Journey to Somewhere New (Sun Wukong x reader)

Chap. 19 - First date

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Today, Ai Chow had plans to go hang out with her friends for a bit of shopping around the city. But the truth was: she was dreading this outing and was purposefully doing her morning routine as slowly as possible because of it.
"Ai Chow dear," her father said during breakfast. "the Liao heir is now eligible for marriage, he seems like a nice fellow."
She frowned.
"Father, I didn't know they even had a heir."
"Oh he is very sweet." her mother smiled. "He is sure to be a competent husband and father. What do you say?"
She sighed and stood up.
"I'll think about it."
Her parents looked at each-other, knowing that this meant 'no' in their daughter's language. She came from a prestigious family, even though most young women of her age and status would already be engaged with a stranger for business purposes by this point, her parents let her keep her freewill when it came to relationships. She was lucky. But, ever since she turned sixteen, friends and family have been asking her questions about her love life, strangers have been asking for her hand and now that her eighteenth birthday party was just in a few days, the pressure has doubled. She loved her friends and family, but they could get on her nerve sometimes.

"But who knows if this will last!" one of her friends said when the subject almost unavoidably came up. "Maybe they'll give Ai a boyfriend as a birthday present!"
She frowned at the idea. That would be so embarrassing, especially since the whole town will be there to watch. She tried not to think about it as she looked at the different stands in the market place her group was walking across.
"I still don't get it." another one of her friends looked at her. "You have dated before, yet you've never dated for longer than a month. What gives?"
"I don't know." she shrugged. "There were just no...spark?"
"Even you don't sound sure of yourself."
"Hey come on, she wants to find 'the one'."
"Or, she's way too picky."
"So which one is it Ai?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're the only rich woman in the entire city with no boyfriend!"
"Well, you got old lady Daiyu but let's not talk about that!"
Her friends laughed. On any other days, she would feel bad and left out, but right now, she was just frustrated and only wanted to shut them up so that she would be left alone for once. She inhaled.

"Actually!" she exhaled as she turned to face them. "I *do* have a boyfriend!"
"...What?" their expression fell, skeptic and understandably so.
"Yeah." she placed her hands on her hips, sounding very sure of herself this time. "We met a while back, he's a traveler so he had to leave at some point, but we exchanged letters in secret." she smiled.
Some looked at each-other, asking themselves if this was true. But her oldest friend still wasn't convinced, she folded her arms.
"Oh yeah? What's his name?"
"Mei-hui."
"That is the exact same name as the love interest from that romance book you love so much."
'Shoot!' she thought. 'I said the first name that came to mind!'
"Yeah." she said in a matter-of-fact way. "That's what drawn me to him in the first place."
"Yeah I do not believe a word of it. A traveler? How convenient." she smiled. "And you exchanged letters that we've never seen?"
"I was hiding them."
"Sure~."
Ai frowned, it was clear they weren't taking this too light-heartedly.
"Oh Mei-hui's real alright. In fact, he's coming for my birthday. In fact! We planned on meeting here today! I wanted to go meet him when we were done shopping! I bet he's here right now!"

Whatever skill the young lady had in lying she made up for it by not knowing when to stop. Most of her friends looked shocked, her childhood friend though was still not convinced.
"Where? Point him out to us."
"Oh I will. Just you wait."
This is where Ai Chow recognized her mistake and began to panic. Still she kept a cool facade as her and her friends went to look for her 'boyfriend'. She knew the longest she took, the less her lie will stand, she had to be quick. So far, every man she spotted was too buff, too tall, too outgoing. Then, she spotted a man with pretty (h/c) hair, although his back was turned, she could see him reading a book. She liked books, maybe this could work she thought. She decided to take this gamble, and pointed at him.
"He's right there. The one in a blue tunic."
Her group of friends almost piled up on top of her in order to follow her gaze. As they looked together, Ai's heart dropped when her 'boyfriend' turned around to reveal 'his' face.