DAHLIA - Xu Minghao

Chapter 11 - Sisters Reunited

'My smile is like I won a contest,
And to hide that would be so dishonest."

***

"Yen..." Meilin whispered, choking on a sob.

She ran to her sister and hugged her tighter than she had ever hugged anyone before. Yenling hugged her back with the same amount of strength. Meilin started crying, causing Yenling to do so as well. The two sisters fell to their knees as they cried together, laughing at the same time.

"Happy birthday, Lin." Yenling said, her voice hoarse from the sobbing. "I hope you like your present." She whispered.

Meilin shook her head, laughing. "Are you crazy? This is the best present I've ever had! I love it." They stayed silent for a long time, just happy to be together again. Meilin had no idea how long it lasted, but she didn't care. All that mattered to her was that Yenling was there, in front of her, safe and happy and healthy. It felt like ages before Yenling slowly stood up, helping Meilin up as well. Immediately, she was tackled into another hug, this time by a boy, who was screaming in her ear.

Meilin recognized his voice immediately, despite not being able to see his face. He was screaming as if she was a celebrity, shaking her left and right wildly. It was Chao, her boy best friend from back at the Academy. With a gasp, Meilin realized that it wasn't just Yenling that was there, but her entire friend circle. She quickly let go of Chao and hugged her other two friends, Lihua and Daiyu, who were both beaming as well. When she turned around, she saw Yenling high-fiving Minghao, both of them grinning widely. She spotted the rest of the boys behind them.

"You better thank Xu, right here." Yenling said, patting Minghao's shoulder. Then she turned to Junhui, grinning. "As well as him, and your friends from school." Meilin's eyes went from Minghao to Junhui, and then Seokmin.

But she turned to Minghao first, tears shining in her eyes. "You made this happen?" The boy just nodded, and Meilin broke out into a huge grin as she jumped into his arms, hugging him tightly. She wrapped her legs around his hips and buried her face in the crook of his neck. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much." She whispered. Minghao just squeezed her tightly, humming softly. Meilin started crying again, muffling her sobs with his shoulder.

"Shh, don't cry, don't cry." He shushed, rocking her back and forth softly. Meilin unwrapped her legs from his hips, standing on her own two feet again, but she didn't let go of him. "Happy birthday, Princess," Minghao whispered. Meilin blushed and hid her face in his chest.

Someone joined the hug, then another person, and another, until they were all in a group hug. Meilin giggled, feeling suffocated, but the happiest she had ever been. Never had she imagined her two friend groups in the same place, getting along for her sake.

One by one, people stepped back, the first most likely having been either Jihoon or Lihua, since neither of them were very keen on hugs. Meilin couldn't stop smiling as she looked around.

Slowly, everyone started heading back to the dorm. Meilin walked between her sister and Daiyu, still smiling as she talked to them.

"How's training?" Daiyu asked. "I only ever hear what Ling tells us, and that isn't much."

Melin grinned. "It's so hard, but I'm getting great results, so it's fun, too. I've improved so much since I left the Academy, it's actually insane. It physically hurts to watch my old video's now, because I'm not used to that anymore. We really work on all aspects here, and at school too. My singing improved a lot as well." Meilin said. She thought of what she could add, and gasped. "I write my own songs now! I started producing alongside Jihoon a few months ago. And Bumzu says I'm getting really good with Korean lyrics, considering I haven't even been here for a year."