The Love Score || Zhuo Zhi

83: That's Harsh, Senior. I Like It.

With my eyes zeroed in on the tiny square of paper, it was as if the bright red was screaming straight in my face.

My first thought was, damn it, I'm not gonna be teaming with Ai Qi.

My next thought was, shit, I'm with Zhuo Zhi. This is bad.

Fan-freaking-tastic.

"Yue En, come over here!" Jia Le grinned, gesturing me to join his team. 

At least someone looks happy that I'm joining their team.

Wordlessly, I trot over to Jia Le's side, avoiding Zhuo Zhi's eyes at all costs. Only when I was directly next to Jia Le did I raise my head to meet Ai Qi's expression. Her feelings must have matched mine-- crestfallen and downhearted. She pouted in disappointment and her shoulders were slumped.

While Bai Yang was getting his slip of paper, Jia Le noted the telepathic exchange between me and Ai Qi. "It's not like one of you are moving away forever. You girls can live a day without each other, right?" Jia Le snickered.

I faced Jia Le and huffed. "Shut up, Senior. We have an unexplainable connection that you will never understand, and now it's--" I put my hands together to form a heart and dramatically, I mimed the heart breaking into two. "--broken."

"That sounds a lot, in fact, like me and Da Chi. Hm?" Jia Le said, tilting his head to look at me challengingly. Bai Yang had just picked a red slip and had moved to stand next to me, witnessing our conversation silently while giving us judging looks.

"Nah-ah," I denied, crossing my arms over my chest. "It's different. Ai Qi's my best friend. You and Da Chi are practically a co--"

"Okay!" the girl holding the box announced. "Both of you can move to the blue team since the red team members have been picked," she addressed to Si Yang and Qiao Chen. I watched Ai Qi divert her gaze to the ground when Si Yang stood next to her, bouncing on the balls of her feet nervously. The immense height difference between them was very obvious.

The girl reached for two sets of wristbands from the booth behind her and passed the blue set to the man. "We'll be giving out your assigned wristbands now," the man announced, moving beside Qiao Chen to help him put on his blue wristband.

The girl fastened Jia Le's red wristband and Jia Le winked flirtatiously at her, which she promptly ignored and moved on to help me. "Thanks," I said as I held my arm out to her. "Why are your co-workers so intent on getting us to pick our teams by random?"

The girl chuckled as she wrapped the red wristband around my wrist. "They just think it's amusing to see people unfamiliar with each other bond through the activity. Sort of like a friendship-building programme, in a sense." She fastened the wristband and turned her attention to Bai Yang's next.

The middle-aged woman had emerged out of her booth and handed Zhuo Zhi and Si Yang a card each, adorned with simple designs around the edges. "These are the rides you'll be going to," she explained. "Just go your own way and enjoy the rides! Off you go!" she said, waving us away from the booth with a bright smile. We thanked them politely and began moving in our groups down the path until Qiao Chen stopped us.

"Shouldn't we have some sort of competition between us?" Qiao Chen suggested with an evil smirk. "It'll be much more interesting."

"I agree!" Da Chi nodded in approval. "We'll see which group is quicker to get to the treasure, and we'll meet at the booth when we're done."

Ai Qi gasped excitedly. "I know! Let the losing group treat the winners to a meal of some sort."

"How about hotpot?" Bai Yang suggested in a bored tone, glancing around. 

"We can eat hotpot on the night after we finish our semi-finals." Zhuo Zhi added.

"Oh my god, yes!" Jia Le grinned eagerly. "I like this idea."

"Hm," I mused thoughtfully, tapping my chin. "I think treating meals isn't encouraging enough. Let's spice it up with something else."

Qiao Chen and Jia Le stared at me incredulously. "How is food not encouraging enough?"

"I would like to suggest something," Si Yang raised, making us all turn to the usually quiet captain.

"Go ahead, Captain," Da Chi urged him.

Si Yang paused for a moment before expressing his thoughts, "The winners paint on the losers' faces, then the losers run one lap around the amusement park."

"Ooh," I commented, intrigued by Si Yang's suggestion. "That's harsh, Senior. I like it."

Ai Qi smirked mischievously. "Damn, I can't wait to be vandalising all of your faces!"

"We'll see about that!" Jia Le and Bai Yang retorted. I saw amused glints in everyone's eyes that they agreed with Si Yang's idea. Everyone was psyched up and ready for the activity ahead of us.

"I'll countdown!" Si Yang commanded, his voice jolting everyone to attention as we got ready to run for it. "Three, two, one!"

Even before he managed to announce the last word, we were already sprinting towards the attractions. "What's the nearest location, Senior?" Bai Yang shouted as he ran in front of the rest of us.

"Haunted house!" Zhuo Zhi yelled back.

"There!" I cried, spotting the entrance of an attraction decorated with splashes of fake blood and skeletons. Bai Yang, the fastest runner, whipped his head around and began bolting towards the haunted house attraction with us in tow. We slowed to a jog as we joined the back of the queue, which was thankfully not too long, with just one group in front of us.

"What are our locations?" Jia Le spluttered, trying to catch his breath as he peered at the card held in Zhuo Zhi's hand. "Haunted house, bumper cars, Riverside Adventure... wow, that's a lot of places we've gotta visit."

I swallowed my pride and nervousness and walked up to Zhuo Zhi. "Can I see the map, Senior?"

Zhuo Zhi passed the map to me inaudibly while still studying the card with Jia Le. I opened the brochure and Bai Yang looked at it over my head. "The haunted house is right here," Bai Yang identified quickly, pointing to a landmark on the map. "But the bumper-cars ride is at the other end of the park."

"We can visit the attractions starting from the entrance, then slowly make our way further into the park," I stated. "Let me look at the card."

Zhuo Zhi tilted the card our way so we can glance at it. I looked back to the map in my hands. "The next place we should go to after the haunted house..."

"The maze," Zhuo Zhi filled in. My eyes darted over to look at his face involuntarily. He was still observing the map in my hands, his face full of unfeeling emotion. I looked away quickly before anyone could notice as someone called us to enter the haunted house.

"Participating in the Treasure Hunt?" a woman with a grainy, monotone voice asked, glimpsing at our wristbands. "Get through the haunted house and when you're on the other end, show your wristbands to one of the staff there."

The woman let us into the haunted house and we entered together into the building, into the tunnel of darkness. Some weathered signposts planted at the sides were giving threatening warnings for us to turn back and there were sound effects of spooky, witchlike laughter.

Jia Le looked around, fascinated. "Well, this doesn't look scary at all--"

There was a terrifying slam of the door behind us, causing all of us to jump in fright. Other than the path ahead dimly lit with eerie white lights placed on the floor, we were enveloped by the nightly darkness.

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~ Snowy ♡