When the meteor shower ended, their chests were filled with indescribable joy. Somehow, Emma realized that she wasn"t even too sad for missing her parents. For a moment ... she could forget her longing for them.She could also feel that Haoran was feeling the same way. Maybe, Haoran was comforted by Emma"s presence that he wasn"t grieving anymore for being separated from his mother. In a way, the two complemented and supported each other.
At 3 am, Haoran and Emma finally cleared their tea and snack from the balcony, washed them in the kitchen, and then prepared to sleep. When the two of them stood by their respective door to enter their bedrooms, Emma and Haoran exchanged glances and smiled sheepishly.
Ahh ... apparently, this was how it feels to fall in love.
That night, they both slept so well, they even had sweet dreams.
***
At breakfast, their friends did not talk about what Haoran and Emma did after they pa.s.sed out from drinking too much. They could kind of guess what happened between the two, but none was nosy to bring up the subject. The boys seemed to have an unspoken rule that they would not poke on a new relations.h.i.+p. All acted as if there was nothing.
Marie was grateful that her friends were not nosy. She would be embarra.s.sed if they started teasing her openly about her relations.h.i.+p with Haoran. Maybe boys weren"t into gossip that much, she thought.
She remembered when she was spending time with Mary and Nadya, they always talked about the boys they liked. Mary would gush over Haoran while Nadya babbled about their senior, Allan Wu, who had now graduated from their school.
Ah ... this reminded Emma. Soon, once the new school year began, she must prepare herself to face Mary. The girl would not like the fact that Emma was close to Haoran, the boy she liked. Emma would not openly tell Mary that Haoran was now her boyfriend but she also would not let Mary and Nadya speak ill of Haoran again.
She could only hope that she didn"t have to face unnecessary conflicts in her senior year of high school. She still needed to focus her attention on her mission to find her parents.
After breakfast, the teens spent their time playing games, basketball, and before lunch, they swam together. Emma chose to read a book while sunbathing by the pool. She really liked the touch of sunlight on her skin.
The six of them had fun all day while playing, chatting and enjoying a few gla.s.ses of wine again, before finally saying goodbye to their respective homes. It was a Sat.u.r.day well spent for all of them. As usual, Alex invited Emma to ride in his car because they headed in the same direction.
"Thank you for the ride," Emma said, waving to Alex, who rolled down the window of his car. The young man nodded with a big smile, then gave his driver a signal to continue their journey.
Emma walked back to Grandma Lin"s apartment building. Along the way, she usually liked watering the plants she pa.s.sed with water from the tumbler she always carried in her bag.
She remembered her father had a similar habit. Kaos.h.i.+n loved plants and always prepare some water with him to water some dying plants they met on the way.
Arreya often acted mischievously and secretly watered plants with water from her own hands using her hydromancy. Kaos.h.i.+n usually just shook his head and quickly watched their surroundings to make sure no one saw Arreya"s actions.
Even though Emma was also able to create water like her mother, she would not take unnecessary risks like Arreya. The girl always carried water in her tumbler wherever she went.
***
After they made their relations.h.i.+p official, Haoran had been calling Emma more often on the phone. They would spend a lot of time talking. He no longer found excuses to invite Emma to come to his house, like throwing a party or get-together with the boys. They still studied together every Wednesday and Friday with the others, but now, every Sat.u.r.day, Haoran would invite Emma to watch a movie or play games at his home.
Sometimes they would also do Moon Bounce together. Haoran had taken care of their license by taking the exam. By end of July, they already have their own call sign: 9V1HE.
They celebrated it by opening a bottle of wine, and Haoran let Emma learn to drink in private. After the third gla.s.s of wine, they realized two things: Emma really liked wine and her alcohol tolerance level was really high.
"I guess.. we"ll never get drunk together and take advantage of each other," Haoran pretended to sulk.
"Iissshh..." Emma rolled her eyes at his words. Haoran laughed at her reaction.
"I know.. I know. We won"t need to get drunk to take advantage of each other... hahaha," he said with a smirk.
The truth was, Haoran was relieved that Emma would never get drunk and lose her self control in front of other people. He was worried about it before.
"By the way, the last two letters of the call sign refer to Haoran and Emma," Haoran said jokingly. "I made a specific request, and they granted it."
Emma didn"t know if Haoran was telling the truth or if he was just joking, but she really liked their call-sign. 9V1HE, with "HE" stands for Haoran Emma.
***
Emma was always happy to spend time with Haoran. They would discuss their future plans and determine what steps they must take to achieve their goals.
Haoran had decided to come to his father"s house on his birthday. He wanted to ask for an interns.h.i.+p opportunity at his father"s office and started showing interest in the family business. He was ready to pretend to patch their bad relations.h.i.+p to get what he wanted.
"Ahh .. your birthday is on August 1, right?" Emma asked, raising her face from her computer. She was engrossed in trying several database programs that she learned at the course, while Haoran was communicating with members of the Moon Bounce community on the internet.
The young man nodded. "That"s right. Why? Have you prepared a special birthday gift for me?"
He stared at Emma with mischievous eyes and a hint of pervertedness that made Emma pursed her lips and threw a pillow at him with a sweep of her hand.
"What did you say?" the girl narrowed her eyes.
Haoran caught the pillow expertly and laughed. "I"m just kidding. That"s right, my birthday is on August 1, next week. I"ll come to my father"s house to have lunch together, but after that, I want to take you somewhere."
"Where?" asked Emma.
"It"s a secret," Haoran answered casually. "You will like it.