MAFIA BOY and MASK MAN: Live to Love

CHAPTER #6

At school the next day, when Jiayi walked by, both girls and guys in the hall were whispering that she was Queen of the delinquents. The guys who had attacked her last night and could make it in to school, came to apologize to her. That put her in a great mood. Some girls came up to her and said since she was Queen, that it made sense if she dated Mafia Boy Qihe.  Since he had yet to come to class, no one had been told yet that she already was his girlfriend.  It made her curious how he would let them all know that she was his.

He arrived in class, two minutes before the teacher. "Let's exchange earrings.  I want that lock you wear, you can have the diamond stud."

"Is it a real diamond?"

"Of course."

"I don't want it."

"You're my girlfriend, you deserve a real diamond."

The girls in the class all swooned, with oohhhs and ahhhs.

"Also let's see if any of my rings fit your fingers or thumbs." He took off one of the rings he wore on his index finger and gave it to her.

Jiayi tried it on her middle finger and it fit. "This might fall off when my knuckles aren't swollen anymore."

"At home I have a pair of black onyx rings, one of which has a white band through it. You can wear yours around your neck on a necklace if you want."

"That sounds good, less chance of damaging it in a fight."

Qihe sat down beside her and the teacher arrived, so no one could get in their face about dating. However the school messaging forum was on fire for hours, both with Jiayi being Queen and then Mafia Boy Qihe making her his girlfriend. Someone had dug up the info about her being the King at her school from Shanghai too. Jiayi didn't like that part of the gossip, because of being kicked off the National Taekwondo team.

At lunch Qihe himself asked about it. "One rumour says you were on the National team, but another says that in Taekwondo you were supposed to go to the World Championships, but the fighting at school got you kicked off. What's the real story?"

"Both. I was on the National team for Taekwondo and Karate, preparing for the Worlds. Even if I wasn't fighting to be King, that was the year mom left too. We couldn't afford sending me to any more competitions. The glory days would've ended in disgrace anyway."

"You've had a rough life, but I guess that's shaped you into the woman I like today."

"Why are you so understanding?"

His eyes turned into half-moons as Qihe smiled. "Because we chose our own paths and went against the norm." He shrugged and calked his head to the side. "If you were trying to be my brother's girlfriend, that would be a different story."

"Does he have a girlfriend now too?"

"She's in America. Moved to the US for her modelling. They have a long distance relationship. He is a bad flirt, but doesn't kiss or hook up with anyone other than her."

"At lunch are you around? I made us bento box lunches."

"Really? I think I love you."

"That was easy," Jiayi laughed.

One of the girls from the spider killing moment, approached her. "So are you going to be called Mafia Girl?"

"I have nothing to do with the Mafia, so no. I'm just Queen and happen to be his girl.  Any more spiders you need me to kill?"

The girl smiled, "no, but thanks." She retreated.

** ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ** ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ **

At lunch time Qihe confirmed that Saturday was good to visit her brother and Lu He, to make dinner. Qihe's eyes lit up when he opened his bento box lid and unclipped the three layers. "When did you make all this?"

"While you were gaming and some of it early this morning."

He swallowed and asked, "did you have a hard time sleeping?"

"A few nightmares because of telling you about my past. But I don't often sleep more than five hours at home and I get up early to make Zan lunch."

"You have a lot of wife qualities."

"I don't know about that.  Anyway, I'm glad you like the food. What should I make on Saturday?"

"Lu He loves chicken chop suey, broccoli with oyster sauce and dan dan noodles. What does Zan love?"

"Stir fried rice cakes and crab rangoon."

"You can make that?"

"Cooking is like math, you just need the right formula and the rest is easy, sometimes just time consuming."

"I can help make spring rolls and Lu He has a deep frier too." Qihe offered, between mouthfuls of food.

"We'll need to go grocery shopping again."

"Make up a list and I'll send it to Lu He.  Some of it he probably already has and the rest he can buy.  Also he'll get dessert."

She smiled, "can he get Nyonya pineapple tarts? I haven't had those since I was a kid."

They finished eating, cleaned up, packed the bentos away and then walked hand in hand back to class. She couldn't believe this was happening. He was happy just holding hands, even now that they were dating. Part of her wouldn't trust him 100%, because she was scared to love completely. Life always seemed to stomp on her happiness and she didn't want to jinx it. Jiayi wondered if he felt the same way.  Being alone together, for a week would surely show them if their relationship could work.  All her life, he was the first one to not be intimidated or threatened by her fighting capability and sometimes dominating personality. Qihe was too good to be true and that made her a little anxious.  However he had earned her trust and loyalty even before they agreed to date.