mental note to self | meteor garden [REVAMPING]

10 | 落

"Liu Yuxin, who the hell do you think you are?"

Yuxin inwardly sighed at the derisive tone of whoever she had unintentionally pissed off, but made no move to acknowledge them until all her things were neatly tucked into her bag.

The sight that greeted her when she finally raised her eyes was Zhao Linghua, the notorious self-proclaimed leader of Meizuo's personal fan club. Yes, a fan club. A fucking fan club. They were, for the most part, composed of girls he had briefly flirted with or smiled at once who had never given up hope. Her arms were crossed, hands perfectly positioned to show off her signature bright red nails. Her glower was scornful.

Yuxin had been dreading the inevitable visit from her, given the increased amount of time she had been spending with Meizuo. What she hadn't anticipated was a visit to one of her classrooms since Linghua's department was on the other side of campus.

The fact that she was willing to come all the way to Yuxin's lecture hall could only mean one thing: she was royally pissed off.

The last couple of people  in the lecture hall had hurried away at the sight of Linghua's glare, but a few nosy ones lingered in the doorway, eager to learn what was happening. The extremely optimistic side of her hoped that Linghua was there to have a nice chat and there would be no hostile confrontation whatsoever. "Can I help you?"

"Tell me, what exactly is going on between you and Feng Meizuo?"

So much for optimism.

Truthfully, she herself did not know the exact answer to that question. In the weeks since Jing had left for France and they had kissed in the library, she'd hung out with Meizuo almost everyday. 

Dating didn't seem like an adequate enough word to describe her relationship with Meizuo, who had quickly become one of her best friends in the absence of Lei and Jing. Yuxin knew that they were exclusive, but they weren't official. They definitely cared for each other, liked each other, but they had yet to discuss how deep their feelings went.

But Yuxin couldn't very well tell Linghua that they were just close friends who hung out and shared the occasional (frequent) kiss, could she? Especially since they had gone a a bit farther than that. Yuxin suppressed a blush at the memory of herself in his lap last night on his desk chair, his hands up her blouse... Luckily, her phone buzzed, allowing her a moment to look down and compose herself.

After reading the text message's contents, she decided to do what she did best: skirt around the problem. "Don't you always claim that he has 'hidden feelings' for you? If that's true, surely you shouldn't feel threatened."

Linghua couldn't seem to form a retort to that, her mouth contorting in silent rage instead.

"In fact," she continued, smiling amiably, "he's just texted me that he's outside right now. He could answer you himself, if you'd like me to call him."

Linghua hesitated, but eventually her suspicions won her over. "You're bluffing. Just tell me."

"I don't really like lying," said Yuxin. That wasn't a lie. "And I'm sorry to disappoint, but my relationships with other people are my own personal business."

Linghua opened her mouth, probably to offer a scathing retort, but a newㅡmasculineㅡvoice interjected before she could. "What's this about relationships?"

Just like an invisible switch had been flipped, Linghua immediately simpered, batting her eyelashes and smiling prettily. "Hi, Meizuo," she giggled.

Yuxin felt her brain get whiplash.