Liling froze, Xin Yong peeked at her and then at the young man. Her eyes that met Liling’s read ‘do you know him?’

He called again “Liling?”

Liling immediately fake-smiled and turned around

“Nurse?, What are you doing here?, I didn’t even recognize you” She walked towards him as Xin Yong stood motionlessly staring at both of them.

“Xin Yong, come over here, meet my… ” Liling knew their relationship wasn’t the one to be called friends. She didn’t like being overly attached to the opposite sex. So at that point, she was confused what to refer him as.

“I’m Chang Ming, her friend” Chang Ming completed, Xin Yong shot Liling a questioning look at the same time, liling was at loss as she stared at Chang Ming’s smiling face.

Xin Yong drew closer and cleared her throat. “I’m Xin Yong, nice meeting you Chang Ming, I’ll leave you two, I have something very important to take care of upstairs” She smiled and retreated backwards.

Liling wanted to give her signal for her to stay but Xin Yong intentionally avoided her gaze. She immediately left without looking back.

After she had completely disappeared from the scene, it became a little awkward, none of them knew what to say at that minute. Finally Liling cleared her voice and turned to look at Chang Ming who had been staring all these while.

“Ha ha, what brings you to my school dear nurse” Liling asked as she tried to relieve the awkward situation.

Chang Ming wanted to out rightly answer ‘You’, but he thought of it and found it a little bit straightforward so he said

“Well Liling, I came to see a friend who is a doctor at the school clinic and when I was about to leave, I remembered you once told me you studied here, so I asked around, and I was directed to your dorm” The truth was that, he had a day off that day, and he had been searching all day for her, she was never popular so it was quite hard finding her.

“Ahh, Nurse, so thoughtful of you, you shouldn’t have” Liling said as she chuckled lightly.

“Is it wrong, Chang Ming asked as he creased his brows.

“No, no, just that you are a very busy person so…”

“I’m a very busy person, but I still have time for my friends ”

Chang Ming cut in and Liling chuckled dryly. She never remembered being too close to Chang Ming to be referred to as a friend. Chang Ming excused himself and answered a call, after sometime he hung up and apologized.

“Liling, I’m sorry, but I have to leave now, there is an issue in the hospital, could we meet some other time? ”

Liling smiled joyfully, at least he wasn’t staying any longer. “Oh Nurse, you needn’t apologize, maybe another time then” She didn’t think too much of her answer, thinking that he’ll just say ‘okay’ and leave, but the next sentence was a blow.

“Okay, Liling, could you please give me your phone number, so if I come next time I’ll be able to reach you?”

‘Whoa whoa, why do I meet such persistent people, isn’t it obvious that I don’t want to speak with him?’ Liling thought in her mind but her expression said a different story altogether. With a very wide fake smile she said

“Sure Nurse, you can have it, but I’ll be busy these few months, my exams are almost here” She intentionally added.

Chang Ming smiled as though he didn’t notice the point she was making, he continued tapping on his phone, taking down the numbers she was calling out.

“Liling, my name is Chang Ming, not nurse. Nurse seems too distant, okay” he said as he smiled gently “So I’ll see you later, do take care of yourself”.

He gently tapped her shoulders. Liling stifled at his touch, she watched as he entered his car, bade her a goodbye and drove off.

“What have I gotten myself into? ”

She thought out loud as she stared at the disappearing car.