The Love Score || Zhuo Zhi

1: Sibling Punctuality Genes

Where is he? My eyes roamed all around the terminal trying to find him. It should be easy, my brother was so tall, he was practically a tree amongst the crowd. But my search of ten minutes proved to be useless; I could not find him at all. Tired of dragging my luggage around the terminal, I decided to head back to the arrival area in case he had been late and I had missed him maybe. Funny, though, I thought. My brother was hardly one to be late and he emphasised a lot on punctuality. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. He would punish his teammates for being late by adding rounds around the court during warm-up, and he had once even told me that he had disqualified a teammate from competing against one of their strongest competitors because he was late to the tryouts. Terrifying, I know. 

Grumbling to myself, I walked back to the arrival area, and right there he was. His light brown hair and tall posture and his signature 'serious' face; it was impossible to miss. I heaved a sigh, partly because I felt exasperated for trying to find him and he had been here this whole time, and partly because I was relieved to finally see a familiar face in an unfamiliar country that I haven't been to for three years already. 

Grinning, I waved with my free hand, yelling, "Si Yang!"

Si Yang turned his head in my direction, and a smile broke out on his emotionless face. I've heard from many people that they have very rarely seen Si Yang smile before, but in my case, every time he was with his family, he would smile a lot. It was heartwarming how he put us as his family in such a special position. "Yue En!"

I laughed, running towards him. The moment I hurled myself into his open arms, I dropped the luggage I was holding and gave him a tight bear hug. It felt so homey to finally see my brother in person once again. 

"Nice to see you again, Yue En," Si Yang ruffled my already messy hair, still static from the plane ride. "It seems that you've grown taller, huh? Shame that you can never surpass my height,"

I immediately pulled myself away from him and slapped his arm. "You dummy, I walked around trying to find you and it took so long! You're never supposed to be late!"

"I wasn't late," Si Yang defended, crossing his arms over his chest. "I went to get some coffee because I waited and didn't see you for twenty minutes. I came back here five minutes ago. You're the one who came out late."

"I..." I stuttered, unable to come up with a comeback or excuse on the spot. I picked up my luggage handle, mumbling, "Well it's not my fault that we don't share the same sibling punctuality genes."

Si Yang rolled his eyes. "If it weren't for our last names, honestly, people would have thought we weren't related. Here," Si Yang held out a takeaway cup for me, "I got you some iced tea while I was getting my coffee."

"Don't mind if I do!" I gladly took the cup from his hand, taking a sip. "It feels fantastic to be back here," I said, glancing around my surroundings. I trailed beside Si Yang as we walked across the airport towards the train station.

"Let's go home, you're probably exhausted. And you're starting school tomorrow."

"What, tomorrow?" I frowned, not expecting to start school until a few days later.

"Yeah, Pa wants you to start and get used to the school as soon as possible. Also," Si Yang paused, taking a breath. We continued our pace though, as we were just nearing the station.

"What's wrong, Si Yang?" I asked while keeping an eye out for the train. It was so crowded and bustling here, similar to my old country, but with different languages, accents and races. I had to take time to adjust to it.

"You have to stay away from me, while we are in school," Si Yang finally admitted.

I frowned, slightly shocked to hear him say such words out of the blue. That just sounded plain ridiculous.

"Why?" I questioned, confusion written in my expression. "Hey, don't tell me that the famous Yu Qing tennis captain is embarrassed to be seen with his little sister in school." I jokingly said.

Si Yang sighed as the train pulled to a stop. We entered through its automatic doors just before it closed. "You just can't be seen with me."

"Huh?"

"It's just because... being the tennis captain just has its consequences, okay? You have the whole school acting like the paparazzi once you walk in, you have girls fawning over you when you walk through corridors--"

"You can stop bragging now," I grinned, despite knowing that Si Yang was a naturally humble person and I teased him for that. I messed up his wavy brown hair on purpose, although for that I had to tiptoe to reach his head. Jeez, it wasn't just his punctuality genes that I didn't share with him, but his tall genes as well. The top of my head could only just touch the part where his neck meets his shoulder. How infuriating.

"I'm not bragging!" Si Yang protested, swatting my hand away.

"You sure?"

And right after I had asked that, I could just see the smallest hint of a smirk on his face. It faded away just as quickly as I could spot it. He cleared his throat, firmly stating, "Yes, I'm sure,"

"But our surnames," I pointed out, realising. "My name is already registered as Mu Yue En, and people will eventually figure things out,"

Si Yang nodded, acknowledging. "That's not a problem, since Yu Qing has quite a number of people with the surname Mu. But let's get to the point. If those students know that you're related to me, they're going to begin using you."

"U-using me?"

"Yeah. Girls will only start to befriend you because they want to get closer to me. Boys will begin to harass you because of your popularity status. It's not a good look."

"Harass me?" I chuckled. "Si Yang, you're overthinking,"

"Fine, maybe not to that extent. But I know how much you hate attention. And in order to avoid that, you have to stay low." Si Yang's eyes diverted to the glass window. Outside was a magnificent view of the modern city, with skyscrapers and highways. China was a thriving economy, that was for sure.

"So... you want us to pretend that we don't know each other at all?" I finally caught on to what he was saying.

"As much as how I hate it and how difficult it's going to be, that's exactly what I mean."

☆ ☆ ☆

Chapter one! I hope you've enjoyed this wholesome interaction between the captain and his sister :)

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~ Snowy ♡