Promise (1)
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When Cindy brought up Pei Ling’s name, it gave Jun Yang a halt because the young man finally noted the paradigm shift that had altered the nature of their relationship. Initially, Jun Yang was too caught up in the bliss of a new relationship to realize that his childhood friend was slowly extricating herself from his life. In fact, she had stopped frequenting Jun Yang’s home, something that Jun Yang was ashamed to admit that he did not even notice until it was brought up by his mother.

She dropped the remark one night during dinner, commenting on how it had been so long since Pei Ling visited the family. Jun Yang himself was surprised by the sudden observation. It dawned on him that he had not seen Pei Ling for a while already. Even when they were at school, she stopped seeking him out like she would use to and Jun Yang, admitted with a degree of guilt that he did not miss her at all.

At the time, Jun Yang professed a random excuse that Pei Ling was too busy with the upcoming final examination for house visit. His mother nodded along to the reasoning but after dinner, in the privacy of his own room, Jun Yang pondered over the true reason behind the paucity of Pei Ling’s visit.

He knew the reason that he gave his mother was a bold-face lie, they had had many examinations that were equally if not more important in the past and Pei Ling had never disappeared in his life so completely like now. In fact, now that he thought about it, perhaps his mother never did believe him and she was merely going along with his story because that was the socially-accepted thing to do. One shan’t attempt to be rude even just around the presence of one’s son, such was the rule of the upper society.

Jun Yang thought back to the many experiences that he had shared with Pei Ling starting from the year and he could see why it had led to the formation of a chasm between them. The pseudo-confession in his bedroom on his birthday, the many hints that she had dropped along the way, the cruel rejection that he had given her and many more, much stronger friendships had been torn open by much less.

With the power of retrospection, the development appeared rather inevitable. It felt like with the introduction of Feng Qi in his life, it meant that someone who was once in his close circle had to be replaced. Jun Yang felt saddened, losing someone who was such a dear friend. He knew this was an exercise in futility but the young man could not help but wonder if the fault was his own or hers.

Since then, without even talking about it with one another, Jun Yang and Pei Ling had settled into a comfortable distance from each other. They recognized each other’s presence in passing but none took the initiate to address the gap that was growing between them.

Therefore, when Cindy brought up the fact that Pei Ling was going to be the ball organizing party’s vice chairperson, Jun Yang felt like he should not intrude to disrupt the balance that had settled between them.

Jun Yang looked up at Cindy and smiled a polite smile before adding, “Thank you for considering me but I think I would prefer to focus on the coming exam. It is much too important to fail. I do not wish to be distracted but I wish all of you the best. I am sure you will be able to flourish even without me.”

“Oh…” Cindy said with her lips forming an O. She appeared initially surprised but an explanation soon dawned upon her. “It’s alright, I understand,” She said rather cryptically. Regardless, no matter the thought that she had, Cindy did not share with Jun Yang. She apologized for disturbing him and made herself scarce. She added before leaving, “But I hope you’ll still be attending the ball. It’s going to be much less interesting without you.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it.”

“See you there then. Good luck with the exam.”

After Cindy left, Jun Yang thought about what Cindy had said before departing. ‘What exactly did she understand?’

To stop himself from spiraling down this rabbit hole, after failing to figure it out, he promptly pushed the issue out of his mind.

The news of the ball understandably spread through the school like wild fire. People were talking about the theme of the ball, their dates for the night and how it was going to be a huge celebration. Jun Yang kept a respectable distance from all of that. Like what he told Cindy, he did want to focus on his exam and that was without taking into consideration the student who was patently the worst at Xing Ming Academy that he had taken upon himself to tutor.

And that was how we find Feng Qi and Jun Yang in the classroom after class with stacks of notebooks and textbooks between them. Jun Yang was flipping through them making Cliff Notes as he went along while Feng Qi had his head lolling in his seat. You’d think he was shot with an elephant tranquilizer or something. That was how bored he was.

“Must we do this? Can’t we go and do something more exciting?” Feng Qi groaned audibly.

His boyfriend looked at him sternly, “No, the exam is coming and you have to score.”

“But why? I am sure I can pass without even studying and that should be enough to help me graduate.”

“But we should all strive to the best of ourselves. Life should not be wasted being a lesser version of ourselves.” Jun Yang caught Feng Qi roll his eyes when he said that, he knew these self-help platitudes were not going to work on Feng Qi.

Jun Yang put the notebook he was holding down and after a moment’s silence, said, “Do you remember the tale of the mule and the carrot?”

 

 

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