Just Friends

Chapter 4 Inauguration party (from Didi's POV)

There was some time to prepare for the party, so we could all go back to our hotel.

I was staying in a room with Wu Xize and Liang Jing Kang. They were both ok. I'd known Kang from Super Idol and he had never been my favorite. There was something about him, oh yeah, he was annoying. With his pure, stupid vanity, always thinking he's the most handsome one. Somehow, that was infuriating for me. At the time, I was egocentric, egoistic, vain person myself, hence I was hating on any potential competition. Fortunately, I was convinced that I needed to make an effort to like him more. We were there for a long run, there was no point on continuing the hate. Ultimately, I grew to like him, but he also was the reason of my many future misfortunes.

On the other hand was Xize. This guy was most definitely good-looking, so we had at least that in common. Besides he was gallant and cavalier, which was the opposite to who I was back then. Xize is one of my closest friends now. Though in those days I couldn't escape the feeling of total indifference towards him and from him towards me, for a quite long time of shooting together. I think it was her, who actually showed me how great and funny person Wu Xize was. But let's not get a head of ourselves.

They weren't fashonistas as much as I was. I was rootling through my suitcase, looking for something to impress. Dress to impress, right? Impress who? Probably I was aiming for everyone. After all, I was the cool guy, I looked cool, I acted cool. I listened to hip hop, I loved luxury brands and expensive gadgets. And finally I had a little more money to buy a little more of those things. That was me at that point of time.

Maybe, just maybe, I was thinking a little about her then, while I was getting ready and Xize and Kang were getting impatient with my styling process. The girl who would play my love interest. A little or maybe a lot.

I was analyzing how to approch Shen Yue. And what kind of relationship I wanted to have with her. Honestly, I was already carefully scrutinizing her in general. As much as I was able to, with the information I'd got so far.

There was going to be an alcohol on the party. It would make getting to know each other easier. As a matter of fact, she was already quite straightforward, without any dose of alcohol. She had complimented me and said some quite candid things, when we had been sitting by the table. And she hadn't been embarrassed at all. She had even called me cute, only in response to my comment, true, but still.

This kind of girls had been rare in my life. Honest and brave enough to be themselves. I had only known my mom to be like that. I actually didn't have a lot to do with girls in general. Most of my friends were guys. There were some girls that I had been infatuated by. Girls so beautiful to the point I had been drooling myself. But I was never able to connect with them, in spite of dating them severly. My sense of humor, my sometimes harsh honesty, goofing around, teasing, the way I tried to maintain physical contact in a childish way, never got any of those girls to get me. My big advantage was that I am good looking. I always got my way with them. They had fallen for me at the same exact time I had fallen out of my infatuation by them.

All in all, the pretty girls were never enough for me to stay interested for long, they were just not my thing. Then, as I was thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that I could even get an ugly girl, just to have normal connection with her. Maybe the ugly girls had to have a big personalities by default, to make up for their looks. I was longing for the real female companionship. And, as you all can see, I was willing to compromise.

Frankly, I always considered myself to be a family guy. The guy who would marry early, have kids early, love his wife for eternity. I had a strong poetic, stupidly romantic wish, I could become one with my partner, just like my parents had. My dad was exactly like that, he loved my mom to death. They were getting older, but their feelings for each other stayed strong. They became the best friends throughout the years and were not able to live a second without each other.