Wizard of Oz || Zuo Hang✓

Five

Zuo sat in his usual spot on Monday, waiting for Yanni to show up. She would be spotted every morning in her flawless makeup, and Zuo started to wonder how she always had enough time to fix herself up so much like that every morning.

Vicky sat in front of him once again, just like she did every morning. She turned to him with a surprised look. 'What kept you so busy last weekend? You didn't even answer my texts.'

'Oh I'm sorry,' Zuo apologized. 'I was doing some things.' Well, he had spent his time developing the app, and it seemed things were going quite well.

Yanni and Zhixin walked in a minute later with smiles. Even though they were together every morning, it still made Zuo uncomfortable every time.

Zhixin talked to Yanni for a while, before he walked over to his own seat on a different row. Zuo continued to watch Yanni as she went over her books a short moment, then stopped when Xinhao had walked over to her desk.

'So, how did you like the video?' he asked her with a wide smile.

Yanni hesitated before looking up at him. Normally, she would have told him the truth and they would have probably been in bad terms for that entire day. But when she remembered what Prince Charming told her, she reconsidered what she was going to say. She didn't want to argue with Xinhao again as usual. 'It was great.' She answered plainly.

'Really?' He put his hands in his hair excitedly. 'Well, thanks.'

Yanni gave him a smile and looked back to her book, then Xinhao sat down next to her. Zuo smiled to himself when he noticed that she had actually taken the Prince Charming's advice, or at least it seemed that way.

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Yanni threw her bag on her bed and sighed, she was quite tired from the long day of school. She immediately changed from her uniform, but not particularly wanting to go down stairs once she was done. She had just had a disagreement with her mother anyway, so she didn't really want to see her.

Once she had changed into a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, she threw herself on her bed and sighed. She really wanted somebody to vent to, but she couldn't call Zhixin or Xinhao. They may have been her closest friends, but they hardly had personal conversations.

Finally, she remembered about Prince Charming whom she had communicated with yesterday. Even though she believed it was a chatbot, she found it very realistic. She wondered if she would be allowed to vent to it and not exactly ask a question.

Quickly, she walked over to her desk and sat down on it. She opened the laptop then quickly opened the program. She went straight to the chat, before deciding to quickly type.

Yanni: hey Prince Charming, are you there?

Yanni waited for a long while, much longer than she had to wait for responses the previous day. She wondered if it was malfunctioning, then decided to type again. But before she could finish typing, she got a response.

Prince Charming: hello, yes I'm here.

Yanni: you took long to reply, for a moment I thought you were dead lol.

Zuo sighed to himself; that was close. He had his computer on and the software opened at that point, but he was on his bed answering Vicky's messages. He hadn't realized that Yanni had sent him a message about a minute ago. He had to keep all his focus on her and that was probably going to be difficult.

Prince Charming: So what would you like help with today?

Yanni: I don't exactly need help with anything, just that my mom kind of annoyed me.

Prince Charming: what happened?

Yanni: well, she said I take too long to get ready in the morning yet she's the first person who judges me when something isn't perfect about how I look.

Prince Charming: really? Does that happen often?

Yanni: yeah, it always used to happen when I didn't try my best to look pretty like I do now. Well, it's important for me to look pretty and she kind of instilled that in me, but it kind of sucks when she's judging me for doing what she wants me to do.

My mom can be pretty annoying.

Prince Charming: Parents don't always understand us so they don't always say the right things. But you should try to forget about what happened or if it bothers you so much, you can talk to her about it. I just hope you get along well.

Yanni: uh yeah, we used to get along very well but not very much recently. Something happened.

Anyway thanks for the advice, I'll see what to do. Everyone at school thinks me and my mom are pretty similar though, but behind closed doors it's not that rosy.

Prince Charming: so you pretend to get along with her very well in front of people?

Yanni: yeah! 'Cause my mom's really cool and pretty, I don't know if I'm anything like that.

Anyway, what about your parents? Do you get along?

Prince Charming: mine?

Yanni: yeah, I told you to be as realistic as possible and have opinions right? Tell me about your family Prince Charming!

Zuo hesitated. It was too hard for him to make up a story when he was just taken by surprise, he wasn't the most creative person anyway. Well, he could easily talk about his family. He just didn't have to go in too much detail that would reveal his family background.

Prince Charming: I don't always get along with my parents but I try my best to please them.

Yanni: so you're the typical good boy?

Prince Charming: you could say so. I always want to please my parents so I work really hard.

Yanni: and doesn't that get draining?

Prince Charming: honestly, it does. But it's one of the things that give me purpose. I guess one of the things that make me feel alive is achieving everything that my parents want me to achieve J

Yanni: oh that's nice. Maybe if I have the same view, my life will be a little bit easier.

Prince Charming: Is your life hard?

Yanni: yeah, you have no idea. Anyway, I think I have to help my mom with making supper now. Talk later Prince Charming! And thanks for sharing your story!

Even though Zuo really wanted to ask her how hard her life was, he knew it would be too much for a so-called chatbot to do that. He wished he knew, because he was curious to know. Even though Yanni's life appeared pretty perfect when they were at school, it seemed it wasn't like that.

Prince Charming: okay, have fun.

Yanni smiled to herself and closed the laptop. She was having fun with this chatbot, and it seemed to have really good advice. She somehow didn't regret clicking that ad, so she was kind of thankful to Xinhao's terrible video.