Picture Us | Zhuo Zhi

thirty-five

g o i n g  h o m e

After their win, Nam doesn't go with the team to watch other schools play. Instead, she has to go with Sha to take photos of other schools.

While the professional reporter goes to cover Yu Feng's match, Nam takes her camera over to Guo Zi High School's match.

Nam sighs as she works. It's a bit more lonely than what she's recently allowed herself to grow accustomed to, but the quiet shutter of her camera remains to be all she needs to stay content.

Afterwards, she goes to find her boyfriend. It starts raining, and she runs underneath a stand for cover, and finds Zhi.

"Hey Zhi," she greets.

"Nam," he smiles.

Nam sends her own goofy smile his way, just by seeing his face.

"Are you waiting for Lu Xia?" he asks.

"Yeah... Zhi, I have a question," Nam says.

"Hm?"

"During the Jin Qiu match, you seemed to... scan the crowd. Is everything alright?"

Zhuo Zhi sighs. "I guess it's not a secret. I have a little brother-"

"Little brother?" Nam interrupts.

"Yes, Zhuo Yu. He's one year my junior. He... We don't get along well. He attends a rival school, and I spotted him today. I'm waiting for him," he admits.

"Oh, um.. Are you okay? Do you want to wait alone?" she asks.

He softly smiles at her. "I'd love it if you'd stay with me," he cheekily says, wrapping his arms around Nam to hug her.

A boy runs under the cover to also get protection from the rain, and Zhi immediately moves to go talk to him, leaving Nam to stand behind him.

"Yu, you just finished watching a match?" he asks. "I'll see you home."

"It's okay. I'll just wait here," Yu rejects his offer.

"If you have time, you can go home on weekends," Zhi says.

"Don't act like you care a lot about me. If you really do, play the next match and let me beat you properly. Besides, from the looks of it, it seems you already have someone else to care about," Yu says, looking pointedly at Nam. At this, Zhi steps in front of her a bit more. "I'll see you on the court," Yu says, before running out into the rain and leaving.

Zhi turns back to Nam. "Sorry about that."

"Nonsense is unbecoming of you, Zhuo Zhi," she lightly jokes. "But, are you alright? I can see the, um... not getting along."

"Yeah, I have you," he cheesily says, booping her on the nose.

"Hey!" Nam swats his hand away. "Seriously, I may not know much., but... I'm here for you," she says, looking straight into his chocolate eyes.

Zhi takes Nam's hand back in his and just nods.

"Besides," Nam says, "I know, as the younger twin, that he won't be able to be without his older brother for long."

"Thanks, Nam," Zhi says, staring straight back down at her.

"Hey!" a new voice comes onto the scene.

Nam groans a little while Zhi quietly chuckles at her, as Lu Xia comes to pick up his twin.

"We're going now," Xia says, staring hard at Zhuo Zhi.

Zhi, on the other hand, smirks at their first year player. "Goodbye, Nam."

"Uh, alright. Goodbye, Zhi," Nam says, before being dragged away by her twin.

-

"Xia, what was that for?" Nam complains as the Lu twins walk under an umbrella together as they're going home.

"You shouldn't be gross."

Nam hits Xia on the shoulder before attempting to run away with the umbrella, until both twins are lured into Xinglong's restaurant with their rumbling stomachs.

-

At home, Nam laughs to herself as their dad is seemingly offended about their very obvious distaste towards his cooking.

A/N- i just realized, that at the rate i'm going, this is going to be a very, very long book, probably well over 100 chapters. i say this because i like to go through the scenes of the show in order, but i'm only on episode ten, and it's chapter 35. and there are forty episodes of season one on netflix. and i don't really feel like changing that because i had already started it like this. personally, i tend to lose my motivation whether i'm reading or writing something that's very long, but i'm determined to stick with this. i love writing 'picture us,' and i'm going to finish this season out. in whatever fanfic i write next, i won't be this crazy, but y'all should just know that we're in it for a long haul with this one. i'm still in online school (which sucks because my cousins who live in the same state, but different county, have already been off of school for like a week now), even though it's already towards the end of june, but once my torture ends, i'm hoping to update more frequently :) but yea... this book is the long haul :/