The Dinner
Su Nian finished her last class of the day. She puts her drawing in her portfolio case and walks out of the campus. It's 5, but the sky outside is still pretty bright.
Su Bei Yang not only doesn't allow her to eat take-out food but also limits her to drink any bubble tea. He told her how it was unhealthy for her. She looks around and saw that Su Jin Chuan didn't come. As Su Nian was about to walk to the milk tea place, a car honked at her.
Su Nian's heart jumps a little and turned around to see who it is.
The window rolls down and inside sat Qin Yi.
"Where are you going?" he asks her.
Su Nian felt a little guilty, "going home." She said to him as if she wasn't about to go to the milk tea store.
"Oh really?" as he exaggerates the last word.
Su Nian just smiles.
"Get in," he said to her and didn't waste any time.
Su Nian looks at him as he might be joking. "You're not busy? I can go home myself," she said to him. Su Nian knows that he works late every single day, so she didn't expect him to bring her home.
"Today I canceled all my other meetings. Get in. Don't make me say it the third time," he said to her.
Su Nian quietly gets in the car and didn't say a word.
For a while, Qin Yi spoke. "Why didn't you go to the lecture?" he asks her.
Su Nian knows which one he's talking about.
"I don't have interest in it. Plus, I'm not even a business major, I won't understand anyway," Su Nian said as she explains.
Qin Yi didn't say a word and drove her back home.
Su Nian glanced at him but saw him just focusing on the road. She sat there and looks out the window.
Qin Yi pulls up in front of her house, and as Su Nian is about to say 'thank you,' Qin Yi got out of the car.
Su Nian looks at him confusingly and got out also.
"You?"
Before Su Nian can finish saying, her front door opens and her mom walks out.
"Auntie Su," Qin Yi said and gives her the flower that he brought earlier.
"Mom?"
Su Nian thought her mom won't be back till next week. She then looks at Qin Yi, but he just walks past her.
"Don't stand there. Come in," her mom said while smiling at Qin Yi.
Su Nian doesn't understand. When did her parents invite Qin Yi over she doesn't know about it?
"Sis, your back!" Su Jin Chuan said and puts his arm over her.
Su Nian gives him a hard glare.
'You know about this?' she asks him.
Su Jin Chuan knows what she's referring to, but shakes his head.
As her dad sits in the living room talking to Qin Yi, her mom wents to the kitchen to get ready for dinner.
"Mom, why is Qin Yi here?" Su Nian takes the chance to ask her mom about it.
"Ah, Yi? How could you forget? Today is Ah Yi's birthday. His parents aren't here anymore, of course, we have to help him celebrate." Her mom said smiling while washing the food.
"His birthday?" Su Nian's brain then clicks. She quickly checks the date and there was a reminder for her. 'Today it is Qin Yi's birthday!' How could she forget??
She has known Qin Yi ever since she moved here when she was three. Their family became very closed to each other, but ten years ago when Qin Yi's parents died in a car accident. That time Qin Yi was 17 and after that incident, he barely get close to anyone. Besides their family when they would invite him for any family dinner or occasion.
Su Nian walks out of the kitchen and saw that he's talking with her father comfortably. Su Jin Chuan then walks up to her and saw who she was staring at.
"You like him? If you do, I can help you," he said teasingly. But in the next second, he felt a huge pain in his stomach.
"You must be so free?" she said to him with a smile.
Su Nian learned taekwondo before and has a black belt.
As Su Jin Chuan sits down to relieve his pain, Su Nian walks upstairs to her room.
She closed the door behind her and went to her desk. Su Nian hasn't had the time to clean it, so it's still a mess. She rummages through the papers on her desk and finally found the drawing. Su Nian drew this two months ago. That time she was less busy, so she drew a portrait of Qin Yi. She was planning to give it to him on his birthday, and she totally forgot that it was today.
As Su Nian was about to find something to frame it up, she heard a knock on the door.
"Wait one moment!" she yells and quickly rolled it up and puts it in her telescope drafting tube.
Su Nian quickly opens the door and saw Qin Yi standing outside. "What is it?" she asks calmly.
Qin Yi looks at her and then behind her.
"What are you hiding?" he asks her.
"Huh?" Su Nian said and pretend to not understand what he was referring to.
"Let's go downstairs. There's nothing to see here," she said to him with a smile and then forcibly pulls him away from her room.
Both Su Nan Sang and Su Bei Yang came home at the same time. They are identical twins but their personalities are very different, so it's easy to distinguish between them.
Su Nian hasn't seen Su Bei Yang for almost two weeks. He's busier than Su Nan Sang, so every time she sees her second eldest brother, she would go give him a hug. But today she's not going to.
Two weeks ago, Su Bei Yang made Su Nian mad and so she hasn't talked to him ever since.
Su Bei Yang noticed that Su Nian didn't greet him. He looks at his brother, but Su Nan Sang just patted his back.
"Nian Nian," he calls her.
But Su Nian didn't answer him and just continues talking to Su Jin Chuan.
Qin Yi knows that this little girl is mad at her brother again. He sits there as he watches them.
"Look what I got for you," he holds out the cup of milk tea in front of her. Even though it's a cup of warm milk tea, Su Nian doesn't hate it.
Su Nian glance at the cup of milk tea and her eyes brighten.
She slightly coughs and looks at her brother. "Trying to bribe me and make me forgive you?" she asks him.
"What bribe? Of course not. This is my treat. Do you like it?" he asks her.
Su Nian almost laughed. She saw how strict her brother is when he is in the hospital, but now he's like a puppy trying to ask her to forgive him.
She takes the milk tea and sips it on it. "I forgave you," she said to him.
Su Bei Yang smiles and holds out his arm. "Do I get a hug then?" he asks her softly.
Su Nian stares at her stupid brother but gives him a hug anyway. Qin Yi watches them and somehow felt a little twitch inside his heart.
"What did Bei Yang brother do this time?" Su Jin Chuan asks.
It's not the first that Su Jin Chuan saw this. "He spilled his coffee on my artwork that I have worked for weeks." Su Nian said while sipping on her milk tea.
Su Jin Chuan looks at Su Bei Yang and gives him a thumbs up. Su Nian doesn't like anyone touching her artwork, so when Su Bei Yang accidentally spills coffee on it, she almost went crazy.
"Dinner time!" her mom calls from the dining room. Her dad helps her mom carry the food out.
As they are sitting to eat dinner, Su Nian's parents haven't stopped putting food on Qin Yi's bowl. And Su Nian looks at Qin Yi jealously. She hasn't seen her parents for almost a month, and now they have forgotten about her.
"Where's mine?" she said as she holds out her bowl in front of them.
Her parents laugh and all of a sudden, at the same time, the whole family puts her favorite food in her bowl.
Su Nian smiles and then looks at Qin Yi.
Qin Yi peeled shrimp for her and placed it on her plate. She remembers Qin Yi doing that every time he comes over for dinner. But this time, she doesn't know why but he looks more handsome.
Su Nian quickly shakes her head and eats her food.
After dinner, while they were talking, Su Nian went to her room and bring out the drawing she did. She couldn't find a frame so she left it in the drafting tube.
"Happy Birthday!" she said to him and hand him the tube.
Qin Yi looks at her surprisingly. He thought that she forgot about it, but he smiles and took it from her.
"What is it?" he asks her.
Her parents and brothers who are sitting there got curious too.
"I'm not sure if you like it, but you can open and see it." Su Nian said nervously.
Qin Yi opens the tube and takes out the paper.
Su Nian observes him, but she can't tell if he likes it or not.
Her brothers sit there and jealousy arose inside of them. Their sister hasn't drawn a portrait for them yet and now Qin Yi got one before them.
"I like it." He said to her and puts the drawing back inside the tube.
"Really?" she asks him and looks into his eyes. "If you don't like it, I can take it back and give you something else," she said to him with seriousness.
As she was about to take it back, Qin Yi didn't allow her to.
"I haven't heard that things that are sent out can be taken back?"
After dinner, Qin Yi went back home. Even though they used to be neighbors, after Qin Yi's parents passed away, Qin Yi haven't lived in his old house for a really long time.
As Su Nian was about to go to sleep, she heard a knock on the door. Outside stand her three brothers.
Su Nian looks at them nervously. "What is it?" she asks them carefully.
"When do I get a drawing like the one you give to Qin Yi?" her eldest brother Su Nan Sang asks.
"Same for us too," Su Bei Yang and Su Jin Chuan said.
Su Nian felt jealousy from her brothers. She finds it funny and told them that when she has the chance, she will draw one for each of them. Hearing that answer, they all left her room.
Qin Yi got back home and found a frame to put up the drawing. He looks at the drawing and smiles.
"When did you draw this?" he said to himself while looking at the drawing.
The drawing that Su Nian drew has him smiling. But Qin Yi didn't remember when he smiled like that.