Stay Away From My Brother

The teacher said this in English, clearly trying to trip up this disrespectful new student.

Zhiyu rubbed her eyes and instinctively started speaking in English. "I'm sorry, sir. Grammar rules bore me to death."

The teacher was surprised but didn't show it in his face. He switched back to Chinese. "Even if they bore you to death, I will be held responsible if you get a bad grade in the midterm exams. Please pay attention if you are not confident that you will get a good grade." With that, he went back towards the front of the classroom to resume the lesson.

Zhiyu slapped her face twice in an attempt to wake herself up and stretched subtly. Glueing her eyes towards the front of the room, she tried to pay attention but it was hard. The teacher's droning voice and the utter tedium of the content almost sent her to sleep multiple times.

She really had to thank Lu Jianhao's bad habit of kicking the chair in front of him. If he had kicked that chair any lighter, she would have really fallen back to sleep!

Two hours of lessons passed before it was finally time for lunch. Zhiyu felt her stomach growling. Hating that she couldn't eat in class, she looked through her bag for her lunch. She had spent the evening before in the kitchen, preparing her lunch for today and had been looking forward to eating it since last night.

Rummaging harder, she found that she couldn't find it! Her first day of school was turning out to be horrible. She was late, she forgot her lunch, she got told off multiple times and worst of all, she didn't know the way to the canteen. It really looked like she would have to go hungry...

Lu Jianhao watched as she slouched down on her desk. It looked like she was planning to sleep again. Did she really come into school just to sleep? What a waste of time and money. He got up and started walking towards the door.

"Wang Zhiyu!" A high-pitched voice interrupted Zhiyu, who was just about to fall asleep. Everyone immediately turned their heads towards the entrance of the classroom. A petite girl wearing plaits strutted in as though she owned the place. The students were unfazed. This girl was known throughout the school to be a drama queen and acted like a total diva. Lu Jianhao paused and narrowed his eyes. This new student knew her?

Disregarding the stares, she practically skipped towards Zhiyu with her entourage of first-year students. "It's been a while! How have you been? I've missed you!" Pouting with her bottom lip sticking out, the girl clung to Zhiyu and proceeded to act like a child.

Wang Zhiyu tried to cover her face with one of her books and turned away from this obnoxiously loud girl. 'Today is really a bad day. Xu Yazhe's sister goes to this school too?'

Seeing Zhiyu ignore her, Xu Yating's face soured. "Hey, don't tell me you've forgotten me already. It's only been two years. Am I really so forgettable to you?" Her face was visibly displeased and a few of the first years near her started shaking. An angry Xu Yating was quite possibly one of the worst things on this Earth.

Zhiyu sighed dejectedly and feigned a bright smile. "Of course I haven't forgotten you. My memory's not *that* bad." She really didn't want to talk to this temperamental girl right now, but she didn't want to get on her bad side for no reason.

"Yay! We were best friends in middle school but you didn't even attend my graduation ceremony. Just because I'm in the year below. Hmph, I'm still upset over that. How could you? That's just mean. In fact, you didn't even attend your own graduation ceremony. Do you know how difficult it was to convince my brother to go to that? I had to stay with my mum for 2 weeks! 2 weeks! Do you know how stressful that was? She took me to every single event ever. Argh! I'm still suffering from PTSD after all of those. I did all of that for you and you just left me and ignored me for two years!"

She rambled on about how Zhiyu was a horrible friend in her grating high-pitched voice. Zhiyu almost covered her ears. It was at this point that she heard that Xu Yazhe was getting engaged.

"Zhiyu, I'm saying this because I'm a good friend. You should stay away from my brother. He's getting engaged to your sister soon. I know you like him but don't be too heartbroken, okay? You will find someone too." Xu Yating's statement sounded exactly like what a good friend would say. This was such a contrast to her usual behaviour that a few of the students stared at the pair with open mouths, not unlike goldfish.

Xu Yating sighed. "Ahh, I would much rather have you as a sister-in-law, but instead, I get that horrible cow. Sometimes, I wonder at my brother's taste..."

Wang Zhiyu almost rolled her eyes. Wasn't it this Xu Yating who paired Wang Zhiling and Xu Yazhe together? 'Tch, what a hypocrite.'

However, she didn't show it, choosing to dismiss the statement instead. "Oh really?"

Xu Yating nodded profusely. "Yep, yep. I would rather have you as a sister-in-law."

'You're much easier to bully than your sister.' The unspoken words hung in the air. Wang Zhiyu smirked. "So it should be okay if I break them up right?"

Feeling torn, Xu Yating had no words. Her face was an empty canvas. Seeing her like that, Wang Zhiyu felt bad and lightly said, "I'm just joking with you. Why would I break up her relationship? She can date him for all I care." Zhiyu inspected her nails as she said this. 'Tch, my pinky nail's chipped again... When did that happen?'

Xu Yating sighed inwardly. 'Phew, ge [1] would kill me if he ever finds out I said she could break up his relationship.'

"Ahh, don't do that to me. You're not lying to yourself, right? You're really over him? Here, I'll give you a hug." She spread out her arms dramatically, seemingly waiting for Zhiyu to fall into them.

Zhiyu scoffed to herself and ignored the hug. She got up and turned to one of the first years. "Hi, do you know the way to the canteen? Could you take me there please?"

[ Footnotes ]

[1] ge or gege is what you would call your older brother or a familiar older male that is relatively close in age to you.