(1)
"Why didn't you reply to my message the other night, Yang?" I knew this isn't over. I just haven't gotten myself ready for the questioning ending up being the first thing Yun chooses to do after she's seated herself in the back seat of Lee's car.
"But I did text you back the next morning, didn't I?" I say, tilting my head a little bit to look at Lee next to me, who is starting the car, a slight frown of confusion on his face. Then I suddenly remember not telling him about me going to bed very early with fatigue after the blind date that day, as it might sound too trivial.
"Seriously, Yun?" Lili chimes in, "You haven't been back for years and why Yang didn't reply is the only thing you wanna know? Don't you think there's something more important you have to care about now?"
"What?" asks Yun. "Who our cute chauffeur is?" She must've forgotten she's already engaged.
Lee chuckles without saying anything. I see Lili pinches the bridge of her nose from the rearview mirror, "We'll tell you very soon. But no."
"Then what?"
"The seat belt."
"Oops. Sorry." Yun apologizes and buckles up.
Actually, Lili and I were gonna pick Yun up from the airport by ourselves. However, it was quickly found out that neither she nor I had driven on the airport highway before. That's why all of us are now in Lee's car. To our surprise, Yun didn't come back with her fiancé.
"Because he has to finish his work before marrying me," Yun chews and swallows a bite of the bun she got on the plane, then continues, "So how did you know Lili and Yang?"
Lee casts a furtive glance at me, "Yeah… Yang, how did we know?"
Lee told me he didn't care how people thought of him, so throwing the question at me only means that I'm the one to choose what to tell Yun. Even Lili is quiet, waiting for me to answer it.
"We were together at college," I say to Yun. It wouldn't hurt to tell Yun the truth, I think.
For a second, Yun hasn't said anything. There must be hundreds of questions running through her mind, and she's still deciding which one to start asking us by.
"Which means… you two are no longer…"
"They are still friends now, Yun," Lili stops her from continuing.
"You were at the same college, weren't you? Were you from the same major as well? I remember Yang learned English, right?" Yun turns to ask me.
"No. We weren't. I majored in economics," says Lee.
"Then how did you guys meet?"
When we were on the way to the airport earlier today, I thought what we'd talk about with Yun was her daily life in Shanghai or her romantic story with her fiancé. Even the gossip of the infighting in her company would be welcome. Lili even joked that she was gonna ask Yun if she came back just to show off her engagement ring. "If she says yes," I added, "let's tell her both of us got married years ago, but neither of us sent her invitations."
However, tables have turned even before Lili and I start playing our little tricks.
"Are we on a talk show or what?" I look sideways at Yun, trying to laugh off the subject.
"Come on, Yang," Yun pouts, "I left a long time ago, but you and Lili are always in the same city. I'm feeling so left out."
I'm sorry that she's feeling that way. But I really don't know where to start and where to stop. Since the day Lee and I met again at the party, I've been trying my best to forget what happened in the past, thinking we can have a fresh start if neither of us mentions anything. Yun's question, however, reminds me that I have to face the music sooner or later.
"Well… how did we meet, Yang?" asks Lee, filling the silence while Lili still keeps quiet.
Is the ball in my court again?
Fine. The beginning of our story was kind of nice so far as I can remember, so I guess this is the only part I'm gonna tell Yun.
"It was a weirdly muggy day, wasn't it?" I ask Lee. I can still recall the Levi's jacket he wore that day and the light pink hoodie under it.
"For a winter, yes. Especially in the afternoon after the rain." Without looking at me, Lee answers casually, as if we were talking about someone else's story.
(2)
I wouldn't have noticed this tall man who was holding a big pile of books passing by as I was lost in my thoughts, recapping what I hadn't done well in the second round of the speech competition in the English department, if it hadn't been for the half of the books that fell into the puddle. Before I could even jump aside, it splashed water on my pants as well as the brand-new Air Force 1 I'd just bought the day before. The CD box that had been put on top of the pile broke into two pieces, and the disk inside, like a runaway wheel, rolled away – the way I would very much like to escape the mess in front of me.
I tugged out my earbuds and squatted down, trying to reach the books and the broken box on the ground.
"Oh, thanks," the man put the rest of the books on the other side of the bench I was sitting on. "I mean, I am really sorry." He pointed at the water stain on my pant legs, then turned around for the escaped disk, whose getaway was cut off by a leg of the bench next to ours.
"It's not a big deal," I stood up, looking around the sports ground where there were like five or six benches around the running track, and there wasn't any water around any of the rest of them. So who was to blame? "Were you going to return the books?" I asked, given the library wasn't really far from here.
"I was," he came with the disk, shaking off the water on it. "But now I think I'm in big trouble."
I sat, looking down at the books on the bench we'd just saved, some of whose pages had already gone warped, especially the one called Thinking, Fast and Slow. I wondered what the book was about and how much he would pay for this book with that fancy hardcover.
"Sorry," I said and suddenly noticed that the CD was Robbie Williams's latest album – Swings Both Ways, which was just released like a week before. "You like Robbie Williams?"
"Kind of," he sat beside me and took out a small pack of tissues from the jacket pocket, starting to wipe the water away from the book covers. "I never bought his CDs before this one." He looked up at me and shrugged, stuffing the pack back into the pocket.
He was wearing the latest Levi's jacket. I thought I'd seen it when buying my sneakers in the mall. It was funny that, despite the similarity, Levi's always had its own way of telling us which jackets were new arrivals – by using lighter blue or just an additional big logo on the back. Stuff like that.
"At least you don't have to return it to the library," I didn't know if this could comfort him a little. "By the way, I like Robbie Williams, too. But I haven't got any time to listen to this new one. How is it?"
"It's not bad. But I still prefer Take the Crown," he said while reassembling the CD box.
"Interesting. I like that album as well. Which one is your favorite track?" Be a Boy and Candy were my cup of tea.
"I don't really remember the names. My English sucks," he turned and gave me a wry smile. Then he suddenly frowned a bit, looking at me. "Wait a sec. I am pretty sure I just saw you somewhere."
"The college isn't that big if you have to say so." For a second, I couldn't tell if he was trying to restart the whole conversation or if I just looked really common.
"Did you talk about… something homosexual last night at the speech contest?"
"Actually, it was about homo sapiens, and yes, that was me." He did recognize me, and his English did suck. "You are a student in our department?" I asked because I was pretty positive that I'd never seen him before, considering that he was tall and kind of good-looking.
"No. I major in economics," he said, thumb pointing at the books aside. "I've got some friends in your department who also advanced to that round. We went out for dinner together after the contest."
"The contest ended up at 11 p.m., man." I said. It was nice to know people never gave a shit about the curfew. However, I thought I needed to learn from them sometime how to avoid being caught by the dorm custodians.
"Late night supper. That is what we always do," he raised an eyebrow and said, "Hey, you should join us next time." So casually, like we'd known each other for ages.
"Do you guys discuss currency depreciation during the meal?" Arranging a supper with a bunch of strangers introduced by another stranger was definitely not like anything I was used to doing, so I had to ask a silly question, attempting to dodge the subject.
"Do English majors discuss the grammatical rules of object clauses while having meals?"
"Fair enough," I laughed. Considering how outgoing he was, I figured maybe the members of his supper group were actually from different departments. That was… quite a lot of knowledge we could exchange.
"Oh, I'm Lee," he then pulled out his phone from the pocket with the tissues. Bigger pockets might be the new feature for this season, I guessed. "Let's exchange WeChat numbers, shall we?"
"Why not?" I opened the app. "I'm Yang."
"By the way, Yang," he looked back at me in confusion. "What the hell is homo sapiens?"
(3)
"So what on earth is homo sapiens?" asks Yun after I've finished the story.
"It's a fancier term for humankind, for God's sake," Lili laughs, shaking her head slightly. "You asked for the story, and this is all that you got?"
"No, no, no," Yun clears her throat and continues. "See? The universe wanted you guys to be together. Books accidentally falling in front of someone who listens to the same singer as you? What are the odds?"
"Not as rare as you think, Yun," I turn back to look at her. "Robbie Williams is by no means lesser known."
"So did you go out for supper after that?" Yun leans a little forward and asks.
"A couple of times," I change glances with Lee quickly. "Lee did know some good places for midnight supper which weren't open during the day."
What I don't really want to tell Yun is that I drank a little too much the first night I went out with Lee and his friends, so I had to go to the third round of the speech competition the next day with a hangover, so terrible that I forgot most of the things I'd prepared. Though I got knocked out, obviously, the good thing was I didn't really bother to feel embarrassed when standing on the stage not knowing what to say next, also thanks to the hangover. However, I have to say the feeling of splitting headache almost killed me, which was why I'd never drunk that much since the day until the night when I broke up with Lee. I remember calling Lili out for drinks. In front of her, I ranted about Lee being a total jerk; and I must've said way worse things than that, though I can't quite recall now.
"So… did you guys break up because of graduation?" Yun asks out of nowhere. "That doesn't make sense. You are still in the same city after that…"
"Yun, things happen for a reason," Lili concludes the question before Lee or I can think of anything that won't embarrass one another.
"Fine," Yun murmurs. "I only have one last question, which I really care about – did any of you cheat on the other?"
"No," Lee and I reply in unison.
"OK. You know that is what I hate most in a relationship," Yun leans back in her seat. "That's one thing about Chenhui that I find unpleasant – Sorry, Lee. I'm not sure if you've heard anything about this man."
"I… I think Yang mentioned that name a couple of times," Lee gives an unnatural answer.
"What do you mean, Yun?" I know it's not right to continue, but I just can't help myself.
"Remember he cheated on you?" says Yun. "The day when we had the farewell dinner with our classmates?"
"We weren't in a relationship, so how could he cheat on me?" I want to argue with Yun, only to find it too hard for me to paraphrase what she's said in a more decent way. "He just… had something that I hadn't known yet."
"Can we quit talking about a person who left this city, like, forever?" Lili cries.
"Sorry," Yun apologizes and then rolls down the window. Until that very moment, I haven't noticed how suffocating it is inside the car.