I Still Remain (Completed)

I - Twenty Minutes

"I'm going to pick her up and bring her with me," Wang He Di argued for the 300th time.

"I told you, you can't!" Wu Xize said, exasperated.

"I want to and I will."

Xize ran his fingers through his hair then covered his face with his hands. It was obvious he was trying to control his frustration, but he knew he was one stubborn answer away from snapping.

"Once again. I am only bringing you along, and you're not supposed to bring a date if someone brings you as their plus one. A plus one doesn't bring his own plus one because that would make two, dumbass," Xize said through gritted teeth.

"But I already told her she should come. You really think I'm gonna make myself look like an ass and cancel on her fifteen minutes before I'm supposed to pick her up?"

"Wang He Di. You don't even know her! You just met her two days ago! She's literally no one! Stop acting like it would kill you to tell her she shouldn't come!" Xize finally exclaimed.

Didi looked shaken for a few seconds but ended up bursting in laughter. Xize couldn't comprehend how someone can be so hard-headed at age 27, but he knew he was only stressing himself out. Once Wang He Di has set his eyes on something, it will happen one way or another.

"Look. I don't want to be an instrument to whatever this is you're planning, okay? I just genuinely want to reconnect with her as a friend. Whatever you're thinking about, I don't want any part of that. I do not approve of it," Xize explained.

"See you in a while, bro. Take a chill pill or something."

It was the weirdest of all the birthdays that Xize had been invited into. He didn't even know why he had been invited in the first place. It has been 8 months since Shen Yue last contacted him—or any of them for that matter—so he was caught off guard when Xiao Wen invited him to Shen Yue's surprise birthday party.

It wasn't entirely strange that he was invited by Xiao Wen though. They had been introduced before and they even hung out a couple of times. What's strange was why he was invited at all, because of course they also lost contact when Didi and Yueyue broke up.

Speaking of, that break-up was like the reckoning. Nobody knew it was coming and when it did, there was no explanation when or why it happened. They were all kept in the dark and trying talking about it with either one of them was like speaking with a non-existent person. No one wanted to acknowledge that it happened (or if it happened at all), and the mere mention of what they once were during gatherings was always followed by a silence so awkward that people's voices just automatically start to shake in an attempt to break the ice.

At least it was like that for Didi. He only saw Yueyue a month after the break-up happened, and even if he wanted to keep in touch with her, it was as if there was this unwritten rule that they just couldn't anymore if he hangs out with Didi. So he can't really say much for her except for that one month where they still saw each other for a few times.

He knew it was wrong to bring him to her party and that it was bound to be a harrowing disaster. But Didi had a few days off of work and he had been bugging Xize since he arrived two days ago that they go somewhere, so he just resorted to letting him come.

He thought about leaving before Didi comes back with his 'date' so he fumbled for his keys, ran towards the door and got inside the elevator. But as he was about to get out, there he was, standing next to the girl he probably knows nothing about but her name and age. Busted.

"Oh, there he is! Good thing we wouldn't have to go up then," Didi said, a sly smile forming on his lips. "Should we bring your car or mine?"

Xize donned the fakest smile he could ever make. "We should probably bring our own and travel separately. Wouldn't want to be a witness to whatever you guys could possibly be doing in a car," Xize said sarcastically, punching Didi's arm a lot stronger than a friendly punch should have been.