After the group photo was taken, with no outsiders present, the classmates gradually returned to their true natures. Those who loved to sing grabbed microphones and belted out songs with all their might. The girls were initially a bit reserved, but realizing that if they didn't grab a microphone soon, the boys would truly sing until dawn, they quickly joined the fray.
Liu Chen sat cross-legged on the sofa, hugging a cushion, and used her DSLR to snap photos of everything in the private room. When the ordered milk teas, fries, and chicken strips were brought in, Liu Chen’s mouth started working non-stop as she ate.
Mi Zhuzhu, however, walked around the spacious room, then sat back down beside Liu Chen with a cup of pearl milk tea, a smile on her face. "Hehe, Chenchen, do you know that Wang Jun and Mi Ke from our class are dating?"
Liu Chen put down the DSLR in her hand and turned to look at Mi Zhuzhu, blinking her eyes and signaling her to stop playing coy and just tell her what was going on.
"It was when we went online to reply to your post on the forum, remember? Mike went up to explain for you, but got cursed at by people who replied. She cried. Wang Jun, who sits next to her, comforted her and then went on the forum to curse at that person until they didn't dare to make a sound."
Liu Chen looked bewildered. What did that have to do with dating?
"Don't rush, I'm not finished yet. It turns out Wang Jun has always had a secret crush on Mike. He thought their grades were too far apart before, so he never dared to confess. After this joint exam's results came out, and Lai Ban said if they maintained this grade, they could aim for a second-tier university, Wang Jun confessed that very day, hahahahaha."
Lai Jielun, who had come over at some point, overheard this and added, "So Wang Jun is very grateful to Sister Chen. He called several other boys to come."
Liu Chen's mouth had just opened to say something when she heard the boys sitting on the other side of the sofa start to egg someone on.
"Confess, confess!"
"Wow oh oh~~~"
"A real man, go for it!"
Following the sound, a fair-skinned, clean-cut boy stood up from the sofa. Even in the dim light of the KTV, one could see his face was completely flushed, even the roots of his ears were red. Liu Chen glanced over and noticed someone had ordered several cans of beer on the table. He was probably drunk.
Liu Chen had some impression of this boy. His name was Qiao Yang. Mi Zhuzhu had told her he was very popular among the girls in the class. However, what impressed Liu Chen the most was his score in this exam. He was only one point behind Lai Jielun. He was good-looking and studied well – the kind of child parents always talked about.
Since Liu Chen was the birthday girl, she was seated in the center. The girls sat to her left, starting with Mi Zhuzhu, and the boys sat to her right, starting with Ren Mo and Lai Jielun.
Qiao Yang walked around the coffee table and then approached Liu Chen.
Liu Chen blinked and looked at the seventeen-year-old boy's youthful face, then spoke first: "Qiao Yang, do you want to get the microphone? Just say the word."
As she spoke, she handed the microphone next to Mi Zhuzhu to Qiao Yang. The microphone's cord trailed on the floor, dragging like Qiao Yang's heart.
The boys who had been egging him on suddenly fell silent. Everyone knew this was Liu Chen's way of rejecting Qiao Yang, but the rejection came so quickly that Qiao Yang hadn't even gotten to say his confession.
Qiao Yang stood there, his eyes reddening as he looked at the girl on the sofa.
She didn't know when it started, but he began unconsciously following her. Her seemingly soft and beautiful hair was always tied up high, and when she walked, the ends of her hair would flick, as if flicking at people's hearts.
Her round eyes, which looked like a kitten's, never showed weakness. Every time he saw them, they were filled with tenacious belief.
Coming closer today, he noticed how long her eyelashes were, like two little fans, trembling as she looked at him.
Qiao Yang smiled and took the microphone with the long power cord from Liu Chen's hand. "Thank you."
Thank you for preserving my dignity.
After taking the microphone, someone had put on the screen Zhang Jie's "The Most Beautiful Sun."
"My world, becomes beautiful because of you..."
Watching Qiao Yang sing, on the verge of tears, Liu Chen felt a pang of guilt. But... young, underage idols were just too guilt-inducing!
Fortunately, Lai Jielun suggested playing games, and as they played, everyone gradually forgot about the awkwardness.
They sang until five o'clock. Liu Chen first saw the girls onto the bus, while Lai Jielun hailed several taxis to put the drunken male classmates into, gave the drivers two hundred yuan each, and told them to take them to their destinations.
After everyone had left, Liu Chen turned around and saw Mi Zhuzhu almost pressed against her face, looking at her with a thoughtful expression.
Liu Chen blinked, asking somewhat confusedly, "Zhuzhu, what are you doing?"
"I'm looking, looking to see who your crush is." Mi Zhuzhu suddenly realized as she spoke the latter part, "Ah~ you really like Brother Ren Yu!"
Liu Chen turned to look at Ren Mo, who was standing nearby, and seeing him hailing a taxi by the roadside, she breathed a sigh of relief. She turned back to Mi Zhuzhu and explained, "I don't have a crush, you guessed wrong."
Mi Zhuzhu tossed her head and looked askance at Liu Chen, "Ah ha~ I don't believe you~"
Just then, Ren Mo finally managed to get a taxi. Liu Chen raised her index finger and gently tapped Mi Zhuzhu's lips, "Shhh."
—
Lai Jielun posted the group photo taken by the helper on his phone at noon to the class group chat for everyone to download.
Wang Jun, who lived closest to home, was the first to arrive. His aunt was cooking when he returned. Hearing the sound of his arrival, she came out of the kitchen to check and saw that Wang Jun had already gone into the study.
Wang Jun hadn't drunk any alcohol today. He worried that Mi Ke might think he was too frivolous if he drank. The affection of a young boy was always so intense; he didn't want to touch upon even the slightest possibility of displeasing the person he liked.
He found a data cable in his drawer, plugged it into his Nokia 5300, and then plugged it into the USB port on the computer tower after turning it on.
He uploaded the class group photo from QQ to the computer and then uploaded it to his QQ album.
This was his first group photo with Mi Ke. He stood behind her, and both of them were smiling at the camera.
Wang Jun had been directly promoted to the main campus high school from the affiliated middle school of Shifan Elementary School. The policy for direct promotion from middle school to high school allowed students within ten points of the admission score to make up the difference at a cost of three thousand yuan per point. He had just managed to make up the thirty thousand yuan, so he knew his score was the worst.
Perhaps because it was Sunday, the third-year high school students who hadn't started their supplementary classes were all idle and playing on their computers. Within a few minutes of the photo being uploaded, several comments appeared below the album.
'Holy crap, your class six is so fierce? KTV on a Sunday?'
'Envious, Young Master Wang~~'
'The girl in the middle looks like the top student Liu Chen?'
'Damn, her shoes look the same as a female celebrity's, they must be over ten thousand yuan!'