The plan

At first, Simon just stood there, his mouth hanging wide open, struggling to comprehend whether this was reality or just fantasy. His friend had convinced him to join a group blind date as an opportunity to forget about Mai for an evening, yet here she was.

'Is this whole thing a setup?' Simon wondered as he looked towards his red haired friend Chang, who just shrugged his shoulders, universal boy code for 'I dunno how this happened'.

However, soon enough his brain processed what it meant that the only free seat was opposite Mai and his shocked face turned into a smile. He straightened his outfit, and proceeded to sit down, placing his elbow on the table and his face in the palm of his hand as he leaned slightly forward.

The way Simon was dressed, and seeing him with gelled back hair rather than the usual mess that was covering his eyebrows, Mai barely recognised him as the young boy she grew up with.

"Well Mai, it looks like fate wants us two to be together. I can't help it, can I?" Simon stated, with a cheeky grin.

A strange feeling made Mai feel slightly queasy in her stomach, and she knew it had to be from the cheesy line she had just heard. Perhaps it was because she knew what Simon was really like and the fact he had never tried to put his 'Moves' on her before, but her body was just instantly rejecting him.

"Simon…I think I'm going to throw up." Mai blurted out, without thinking about holding her hand over her mouth.

Simon's face instantly dropped into a sulking one, the fact that the boys had started to laugh at this rejection didn't help in the least. At least his friend Chang was decent enough to try and hide it by covering his mouth, but since he sat right next to Simon it wasn't too effective.

Seeing the situation, Shirley felt bad for the both of them. After all, she had invited Mai primarily to forget about the whole Simon situation, yet due to bad timing she ended up paired with him in this group date. Shirley was about to lean over and ask Mai to swap, when Scarlett pulled her shirt.

"Don't worry, I'll swap with her." Scarlett whispered to her, before she stood up from her seat, going over to Mai.

"Hey Mai, I think it might be better if you're closer to the toilet if you aren't feeling well. Besides, aren't you and Simon already best buds? I thought this whole experience was about getting to know new people." Scarlett said with a smile as she placed her warm hand on top of Mai's shoulder.

Mai had instantly understood that she had just messed up by saying that stuff out loud, but apologising to Simon the next instant wouldn't have made things any better. She had been racking her brain on how to salvage the situation but nothing had come to mind. As such, Scarlett suddenly offering her a way out, made Mai have sparkles in her eyes as she looked up to her saviour.

Of course, Simon wanted to say something about this sudden change, but before he had the chance Mai had already sprung up from her seat and moved over.

'Argh, why did I think it was a good idea to listen to Jake and use such a dumb pick up line?!' Simon deeply regretted listening to his friend. He might have been the one with the most experience with the ladies, but as someone who had known Mai for over a decade he should have known better than to try and use something like that on her.

"Well Mr. Slick, what do you think fate says about me and you?" Scarlett asked as she gave Simon a little wink. For a moment Simon didn't know what to say, a rare thing for him, but the next moment he returned to being the loveable jokester his friends knew him to be.

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After swapping Mai was now sitting opposite Jake. She wasn't too surprised that Scarlett had initially sat down opposite him as Jake was quite the handsome fellow and captain of the school's soccer team. Mai was a bit nervous since she had never really interacted with him before, but surprisingly Jake was a natural in leading the conversation between the two of them.

He began by asking Mai about her family. As it turned out, they both had annoying little siblings, only in Jake's case it was a little brother. The way he talked about him made it seem that all the athletic genes in their family had ended up with him, since his brother's favorite hobby was playing video games or watching others play them.

They then proceeded to talk about school, their favorite teachers and favorite subjects.

"What about you, do you like sports?" Jake asked.

"Hmm, I mean I enjoy playing sports when I have to, but not to the extent that I could call it a hobby. I might be more like your brother in that regard. My parents are always telling me to study for university, so I spent most of my time hitting the books." Mai answered with a nervous smile.

Mai felt that while Jake was doing his best to allow both of them to have an enjoyable time, he wasn't completely present either. She had him glancing over at Simon's table multiple times while she had been talking. He had failed to be sneaky about it, although he himself did not seem to have realized that yet.

This time, Mai looked over as well, and from the looks of it Simon and Scarlett were having the best time out of everyone. Simon was back to his silly self, but Scarlett appeared to find him genuinely funny and the two of them were even sharing a drink.

'Well, at least one of us is enjoying this evening. Meanwhile, my 'date' is obviously more interested in Scarlet as well. Who can blame him, they're both into sports, while the only thing we seem to share are annoying siblings and a dislike for certain teachers. I mean who likes studying? Can I even call that a hobby? Why did I think it was a good idea to come here?' Mai was getting depressed and without realising it, she was dragging her hands across her face.

"Bwah, Haha!" Greg, the guy who had made the crude remark when the girls had arrived, started to laugh as he pointed at Mai's face. "You look like a ghost or something."

Mai didn't understand why he was laughing. Jake just pointed at his eyes, but Mai didn't get the clue, so she turned to Shirley, who also started to giggle as she saw Mai's face. However, unlike the boys, she quickly pulled out a small hand mirror.

That's when Mai saw what made her into a laughingstock. Feeling sad for herself, she had teared up slightly, and by trying to wipe the tear off, she had smudged her eyeliner.

'Damn it, I completely forgot that this was just some cheap make up I got from Cindy! Just a small little tear drop and now it's run down all the way to my cheek!' Seeing herself like this and making a fool out of herself brought Mai even closer to more tears.

Fortunately, there was someone to help her out once again. Scarlett had stood up and she grabbed Mai's hand. "Let's go to the toilet, I've been bursting ever since our first drink." Scarlett announced to divert some attention to herself.

The two of them quickly went to the toilet together, where Mai had a chance to fix her makeup while Scarlett actually needed to go to the toilet. Once they were both done, the two girls were washing their hands at the sink.

"It seems like today isn't your evening." Scarlet spoke. "It's a shame that Chris isn't here. I would have happily played your wingwoman."

"Wait, how do you know I like Chris?!" Mai asked, shocked, nearly soaking her outfit.

"I don't think there is anyone in the whole school who doesn't know. Your whole confession wasn't exactly subtle. This isn't like, what do you call them, those anime shows where they give a love letter.." Scarlett answered, surprised about Mai's shock. With how many rumours there were going around she had been convinced the other would have already known this to be an open secret.

It had already been a week and most of the embarrassment from that event had almost left her mind, especially since it had been the least of her worries. What was a failed confession to finding out a murder after all?

"So, I have a question for you. It's about Simon. You and him are best friends, right? You and him have never like… you know… been together have you?" Scarlett asked, seemingly trying to be tactful.

"Me and Simon? No, of course not! We're just childhood friends." Mai answered quite quickly. "However, since we're so close everyone seems to assume otherwise, but I only see him as a little brother."

Turning off the tap, Scarlett looked like she was ready to leave.

"In that case, there should be no problems if I ask him out."