𝐔𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃, meteor garden

𝟎𝟐𝟎

"You called mom?"

JIAO SAT ON THE PALE honey creamed coloured couch as she stared at her aunt in horror. It had been only a couple of minutes since she had arrived after being saved from the elevator. Jiao didn't know how to feel about what had happened, for the first she saw Si from another perspective and maybe he wasn't that bad, just lonely. It kind of made sense why he acted the way he did, like Jiao, he didn't have a parental figure to look up to and rely on, he only had himself. But Jiao didn't have much time to think about the incident because as soon as she got home, she was informed of some surprising news.

"I'm sorry Ji, we panicked."

Jiao stared at her cousin in disappointment, why did she inform her mom of her absence? This was the very thing she was hoping to avoid since her mom, who was the one who had objected to her from moving to Shanghai, would now have a reasonable excuse to bring her back to France.

Ayame rolled her eyes at the mention of their parents, "They don't care 'cause if they did, they would've called or at least been here by now."

"That's not true, look I talked to your mom and she said that she'll be catching the next flight to Shanghai as soon as she can get off of work." Kiaria explained and Jiao huffed out a heavy breath.

"Great, just great," Now that Jiao was told of her mom's upcoming visit, she was sure that her mom wouldn't wait for another second to take them all back to France. Jiao didn't want that to happen so she knew she needed to prepare herself for what was going to come.

"I'm going to get changed," Jiao muttered and she slowly crept to her room.

Even though Jiao had been awake the whole night, she knew she couldn't skip school since her classes were far too important. Even if that meant she'd be tired throughout the rest of the day.

As Jiao began to change into a different set of clothes, she couldn't help but recall the events of the previous night. She was about to have her first kiss with her biggest frenemy, why didn't she do anything to stop it from happening? Was there a chance that deep down, Jiao wanted it to happen with Si? He was kinda handsome if she was being honest even with that weird pineapple hairstyle.

"No! Get a hold of yourself Jiao. You're just sleep-deprived, you don't mean any of that," she told herself again and again so that she could find some sort of excuse for her weird thoughts.

Not long after, when Jiao got changed she bid her sisters and aunts goodbye and headed to school with Kiaria. Jiao felt bad for worrying her aunt, cousin and sisters all night, but she couldn't exactly do anything to inform them or her whereabouts since neither she nor Si had working phones.

When Jiao and Kiaria arrived at Mingde, they ignored the stares they were receiving since they were practically used to it by now. Jiao headed to her first class which was the nutrition department. Jiao was almost late to it but managed to make it right before the doors closed.

Jiao was sure her friends had a lot of questions. There was no doubt that they too had been informed of her absence the night before, but she didn't have time to chit-chat with them because as soon as sat on a vacant seat, the lecture began.

Throughout the lesson, it was hard was Jiao to stay awake since she felt so tired and she was starting to regret coming to school, but when her class had finally come to an end, Jiao couldn't be any happier.

Jiao yawned, stretching her arms out as she tried to wake herself up. Jiao was so tired and sleep-deprived that she hadn't even noticed Shancai, Qianghe and Li Zhen approach her with worried looks, that is, until they spoke up.

"Jiao are you okay?" Shancai asked.

Jiao looked up and was slightly taken aback to see the three standing before her.