BAD NEIGHBORS

I RESPECT YOU

Sitting at the small kitchen table in Shen Yue's home, her group of friends were looking at a blackboard on which the girl had written "Ideal Woman".
"Um... You said there was an emergency... I'm confused" Connor said.
Yue had gathered them all there the day after her chat with Wang He Di.
"And indeed it is. I need your help for a very important task: to find a girl for Didi".
Dylan covered his face with his hands and sighed loudly.
"This is ridiculous, tiger. I can perfectly find it by myself! There was no need to involve everyone!" he complained.
"No, you can't! You only look at the physical aspect, you don't focus on the rest!" Yue retorted.
"Hey! That's not true!"
"Why did you approach me that night?"
"Because you were... Beautiful?"
"See?!"
"Ok, ok! What an agony!"
"Wait! So you are telling us that Didi wants a serious relationship?!"  Caesar exclaimed.
Yue nodded.
Everyone burst out laughing.
"Here, I had the same reaction" Dylan spread his arms, agreeing on how ridiculous that sentence alone seemed.
"Stop being stupid and let's finish this thing" Yue muttered.

===

Together they began to create the perfect girl profile for Dylan.
The characteristics written up to that time were:

- beautiful
- fascinating
- sexy
- nice legs
- bold

"Can we dig a little deeper?"  snorted Shen Yue.
"That's enough for me" smiled Dylan, satisfied.
"Oh come on! You have to spend time with her, Didi! She can't just be a sex bomb!"
"There must be something else that you look in a girl!" Zi Wei laughed.
"Um... Ok, let me think..."
"How about Sweet?" Darren suggested.
Dylan nodded and Yue wrote it on the board.
"Caring!"  Connor exclaimed.
After a few minutes, the blackboard was finally enriched with new words:

- funny
- smart
- independent
- sensitive
- sincere
- determined
- brave

"You know all this is useless, right?"  Connor asked, rereading everything.
"Mmh?"
"As the only married man in here, I can assure you this list is useless. Even finding such a girl, love doesn't work that way... It takes chemistry and a lot of other things I can't even explain. You can't look for love".
"Hey, killjoy! Take your happily married man advice elsewhere!"  Caesar teased him.
"Anyway, I volunteer!" raised a hand Xiao Wen.
"That's it then! I have a girlfriend!"  Dylan winked at her and she giggled, blushing.
"Forget about my friends" Shen Yue replied.
"Why don't you two date instead?" Jaqi suggested, pointing to Yue and Dylan.
"I would never date him."
"I would never date her."
They said it at the same time.
The two exchanged a quick glance.
Yue was surprised to find herself hurt by those words.
And Dylan too.
But neither of them said a word.
There was a strange tension in the room...
"Um... Ok, then... I know a couple of girls who could match what is written on the blackboard! Come on Didi, I'll show you the photos!"
Zi Wei exclaimed, trying to break that atmosphere.
The guys spent the rest of the evening considering which girls to introduce to Wang He Di.
He chose only one girl from the various options and he decided that he would try to go out with her.  She was a ex college friend of Darren's.
Proud of having succeeded in coming to a conclusion, everyone returned to their own homes.
As usual, Wang He Di stayed to help Yue tidy up.
They were both very quiet.
"The girl you chose is pretty" Yue said suddenly.
Dylan, intent on washing glasses at the sink, nodded.
"You know... You seemed definitely horrified at the idea of ​​dating me" he muttered after a while.
"I wasn't horrified, you fool. But it's the truth, I could never go out with someone like you" Yue replied as she swept the floor.
"Someone like me, huh?"
"You've been with too many women. You like too much to have fun with them. I wouldn't feel safe, I couldn't trust you completely..."
"You know how to hurt with words, tiger".
Yue noticed the seriousness in his tone of voice and she turned to him, surprised.
"Hey! You also said you would never date me!" she defended herself.
"Yes, but my motive is different from yours."
"And what would that be? Am I not attractive enough? After seeing me in my pajamas, have I lost the charm you saw at the speed date? I'm not..."
"It's just that I respect you too much" Dylan interrupted her.
"Oh..."
"I could never risk hurting you. I don't know what it means to love and you only deserve love."
"Didi..."
"Yue, I'm afraid you're the first one not to believe I'll find a girl willing to be with someone like me."
"That's not true! Didi, I believe it! I... Hey! Where are you going?!"
"To sleep. Goodnight, cutie."
Wang He Di's hurt look and the sad smile he gave her before he left haunted Shen Yue all night.

===

Shen Yue ran to knock on Dylan's door as soon as she opened her eyes the next morning, but he didn't seem to be home.
So she changed her clothes and she went to his workshop and her eyes widened as soon as she saw it closed.
She took her cell phone and called him... Nothing, no answer.
"Where are you?" she whispered anxiously.
She wanted to apologize for what she said...
Yue went to work with a weight in her heart... Whenever she had a moment of time she tried to call him, but he never answered.
Shen Yue really felt guilty for hurting him to the point of not wanting to talk to her.
When she came home and again she didn't find him, panic set in.

===

Wang He Di returned to his apartment after dinner.
The first thing he did was check his cell phone, which he had forgotten at home that morning before leaving.
He had spent the day at his parents' house repairing his father's old scooter.
He was amazed to find over thirty calls by Shen Yue.
Without even putting on his shoes, he dashed into the hallway and knocked on her door, worried that something had happened to her.
Yue went to open it and Dylan worried even more to see her swollen eyes and red nose.
He grabbed her by the shoulders and leaned over to see if she was okay.
"What happened to you?! Are you feeling sick?! Sorry, I forgot my cell phone at home! Are you okay?!"
Yue began to cry again.
"Yue please tell me what's wrong!"
"Are you angry?" she sobbed.
"Angry? Why should I be angry?"
"You disappeared without telling me anything."
Dylan was confused.
"Mmh? I wrote you a note this morning, didn't you see it? I slipped it under your door... I wanted to warn you that I was going to my parents to do something" he said.
"A note?! Who the hell writes notes in 2021?! Couldn't you text me?!"
Dylan watched the tears continue to flow down Yue's cheeks and his heart clenched.
"Are you really crying just because you couldn't find me, you silly?" he sighed.
"I thought that after the bad things I told you yesterday you didn't want to talk to me anymore" Yue replied.
Wang He Di hugged her and gave her a few kisses on the head.
"I'm sorry about last night... I shouldn't have treated you like that.
After all, your reasoning is understandable, you didn't say anything strange" he told her.
"I'm the one who must apologize, you idiot! Ever since we've known each other you've always been there for me... I'm the last person in the world who can tell you those things. You've proven me in every way how reliable you are. I'm sorry."
The two hugged a little tighter.
After a while, Dylan leaned over to look into her eyes and smiled softly at her.
"Stop crying, little tiger."
Yue nodded and wiped her tears with the sleeves of her pajamas.
The two decided to watch a movie together.
Dylan noticed that Yue kept holding her tiny little finger intertwined with his, as if she was afraid to see him go away and disappear again.
He felt so much tenderness... And he thought that he had to be more careful about what he said and did, to be sure not to see her cry because of him anymore.
It was true, the words he had heard her say the night before had hurt him, because even though he understood her speech, Dylan wanted with all his heart that Yue knew how important she was and that she could trust him.
Suddenly he remembered something...
"Hey, cutie!"
"Yup?"
"What was that bullshit about not finding you attractive anymore?! Are you stupid?!"
Yue blushed and snorted.
"Stop it. You know it's true."
Wang He Di, in response, pinched her cheek.
"Stop talking bullshit!"
"Ouch! Don't do it again!"
"What? This?"
Another little pinch... And the tiger's claws came out to strike mercilessly.
Dylan received so many kicks that at one point he started to feel pain in his butt.
It was true, Wang He Di didn't know what love was... But without even realizing it, his little tiger was showing it to him.
Who knows if his heart was ready to see it...

Author's Corner
Ciao again!  🤭
Inspiration has taken over my hands, sorry 😂
I think it's mainly thanks to the enthusiasm you are showing me with your comments and messages ☺️
So thank you very much ❤️
I hope to see you soon! 💜💛
A big hug,
Lucrezia