Fan Fiction |
by ran_shuang_hua
First stop is Greece. Xiao You informed SC before the trip started that she won’t be able to join them on the first stop for she can’t leave her job yet. She tells SC and the rest not to worry for she’ll be able to join them when they reach Italy.
While the rest of the gang are busy clicking pictures of Parthenon and other landmarks in Greece, a guy named XM sulks for he feels completely left-out. Is there a more effective way to make me feel out of place here than placing me in the company of lovers? For heaven sakes, even Ching Her has a partner! How pathetic can I get? XM just rolls his eyes at this thought.
At last they arrived at Venice. SC and DMS goes straight o XY’s apartment to pick her up. They are earlier than the agreed time but SC thinks that its ok for she’s sure that XY will be at her apartment the whole morning and afternoon packing her things. But to her and DMS’s surprise, XY is not at home. SC gets frantic about XY’s disappearance.
“Don’t worry too much. Maybe she went out to buy something.” DMS convinces SC.
“Okay, I’ll calm down after checking if any of our friends has seen or contacted her,” SC frantically dials on her phone. DMS just rolls his eyes.
Meanwhile, the others are busy touring around. Each went their own way, having a good time. XM, on the other hand, is nervous and relieved at the same time – nervous for this is the first time that he’ll see her after 4 long years and relieved that he’ll finally have someone to talk to for the rest of the trip. He decides to go to a nearby art museum alone to ease his queasiness. He is busy looking at paintings suspended along the walls of the museum when he bumped into someone…
XY is on a hurry to go back to the administration office. She has only an hour left before her second job as a tour guide calls on her and she still has a lot of papers to fax out. She is half-running, half-walking down the halls and is taking a quick turn to the right when she bumps into someone, sending her papers flying to the air. XY lands on her bum, her legs to her side and her head bent down. The man who collided with her extends a hand to help her up. As the man bends down, his necklace comes out of his shirt and dangles right in front of her eyes. That star looks so familiar…
XM bends down and offers his hand to help the lady. When she takes his hand he sees a familiar charm bracelet on her wrist. He looks down at her head the same time she looks up to see his face.
“Xiao You?”
“Xi Men?”
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“She’s still not answering her phone!” SC stammers.
“Xi Men’s phone is turned off,” DMS replies.
“Guys, just calm down. Maybe Xiao You has to do something important at the last minute that’s why she’s not home and maybe Xi Men is somewhere, busy looking around. Let’s just enjoy Italy okay?” MZ tells SC and DMS.
“MZ is right. Besides, XY doesn’t know that we’re already here. What she knows is that we’ll be arriving here in Italy around 8 o’clock in the evening and its only 3 in the afternoon,” Jing reasons out.
“Okay, I’ll calm down. But if she’s not here by 8 then we’ll call the police.”
“Amen to that” everybody answers with amusement.
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They stare at each other for about a minute then it was XY who recovered first by saying “Sono spaciente” (I’m sorry) then shakes her head and corrects herself by saying “Dui bu chi”
XM just smiles and starts collecting the scattered pieces of paper. He and XY both bend at the same time, their foreheads colliding. XY utters an ‘ouch’ while XM continues to collect the papers, one hand holding his sore forehead.
“Grazie,” (thank you) XY says when XM gives her all her papers back then says, “Argh, *slaps her forehead* I mean xie xie.”
XM manages to chuckle despite his nervousness. “I see that you’re so Italian now,” he teases her.
XY gives a small smile and says, “It’s just that I don’t get to talk to Mandarin speaking people that much here and everyone speaks Italian in public so I got used to it.”
Then there was a moment of awkward silence between them. Then XY breaks the tension by informing XM that she is in a hurry.
“I’m sorry XM, I still have to fax these papers to some offices and I only have an hour left to do them. I have to go,” XY gives XM a small bow then starts to walk away.
“XY!” XM called, “Are you free after your work here?” he asks, not knowing why he did.
“I’m afraid not because after my work here I still have another job as a tour guide,” XY answers.
XM walks up to her and says with his killer smile, “Well, I’m a tourist here so I’ll definitely fit in with your job.”
XY laughs lightly, “Oh alright. I’ll just meet you up in the lobby after an hour, ok?” she agreed.
“Okay, after an hour signorina,” then XM gives her a small bow with his eyes still looking at her face.
XY arches a brow coyly at the ‘signorina’ that XM said then smiled and walked towards her office.