“She said, I’m not cute. Can you imagine that?” Hearing Dylan’s nonstop complaining, Darren rubbed his temple softly and closed his eyes briefly taking a pause to let his surroundings sink in.

Standing on a concrete pathway, he could feel the slightly warm breeze caressing his skin. The day’s last beams of sunlight glowed on the horizon. The scent of different flowers around him overwhelmed him. He opened his eyes to see the lush freshly cut green grass which was concealed by the bundles of flowers.

The society park was bustling at this time with several people out for an evening run and parents accompanying their kids who were playing happily. An elderly group was busy doing their meditation while old society aunties were having their dance class in one corner. It was such a lively scene that Darren felt peaceful inside.

“Are you even listening to me?” Dylan’s voice ruined Darren’s moment of tranquility once again. He really wished to disconnect the call. Or better just hit the phone on Dylan’s head.

“Didi, you’re not cute to me as well, right now.” Darren’s voice showed his irritation along with the fact that his patience was running out.

Dylan coughed awkwardly as he retorted, “I know I am not cute at all. I’m fatally attractive!” Dylan’s statement made Darren feel like beating him now. Literally.

He continued his evening run as he said, “Didi, do you have some obsession with your E.A or something?”

“What? Who said that?” Dylan’s reaction was over-exaggerated. Darren couldn’t help rolling his eyes at him even though Dylan couldn’t see him.

“Because, my dear Didi, you met your E.A for only 15 minutes today and for the past 30 minutes I’m bearing the torture of listening to you complaining about her reaction,” Darren stated the obvious which made Dylan scowl at the other end.

Before Dylan could reply, he heard a female voice from Darren’s side, “Hey, McSpicy!”

Darren suddenly stopped and tilted his head to see Xiu sitting on a swing waving at him while she held yogurt in her other hand. Seeing her smile, Darren also smiled back at her and forgot all about his anger on Dylan. He waved back at her, “Hello to you too, Sweets!”

“Come sit with us,” she beckoned him while gesturing towards Nora to scoot over to the third swing which she did so in a daze. When did her Baby Xiu’er get so friendly? She couldn’t bring her mind to work around this fact at all.

On Darren’s side, he changed his direction and walked towards Xiu while saying to Dylan, “I’ll call you later. Or not.”

Dylan was left looking at his phone screen with a disbelieving look. His best friend just hung up on him for a girl. A GIRL! So much for the bro-code!

Darren sat down on the swing beside her while not paying any attention to Nora. “You look really happy. Did your boss stop bothering you?” He asked curiously since the Xiu he met last night in the elevator and the one sitting beside him now looked to be two completely different people. Last night, she was listless and right now, she looked rejuvenated.

Xiu shook her head saying, “Nope. He’s still going at his petty schemes.”

“Then what’s up with the big smile?” Darren questioned gesturing towards the bright smile on her face which seemed to have given her a new light.

Xiu poked the straw in the new yogurt bottle and passed it to him saying, “I learned a good lesson from you on our first meeting.” Darren took the yogurt from her and gave her an inquiring look as she elaborated, “You said past can either hurt me or teach me something.”

“I did. So, what did you learn?” Darren took a sip of the yogurt and realized it wasn’t as sweet as he was expecting it to be.

“I learned that he loves hurting me through his torture. He can do it since it’s his right as my boss. But falling down, feeling hurt, or giving up is my own right. He can’t force me to feel something I don’t have a desire to feel.” Darren looked at her in surprise. From his simple words, she learned such an important lesson. It was unbelievable for him. “So, I have decided to smile because I feel like smiling. Also, because he wants to see me failing and I’m a winner. I gave up on failures long ago.”

Seeing her determined and resolute eyes, he gave her a round of applause. “Wow, Sweets. You’re amazing.”

Xiu laughed at his remark saying, “Right? I know. I don’t know why I didn’t realize it before, I truly am amazing.” ‘Wish I could learn how amazing I am when I was Chen Xiu.’ She mused to herself with a disappointed look.

Darren pursed his lips at her reply not knowing whether to laugh or not. She looked adorable and innocent with those bright and hopeful eyes, full of dreams that had yet to see the dawn of reality.

Suddenly, recalling something Xiu said, “I completely forgot. That’s my best friend.” Xiu pointed at Nora who was sitting on the swing beside Darren’s now.

Darren turned to face her and smiled saying, “Hi, ‘just Nora’…”

Nora had kept quiet until now for two reasons; one, she was unable to make sense of Xiu’s sudden friendliness. And second, she didn’t know what to say to Darren after her morning blunder but his greeting in that familiar way made her feel somewhat easy.

“Darren, I thought we established that you’d be calling me Nora,” Nora replied back with a scowl.

“You guys know each other?” Xiu asked looking at both of them making her already big eyes, bigger.

“Yeah, we met,” was the only reply from Darren who didn’t elaborate how or where they met. And Xiu wasn’t very interested in knowing the details as well.

“Good. Saves me from the introductions.” Xiu replied nonchalantly while chuckling at her own self saying, “It’s not like I know your name.”

“It’s Darren.”

“Huh?”

“My name,” Darren explained and Xiu nodded while biting the straw of her yogurt and sipping on it like a little kid.

“So, Darren…” Nora tried to speak. “I’m really sorry about what I said in the morning.”

“What are you talking about ‘just Nora’?” Darren’s response with that smirk made Nora forget all about her embarrassment.

“Hey! It’s Nora. Not ‘just Nora’!” She corrected him.

“Yeah, and I called you just that. Just Nora.” Darren smirked again which made Nora want to pull his hair.

They both heard Xiu laughing out beside them and turned to look at her. Finding two pairs of eyes on herself, Xiu bit her lips to compose herself as she said, “Sorry, it seemed funny for some reason.”

“Darren, I’m being serious. I’m really sorry.” Nora sincerely felt guilty and Darren could see that. He decided not to tease her anymore.

“I’m also serious, Nora. I really forgot whatever happened in the morning.” Darren’s reply made Nora stare at him in confusion. “It happened in the morning. The sun has already set for the day. I tend to let my grudges sink just like that sun on the horizon.” Xiu was entranced hearing his reply. How beautifully he just said that he doesn’t hold unnecessary grudges. “Besides how can I hold grudges sitting between two beautiful young ladies?”

“Smooth…” Xiu drawled playfully patting his shoulder.

“Baby Xiu, stop laughing already,” Nora said impatiently since now they were catching the attention of the other people in the park.

Darren’s head turned to Xiu as he asked, “Your name is Xiu?”

Xiu looked at him weirdly as she answered, “Yup. I’m Xiu. Bai Xiu.”

“That explains it,” Darren mumbled more to himself than anyone.