It was about 7 pm when I woke up. My fever had gone down, and I was feeling a lot better after eating and drinking my medicine. I sat up and turned my head. Meizuo's jacket was lying on a chair, but he wasn't in the room with me.I smelled the aroma of green tea and proceeded to get up from the bed. I grabbed my sweater and slippers and walked downstairs.

"Zuo?" I called out, as I stepped down from the last stair.

"Hey. What are you doing up?" he said as he carried a mug of green tea.

"I smelled something and came down to see what it was." I said as he passed me the mug. I gave him a smile and drank the tea.

"That's better." I exclaimed as I inhaled the scent. He gave me a smile and grabbed another mug for himself.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, as he drank his tea.

"A lot better actually." I answered as I sipped my tea. He smiled.

"That's good to hear." he said. I stared at him.

"What? Is my handsome face that distracting?" He teased as I blushed.

"Ew. Please. Don't be gross please!" I joked as he feigned a hurt expression and placed his hand on his heart.

"How could you be so cruel?" he said as he fake sobbed which I laughed at.

"Oh, whatever!" I laughed harder and smiled at his antics.

"Hey, Zuo?" I said.

"Hmph. What?" he said as he pouted jokingly.

"Thank you." I said as I gave him a smile. His pout dropped and his eyebrows rose.

"For what?" he asked curiously.

"For taking care of me." I said sincerely. He placed his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in for a hug. I wrapped my arms around his torso and smiled.

"I'll always be here okay? No matter what. Besides, I'm the only one who can look at your ugly face when you're sick anyway." he joked, as my jaw dropped.

"Oh really?" I said, as I slowly grabbed a pillow from the couch and smiled at him mischievously. His eyes widened slightly.

"Shuijing.." he said, as he held his hands up and backed away slowly. I hit him in the stomach and he groaned.

"Oh now it's war." he warned, as he grabbed a pillow and turned to me with a smirk. My eyes widened and I ran away from Meizuo. He continued to chase me around while I laughed harder, as he slipped and fell on his butt.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, as I stuck my tongue out and hit him with the pillow as he laughed in disbelief.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

THE NEXT DAY

I was getting ready to go to Mingde to meet the boys for lunch and Meizuo had gone home at half past 10 yesterday because he had to finish up a presentation he and Ximen were working on. I was wearing a white sleeveless fringed-trimming top, black latex pants, and black block-heeled ankle boots. A small gold heart-shaped pendant was around my neck. I had on some small silver cross dangling earrings and my bracelet from Meizuo. I grabbed a white leather jacket and placed my phone, my wallet, and my car keys into my black box clutch. I went downstairs, locked my front door, went to my car, and drove to Mingde.

The boys were already there lining up for food and I waved at them, before proceeding to where Ah Si was seated. He gave me a smile as I sat across from him.

"Well.. you're unusually cheery today, Ah Si." I said, as I smiled and placed my jacket on the back of my chair. He beamed, which made me confused.

"Okay spill. What did you do this time?" I teased, as he shook his head.

"Nothing. Can't I be happy?" he defended.

"Ah Si, when you're happy, it's a little scary okay? Who did you prank?" I pressed. His eyes diverted from me to something behind me. And if it was possible, his smile widened even more. I turned my head and saw Shancai. I laughed. 'Ah... Young love.' I thought. She looked awkward, so Ah Si stood up and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the table. I got up and moved away from the 'couple'. I laughed at Shancai's shyness and Ah Si's sudden confidence. Ah Si forced her to sit down in front of him while Shancai just looked around awkwardly, clearly not liking the attention she was getting from other students.

"What do you want?" She asked as she looked at Ah Si.

"I ordered too much. Eat." Ah Si said, as he pushed his tray to Shancai.

"I'm not hungry." Shancai said, as she stood up and turned to leave when Ah Si grabbed her arm and sat her back down.

"I don't care. You can only go after you're finished eating. You're too skinny. I'm going to fatten you up." Ah Si said, as Shancai stared at the mountain of food in front of her.

I laughed as Shancai looked back at Ah Si in annoyance.

"Why? I'm not a pig." Shancai defended. Ah Si laughed as Shancai picked up her chopsticks.

"Are you sure you're not?" Ah Si teased, as he continued to stare at Shancai- as Ximen and Meizuo had also walked up to the table. I grabbed my tray from Meizuo and sat down beside him, while Ximen sat across from us beside Ah Si.

"I wish someone would make me fat like a pig." Meizuo teased, as he gave me a bottle of juice.

"That's right. I've known you forever but never saw you so considerate." Ximen added, which made me laugh.

"Shut up, you two." Ah Si scolded the two, as he continued to stare back at Shancai.

"Eat up." He ordered.

"All right. I'll just eat the ribs. How much was the jacket? I'll pay you back." Shancai offered, as she began to eat.

"What are you talking about? I was never taught to ask the girl to pay." Ah Si and I raised my eyebrows.

"What jacket?" I asked Ah Si as I ate my lunch. He turned to me.

"I bought her one since her old one looked so cheap." He joked which made Shancai glare at him. I laughed and nodded back at Ah Si. Shancai was rapidly eating the ribs.

"What? You're not hungry? Look at you. Slow down." Ah Si reminded, as he laughed at Shancai. She continued to eat when her phone suddenly rang. She stopped eating and turned to Ah Si, then proceeded to turn away and answer her phone.

"Hello?" she answered, and the more she talked to whoever was on the phone, she looked nervous.

"No!" She suddenly exclaimed which made us turn to her in curiosity. She seemed to have notice that the entire cafeteria was looking at her too.

"Don't come here. I'll go to you." She said as she hanged up and hurriedly tried to finish her food. Ah Si looked at her curiously.

"Was that a guy or a girl?" He demanded.

"None of your business." Shancai replied, finishing up what was left on her tray.

"I'm warning you. You're dead meat if you do anything with another guy." Ah Si threatened, as he leaned in to Shancai.

"I'm full. I have to go." Shancai said as she stood up and hurriedly ran away, taking her tray with her.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ah Si called out but Shancai was gone. He turned to us and we just shrugged and ate our food. We didn't know what just happened either. He got frustrated and went to look for Shancai. I stared at his retreating figure and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Meizuo nudged me.

"It's just like when Jie was about to announce she was leaving.. I had that feeling that something bad's gonna happen and now I have that feeling again.." I said as I drank my juice.

"Don't worry Shui.. it's probably nothing.." Ximen reassured me and Meizuo nodded in agreement. I nodded, but my worry wouldn't go away.

I hoped everything was fine with Ah Si and Shancai.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

After lunch, the boys had a free period, so we decided to drop by Mingde's swimming facility. I had a spare swimsuit in my car's trunk so I decided to swim as well. It was a blush pink halter backless one-piece swimsuit with scalloped edges. Ah Si was already in the pool when I arrived, but Ximen and Meizuo weren't so I assumed they were still changing. Ah Si was aggressively swimming in the pool. 'Something's wrong.' I thought, as my eyebrows furrowed. I went in the pool and stayed out of Ah Si's lane. Ah Si didn't seem to mind me being there, but he saw me dive in and proceeded to give me some space to swim in as well.

I dove and swam under the surface. I probably swam for 10 minutes when I heard Ximen and Meizuo coming in.

"Shuijing!" Ximen called out as I swam back up to the surface. I popped my head out of the water, taking a deep breath.

'Goddamn it. I should've stayed under the water.'

I cursed in my head as I tried not to look at a shirtless Meizuo.

I proceeded to walk towards the end of the pool and pulled myself up. I grabbed onto the railing and walked to where my towel was, drying myself off. Then, I walked over to where Meizuo and Ximen were, covering myself with the towel. I sat myself down on the lounger Meizuo was on and grabbed a drink from the table. Meizuo looked at Ah Si who was still swimming.

"When did you two get here?" I asked.

"We've been here for an hour. We just got caught up talking to some girls near the locker room." Ximen smugly said as Meizuo laughed. I rolled my eyes.

"Isn't Ah Si acting weird? He's been swimming back and forth for an hour." Meizuo pointed out. I nodded.

"Something's wrong." I said, as I looked at the said boy who was still in the pool.

"I'm not surprised. He must have been annoyed by Shancai again." Ximen added.

"I thought Si would've gotten Shancai in the elevator that night. I didn't think he'd drag it out like this." Meizuo stated.

"Logically speaking, any girl who has gone out with an F4 would always call back. They'd ask when the second date is." Ximen bragged. I scoffed.

"Oh please." I said, as I grabbed my phone and scrolled through social media.

"How many girls called you today?" Meizuo asked Ximen.

"Do you want to see?" Ximen said as he whipped out his phone. At the same moment, my eyes saw a particular post. It was Shancai and some foreigner. Shancai seemed to be asleep, while the foreigner was posing for the camera. I turned my head to Ah Si, wishing he hadn't seen this yet.

"Guys. Look." I said as showed my phone to Ximen and Meizuo. They both looked at the phone and then each other. They then turned to Ah Si who was getting out of the pool. I panicked and hit the two of them on the shoulder.

"Do something!" I whispered harshly. Ah Si grabbed his towel and dried his hair. My heart almost dropped when Ah Si picked up his phone. I hit the two boys harder which made them jolt and stand up just as Ah Si turned his back to us. They hurriedly ran over to him and pushed him back into the pool. His phone went flying and sank to the bottom of the pool.

I sighed in relief and walked over to the two boys, who high fived and gave them both pats on the back. 'I need to talk to Shancai as soon as possible.' I thought.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I told Ximen and Meizuo that we have to find Shancai as soon as Ah Si went to class. After I took a shower and dried my hair, I changed into an oversized gray over the shoulder knit sweater, light blue skinny jeans, and brown knee-high boots. I grabbed my bag and headed out. The boys were waiting for me outside and then we headed to where Shancai's classroom was. As we turned a corner, we saw her walking. She looked distressed and dejected at the same time. I gestured near the window and we walked over to her.

"Shancai, we saw the photo. What happened between you and that foreigner?" I said as Meizuo stood beside me, while Ximen stood beside Shancai. She sighed.

"It's not true. It's a misunderstanding. That night, me, Xinhui, Baihe, and Li Zhen went out for a ladies' night." Shancai said and my eyebrows furrowed in annoyance.

"Xinhui? Wasn't she that girl who showed Ah Si that stupid video?" I sternly asked as I turned to Ximen and Meizuo. My blood was boiling. Meizuo placed his arm around my shoulder and squeezed it. I took a deep breath and looked back to Shancai.

"Shancai, why would you hang out with them? Those girls minus Li Zhen are the reason why Ah Si is always picking on you. They're opportunistic snakes who will do anything just to ruin your image to Ah Si and everyone else." I said as the poor girl only looked down in shame. I sighed. She probably didn't know what these girls were up to.

"I did dance with that guy but nothing else happened." She defended.

"So what's the photo about?" Ximen asked, confused.

"I'm not sure." Shancai answered seemingly defeated. I walked forward and hugged the girl. I pulled away and gave her a kind smile.

"We believe you Shancai. We'll help you figure out what happened okay? If anything happens with Ah Si, call me okay?" I reassured the girl as she nodded.

After Shancai went to class, we all headed to the Bridge room to investigate. Ah Si wasn't there fortunately so Ximen and Meizuo grabbed their laptops and started looking for clues. Ximen sat against the bookshelf while Meizuo sat beside me near the table. After a few minutes, we found his social media accounts and that his name was Thomas.

"So I don't think Thomas lives in Shanghai. He's probably gone back to France." Meizuo said as I looked through the foreigner's social media accounts.

"I think one of Thomas' friends shared the photos and they were set up." Ximen added as he looked on his laptop.

"I wonder who's trying to hurt Shancai." He continued.

"It's probably those damn girls again! They would do anything to make Ah Si hate Shancai." I added, still mad at the two aforementioned girls. Meizuo rubbed my shoulders to calm me down and I sighed.

"We don't know that yet Shui.. But we'll keep looking.." He said hopefully as he gave me a smile. I smiled back but jumped when I heard the door slam from upstairs. Ah Si was here. He walked down the stairs with a grumpy look on his face. Probably due to the fact that his phone was broken from being submerged in the pool.

"Hey, you two. When can I get my phone back?" He demanded.

"It's still being repaired." Meizuo answered as he looked up at Ah Si.

"Can't you just buy a new one, Ah Si?" I quipped which made him roll his eyes.

" I don't have backups Shui. All my contacts were in there. " He answered annoyed.

"You don't have class this afternoon." Ximen pointed out, confused.

"Why? I can't come if I don't have class?" Ah Si asked, growing suspicious of his friends nervousness.

"Sure, you can." Ximen answered as he avoided eye contact with Ah Si. Meizuo and I did as well.

"Hey. What were you three looking at? You're being so secretive." Ah Si asked as he noticed the slight tension.

"I was making them watch a romantic action movie but they didn't like it and I highly doubt you will." I said which made Meizuo and Ximen nod at me.

"Yeah romantic action." Ximen added while Ah Si turned to me in disbelief.

"Liars. I doubt you were watching a movie. And you Shuijing, you don't watch romantic action. You hate that genre. Show me. I want to see." He demanded as he grabbed the laptop from Meizuo. I stood up and Ximen and Meizuo did as well. We were waiting for Ah Si's reaction.

"Ah Si.." I said as he continued to stare at the photos of Shancai with Thomas. Ah Si looked like he was going to blow.

"I get it now. They lied to me. Asking for directions? Directions, my ass." Ah Si said as he slammed the laptop shut and tossed it to Meizuo.

"Ah Si!" Ximen called out as Ah Si stormed out of the Bridge room. Ximen turned back to me and Meizuo.

"He's probably going to confront Shancai and it's not going to be pretty. Let's follow him." I said as I grabbed my bag and hurriedly chased after Ah Si with Ximen and Meizuo following behind me.

We found Ah Si just as he found Shancai and just in time to see her get doused in some kind of liquid. I gasped. Ah Si started to walked towards her but Ximen and Meizuo held him back. We watched as the two girls who poured the liquid on her hurriedly walked down the stairs to apologize. They looked at Shancai in realization and proceeded to walk away without apologizing.

My blood boiled hotter. What kind of people go to school here? I'm done. It was at that time that Ah Si had shrugged both Ximen and Meizuo off him and walked towards Shancai.

"Daoming Si." Shancai said as Ah Si walked closer to her. Ah Si looked furious.

"That foreigner wasn't asking for directions, was he?" Ah Si said. Shancai tried to explain.

"You two went to a hotel, didn't you?" Ah Si added.

"No. Nothing happened with him. Those photos on Weibo are a misunderstanding." She explained.

"Then why did you lie to me?" Ah Si screamed. I winced as tears began to form in Shancai's eyes.

"I did lie about who he was but there's nothing between us. I don't care if everyone believes the rumors and nobody believes me. It's fine with me. As long as...As long as you still trust me." She tearfully answered as she looked up at Ah Si but Ah Si walked away. Shancai looked down and let her tears fall.

The three of us walked forward.

"Shancai?" I said as we approached her. She looked up with tears in her eyes and I gave her a small smile. I turned to Ximen and Meizuo.

"Go follow Ah Si and don't let him out of your sight. Text me where you are and I'll follow later." I said as I grabbed Shancai and pulled her towards the bathroom while the two boys left to follow Ah Si.

"Shancai are you okay?" I asked the shaking girl, as she continued to cry.

"He doesn't believe me.. All I wanted was for him to believe me." She sobbed as I gave her a hug and rubbed her back.

"He's just hurt Shancai.. by now, you should know how much Ah Si likes you. He's never liked anyone. Trust me, he'll listen to you okay? Just give him time and if he won't i'll beat him up for you." I joked as Shancai gave a small laugh.

"Now come on, I have some extra clothes in my car. Let's get you changed and I'll take you home okay?" I said as she nodded. We walked to the parking lot and grabbed the clothes from the trunk.

A lot of students were pointing at us and Shancai looked really uncomfortable. I pulled her closer to my side and glared at the students who quickly looked away in fear.

"Shuijing, do you really think it's a good idea for you to help me? I don't want you to get involved in this." Shancai said as she kept her head down to avoid the judging stares from her peers.

"Shancai, you're my friend and friends help each other okay? And if they try anything now, I'll make sure they never step foot in Shanghai again." I threatened as I turned to look back at the students behind us who seemed to have gotten nervous. I smirked as we entered the bathroom. There were two girls inside.

"Out." I demanded as they scurried out of the bathroom in a panic. I locked the door and turned to Shancai. I grabbed the extra clothes and gave her a towel. She grabbed it from me and went into one of the stalls to change and get cleaned up.

After a few minutes, she got out of the stall and walked towards me.

"I'll return it as soon as possible." she said as she gestured to my clothes. I shook my head and gave her a smile.

"Don't worry about it Shancai. They're just clothes. So, let's go?" I said as I grabbed my bag and nodded to the door. She nodded and grabbed her backpack as we headed out to the parking lot. We got in my car and I proceeded to drive her home. She still looked pretty shaken up so I decided to lighten up the mood.