Finding Stardust (Princess Of Akkadia)

Chapter 16 - Please?

Emma arrived at the hotel's restaurant with Haoran and found her classmates who also joined the study trip. Bianca was sitting at the table near the middle with her two entourage, while Nadya and Cedric were sitting on the opposite side. The rest were students from other classes.

As soon as Emma appeared at the restaurant's entrance, Nadya happily waved at Emma and signaled to sit next to her. Emma turned to Haoran, who was standing beside her, before nodding to let him know that she wanted to sit with her friend.

Haoran nodded back and headed toward the table where David, Dinh, Eric, and Alex had prepared a chair for him.

"Good morning," Nadya said, pointing to the chair next to her. Bianca and her two friends glanced at Emma with a probing look. Cedric was busy with his cellphone, telling his mother about his upcoming activities in Paris for today.

"Good morning, Nadya," Emma replied. She hoped to get information from her classmate about what had happened during the last two days.

"Where were you last night?" Nadya asked in puzzlement. "All students had been told to gather in the lobby when the lights went out. You're the only one who didn't show up."

"I was asleep and didn't hear anything. You see, my cellphone was dead," the girl lied. "I just found out that last night there was a blackout."

Nadya looked at Emma with an envious face.

"You're so lucky to get your own room, so you could sleep so well." Nadya pouted. "I'm sharing a room with Sandra. All night long, she was on a video call with her boyfriend. The number of male and female participants in our field trip is odd, so you and Haoran were able to get your own rooms. How lucky."

Emma was convinced that she was indeed lucky because, after a quick observation, she counted 21 female students had taken part in the study. This meant that one of the female students had to get her own room, which happened to be her; while there were 23 male students. So, like Nadya had said, one of the male students also had to get his own room too.

But since it's Haoran... Emma believed luck had nothing to do with him. Luck alone wouldn't give him such a luxurious suite in this hotel. In her estimate, even if the number of male students who participated was even, Haoran would still occupy his suite.

Ah, thinking of that guy, she suddenly remembered Mary. The girl really liked Haoran. Emma wondered what would be Mary's reaction after she had learned that Haoran didn't go to China, but to France?

"Oh, by the way, Nadya... is Mary aware now?" Emma asked as she stirred her tea using a teaspoon and poured milk into her cup.

Nadya replied with a gloomy expression. "Yeah. Yesterday afternoon, as soon as we landed in Paris, I told her about it. Mary was very sad and even cried all night.."

"Gosh..." Emma glanced to her left and saw Haoran eating with his four friends. Their table was rowdy because Eric was telling a joke, and the other four young men were laughing.

"I had no idea the five troublemakers from class 2F would come too. Yolisa was so sure that she had seen them signing up for the study trip to China," Nadya grumbled. "If we had known from the beginning, Mary would have been able to come with us to Paris. I can't believe she's been so unlucky."

Emma paused. She felt sorry for Mary, but at the same time, she also felt uneasy imagining that friend of hers coming to Paris with them. After all, she had promised to go on a date with Haoran.

"Do we have free time?" Emma asked, trying to change the topic.

"Yes, after we've finished our schedule for today and dinner at night, we're free to go anywhere. I want to go to the fashion outlets and shop with Sandra, Bianca, and Pat. You're coming, right?"

Emma shook her head. "No, I want to rest. I'm still feeling the jet lag."

"That's too bad." Although disappointed, Nadya didn't insist. She knew her pretty friend didn't like shopping.

Emma didn't intend to shop at all during this visit to Paris. She had a more important mission to do, which was to track down her parents. That's the reason why she asked about their free time. If she could slip out in between their visits, she's sure she would be able to find information about her parents.

Their conversation was interrupted by Madame Delaval who reminded the students to finish their breakfast quickly because at ten o'clock, they'd be leaving for the Louvre Museum.

"Ten more minutes," Madam Delaval said with her eyebrow raised.

Emma and Nadya nodded. The former hurriedly took some pastry and fruit and finished her breakfast.

At precisely 10 AM, all the students from St. Catherine High School was waiting inside the shuttle bus that would take them to the Louvre Museum. They were to sightsee there for three hours. And after lunch, they would continue their journey to Sacre Coeur.

Madame Delaval and Monsieur Thomas were watching their students closely. The two took turns explaining the exhibited items inside the Louvre Museum in French. In between the explanations, they quizzed the students to test their knowledge about arts and French culture in general.

As if there was an unspoken agreement between them, Emma and Haoran tried to keep a distance between each other in front of the other students. Haoran appeared relaxed as if it's his second nature, and as for Emma, she's doing this because she didn't want Nadya to be suspicious of her closeness to Haoran and tell Mary about it.

Emma didn't want Mary to hate her due to thinking that she had stolen the boy the latter liked. She only had two female friends; she didn't want to lose them.

[We'll have free time this evening. Do you want to go out with me?]

An SMS from Haoran came while everyone from St. Catherine was resting in the grassy field below Sacre Coeur. They had climbed the stairs to the basilica and observed the view there. Emma turned her head to the guy and raised her eyebrows. She was about to send a reply when another SMS entered her inbox.

[I know, our date should have been during our last night in Paris, but after you told me that today's your birthday, I want to make it memorable for you and celebrate it by having dinner outside with me. Hehe. What do you think?]

Emma stopped typing after reading the follow-up text from Haoran. In truth, she hadn't celebrated her birthday for thirteen years. And she didn't have any intentions of celebrating it now. Her priority was to locate tracks of her parents.

She raised her face and turned to him, wanting to reject his proposition. The young man winked once before pretending to be busy with his cellphone. She was about to send an SMS when another message came from him.

[Please?]

After she had read the last text from Haoran, Emma relented and decided to accept it.

[Okay.]

***