R I D I N [zhong chenle] ✓

F O U R T E E N

She was less talkative, less bubbly and overall just dead at school. Xiu Ying made others worried, and for a split second she thought there were people that did care about her, until she bring herself down again.

No one likes you...face it.

She was really down, until nightfall came and she should be reacting differently now, hungry for adventure and thrill. But no, she felt dead.

She was so sure that he wouldn't be waiting for her after the embarrassing thing that she did last night. But her foolish self still waited at the usual spot, and told herself to wait for 10 minutes.

8 minutes passed, and she sighed feeling all hope die in her.

If only I used my brain...

Until suddenly a hand landed on her shoulder, with reflex she immediately swinged her bat at full speed, but it came to a stop after getting caught by another hand.

"Woah there, it's just me", The voice lingered in her head, and she almost felt like dropping onto the floor, to cry seeing the exact person she thought wouldn't come.

"Hello? What's up with you?", Waving a hand in front of her face, she blinked repeatedly before taking a step back to face him.

"Nothing...", She quietly said.

Weirded out by her behavior, he glanced down. "What's with the bat?"

"Hmm?", Zoning out for a bit, she looked up blankly. "Oh, this old thing? I thought breaking into banks was getting boring, so I thought...", Even without lack of enthusiasm she tried to grow confidence in her voice just for the sake of today.

"Let's break into a shopping mall instead"

It was awfully silent. In fact, too silent. Not like Chenle hated it, but it just wasn't like her. They were now inside a mall, breaking windows using bats and stealing display stuff.

"And...", She swung at another window. "This bag should be enough already"

"Seriously? It's smaller than your hand"

"It's made out of diamonds, darling. Size doesn't matter", She said, taking the dainty little bag that was big enough for probably, nothing.

"I think that's enough, yeah? By selling these, I can get at least... another 500 million! That leaves 1 billion left to cover, happy huh?", There it was again. The forced happy tone, it was clear she was broken.

Chenle doesn't know why, but it just ticked him off to not see her bouncing around with playful tones here and there. It put him on edge, and he did not like it. At all.

Just this once, He thought as he walked up to the girl who was walking slowly.

"Hey", Not giving her enough time to respond, he turned her around and let her back hit a wall. Grabbing her shoulders, his eyes pierced into hers who wouldn't stop looking down.

"Look at me", by the chin, he pushed her head up so they could maintain eye contact.

"Why are you like this?"

"What do you mean?", she pretended to be clueless.

"Don't play jokes with me, Rosie"

"I'm serious! There's nothing wrong, I'm just my usual annoying, irritating, disturbing, disgusting self after all...", Her eyes started to get glossy. "Just myself...the person who everyone hates"

Something in Chenle switched, and he didn't know what it was but his eyes softened seeing her state. "No one hates you, Rosie"

"There is one! You. You hate me don't you? The way you act, it's all so clear..."

A part of him started to break when the poor girl tried to not cry. He thought back, and realized how harsh he acted towards her. It made him feel guilty, EXTREMELY guilty knowing that he probably caused the reason why she wasn't like herself at all.

Damn, I know I'm dumb but I never thought I could be this dumb.

"Run away", She whispered.

"What?"

"Just run away, you don't have to follow me anymore. One billion? It's fine. It's clear you hate me so-"

"I don't hate you, Rosie"

"You're just saying that to make me feel better"

"No, I-", He let out a sigh and dropped his head down, thinking. It was silence then, but Xiu Ying didn't even notice as her distressed self was always zoning out.

"You know what? Fuck these shits", Dropping all that they got tonight, Xiu Ying widened her eyes and wanted to ask what was he doing.

"No questions. Just come with me", He dragged her wrist as they walked out and climbed onto his bike.

Noticing the absence of hands around him, he took her hands with extra care than usual and wrapped them around him.

"Hold on tight", And he zoomed through the night.

[Inside my heart exploding energy, until the end I throw myself away]