Wizard of Oz || Zuo Hang✓

Thirteen

Yanni walked into the house after school, surprised to find her mother sitting in the living room. She usually came late in the evening because she spent most of her time working overtime. She looked particularly tired sitting on the living room couch.

'Oh mom, you're here?' Yanni asked in a drained voice. She hadn't had the best day at school, and she was still stuck in her thoughts.

'Yes, I had to leave work early today to work on something.' Yanni's mother rubbed her temple slowly as she looked down at the papers. 'How was school?'

'Fine I guess,' she answered. She believed she knew what her mother was doing, of course she did. With all the papers and the cross look on her mother's face, it was quite obvious.

Yanni was about to walk up the stairs before her mother stopped her with a sentence.

'Yanni?' she asked her. 'You didn't tell anyone at school about the situation did you?'

'No,' she answered as she grabbed onto the handrails.

'Good. And I hope you'll keep it that way.'

Yanni nodded then continued to walk up the stairs. Her mother had always cared very much about her reputation, so she made sure her child had a good reputation as well. Besides, she didn't want Yanni's classmates spreading the issue to their parents, which is something kids could commonly do.

She walked into her room, feeling sadder than she did before. The issue also affected her, but there was no one she could tell. Well she couldn't tell Zhixin for the obvious reason that her mother had told her not to tell anyone, but also for the reason that he would probably stop liking her if he heard that. And she couldn't tell Xinhao because he never cared about anything, at least not anything to do with her.

...

'So, can I ask you something?' Vicky asked Zuo as the two of them walked away from the school premises.

'Yeah what?' he answered.

'When you said that Yanni is the prettiest girl in school, did you mean it or you just said that to annoy Zhixin?'

Zuo chuckled a bit. 'I think it's obvious that she's the prettiest girl.'

Vicky felt her heart clench in anger, she was getting convinced that Zuo liked Yanni. And she didn't like that one bit. 'Yanni just looks pretty because she wears a lot of makeup.'

Zuo shook his head. 'No, I don't like Yanni's makeup face, I like her bare face. She's always been pretty to me since she was a kid who didn't know what makeup was aside from cherry lip gloss.'

'So you're in love with her?' Vicky stopped in her tracks while Zuo continued to walk.

Zuo stopped as well, a short distance in front of Vicky. He turned around to look at her. She seemed incredibly angry, but Zuo assumed it was because she never liked Yanni. He couldn't sneak in any thought that his best friend had feelings for him.

'Love is a strong word Vicky, I don't think we can actually use it at this point. But do I find her attractive? Yes.' Zuo told her in all honesty.

'What about...?' she started before she was cut off by Zuo. She wanted to ask what he felt about her, but wasn't able to finish her sentence.

'But relax, me and Yanni are in two different orbits. She's attractive but I didn't say I'd date her or something.' Zuo laughed.

His enchanting smile made Vicky calm down a bit. She was still feeling bothered but she decided to smile back at him then walked over to him. The two continued to walk home together, though Vicky was still thinking of those painful thoughts.