Fragments

Top Dog

Daoming Si had always been notorious for having a quick trigger. His fiery temper was infamous, legendary even - there was a reason he was widely feared throughout all of Mingde, and treated with awed respect by the majority of his peers. His reputation as a fearless, ruthless business extraordinaire quite often proceeded him, and Ah Si relished the benefits it wrought - be it the admiration of their peers or the perks of having their own club room, he enjoyed it all immensely. It was no less than someone of his rank deserved, after all. He felt powerful when the masses cowered before him in barely concealed fear and he couldn't deny it felt good. Fear was better than anonymity in his book, he wasn't a shrinking violet who was content to fade into the background - as the Daoming heir, it was imperative he be renowned. It was his birthright in a sense. Because of their heritage, good genes and business acumen, F4 enjoyed the hard earned respect of the student body - a combination of hard work and familial connections had helped them claw their way to the very top of the food chain, and not a soul had been able to knock them off the pedestal that they had erected. F4 reigned on high, their authority challenged but never yet defeated, and he had no qualms about smacking the minions back into place whenever they stepped out of line.

Ah Si was also a man who was accustomed to getting what he wanted; he was Doaming Si, heir to a massive hotel fortune, and in his esteemed opinion, he deserved the world on a silver platter. After all, it wasn't like he had just coasted on the coattails of his family business - he was brilliant in his own regard, a genius on the stock market, swift and cold as a shark in the business world. Forget the Wolf of Wall Street - he was the Big Bad Wolf of Mingde, and everyone knew it. He had earned his millions at the tender age of 18, an impressive feat, only cementing his own opinion of his greatness. He was a prodigy, a whiz kid, and he deserved to be lauded for it, even if he was uncouth at times. However, as the saying went, the higher you climbed, the harder you fell; Ah Si had never expected to be knocked from his throne, but he really should have respected the idiom never say never. He had been brought crashing unceremoniously back to earth the very first time he had encountered her - Dong Shancai, the thorn in his side but also the constant inhabitant of his subconsciousness. He wished he could forget all about his tiny nemesis, he really didn't understand why she was front and centre in all his thoughts lately, but try as he might, she was in there and there was no shaking her. He snubbed and poked her repeatedly and yet....he couldn't stop thinking about her. He couldn't refute that his stomach jolted every time he clapped eyes on her, and he was strangely drawn to her, despite how much he attempted to resist her. She was bewitching but she made his blood boil! However, even he was surprised by the force of the blistering anger that flooded him after the catastrophic events of that fateful lunch period.

He had been minding his own business, content for once to take a back seat whilst Jing regaled them with tales of her trips abroad. The quartet had missed the older girl (none so much as Huaze Lei, of course) and it had been refreshing to have her back in their midst. Jing was funny, witty and charming, and a natural storyteller - she had all four of them laughing uproariously as she recounted what she termed a 'Marilyn Monroe' moment she had experienced in Madrid. The mood was light, and Ah Si had felt ten years younger all of a sudden. Best of all, for the first time in years, Lei had looked pleased, the colour in his cheek heightened and his usually clouded eyes awash with sparkles that had been absent for far too long. Ah Si had never voiced it aloud, but he had worried for his friend when Jing had left for fairer shores. Lei was a quiet soul, introspective and shrewd, but there was something about Jing that awakened his friend and unleashed the parts of himself he strove to keep hidden. Lei wasn't yet able to verbalise his feelings, he had always struggled in that regard, but it was obvious in the way he stared at the object of his affection, in the expression on his face, in every word he uttered. Yes, his friend was twitterpated, elated even, and it was for that reason that Ah Si was uncharacteristically quiet, occupying himself with the cake stand and trying not to insert himself unnecessarily into the conversation. The way Lei looked at Jing was so....intimate, he felt like he was intruding into their personal bubble, he was somewhat uncomfortable and at that moment, he would have welcomed any distraction. Fate had a funny way of playing with him.