“All he ever knew of her was who he saw every day. All I am is who I am every day. All anyone is to anyone is a series of days.”
―Charles Yu,
Sorry Please Thank You
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Sweat trickled down the young woman’s face as she slowly drew the last details of the logo design with her digital pen. After placing the finishing touches, she celebrated.
"Finally! Finished!"
Qinyang quickly saved the design into a PDF and sent it to her client. Her heart heaved a sigh of relief afterward, "Finally... It's done."
Stretching her arms above her head, she wondered to herself, "Should I eat some hot pot to celebrate?"
She then stood up and walked to the kitchen. She rummaged through the refrigerator and started mumbling, "Haih... There is no meat. I’ll have to go out and buy it myself..."
Bzzt...
Qinyang grabbed her phone that had been sitting on the counter and answered, "Hello?"
"Qinyang! Are you done with the design? Have you sent it to the client? You are not sick are you..." the girl asked relentlessly, on and on through the phone speaker.
Qinyang cut her off with annoyance, "Zixuan! Shut up! Ask one question at a time! I'm not an answering machine you know?!"
"Sorry… The deadline is tomorrow..." the voice softened.
"You don't have to worry. I sent it already," Qinyang said with a voice filled with triumph.
"Thank goodness..."
Qinyang put a hand on her hips, "So, there’s something you want to tell me right? If not, you wouldn't be calling at this time. You’d normally be snuggling with your boyfriend."
"Don't make me sound like an irresponsible person. Have you ever thought of working under a company? I mean you have been free—"
“No,” Qinyang abruptly cut her off, “You know I don't like socializing with anyone."
Not willing to give up, the voice continued, "You can't keep cooping yourself up there for all of your life, Qinyang. You need to start interacting with people."
"Am I not interacting with you?!" Qinyang hissed.
"Besides me! Who else? Besides our clients! Who else?" the voice was clearly annoyed.
Qinyang kept quiet. In fact, she did feel guilty over how Zixuan always had to put up with her. But, at the same time, Qinyang was grateful to her because Zixuan always helped her when it came to work-related matters.
"Qinyang, there is a bigger world out there. Can't you think of it as gaining experience?" the voice sighed.
"Fine. Let me think about it,” Qinyang finally relented as she tried to convince herself that this was for her own sake.
Zixuan immediately became cheerful, "Good! I’ve already sent your resume and portfolio to a hiring company. "
"What?!"
"You have a lot of time to think about it! The interview is next week. Best of luck. I will email you the address later. Bye. Hehehe," she giggled.
"What?! Wait?! How dare—"
Zixuan hung up.
Qinyang cursed at her phone as she angrily grabbed her handbag and headed out to buy ingredients. She definitely needed that hot pot now.
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"Driver Chen, let's stop by the supermarket to buy dinner," Fengyuan said to the driver.
Junting glared at the man beside him for interrupting his schedule to return home. After all, they had traveled all the way to a small city near Shanghai for a business meeting today.
Fengyuan treaded carefully with his words as he replied, "You skipped your lunch. Don't tell me you’re gonna skip dinner too."
Fengyuan had always been looking out for this man's health since said man always neglected it. Without him, Junting's health would have been worse.
Junting ignored the man and just looked outside the window. Another one of his classic 'whatever' signs.
Fengyuan smiled and continued, "Driver Chen, supermarket it is! The one in Shanghai is the best."
Staring at the passing street lights, he suddenly remembered something and turned towards Junting, "Oh yeah! Your mother called today."
Hearing him, Junting frowned.
"Judging by your expression, I assume you already know what it’s about. Are you really not gonna find a girl and get married? Your grandfather doesn’t have a lot of time, you know? He wants to see his great-grandkids before his death."
The Lee family had been pressuring Junting to marry ever since his grandfather had been diagnosed with cancer last year. His grandfather’s last wish was to see the sole heir of Lee's family happily settled with a family of his own.
Fengyuan saw Junting in a daze.
"Do you even have someone you like? I’ve never seen you show interest in any girls before. People have even started to doubt your sexuality because of this."
Junting closed his eyes hoping to get some rest, but instead of darkness, the image of a certain girl filled his mind.
"I have someone in my heart."
Fengyuan was stunned by his best friend's confession.
"Who?"
Listing out all the possible girls they had known from their university days until now, a few outstanding and beautiful girls stood out in his mind, but knowing Junting, were face and assets be enough to capture this lone wolf's heart?
"Someone I want to meet again," Junting casually replied before drifting into a light sleep.