Zou Haoran was on his way home. He was returning from the boys' hostel after meeting Caleb. He decided not to spend his time there till it's time to close the gates.
Right now, he was passing through a familiar street where he met her yesterday.
Unknowingly, his eyes started to look for a familiar figure. That's when he saw her... again. Like two previous days, today also Layla was passing from there. His instincts were telling him that there is something making her visit again and again. After all, once or twice can be a coincidence but not every time can be a coincidence.
This time he decided not to go and see her. But, he wanted to know what made her come here. He was curious to know her secret and he was eager to discover her secret. He had a feeling that her presence would only make it interesting… little by
The next morning, Opal woke up nearly at the time of breakfast. She slept late last night so she was compensated with some hours of sleep in the morning. She fluttered her eyelashes before picking her mobile lazily to check the time. She was shocked to see that it was already a quarter to eight. It shooed away all her drowsiness. She sprung on her feet and went to the bathroom hurriedly.When she came from the bathroom, she saw that Layla and Lani both were awake but were moving lazily. They looked slower than a tortoise."You don't want to have breakfast?" Doubtful, she asked. She wasn't sure whether had any other plans or was simply planning to skip the morning meal."Relax *yawn*""On Sundays, the warden acts a little... lenient." Lani yawned before continuing,
It already has been 5-6 days since Opal has started living in the hostel. She has blended a lot with the vibes here, yet there were still some things that still keep bothering her. Like right now, she had been struggling with her dirtied clothes.She never had the idea that the manual work of servants could be this much hard. It looks like that coming here also made her see usual things in a different light. After all, as a pampered princess she never came across something like this before."Layla" she called. Her voice was light, a hint of embarrassment was mixed into it."Hmm…"Opal opened her mouth, sucked some air. “That… Can you help me?” She looked at Layla’s face.When she saw that Layla
Layla was behaving all normal around Zou Haoran or rather she was trying not to show any awkwardness around him when he was blatantly staring at her. It was getting harder for her to ignore with every passing second."You want something?" She asked, feigning innocence. Somewhere in her mind, she already knew the answer."Why did you send me that text?"Her face flushed for a second. "I already explained that yesterday." She reminded him of the following text she sent him. 'Why is he asking something that I've already told him?'"Ahem, right." He could feel the awkwardness in the air too. He should have controlled himself. After all, it was definitely not the first but something was different about her text.Only he knows how
Layla was lying in bed in an attempt to sleep yet she was unable to sleep. Her mind was recounting her evening experience abstaining from rest. Though she let Zou Haoran give her a ride but true to her words, Layla didn’t let him drop her at the hostel. Thinking how easily she said yes, she felt that something must have possessed her. Layla started rolling in frustration on her bed, asking herself what happened to her determination.Good thing, she gained her mind at the right time. She was ready to use excuses… as many as needed to turn him down so that he won’t insist on dropping her at the hostel. But the good thing was he didn’t pressurize her with his goodwill.When she told him that she is worried about his parents scolding him or being upset with him coming home late. He chuckled as if she said something funny. In a low voi
Another week has passed in a blink of an eye. And, another weekend came.Opal has gotten more closer to her roommates. She has also adapted herself pretty well in the hostel which is a fast progress compared to many who couldn’t stop feeling homesick for many weeks making it a month-long experience.But today, she is visiting her family nearly after fourteen days.The screech of the car stopping and the sound of the opening of that giant gate pulled her back from her thoughts causing ripples in her eyes. She could feel it; the feeling of nostalgia assaulting her nose.Taking a deep breath she surpassed her emotions but her heart was still not calm. She was excited and happy. And, she was looking forward to meeting her family members again.
Despite having an intention of sleeping timely both the girls ended up sleeping late. The reason, they chatted so long at night that they lost track of time. “So, you are planning to give something to your friends?” The next day, Beryl asked, recalling her sister’s plan that she mentioned last night. “Yup.” Opal nodded heavily. She was anticipating a surprising reaction from roommates aka her closet friends at the moment. Just the mere thought of it was enough to make her giggle. She remembered her roommates warm welcome and kindness and friendliness they had shown to her. She was happy that they spared time which was more than just formality. Before this, she had seen movies and some of her friends also talked negative, giving her a poor impression. But reality proved otherwise and she wanted to pay them b
When they came back, they found that the entrance of their room was… a little crowded. Confused, they stepped into the room and saw Opal was smiling foolishly at them. They closed the door, separating them from the crowd outside and again turned to examine Opal. “What happen–” Layla stopped abruptly. Her attention was attracted to the new item placed in their room. Though she knew what it was yet that thing was still alien to her. When Layla stopped speaking suddenly, Lani also traced her line of sight and ended up noticing that thing too. “What’s this, Opal.” She couldn’t help but turn to Opal who was still smiling proudly or foolishly, she had no way to confirm. “Cooler.” Her cheeky reply came. “That’s not what I meant.” Lani shook her head. Of course, she could se
[WARNING: Following chapter includes bullying. Some dialogues might be explicit.]***Bored and tired, Layla was roaming aimlessly. In fact, her aim was to find a quiet place and spend some time there alone. Thus, recalling those “exotic spots” of school, Layla moved her legs to her destination.She was imploring her fate not to make her meet any pair of lovebirds. Because it is easy to chase away a class skipper but witnessing a pair of lovebirds sure makes things awkward. Just the thought of the eerie atmosphere lovebirds create was giving her goosebumps. Rubbing her arms, she moved quietly, afraid to witness a crime scene.Her fear came true when her ears picked some noises coming. ‘What is it this time?’ Rubbing her forehead she hid hers
‘What a beautiful girl.’ Jealousy surged inside them. Seeing such a breathtaking face they wanted nothing more than to ruin it. But they couldn’t let their emotion run wild, not in front of Zou Haoran, their ultimate target. Maintaining their smiles, they shifted their attention from Zou Haoran to Layla. “Hi, my name is Ava.” “Hi, I’m Mia.” “Layla.” A curt reply came out of her mouth making them feel that she was putting on airs. But, the truth was Layla wasn’t willing to be a part of their act. Thus there was no reason for her to play accordingly. ‘Too too arrogant,’ they complained inwardly. Hearing Layla’s cold tone that was devoid of any emotion turned their mood somewhat sour but they could not give up so easily especially when they had seen from the far how friendly Zou Haoran was with this rude girl. Therefore, left with no option they had to please her as this guy blatantly refused to corporate with them. “Nice to meet you, Layla.” They replied with enthusiasm as if they
Reaching near the door Opal noticed something unusual. "Hmm, why it's dark?" She questioned herself as she slowly pushed the door.“Happy Birthday!!” Both the girls shouted in unison as one of them also pressed the switch. They had a big grin on their faces as they took note of every expression Opal made in seconds. They could guess that Opal was very much pleased by the surprise they had prepared for her and it could be considered the first step to success.Opal’s eyes widened in surprise. She checked the time and it was already 12:01 am. ‘It’s my birthday.’ She reminded herself as her eyes sparkled with joy and a pure smile bloomed on her face.At first, her family also used to wish her at midnight but gradually things changed as her sister started to get busy with work and her parents started to go to bed early with aging. Though her family would always make her day awesome enough that could make others jealous but she missed this feeling. She missed those midnight birthday wishes.
“It’s been many days honestly I was waiting for some reaction or an ambush, given how much I angered him.” stirring the fork in noodles Layla exposed the doubt in her heart, “Do you think it was normal that he didn’t come to find me?” She really thought that he would come to find her and seek trouble. She clearly read it on his face. That is why Layla was so confused. “You should watch fewer dramas,” Ryan commented in a monotonous tone as he maintained his deadpanned face. Although he said so but he was also worried about Layla crossing paths with him accidentally or intentionally. For the past few days, he was paying special attention to this matter. He even went as far as hacking some cameras of nearby public places but he didn’t find anything. And he didn’t know whether it was a good thing or bad. Layla rolled her eyes and continued eating while maintaining silence. She would never be able to guess that that man was sent to the police that very evening by Opal’s people. He was a r
“Ah!!” “Oww” “Sorry” Layla apologized timidly to the second ‘ghost’ she accidentally punched after entering the building. “It-it was a reflex action.” She added hoping to lessen the ghost’s resentment. No one knew whether her action was really an accident or a deliberate act. Ryan snorted at the scene unfolding in front of him. His actions made others recall the words he uttered before entering the building. Now they realized how foolish they were to think that he was scared. “You will have to walk in the middle. And that's final.” He added before she could utter any word of protest. He did not want to give more workers a chance to gossip about a certain crazy customer they got. “You seem to know vice-prez very well, pre
When Layla followed behind Opal she saw a man passing by Opal and laying his hand on her inappropriately. This made her mind short circuit for a second. Layla flew in rage. Without wasting time she kicked that man hard, making him fall in the process. “Oye!! What’s wrong with you?” He raged out. His face flushed red seeing a girl glaring at him furiously. Apparently, he also guessed that she saw something she shouldn’t and that made her react like this but no way in hell he was gonna admit a thing if she dared to question him. When he was gloating inside about how he would deal with her and her questions, something unexpected happened. Layla, again, kicked him making him unable to steady his foot successfully. “What’s wrong…?” she sneered. “I’m just doing
“Aren’t you getting late now?” Ryan asked helplessly as he saw Layla was still busy clicking pictures even after Zou Haoran arrived. On top of that, she had made that guy her photographer. He was speechless. What Ryan didn’t know was that Layla was charmed by Zou Haoran’s photography skills thus she unleashed her full desire today.“Just a few more. Till then, you focus on your thing.” He could hear the underlying message in her tone. He shook his head inwardly as he remembered when he was sulking on how he was forced to come here, he received a message. Taking out his phone he saw Layla texted him. “Do something to your face. It’s making others uncomfortable, especially a certain someone.”He raised his head and found Layla gesturing to him with her eyes. From then Ryan reluctantly let go of his anger
Opal was relaxing in the room. Wearing a light green top with black shorts, she was lying on her tummy with her legs dangling in the air. She looked beautiful and that carefree smile of hers was enough to steal hearts. While Lani, who was also present was lying on one side of her body. Her hand was supporting her head as she was staring at the screen of her phone. Her long black hair was beautifully scattered on her body and bed making her look like an exquisite art. Everything was fine but all of sudden something unexpected happened which shook the whole room. “AHH!!!” Abruptly, Opal screamed at the top of her lungs. Her soft feet landed on the floor and with the speed of lighting, she ran out of the room, barefoot. This scream’s impact was a little too powerful. La
After resting yesterday and this morning Layla was feeling much better and now her most concerning situation also has passed she decided to come to work today. Anyways it was a holiday after the sports day and Layla couldn’t stand her roommate aka friend Lani asking her too many questions.When Lani questioned her earlier she somehow managed to brush her off. She only told her how she was injured but didn’t inform her anything about the drama that took place before that.Reaching her destination she opened the door only to be greeted by a surprise… or shock. She was stupefied to see many of her acquaintances from school waiting here to welcome her.She could feel too many gazes as if they were ready to pounce on her and tear her apart. “Uncle, chase away whoever isn't here to buy anything ye
Looking at her slightly tired reflection in the mirror Layla let out a heavy breath. Coupled with the pain in her waist she faced a troublesome morning today. And now, she had to go to the sports ground. After all, soon it will be time for her race.She raised her head to meet her own eyes. Yesterday’s events were still playing in her mind making her sigh again. She remembered that Zou Haoran stopped the bike in front of a hospital, making her dumbfounded in the process.Tired at the shop, she didn’t pay any attention along the way, making her miss the fact that this guy was heading to the hospital.She asked him to go to the pharmacy. Did he assume something on his own? It was then she was forced to narrate the whole incident to him and the purpose behind her request.