At the restaurant where they had breakfast, Emma found her cla.s.smates who had also joined the study trip. There was Bianca with the two girls who were always following her everywhere. She saw Nadya and Cedric too. The rest were students from other cla.s.ses.As soon as she appeared at the restaurant entrance, Nadya immediately waved at her. There was a smile on her face when she signaled Emma to sit next to her. The girl turned to Haoran, who was standing beside her and nodded to let him know that she wanted to sit with her friend.
The young man nodded back and immediately walked towards the table where David, Dinh, Eric, and Alex had prepared a chair for him.
"Good morning," Nadya said, pointing to the chair next to her. Bianca and her two friends only glanced at Emma with a probing look. Cedric was busy with his cellphone, telling his mother about his activities in Paris for that day.
"Good morning, Nadya," Emma replied. She hoped to get information from her cla.s.smate about what happened during the last two days.
"Where were you last night?" Nadya asked in puzzlement. "All students had been told to gather in the lobby when the lights went out. You were the only one who didn"t show up."
"I was sleeping and didn"t hear anything. You see, my cellphone was dead," the girl lied. "I just found out that last night there was a blackout."
Nadya looked at Emma with an envious face.
"Ugh ... you"re so lucky to get your own room, so you could sleep so well." Nadya pouted. "I"m sharing a room with Sandra. All night long, she was on a video call with her boyfriend. The number of partic.i.p.ants in our field trip is odd, so you and Haoran could get your own rooms. How lucky."
Emma was convinced that she was indeed lucky because, after a quick observation, she saw that 21 female students had taken part in the study. This meant that one of the female students had to get her own room, which happened to be her.
There were 23 male students. So, like Nadya said, one of the male students also had to get his own room too. But Haoran ... Emma believed luck had nothing to do with him.
Luck alone wouldn"t give him such a luxurious suite in this hotel. In her estimate, even if the number of male students who partic.i.p.ated was even, Haoran would still occupy his suite.
Ah, thinking of that guy, she suddenly remembered Mary. The girl really liked the young man. What would be Mary"s response once she learned that Haoran did not go to China, but to France?
"Oh, by the way... Nadya, is Mary aware now?" Emma asked, stirring her tea using a teaspoon and pouring milk into her cup.
Nadya looked at her with a gloomy expression. "Yeah. Yesterday afternoon, as soon as we landed in Paris, I told her about it. Mary was very sad and even cried all night ..."
"Gosh ..." Emma glanced to her left and saw Haoran eating with his four friends. Eric was telling a joke, and the other four young men were laughing.
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"I had no idea that the five troublemakers from cla.s.s 2F would come too... Isla was so sure that she saw them signing up for the study trip to China," Nadya grumbled. "If we had known from the beginning, Mary would have been able to come with us to Paris ... Ugh, she"s been so unlucky."
Emma paused upon hearing that. She felt sorry for Mary, but at the same time, she also felt uneasy imagining that friend of hers coming to Paris with them. After all, she had already promised to go on a date with Haoran.
"Do we have free time?" Emma asked Nadya to change the topic.
"Yes, later today, after dinner, we are free to go anywhere. I want to go to the factory outlet and shop with Sandra, Bianca, and Pat. You"re coming, right?"
Emma shook her head. "No, I want to rest, still feeling jet lag,"
"Ahhh... too bad." Although disappointed, the girl did not insist. She knew her pretty friend did not like shopping.
Emma did not intend to shop at all during this visit to Paris. She had a more important mission to do, which was to track down her parents. That was why she asked about their free time. If she could slip out in between their visits, she was sure she would be able to find information about her parents.
Their conversation was interrupted by Madame Delaval who reminded the students to finish their breakfast quickly because at ten o"clock they would be leaving for the Louvre Museum.
"Ten more minutes," she raised an eyebrow.
Emma and Nadya nodded. The former hurriedly took some pastry and fruit and then ate her breakfast.
At precisely 10 AM, all the students from St. Catherine High School were ready on the shuttle bus that would take them to the Louvre Museum. They would sightsee there for three hours. After lunch, they would continue their journey to Sacre Coeur.
Madame Delaval and Monsieur Thomas were watching their students closely. The two took turns explaining the exhibited items of the Louvre Museum in French. In between the explanations were occasional quizzes to test the knowledge of the students about arts and French culture in general.
As if there was an unspoken agreement between them, Emma and Haoran tried to keep themselves from appearing close to each other in front of the other students. Haoran was always relaxed by nature. As for Emma, she was doing this for she really didn"t want Nadya to be suspicious of her closeness to Haoran and tell Mary about it.
Emma did not want Mary to hate her due to thinking that she had taken away the boy the latter liked. She only had two female friends, and she didn"t want to lose them.
[We will have free time this evening. Do you want to go out with me?]
An SMS from Haoran came when the students from St. Catherine were resting in the gra.s.sy field below Sacre Coeur after climbing the stairs to the basilica and observing the view there. Emma turned her head to the guy and raised her eyebrows.
[I know, you and I should have gone on a date on our last night in Paris, but then, I found out that today is your birthday. I don"t think there is a better time to have dinner outside and celebrate your birthday than today. What do you think?]
Emma was stunned by the follow-up text from Haoran. She had not celebrated her birthday for thirteen years. And she actually had no intention of celebrating it now as she was focused on locating her parents.
She raised her face and turned to him. The young man winked once before pretending to be busy with his cellphone.
[Please?]
When she read the last text from Haoran, Emma finally decided to accept it.
[Okay.]
***