If you could still remember, it was that little something extra that Pei Ling added to the script. Yes, it was the kiss. Even though Jun Yang assured himself times and again that it was simply for a play, he still found it difficult to mentally prepare himself for it.
It was not that he hated Pei Ling per se but the thought of kissing her in front of Feng Qi felt like cheating for some weird reason. On top of that, the fact that Feng Qi had not said anything about it made Jun Yang feel a certain way. Was he going to let the kiss go through just like that? Jun Yang was not sure what he wanted Feng Qi to do exactly but the fact that the young man did nothing caused a curl of disappointment to wrap itself around Jun Yang’s heart.
They were inside the auditorium right before the stage, waiting for the group before them to finish. The auditorium was practically empty by then because according to the schedule, they were the last team to commit to their rehearsals. The rest of their classmates had already done their stuff and left.
Jun Yang had an ambivalent feeling about being the last group. On one hand, he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, it was as the Chinese saying goes, long-term pain is no better than short-term pain. If they were assigned one of the earlier slots, they could have gone up the stage, got everything settled and had the rest of the day off, instead of sweating in the auditorium, watching absent-mindedly as the rest of his class went by, worrying about their turn.
While on the other hand, since they were assigned the last group, there would be less spectators and Jun Yang felt much less nervous performing on stage. Of course, things would be different when it came time for them to perform the actual play but he would cross that bridge when he came to it. He was not going to worry about stuff that was down the road when he had a big hurdle right before his eyes.
Jun Yang was seated on the same row as Mr. Sam. The teacher had his eyes on the group performing on stage. When they were done, he would give them his comments like how he did with the others.
Jun Yang looked around the room, and right in front of him was Pei Ling. She looked perfectly calm and collected like she had no worry in the world. Like Mr. Sam, she had their eyes trained to the performing group. It was unclear whether she was seriously interested in their play or she was doing it out of boredom. Either way, it did not seem like she was even a smidge worried about their imminent show like Jun Yang was. The young man wished he had even at least half of her confidence. Perhaps it came from the fact that she penned the script and thus knew about it like the back of her hand.
Jun Yang considered addressing the issue of the kiss with Pei Ling but with Mr. Sam sitting only several seats away from them, the young man eventually changed his mind. Furthermore, they did not have the time to allow for a last-minute change of script anyway.
Sitting two seats to the left of Pei Ling was Cindy. The girl had the script in her hand and she was studiously going through it. It made Jun Yang feel somewhat better that someone else was in the same boat as he was, feeling panicked and worried about their upcoming performance.
However, the difference was Cindy’s role in the play was not as big as Jun Yang so as much as Jun Yang tried to seek comfort in the similarity of their situation, there was only so much solace he could get.
Including Jun Yang, that was 75 percent of their team members accounted for. Jun Yang scanned the seats but he failed to find the last piece of the puzzle. The audience seats were empty and Feng Qi was not among them.
Jun Yang was sure he caught sight of Feng Qi entering the auditorium with the rest of the class so he was certain the young man did not skip school that day. In fact, it was that morning during other classes that Jun Yang noted the strange way Feng Qi was acting so Jun Yang had a clear impression of Feng Qi being present.
This left the question of where did he wander off to? Or perhaps he had left the auditorium?
Jun Yang looked around the auditorium again, spreading his gaze further and he eventually spotted Feng Qi standing at the far corner, right next to the right edge of the stage. The young man did not have a script in his hand so he was not there to make use of the relative silence to study his lines.
Feng Qi’s head was turned away so Jun Yang could not catch a glimpse of his expression but the young man’s shoulders were drooped and there was an air of lethargy around him. Jun Yang had not seen the young man in such a state before, he had always been a ball of energy at least when he was around Jun Yang.
Just as Jun Yang wondered what was going on with Feng Qi, the latter suddenly turned around. In the split-second when their eyes met, Jun Yang felt a pierce of something akin to pain that he could read in Feng Qi’s eyes. Then the latter quickly averted his eyes.
That caused Jun Yang to frown. Used to teasing him, Feng Qi always was the last one to move his eyes away when they were caught in an eye-staring contest. The fact that Feng Qi showed reluctance to even hold his gaze, Jun Yang knew something wrong was afoot.
Jun Yang made the decision to talk to Feng Qi to find out what was going on. And as he stood up, applause rose around him.
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