii handed her umbrella to Lu Mingfei.
"Walk me home, and then I'll lend you the umbrella." That was what the notebook said.
"People are going to take pictures, you know." Lu Mingfei wore a worried look. In fact, photos of him eating with two campus beauties and feeding each other with Erii had already been posted online, causing a massive uproar. People were already offering bounties to find out who this lucky guy was. Unfortunately, before anyone could post a hefty reward for Lu Mingfei, the Xu Brothers had leaked his identity, and Zhao Menghua had even jumped in to confirm it. Now, whenever Lu Mingfei walked down the corridor to the restroom, people whispered behind his back.
"What of it?" Erii brushed it off unconcernedly, practically shoving the umbrella into Lu Mingfei's hand. "Let's go."
Lu Mingfei didn't have the heart to refuse. After all, in this kind of weather, even running would leave you soaked to the bone. He had no choice but to walk Erii home and borrow her umbrella afterward.
Just as he expected, the moment he stepped out of the teaching building, numerous fingers pointed his way.
As he passed a boy, the guy deliberately bumped his elbow against Lu Mingfei's. Lu Mingfei ignored him, but Erii glared at the boy as if issuing a warning.
"How about we just forget it?" Lu Mingfei hesitated, wanting to return the umbrella to Erii.
"Then I'm lending the umbrella to Lu Mingfei." Ignoring him, Erii flashed a mischievous smile and stepped alone out into the rain.
Lu Mingfei hurriedly followed to hold the umbrella over her. "You're pretty sly."
Erii turned to him with a slight smile. "Then let's walk back together."
Sure enough, Lu Mingfei still couldn't bear to let her get wet in the rain.
"This rain is really something." Listening to the patter of raindrops against the canopy, Lu Mingfei sighed. He had Erii to thank for lending him her umbrella; otherwise, he probably wouldn't have made it home. Still, this bright, sweet pink color really didn't match a hardcore guy like him.
"Mhm." Erii looped her arm through Lu Mingfei's, paying no heed to the puddles beneath their feet. The roads at Shilan Middle School were well-paved, and the puddles were shallow enough that they wouldn't soak through their shoes.
As the two walked along and passed a shopping mall, the rain grew even heavier, accompanied by rumbles of thunder. Even with the umbrella, Lu Mingfei's backpack and sleeve had a damp patch. A flash of lightning streaked across the sky before their eyes, and Erii clutched his arm for dear life.
"Are you scared of thunder?" Lu Mingfei tried to pull his hand away, though the soft contact against his arm gave him a strange sensation.
"Please don't let go of me," Erii whispered, her voice sounding as though she were begging Lu Mingfei not to leave her behind.
"Let's find somewhere to take shelter." The umbrella was a bit small; even when they walked pressed tightly together, they still caught some of the rain.
"Okay." Erii was as obedient as a child who had done something wrong.
The two stepped inside the mall. Outside, the rumbling thunder could still be heard. Erii clung tightly to Lu Mingfei's arm the entire way, making them look to outsiders like a couple deeply in love.
This was getting dangerous. "Look, you don't have to hold on quite that tight—"
*BOOM!* A sudden, deafening crack of thunder struck the open space in front of the mall. Startled like a frightened kitten, Erii curled up and burrowed into Lu Mingfei's embrace.
Lu Mingfei felt somewhat relieved; because of the heavy rain, there weren't many customers in the mall, and nobody was paying them any particular attention. But why was she so terrified of thunder? Though he desperately wanted to ask, Lu Mingfei held back his curiosity. Everyone had things they were afraid of, and some matters didn't need to be probed too deeply.
"Jeez, you're a grown-up and you're still scared of thunder." The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted speaking. He saw two tracks of tears glistening on Erii's face, her tear-stained appearance pitiful and heartbreaking.
"Don't leave me." Erii's voice was very soft, but Lu Mingfei heard it clearly.
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." Lu Mingfei patted Erii on the back. Hardcore guy though he was, he wasn't foolish enough to crack sarcastic jokes at a time like this. He had figured they could use the mall's hustle and bustle as a form of exposure therapy to drown out the thunder, never expecting the place to be this dead silent due to the sparse crowd, nor did he expect Erii to be this terrified of lightning. If he'd known, they should have headed for the wet market instead.
Erii continued to hug Lu Mingfei tightly. Lu Mingfei stood there awkwardly. With such a gorgeous girl clinging to him for dear life, any normal man would naturally have a physical reaction. Right now, with Erii burying her face in his chest, his heart thudded like a drum, matching the relentless thunder outside. He could only tell himself that Erii had someone she liked, and a girl like that would never have anything to do with him.
Lu Mingfei led Erii over to a bench to sit down—presumably one the mall provided for tired shoppers. Erii was still trembling continuously, as if terrified of something. Sitting here wasn't a solution either; if the rain kept up endlessly, was Erii going to spend the night in the mall clinging to him? Lu Mingfei shook his head. He wouldn't lose out on the deal, but things could easily get messy if this went on. His heartbeat pounded like a battle drum, clearly audible.
"Erii, how about we go somewhere where we can't hear the thunder?"
"Okay." She was being so obedient right now it almost felt unreal; Lu Mingfei figured that if he told her he was taking her home, she wouldn't even refuse.
Lu Mingfei remembered there was an arcade on the third floor of this mall, called something like "Joyful Wonderland." He had been there a few times; besides indoor amusement facilities, it had loud background music that should perfectly drown out the sound of the thunder.
The elevator reached the third floor. As the doors slid open, the music from the arcade washed over them.
"Wait for me here, I'll go get some game tokens." Lu Mingfei settled Erii down beside a dance machine; the music there was loud enough to completely shut out the sound of thunder and rain.
When Lu Mingfei returned, he saw that Erii was no longer where he had left her. Looking around, he spotted her pressed against the glass of a claw machine, apparently having laid eyes on a prize she liked.
"Which one do you want? I'll win it for you." Although Lu Mingfei had never played this claw machine before, he had visited a few times and watched many young couples trying their luck, so he had picked up a trick or two. Most importantly, rumor had it that these machines had a hidden pity system, so he should stand a chance.
"That one." Erii pointed to a small rabbit plush inside the machine.
"Time to show you my true skills." Lu Mingfei dropped two tokens in at once. He skillfully operated the joystick. For someone who played StarCraft using red-dot mouse control, this was an absolute breeze. The claw moved directly above the rabbit plush. With sharp eyes and quick hands, Lu Mingfei slapped the button. Damn it, he missed.
"No matter, there's still a chance." He tossed in two more coins.
As expected, his next few attempts all ended in failure. Lu Mingfei dumped all ten coins in at once. Watching his frustrated, exasperated expression, a smile gradually bloomed on Erii's face.
"Got it." Lu Mingfei slapped the button, and the heavy-duty rabbit was firmly scooped up. Happily, Erii took the plush from Lu Mingfei's hands, her smile as radiant as a spring blossom. Once again, Lu Mingfei found himself staring dumbfounded.
"There are still four tries left. Want to give it a shot?" Lu Mingfei looked at Erii invitingly.
"I want to try." Erii took over the battlefield and effortlessly fished out a small crocodile plush, leaving a stunned Lu Mingfei standing alone in the wind. Turns out she was the expert here, and his own attempt had been completely redundant.
Hugging both plush toys, Erii sat down on a nearby bench, tossed a discarded milk tea cup from the table into the trash can, and then pulled out a pen and paper, writing two little notes that she stuck to the backs of the toys.
"What are you writing?" Lu Mingfei asked curiously, peering over. Looking flustered, Erii hid the bear plush behind her back and handed the small crocodile to Lu Mingfei instead. Lu Mingfei saw the note read: "Lu Mingfei and Erii's little crocodile." The handwriting was adorable, as if she had specially practiced it.
"For me?" Lu Mingfei asked.
"Mhm." Erii nodded.
"Thanks." Actually, this was the first time Lu Mingfei had ever received a gift from someone else. With his parents absent since childhood, he had never celebrated a birthday, let alone now while living under his aunt and uncle's roof. After all, wasn't it true that Richard Moore never celebrated Conan's birthday either?
Lu Mingfei checked the remaining tokens in his pocket. "Want to go play something else?"
Erii pointed at a gaming cabinet nearby. "That one."
Lu Mingfei followed her pointed finger to a two-player arcade cabinet running what looked like a pirated version of Street Fighter. "Are you sure?"
His Street Fighter skills ranked pretty high around these parts; he didn't want Erii accusing him of bullying.
"I'm very good." Erii had already dropped her token in, grabbed the joystick, and selected the character named Chun-Li.
"No crying if you lose." Lu Mingfei chose Ryu. The outcome was that a supremely confident Lu Mingfei lost to Erii by a margin that could hardly be called small.
"No way, again." Lu Mingfei refused to accept defeat, but his traitorous stomach chose that exact moment to let out a loud rumble.
Seeing this, Erii picked up her school bag and pulled out a box wrapped in a cloth bento wrapper.
"A bento?"
"Do you want to eat?" Erii asked as she opened the lunch box.
Inside the lunch box were rice balls, tonkatsu, octopus Vienna sausages, and a small bowl of miso soup.
"Yes." Lu Mingfei picked up his chopsticks, grabbed an octopus sausage, and picked up a rice ball with his hand.
"Wow." There was no denying it—it tasted amazing. The rice ball contained a slightly fishy bonito filling, and the salty-sweet plum balanced the fishy taste just right. The sausages were fried to perfection: crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Even though they had gone completely cold, it hadn't ruined the crispy texture of the skin.
"Drink some soup so you don't choke." Erii scooped up a spoonful of soup and held it to Lu Mingfei's lips.
"This is delicious." Lu Mingfei swallowed the soup, feeling a rich, savory warmth spread through his mouth.
"I made it myself." Watching Lu Mingfei's satisfied expression, Erii wore a proud little look.
"Nobody at home came with me to China. I live alone," Erii added.
"That's really impressive." Lu Mingfei offered his heartfelt praise. They were both kids whose parents weren't around, yet he couldn't compare to her at all.
The two of them devoured the bento like a whirlwind and went back to playing games until all their remaining tokens were spent.
"Let's go." Lu Mingfei looked at Erii, who still seemed unsatisfied. "We'll have another chance next time." Truth be told, he wanted to play a bit longer himself—after all, Erii's win count was still higher than his by one match. But it was getting late, and the arcade was slowly filling up with people, which probably meant the rain had stopped. Next time he got the chance, he would definitely wash away today's humiliation.
"Okay." Clutching the little white rabbit plush, Erii followed behind him into the elevator. Glancing at Lu Mingfei, who looked somewhat unreconciled, she wondered if she should let him win a few more rounds next time.