The Brightest Star in the Night Sky || 时代少年团

🖤CHAPTER 19💛

"HURRY", Jiaqi kept yelling as he was running away while grabbing Meiqi's hand. Meiqi was too scared to say anything else, this was why she never did risky things like that. "Someone must have moved the pencil and made the alarm go off", Jiaqi commented.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!", hollered the security guard. Jiaqi's grip tightened, they ran down countless flights of stairs. "STOP RUNNING".

"Here come with me", Jiaqi said half calmly half shaking. He realized the guard was just going to keep chasing them down the stairs, so he opened the door to one of the floors and entered. "This place used to be where I went for vocal lessons. I know the rooms around here". He pulled Meiqi into a dark room hiding behind a tall closet. They heard the security guard outside with his keys. "Where did these damn kids go. Just wait till I find them".

Meiqi let out a gasp. Jiaqi placed his hand over her mouth and pulled her closer. She could hear his heartbeat now. It was beating really fast and so was Meiqi's. She couldn't tell if it was because she was scared or because she was so close to Jiaqi. 

"Shhh. Once he passes by, we'll be fine", Jiaqi said trying to calm her. He held her tightly for what felt like eternity, but it was only a minute. As they heard the sound of the security guard's footsteps die down, Jiaqi loosened his grip a little. Another minute passed before he loosened up more. "Ok let's go now. I'm going to open the staircase door. Just run downstairs as fast as you can and when you get downstairs, push the door and run to your left. The alarm is going to go off so we need to leave once it rings".

"What about you?", Meiqi asked nervously.

"I'll be right behind you, don't worry", Jiaqi said, giving her a reassuring smile.

"Ready 1,2,3". Jiaqi opened the door, and they sprinted down. Straight down they went until they reached the door. Meiqi turned around, and Jiaqi nodded as a signal to push the door.

"HEY STOP RIGHT THERE". Crap... There was another guard on duty that had been made aware there were two other people wandering around the building.

"PUSH IT", yelled Jiaqi. Meiqi took a deep breath, and off went the alarm. She turned left as soon as she opened the door and kept running. Jiaqi caught up to her hand and grabbed her hand to lead her back to the streets. As Meiqi was running, she tripped over and fell, scraping her knee. Blood started to come out but thankfully, they had ran far enough where the guards couldn't catch up anymore.

Jiaqi's eyes widened after seeing her knee. "You're bleeding a lot. Stay here; I'm going to go to the convenience store to get you bandaids".

He came back with a bottle of water, tissues, and bandaids. Jiaqi pointed to a bench. "Sit here".

He kneeled down and thoroughly cleaned her wounds. Meiqi couldn't help but feel touched as well as a flutter in her heart. "Does it hurt?" Meiqi shook her head, perhaps she was too touched by this moment to feel anything else. He finished placing the bandaid on and sat next to her. She noticed he was dripping sweat, probably from all the running. She handed him a napkin, pointing to his sweat. "Thanks", he replied half panting.

Meiqi started to laugh "What's so funny", Jiaqi asked. "I can't believe that just happened to us. We could have gotten into so much trouble", she said shaking her head. Laughing was her coping mechanism whenever she was placed in a sticky situation. "You told me we wouldn't get caught", she continued.

"Yea, I've never gotten caught before. I didn't even know they had security guards in the building at night". He paused for a moment, "Wow, I can't believe we just did that. Thank god we ran fast enough. Imagine if our company found out". Meiqi shuddered at the thought of that. An ice cream truck came by as they were talking, and Jiaqi ran to flag the truck to stop. "Be right back".

He came back with an ice cream cone. "Here, have this. This is my compensation to you for tonight".

"What about you?" Meiqi asked.

"I didn't have enough money to buy two cones so you can have it"

"We can share then". Meiqi usually never shared food with people, but Jiaqi was the expectation. They shared the cone, and Jiaqi noticed ice cream got on the corner of Meiqi's mouth. He started to laugh while Meiqi just looked at him, confused. Instinctively taking a napkin, he wiped it off. Their eyes locked for a moment...

He didn't know what had gotten into him at that moment but he leaned in, closed his eyes, and kissed Meiqi.

Meiqi was taken aback, but she didn't push Jiaqi anyway either. She closed her eyes too and embraced the warmth of Jiaqi's lips on hers. It filled both of them with butterflies. They both opened their eyes and looked at each other for a second before pulling back. They sat in silence, neither knowing whether the silence was awkward or just because they couldn't process what just happened. Meiqi could feel her heart pounding, and so was Jiaqi's. Jiaqi didn't know what had given him the courage to do that, but in the moment it felt right, and he was glad he did it.

"Um do you wanna go back now?", Jiaqi asked breaking the silence. Meiqi nodded. She got up and started to walk but winced in pain. Jiaqi noticed the expression on her face and concernedly asked her what was wrong.

"I think I hurt my foot too when I fell down. It hurts to walk now".

Without saying anything, Jiaqi turned around and pointed to his back, indicating that he would give her a piggyback ride. "Get on, I'll bring you home". Meiqi hesitated for a little, but the pain she felt was too much for her to say no. She hopped on silently, and Jiaqi carried her all the way home. She wanted to say something but was unsure of what to say, would she thank him for tonight? For taking care of her?

She whispered, "Thanks for today. It was fun, been a long time since I went out". Meiqi teared up slightly, thinking about how long it had been since she felt this happy. "No need to thank me. We can do it again anytime". Although Jiaqi wasn't facing Meiqi, she could see his smile while he was answering. Meiqi smiled, seeing that too.

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Ding Chengxin POV

Chengxin came running downstairs. He had gone to Meiqi's room because he wanted to discuss how to dance better for their upcoming performance, but she was nowhere to be found. Their chemistry sometimes seemed to be there; sometimes it was non-existent.

"Hey, has anyone seen Meiqi?"

"Ma Ge and her went out a while ago", replied Zhengyuan. "Where'd they go?"

"I have no idea." He turned to Haoxiang, "Only he was here when they left". Haoxiang shrugged his shoulders, "I have no idea either, I wanted to ask too, but they left so fast".

"GUYS DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE DING GE'S GF WENT WITH MA GE?", hollered Junlin who was sitting in the kitchen with them.

Yaxuan and Yaowen popped their heads out from upstairs. "Ding Ge has a girlfriend? Since when?", they asked in unison. 

"You guys are so dense, who else would it be? ", replied Haoxiang. Chengxin rolled his eyes, "No, I don't have a girlfriend. I'm looking for Meiqi".

"Ohhh so your girlfriend", Yaowen and Yaxuan said, laughing at each other.

Zhengyuan pointed to the window, "Hey look, they're back. Why is Meiqi on Jiaqi's back?"

They all rushed outside to see. But Chengxin stayed back because seeing that image of them had made him feel something. He didn't know, after all he and Meiqi were just friends, but it definitely was not what he wanted to see... 

A/N: What do we think so far!! Who likes Meiqi? Chengxin? Jiaqi? Both? Who does she like? I know I do a lot of A/Ns but I wanna have people interact so feel free to comment :)