MG2018 - Compilation: One Shots

Thomas

That was weird, Thomas thought as he left Mingde University.

Then again, everything that had happened in the past few hours had been weird, starting with the way that girl just suddenly sat beside him on the piano and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Hi!" His head popped up at the enthusiastic greeting, and he looked up to see two girls looking at him. One of them had curly hair, while the other had big doe eyes that were staring at him right now. "Are you Shancai's boyfri--"

He shook his head quickly. "No," he smiled politely before turning away.

He definitely was not her boyfriend, and that tall guy who could barely speak French made that abundantly clear.

What did that matter, anyway? It's not like he came to Shanghai in search of a relationship.

Truth be told, he wouldn't even be here right now if his mother's oldest friend hadn't called in a favor. Their regular pianist was recovering from surgery and would be out for a month, so could he kindly fill in and play at the restaurant every night. Of course he couldn't say no.

But now it was time to go back to London... and what? Continue performing at the park with his friends who were always up to no good?

He kicked at a pebble as he mindlessly made his way through the city. It was his last night in Shanghai, and he had the night off from the restaurant. What could he possibly do--

Suddenly, he was yanked from his thoughts, and quite literally too. He stopped in his tracks in confusion, and saw that a piece of string had caught on the zipper of his jacket.

"What the..." he said as he followed the string slowly, and stopped in his tracks as he rounded the corner to see a beautiful girl holding the other end of the string. It turned out to be a loose string from her scarf, which had unraveled quite a lot.

She followed his eyes and saw him looking at her scarf, and she unwound it from her neck. Her lips curled into a smirk as she assessed the damage. "Oh well," she shrugged, then shivered involuntarily as she felt the cool wind on her neck.

"I'm so sorry," he started to say, but she waved him off. 

"Why are you sorry? It's not like you snagged it on purpose," she shrugged, her lips still curled into that smirk that was strangely cute.

"Still, you're cold," he said, "Let me buy you a new scarf."

She started to protest, but he put up his finger to silence her. "I won't take no for an answer. Let's go."

He surprised himself by grabbing her hand, but was more surprised that she didn't let go. They were strangers and--

He let go of her hand and smacked his forehead. "My goodness, where are my manners?! I'm Thomas." He held out his hand, and she shook it. "I'm Xiaozi," she said.

They stuffed their hands into their coat pockets and began to walk towards the nearby mall. It was easy talking to her, and he learned that her parents were trying to arrange marriage for her with the son of their business partner.

"That's probably why I didn't notice about my scarf," she said as they headed up the escalator.

"Because you were thinking about this guy?" he asked, and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Because I don't think I should marry for money! I refuse to be used as a pawn in some business transaction!" she said vehemently, pouting her ruby red lips.

Stop looking at her lips, he chastised himself.

As they got off the escalator, Thomas saw two guys walking in their direction. One was wearing a pair of white, wide-legged pants. The other was wearing a pair of glasses and a green coat. It might have been his imagination, but it seemed like the minute they saw Xiaozi, they spun on their heels and walked briskly in the opposite direction. 

Again, weird. He shook his head and decided it was nothing.

He and Xiaozi stepped into a store, and they began to look at the scarves together. "Here, let's try this one," he said, taking a red scarf from the rack. He stood in front of her and wound the scarf gently around her neck, leaning close to fix it.

"There..." he said softly, and jolted when he realized how close he was.

She was staring up at him, and he could see how long her lashes were. She had beautiful eyes.

She was beautiful.

He cleared his throat and stepped away slowly, and she cast her eyes down, fidgeting with her hair.

"We can take this," she said, fingering the scarf. "Where to next?"

He shrugged, "Well, it's my last night in Shanghai before I fly back to London. I wasn't really sure of what I might do tonight."

He looked at her and was surprised by the glint in her eyes.

"Well... I could give you something to do..." she said slowly, her lips curving into that smirk again.

Is she saying what I think she's saying? 

She raised her eyebrow at him expectantly.

She is.

Those two words made him feel warm all over.

This was crazy. He was leaving.

"It's just one night," she said.

True, but something told him it was going to be a night he would never forget.

He took a deep breath and reached for her hand.

"I'm all yours."