Chapter Text
It was a cool September morning, the wind was blowing hard making the dry branches move along marking the start of fall. It was monday and the clouds were moving, letting the rays of sun flood Maomao’s room. Maomao has been studying pharmaceutical sciences for a month and a half, and even though she has already gotten used to her new routine it was still hard getting up in the morning. She got up, washed her face and tied up her hair, leaving out her two rat tails to later tie them in a braid. Making her way towards the closet she got out her favorite boot cut jeans and a blouse that was gifted to her by her dad, though somewhat big, it was really cute since it was a more traditional style of clothing, not to mention in her favorite color.
Once ready she made her way downstairs where her dad was waiting for her. He was an older man whose face reflected years of experience as the esteemed doctor he once was. Maomao had heard that he was very known for his amazing work but due to an accident his license was taken, as a result he had to move to a place where his reputation wouldn’t follow, leaving him in a neighboring town outside of the city. Today he has his own office where he continues to check up on people though illegally, Maomao didn’t want him to continue his work, afterall he could get in serious trouble and his health stopped him from having much mobility, but with his heart of gold he just couldn’t and so she never convinced him.
“Good morning, How did you sleep?” He said as he was serving breakfast.
“Good morning dad.” She answered. “I slept fine, but the noise of the branches was a bit
annoying.”
Luomen’s house was a family inheritance, one that wasn’t considered a luxury hence his family letting him have it. The house was old with some repairs needed but to Maomao it was a cute classical asian styled house in which she and her dad had been living in since she can remember.
“It seems it’s time to cut them, I’ll call someone at once.”
They continued their chatting as Maomao sat down to eat, normal daughter-father things like their day's plan. Once done, Maomao cleaned after herself and headed out to the bus stop, not before saying bye to her dad with a kiss on the cheek reminding him not to strain himself.
The university of Li was the most prestigious public school in the country of Li, not only because it supported many professions but because the best professionists graduated from it. Ever since Maomao was young she had dreamed of attending this school, and with a lot of effort she was given a place. Despite everything she was still forced to commute for an hour on a bus everyday, forcing her to wake up even earlier than most people.
Once arrived, Maomao headed to her class. The campus was made of enormous tall buildings separating fields, which meant that despite the school being formed of 60,000 students she would never get to meet half of them. For her though, she wasn’t really interested in forming connections with students but rather staff members, and the percentage of those was way smaller.
Her phone buzzed, distracting her train of thought.
*Lets meet? I brought you something :3*
*Fine, Meet me at the cafeteria in 15 minutes* Maomao answered happily, since it meant she would get a small break. Too much of anything wasn’t good after all.
Once she finished her class, Maomao headed over to the cafeteria, distracted by her phone she accidentally bumped into a guy.
“Sorry, I didn’t see you.” She apologized, not paying much attention to him since she caught a glimpse of her friend; Xiaolan.
“Maomao, over here!.”
Xiaolan was a short girl, her hair a golden chestnut which she kept tied back. The girl was in the gastronomy field, yet unlike other people her love for cooking didn’t stop there and everytime she would make something at home she would bring the left overs for Maomao, occurrence that happened almost everyday and would end up leaving Maomao stuffed.
“Hi Xiaolan, what did you bring today?” She asked as she sat beside her.
“Look, I made brownies.”
“Those look pretty good.”
Maomao wasn’t a big fan of sweets, on the contrary she loved salty food but despite that she would always try to eat what her friend brought her, even if it was just a bit.
The two friends continued to talk about their weekends, their homeworks and the events from last week which was when they last saw each other. Maomao and Xiaolan didn't have been friends for very long, they met around July of this year since both of them had gotten a mandatory tour of the school as admission requirements, and ever since they got along well.
“Since I know you won’t be eating all of it I decided to invite a friend over, I hope you won’t mind.” Xiaolan said in a sweet tone.
“A friend? Who?” Maomao wasn’t surprised that Xiaolan had more friends, after all she was very sociable and talkative.
“She’s a friend I met not too long ago, I found her a bit lost around campus and so we became friends.”
After 10 minutes the girl walked up to their table, her hair was long and curly, bouncing every step she took, and as Xiaolan had already said she looked very disoriented.
“Xiaolan I finally found you!” The girl beamed.
“Loulan, I’m so happy you came.” Xiaolan answered.
“Loulan?” Maomao asked.
“Sorry I didn’t see you.” The girl said, embarrassed. “My name is Shi Loulan, I was a bit lost since this isn’t my building and I got too excited when I was Xiaolan.”
“My name is Kan Yening, but if you're Xiaolan’s friend then you can call me Maomao as well.”
Despite it being their first time ever seeing each other, Loulan and Maomao had gotten surprisingly well with each other and not soon after they became friends, the three of them forming a group.
It had almost been a month when Loulan had invited Maomao and Xiaolan to a party that her classmates would make. It was a tradition between the law students to have a party after the first quarter was over to celebrate their progress and to bring good luck for the years to come.
Maomao was wearing a black blouse that accentuated her waist and some boot cut jeans with the sides embroidered making flower designs. She wasn’t the type of girl that liked to show skin, she thought that it would cause necessary problems like people judging her and unsolicited men coming up to her.
As she was lost in thought she brought her left sleeve up revealing the mirror scars.
‘I wonder what they’re going to wear..’
The noise of the door cracking open startled her, covering herself as fast as she could.
“Maomao are you ok?” Her father asked, his eyelids turned downward and his sight fixated on her arm.
“Yes dad everything's fine, I’m actually about to start heading out.” She said, grabbing her purse and walking towards the door. “Don’t wait for me, I'll be fine, on the contrary you should be the one resting.”
Once outside Maomao started to head towards the school bus, fortunately Xiaolan didn’t live as far as Maomao did and it wouldn’t take long to arrive but she still had to leave earlier to make up for the commute time.
* I'm on my way*
*’I’ll be waiting*
Maomao smiled at the picture Xiaolan had sent her of her doing her makeup, the brunette girl would always do her makeup really cute and in a way that her eyes would pop more. Xiaolan would often send Maomao Makeup tutorials and she would even share her makeup but Maomao wasn’t the type to waste her time getting ‘dolled up.’ For a time in middle school she had tried to fit in with the other girls of her town, buying herself a ton of makeup with the help of her sisters, but after a while the hot weather would melt her makeup and she had come to hate the texture. In the end she didn’t really care to fit in, she found comfortability more necessary than anything, not that she didn’t wear any at all, but concealer and powder would do the trick for her.
Upon her arrival at Xiaolan’s house she was welcomed by her younger brothers, Xiaolan had commented before that the older one would stay and take care of the youngest and how he would get upset since it was his day off work.
“Xiaolan, I'm here!” Maomao announced as she got closer to the girls bedroom.
“Come in, let me make space on the bed for you to sit down.” She said moving the clothes on the bed to the side.
“How do I look?” The brunette spined around. “I found this dress at a thrift store, isn’t it cute?”
The dress was short and airy, despite the simplicity it was a cute dress, and so Maomao nodded, answering her question.
“You look beautiful Xiaolan.”
Xiaolan giggled. “You look beautiful too Maomao.” she said, smiling back. “Loulan won’t take long, so if you want to do some last minute touch ups my makeup bag is on the table next to the mirror.” She said as she walked to her brother's room.
Maomao got her lipstick out of her pocket and reapplied a new coat of gloss, not even a second after her phone buzzed, grabbing her attention.
*I won’t take long, I’m like 10 minutes away*
Maomao answered with a simple ok, after all Loulan was driving and she didn’t want to distract her too much.
“Loulan’s 10 minutes away!” She yelled to let Xiaolan know.
“Okok, I only need to get my purse ready.”
For a bag that size Maomao was surprised how many things Xiaolan was fitting in there, and for her petite complexion she didn’t know how on earth she was able to carry that thing around.
“You know I'm astonished your muscles are not toned, I would even say that you’re carrying 10 pounds.”
“Maomao don’t be silly.” Xiaolan giggled. “Everything in this bad is very necessary, you never know what’s going to happen.”
Maomao sighed, shaking her head.
“Big sister, someone knocked on the door.” Her youngest brother said hiding behind the frame of the door.
“Thank you for letting me know, behave ok? Mom and dad will come later.”
Her brother nodded, his face sad at the sight of his sister leaving.
Xiaolan opened the door revealing a very beautiful girl, she was wearing a button up not fully buttoned allowing the sight of her fruits and a mini skirt which hugged her curves. For a moment Maomao hadn’t recognized Loulan, she looked completely different specially with the type of makeup she was wearing which was very bold.
“Wow Loulan, you look amazing.” The brunette called out.
“Yea for a moment I almost didn’t recognize you.” Maomao added.
“Thank you girls,” She said, a bit embarrassed. “Well if that’s all shall we get going?”
The girls nodded, and soon after they were on their way to the party. The neighborhood they were in was completely different from what Maomao had seen before, her own house could fit 10 times in each of the mansions.
“A lot of families that live in these types of houses don’t even make up 5 members, I can never understand the need for such an enormous house.”
“You're right Maomao.” Loulan laughed.
“Don’t tell me the house is inside a community.” Xiaolan called out as she saw the car heading towards a fence.
“Sorry ladies, unless I have direct confirmation I won’t be able to let you in.” Said an old man.
Loulan didn’t say anything, instead she grabbed her purse in which she took out a small business card giving it to the man. The guy was astonished and instead of getting mad that they didn’t have direct access he looked more embarrassed than anything.
“Oh my, I’m so sorry miss Shi I’ll let you in at once.” He said bowing down.
“Loulan, are you friends with the host, is he like your boyfriend or something?” Xiaolan asked teasingly.
“Not boyfriend, but I guess you could say acquainted.” She smiled not so sincerely.
Maomao didn’t say anything and instead continued to look out the window, if Loulan didn’t want to say much about it she obviously didn’t want to talk about the topic and neither would she make her, though she couldn’t lie, she was indeed a little curious.
They passed a couple more streets until they arrived at their destination, the house had a fence made out of rock, behind it there was a patio leading towards the mansion, almost made out of only glass, making it so they had a perfect view of the people inside from where they were standing.
“Loulan, are you sure it’s here?”
“Of course," she said as she adjusted her skirt. “The parties of Law parties are always in this house, and I’ve been here before so don’t worry.”
Maomao stayed quiet as she observed the people inside, but she was interrupted by the cold wind which made her regret not bringing a jacket.
The girls got out of the car and entered the house where the sound of the people and music blinded was so loud they couldn’t even hear their own thoughts. They made their way towards the kitchen where Loulan stumbled upon a friend which she introduced the girls to but Maomao wasn’t that interested so she ordered a drink and got out of there.
She headed towards the backyard, still crowded by people dancing but less than inside nonetheless, she kept her sight fixated on the girls having fun without a care. Sometimes Maomao would ponder if her life would be like theirs if she ever had answered one of the many texts she received on the daily.
She drank some more and she continued to walk around until she spotted a bar just across the pool, which caught her attention instantly. Once she sat down she noticed she was surrendered by people who couldn’t keep their hands to themselves which made her uncomfortable and in a bad mood.
‘Really? In public?” She thought as she ordered herself another glass
While her drink was being prepared a tall guy with brown hair came up to her, the first thing she noticed was his green eyes which stood out with his complexion.
“Good evening miss, would you mind if I accompanied you?” He asked her, smiling.
Maomao nodded, showing her disinterest with her nonverbal confirmation.
“My name is Rikuson.” He introduced himself. “I haven’t seen you before, are you new?”
Maomao chugged her drink before answering. “A friend invited me, I actually study medicine.”
Rikuson laughed at the sight. “Can I invite you for a shot? I see that you like to drink a lot.”
Maomao's face reddened at the comment but soon after she frowned. “You can’t invite me for something that is free.”
“What you’re drinking is free, come on I know something that you’ll like.”
The greened hair accepted defeat, watching as the man passed a bill to the bartender and pointing to one of the bottles that were displayed on the wall.
The sight of the drinks didn’t cause Maomao any emotion, after all they looked normal and just like every other shot she had earlier. Rikuson explained that the bottle had been imported from across the world, and it was a rare sight seeing it around which made maomao start to wonder just how much he had paid for it.
The two of them downed the glass and not soon after Maomao started to feel dizzy. The alcohol was much stronger than what she was accustomed to but not something she couldn't get used to.
“Did you like it” He asked, his face getting closer to hers.
Maomao nodded, the guy was much more interesting than what she had anticipated.
They continued to talk, and little by little Maomao started to get more drunk though she had noticed that Rikuson had stopped drinking.
“Why did you stop-”
“Maomao” A short ugly guy caught her attention.
“Come on I’ll take you home at once, look at you! Father has been waiting and if you’re such an alcoholic you can keep drinking over there.” He said, grabbing her by the arm.
Maomao pulled her arm away. “Lahan leave me alone, If I don’t answer its because I don’t want to, don't you get it?”
They kept fighting, Maomao glanced at Rikuson with a sight of help to which he didn’t do anything and Maomao understood that they had come together.
“Lahan I thought you were more of the gentleman type.” A honey glazed voice called him out of nowhere.
“...This is a family matter, don’t worry I’m only trying to help her.” He laughed embarrassed.
Maomao hadn’t caught the name of the guy, her head was too dizzy to pay attention to the happenings before her.
“Is that so? Then I would suppose that you wouldn’t mind resolving this issue when she's sober.” Lahan frowned, defeated.
Maomao took this as her chance of escape, making her way inside to look for her friends, each step stumbling more than the one before causing her to almost trip.
“Are you ok?” The guy asked, grabbing her by her arms.
“What? Oh yes, I think so.”
“Come, let’s go sit down.”
Maomao didn’t like that the man had invited himself but she didn’t really have a choice, upset she accepted the guy’s help as her legs were slowly giving out.
Once they found an open spot at a couch, he started to ask her questions about the argument from earlier, Maomao didn’t want to spill her family problems to a stranger so she answered vaguely, as the man talked more and more she realized how much she liked the sound of his voice, little by little she was rocking herself to sleep.
It was almost 3am, Xiaolan wanted to leave so she started to look for her friends, She found Loulan outside talking to some girls, with no Maomao in sight.
“Loulan could we leave now?”
“What? Oh yes of course.” She said goodbye to the other girls. “By the way have you seen Maomao?”
“No, I thought she would be with you.”
“No, I haven't seen her ever since we got here.”
“Then we have to look for her.” Xiaolan answered worried, after all she knew her best friend and her love for alcohol. “Should we separate? Maybe we’ll find her sooner.”
“It’s better if we do it together, that way we won’t lose each other."
Both girls entered the house and started looking around, first around the kitchen, then the rooms and bathrooms until they got to the leaving room where they saw their friend almost unconscious.
“Maomao!’ They shouted at the same time.
“Maomao are you ok?” Xiaolan asked as she took the glass from her hands.
“Can you at least walk?” Loulan scuffed.
Maomao nodded as babbling came out of her mouth, the girl had tried to stand up, almost falling down if it weren’t for Xiaolan and Loulan grabbing her the last second.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to take her to the car.”
“I can help.” said the guy who had been sitting beside their friend.
“Jinshi!” Xiaolan’s face beamed with excitement. “I didn’t see you there.”
Jinshi stood up revealing a tall figure, he carried Maomoa in arms and brought her to Loulan's car. The wind moved alongside his hair leaving it a bit messy, the guy was very attractive indeed, a beauty which would make anyone fall in love with him. Once he put Maomao down he took off his jacket and left it to cover her from the cold.
“Are you sure you girls can drive?” He asked.
“Yes, I didn’t drink a lot since I knew I would be the one driving and Xiaolan doesn’t really like to drink.
“Alright then, if that’s all I’ll also be heading out.” He said waving goodbye to them.
Once he was gone, Loulan and Xiaolan hurried to get away. They were both worried about their friend and wanted to get her to a safe place as soon as possible.
“Is everything ok back there?” Loulan asked.
“Yes, I think she fell asleep.” She answered as she adjusted the jacket. “Don’t you think the guy was very cute?”
“Are you talking about Zuigetsu? Well I do have to admit he’s attractive but he’s not my type, he's so quiet and focused at school, though I found it surprising when he said he would help us out with Maomao.”
“I’m surprised you called him Jinshi.” She said intrigued. “Do you know him?”
“I met him at a charity event where I was selling my cupcakes. He really likes to volunteer and I’ve been his partner at events like those before, and you? Do you know him?”
“He studies political science, I met him because we share the same law class, he’s actually friends with the owner of this house.” She answered, not before she looked at Xiaolan in the rearview mirror mischievously. “Then can I guess that you like him?”
Both girls continued to talk about the guys they met and how handsome they were as Maomao slept the ride away. In the end they decided that Maomao would stay over at Xiaolan’s house since she would be able to take care of her if anything happened. Xiaolan grabbed Maomao’s phone and opened it, she knew the password since stuff like this had happened before so she could let her father know about her whereabouts.
“Are you sure you’ll be ok?” Loulan said, dropping Maomao on Xiaolan’s bed.
“Of course, after Maomao drinks a lot she loses all consciousness, the bad thing is the morning after.”
“Alright then I have to leave now but if you need anything please let me know.” Loulan said as she was heading out leaving her alone with Maomao.
Xiaolan sighed at the sight of her drunken friend as she began to tie her hair up, after getting Maomao as comfortable as she could she got herself ready for bed, or rather couch since that’s where she would be sleeping tonight.