"She is so pretty," I insisted.
"What made you think that she is pretty?" he replied.
I was confused by his question. Why did he need a detailed breakdown of her beauty? Just as I was wondering this, he delivered the punchline: "She is the ugliest girl I have ever seen."
"She is a complete beauty, what are you saying?" I said seriously, then asked, "Who is she?"
"My younger sister," he said. "I had mentioned her."
"Oooooo... yeah," I said, a wave of relief washing over me. "You said you have a younger sister." The happiness I felt was carefully tucked away. As I was leaving, I saw teacher kept my canvas in his bookshelf. That made me so so happy. I turned back one last time and declared, "She is a complete beauty!" Teacher Wang gave me a confused look, and I quickly said, "See you in the next class," and left happily.
In the next class, as soon as it finished, I approached the teacher and asked him to take the test. In his office, he gave me the 100-mark exam. I finished it within 30 minutes, and he was genuinely surprised when he looked at my paper.
I scored 96 out of 100.
"Then welcome to my class permanently," he said.
I beamed. "I'm happy to be your permanent student." We both laughed.
My friend was waiting for me as we had plans. I told Teacher Wang I had to go and headed to the waiting room. As I entered, I saw her quickly hide her phone. I pretended not to notice.
"Do you know how much mark I got?" I asked.
She guessed, "One hundred."
"Ahh, why are your expectations so high?" I teased.
While grabbing her bag, she replied, "Because you got 100 marks in the Level 1 exam, my top student!"
In that instant, I snatched her phone and bolted out of the waiting room. She chased me. I turned to her while running and called out, "You can't hide anything from me!"
"Watch out!" she screamed.
Before I could look forward, I crashed into someone. I was about to fall when he immediately caught my bag. I was left dangling for a moment. My friend rushed up, and he quickly released my bag, letting me sit on the floor.
"Are you alright?" the boy asked in Chinese.
I looked up at him. He was a complete beauty! He looked like he had walked straight out of a Chinese drama—the main lead. I was staring at him, completely forgetting my pain.
"You are bleeding!" my friend screamed, stressed and panicked.
The boy immediately knelt down and said in Chinese, "Let me see." My nose was bleeding after hitting his shoulder forcefully. Panicked, he gently grabbed my nose and lifted my head up to prevent the blood from dripping. In Chinese, he asked my friend for a tissue.
She didn't have one, so she grabbed her phone from my hand and ran off somewhere. She and Teacher Wang quickly returned with tissues. With their help, the nosebleed stopped.
Teacher Wang started to scold both of us for being so reckless. My friend and I apologized, promising never cause any trouble here. I also apologized and thanked the Chinese boy for his help. He accepted my apology and told Teacher Wang he needed to leave.
As he walked away, I was staring at him. He must have been near my age, or maybe two or three years older. I didn't even know his name, but I desperately wanted to. I watched him enter the elevator, staring until the doors closed. He never looked back.
"Can you go, or do you want to rest for a while?" my friend asked.
I was feeling much better. I told her I could go. "Are you sure you can go?" Teacher Wang asked. With full energy, I said I could.
Then my friend and I waited for the elevator. Teacher Wang went back to his office. When we reached the ground floor, my eyes were still searching for the boy. At that moment, I realized something: I could easily start to seriously like someone, right then and there, at that very spot, if they were good-looking and humble.