Disclaimer ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

Note Another thanks goes to Chicaalterego for her collaboration with me on this chapter. :)


Covering my mouth with a hand, I did my best to stifle a yawn as I shuffled down the hallway after Jiao and Mei Rong as they chattered to one another. I would have joined in, maybe, but I was very tired after our morning workout, as usual, and was still feeling grumpy after last night's encounter with the extremely irritating Zhou Xia, which had resulted in my getting a measly four hours of sleep.

My weary plodding came to an unexpected halt when I collided with the pair of sisters I'd been following. Trying very hard to keep my eyes open, I looked around to see what they were doing. They were standing outside the door to the kitchen, instead of the door to the adjoining dining room. Just like every other morning, there was a lot of conversation, laughter, and food smells coming from the open doorway.

"Why'd you stop?" I mumbled, yawning again and pressing my palms to my eyes.

Mei Rong shooshed me. "There's a voice we don't recognize," she whispered.

I frowned in bewilderment—who cared if there was an unfamiliar voice?—and pushed them forward until I could see inside. Rather than the usual one or two kitchen maids, house maids, and the cook, there was a huge, boisterous crowd—Zhou Xia included—cluttering up the room. Mei Rong gasped dramatically, looking very surprised. Apparently she hadn't known the woman was here.

At the loud noise, the group in the kitchen quieted a little and Zhou Xia looked up, her cheerful face turning stern upon noticing us. She gave us a small bow. "Good morning. Sorry for borrowing the kitchen. Erin said you wouldn't mind."

"Yes," Jiao quickly replied, smiling, "it's fine if you use the kitchen."

Not caring what was going on in there, I wandered away and went into the dining room, seating myself in a random chair and leaning forward, resting my head on my crossed arms and yawning again, listening to the footsteps of the other two as they followed me in and sat down nearby, exclaiming in whispers about how surprised they were that Zhou Xia was cooking and chatting up the maids. I was more surprised at the fact that she wasn't resting in her guest room, hungover and puking.

Reluctantly opening my eyes, I withdrew my cellphone from my pocket and set it in front of myself, staring down at the "1 New Text Message" alert displayed on the screen. Opening the text, I automatically smiled when Heng's message appeared. [5:49 Good morning! :)]

I selected "Reply" and began pushing random buttons on the keypad, creating a mess of gibberish, then sent it to him. Sliding the phone out of the way, I watched drowsily when the door leading to the kitchen opened and in came the food-bearing maids. And Zhou Xia. A surprisingly skillfully-made breakfast was laid out in front of us. I hesitantly picked up my pair of chopsticks, staring down at the noodles in the bowl closest to me.

"Sorry to impose," Zhou Xia said from across the table. I didn't look up from the bowl with which I was having a staring match, wondering if she had put anything weird in it. I still didn't trust her…What if she had booby trapped the food?

"It's delicious," Jiao murmured, sounding very pleased with her portion. I glanced up at her. It didn't look like Zhou Xia had poisoned it or anything, so I slowly lifted a noodle out of the bowl and stuck it in my mouth, prepared to spit it out again if Jiao was just being polite to cover up how gross it was. Zhou Xia was probably used to servants doing all of her chores for her, after all, so who knew if she actually had even a shred of culinary skill.

However, it wasn't bad at all, though definitely not as good as Heng's cooking, in my biased opinion.

"Very good," I agreed after swallowing the lone noodle, forcing my tired face to smile at Zhou Xia, who gave me a "Thanks," as she continued to eat.

My phone beeped, and I slid it back over to myself, opening the new message from Heng. He had sent me a lot of gibberish in return to the mess I had sent him. Inwardly laughing, I quickly wrote him a brief message telling him to stop wasting my minutes.

After it was sent, I pushed my phone away again, going back to my food and half-listening when Mei Rong cleared her throat and asked Zhou Xia in a nervous tone, "How do you know Erin?"

Instead of our guest, the maid in question answered. "We have known each other for a really long time. We sort of…ended up becoming friends when she started working as a maid in the same household."

Choking on a bite of tofu, I coughed and covered my mouth with my right hand to hide my extremely amused smile at the fact that the impressive Long Zhou Xia had been a maid, of all occupations. No wonder she'd been so good at cleaning the archery grounds in-game…

"We did a lot of really crazy things together," Erin continued. "It was a lot of fun. She–"

"Erin," Zhou Xia cut the maid off, "I bet they are not interested in that."

"Oh, that's so nice that you're friends." Jiao smiled widely, swirling a chopstick around in her bowl, and she gave a curious look to Erin, seeming to be about to ask something, but the door behind us opened. A glance over my shoulder told me Delun, Chen, their parents, and Shuang had arrived. Everyone exchanged greetings as the newcomers seated themselves around the table.

Delun grabbed Shuang around the middle when she tried to run over to me, and he gave me a triumphant smirk before stomping over to the other end of the table, obviously feeling very pleased with himself that he had deprived me of my morning greeting from the energetic four-year-old.

"Are you feeling better this morning?" Chen politely, and somewhat fearfully, asked Zhou Xia.

"She made this whole breakfast," Jiao praised, and Chen's eyes widened in surprise.

"You know how to cook?" Delun asked, frowning in confusion at our guest, while he tried his hardest to keep his hold on Shuang, who seemed determined to come back over to my end of the table.

Another beep from my phone drew my attention away from the conversation. Heng had texted me again. [6:06 What are you doing?]

[6:06 Eating breakfast. Sitting at the dining table. Typing this. Breathing. Blinking.]

[6:07 Whoa! You're so good at multitasking!]

[6:07 I know. What are you doing?]

[6:07 Texting you instead of getting out of bed. :D]

[6:08 Get up, lazy.]

[6:09 Fiiiiine. Call me after you're done eating.]

[6:09 Okay.] I put my phone in my pocket and went back to my meal, listening to the numerous compliments directed at Zhou Xia's cooking. Feeling very uncomfortable, I tried to ignore the suspicious stare coming from Delun, who seemed to be expecting Zhou Xia and I to be sending one another loving looks. I chewed a bit faster in a want to leave and go upstairs to get ready for work.

Several minutes later Zhou Xia stood up, went to the kitchen door, then began to talk to Erin again. Everyone else was nearly done eating, so I quickly ate the remainder my breakfast, swallowed the food and stood, neatly stacking up my empty dishes. "If you will all excuse me, I have to go get ready for work," I announced, and turned toward Zhou Xia. "Do you have someone to contact for a ride home?" I asked her, hoping very much that she was planning on leaving soon. I'd seen quite enough of the woman over the past couple weeks, and didn't want her to be here when I got home in the evening.

"We have drivers, if you are in need of a ride," Delun's father added.

"I don't see a need for them," she replied, shaking her head. "I can get a cab." She ran her eyes over all of us, then continued. "Thanks for everything. However, I must request that you don't let others know about last night. It is my duty as the new president of the Lotus branch to set an example, and I don't want to cause others to feel uneasy. The way I behave in public is really important, especially since I happen to be a very young woman with a rather high position. I hope you understand."

Smiling faintly, I nodded. "Don't worry. We will keep everything a secret; you were never here, and last night never happened." There was a scattered agreement from those still seated at the table, Delun's commanding voice much louder than the others. He was really starting to irritate me…

"And…" Zhou Xia added, "about the thing Erin mentioned." With a dramatic pause, she stared seriously at us, stoically continuing, "If you repeat it to anyone, they will never believe you." A tiny smile briefly quirked at one corner of her mouth.

Taking a deep breath, I warily glanced at those still seated at the table, the air becoming very thick. Other than the oblivious Shuang, nearly everyone was wearing a confused frown. Mei Rong, on the other hand, looked openly offended at Zhou Xia's accusatory words. However, she had enough sense to keep her mouth shut and angrily turned back to the remainder of her breakfast.

"As Zian has said," Delun's father finally spoke up, "we will not be telling anyone about any of this. I assure you we are not gossipers." He had done well keeping his voice calm and under control, but I could tell that the man was agitated. What benefit would any of us have in telling other people that she'd been a maid, anyway?

Zhou Xia nodded. "That's good to know."

I gave another glance to the fuming Mei Rong, then inched toward the door, not wanting to get caught up in any indignant yelling she was most definitely going to let loose when Zhou Xia left. "Well…Please excuse me now," I requested again, turning and hurrying into the hallway. Much to my annoyance, I didn't get far before I was interrupted by footsteps following after me.

"Erm, Laoshi?"

Why couldn't she just leave me alone?

Although I wanted to pretend I hadn't heard her and simply keep walking, instead I turned and plastered a polite smile onto my face, if only because my father had told me not to be rude. "Yes?" Go away, go away, go away…

Zhou Xia rummaged around in her pants pocket for a moment, then pulled something out, took my hand, and pressed the smooth and slightly warm object to my palm. "Be careful," she cryptically told me, then walked down the hall. In bewilderment, I looked down. She had given me a rock.

What the hell?

I looked up to find Delun stomping toward me, Chen and their sisters right behind. Delun came to a halt and grabbed my hand. "A-HA!" he triumphantly declared, forcing open my fingers. "I CAUGHT…you again." His face went blank when he saw what I was holding. The triangular, dark gray stone sat innocently on my palm.

"Good job," I sarcastically replied, glowering at him as I turned to resume my journey to the front stairs.

"Why'd she give you that?" Delun demanded, striding after me.

"Dàgē, leave him alone," Jiao scolded. "He's not having an affair with her."

"How the hell should I know her reasons?" I huffed, shoving him away from myself.

He shoved me right back. "You two are seeing one another! Of course you'd know! There's some secret meaning, isn't there‽"

"Gēge would never date that pompous bitch," Mei Rong growled.

Chen and Jiao both yelled at her to watch her language, but Delun was completely obsessed with nagging me about the rock and didn't notice what was going on behind us. "Tell me!" he ordered.

Sighing deeply, I turned and stared somberly at him. "Okay, I admit it…" Delun's face regained its lost triumph when I paused. "You see…just now she told me she doesn't like you, and she gave me this rock to throw at you." I abruptly drew back my hand.

"WHAOH‽" he yelled, automatically shielding his face as if he thought I was being serious. I took advantage of the distraction and turned away, ran down the hall, slid around the corner, stumbled into the entryway, and raced up the front stairs, listening in amusement to his angry yells echoing after me.

After I'd shut myself in my bedroom, I gave another confused look to the small rock, wondering what Zhou Xia was expecting me to do with it. Use it as a paperweight? Polish it and put it on display? Actually use it as a weapon? I would have simply disposed of it in the garden, but since it was a gift…I put it next to my two glass pill jars on the bookshelves.

Giving it a questioning frown, I turned and went into my bathroom, pulling my cellphone out of my pocket and calling Heng, my frown quickly becoming a smile. "Hello," I murmured when he answered.

"Hello-o-o-o! Did you eat everything? You better have!"

"Yes," I replied, rolling my eyes as I slipped out of my jacket. "I assume you didn't want me to call just so you could ask that, so what is it?"

"Geeze. Way to kill off the small talk."

"There's no time for small talk," I huffed. "I have to get ready for work."

"Fine, fine. I wanted to invite you to my house next Saturday!"

"Alright, I can be there at the usual time. What will we be doing? It better not be video games. I refuse to play them anymore."

"No, it's not video games. But what it is…it's a surprise," he sneakily answered, then paused when a faint yelling came from his end of the line. "Damn. Yi is calling me. I have to go. Bye, Al!"

"Bye." Closing my phone, I sighed and smiled again as I finished undressing, then tossed my phone onto my pile of clothes and stepped into the shower.

That Saturday, I was walking down the sidewalk in town, Heng grumpily tramping along at my side. I gave him a morose glance, then sighed and returned to looking for the café at which he wanted to eat. "Do you really have to be so disappointed?"

He made a grumbly noise, which I assumed was a "Yes."

"I told you it was a bad idea before we started. And you knew I'd never done it before, so…well, you shouldn't have expected me to do it correctly."

"I know," he huffed, frowning. "But my instructions were so basic, anyone with no experience would be able to follow them! All you had to do was carefully stick it in, then slowly pull it out, over and over. So-o-o simple! And I kept telling you to slow down, but you went way too fast! And the mess you made was huge; there were splatters on the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling. I have no idea how you managed to do that."

Feeling extremely embarrassed all over again, I shook my head. "Neither do I."

"I doubt I'll ever get get the stains out of my pants."

"Sorry," I mumbled for the nineteenth time that afternoon.

We both fell silent while Heng led me across the street and into the designated café. A waitress seated us in the far corner, gave us menus, and left. Heng sighed, stretching his long legs out underneath the table. "Next time…" he began, then paused and sent me an annoyed frown. "If there is a 'next time'–"

"I hope not," I interrupted, grimacing in recollection of the horrible experience we had just gone through at his house.

"Me either," he agreed immediately. "But…next time you're in the kitchen with me when I'm making something, don't you dare touch anything. I swear, chocolate-covered strawberries sounded so simple! Pick up a strawberry, stick it in the melted chocolate, take it out, and do another! How could anyone possibly mess that up‽"

Miserably glancing down at my lunch menu, I shook my head. "At least the ones you made are still alright." Mine were all ruined. I'd been carrying them on a tray to put them in the fridge and I'd tripped along the way, throwing them all over the floor. Plus I'd accidentally burned our first batch of chocolate, and then once we had made a second batch, I'd somehow knocked over the pot, splashing the hot, melted chocolate everywhere, and had burned my hands trying to catch it before it poured all over Heng's lap. Cooking and I obviously didn't mix.

Certainly, chocolate-covered strawberries were a simple sweet to make—Heng wanted to make some for his brothers and I for the upcoming Valentines Day and had refused my suggestion of just buying the candy—but involving me in the process somehow complicated everything. However, I tried to convince myself that the reason I had been so ridiculously clumsy was because I was nervous cooking for the first time, being under so much self-inflicted pressure to make my strawberries perfect. And also simply being around Heng made me nervous anyway.

After a short inspection of the menu, we ordered, then threw idle chatter back and forth while we waited for the food to be delivered. Once it had arrived, Heng announced he had to go to the bathroom and slipped out of the booth, calling back to me not to ruin his sandwiches before he had a chance to eat them. I watched him walk toward the restrooms, then sighed and picked up my teacup. A few seconds later, I gasped in pain when I somehow managed to spill the hot tea all over my already-burned hand. I set the cup down as carefully as I could, gritting my teeth against the fresh set of injuries as I searched for something with which I could clean up the newest mess I had made. There was a napkin dispenser at the table, but, of course…there was only one napkin left in it.

Feeling like an idiot all over again, I stood and hurried to the bar counter at the front of the shop. "Excuse me," I murmured, reaching around a woman to grab some napkins out of the closest dispenser.

Leaning to the side, she replied, "It's alright," and turned to look at me. Then we both froze in surprise.

Laughing faintly as I wiped my stinging hands on one of the napkins, I smiled somewhat uncomfortably at Jiao, who was one of the last people I wanted to run into at the moment. "Hello."

"Hello," she awkwardly replied, her eyes briefly darting to somewhere beyond me. "What are you doing here? I…thought you went to Dib's house…for the afternoon. Cooking, right? A few days ago he asked my sisters and I what kinds of sweets you like. Told us he wanted to make them with you." A warm little smile briefly flickered over her face, making me feel a bit embarrassed. "I hope it was actually something you like," she cautiously murmured. "Since you barely ever eat dessert, we just gave him a bunch of random suggestions."

Chuckling again, I nodded. "Yes, he chose chocolate-covered strawberries. And we were making them, but then I accidentally wrecked his kitchen, so he and I came here for lunch."

"Oh."

There was a thick pause, then I glanced down at the white bag she had on her lap. "Did you get a lot of studying done at the library this morning?" The new term had started, and all three of the girls were completely swamped with schoolwork, a fact I had been lectured on many times when Mei Rong complained about not being able to go out with friends as often as she wanted.

"Ah…yes. I'll be going again after I eat. Just taking a short break."

"I see," I mumbled, wishing Heng and I had gone somewhere else. "Do…um, do you want to join Heng and I at our table?" I invited, hoping that would make this situation seem less weird. I knew Heng would hate me for it, but I didn't want any suspicions to crop up. Then again, was it actually weird for two men to get lunch together? Friends ate out together all the time…Maybe I was just over-thinking things in my panic.

"O-o-oh, no," she declined in a nauseated tone, slowly shaking her head and trying to smile. "I'm here with a friend, and, uh…I wouldn't want to impose on you and Dib, of course."

"You wouldn't be imposing," I corrected. "You and your friend are free to sit with us if you want. But if you–"

My left shoulder was suddenly grabbed, yanked, and squashed at the same time that Jiao's white face went even whiter, and she alarmingly looked like she was about to pass out. "Hey," a voice roughly snapped, "stop flirting with my girlfriend."

Glancing behind myself in confusion, I met the furious gaze of some man. "I am not flirting with anyone's girlfriend," I slowly replied, angrily shoving his hand off my shoulder and wondering where I'd seen him before. He was vaguely familiar.

For some reason, instead of looking relieved, he abruptly looked as utterly mortified as Jiao. "You idiot," she whispered after a brief pause, and he swore under his breath. I glanced between them, a sinking feeling growing in my stomach as realization of what was going on slowly dawned on me.

"Oh," I breathed, eyes going very wide. "Oh no…Jiao‽"

She started to tremble when I turned to look at her, and her mouth opened and closed several times. Finally waving a hand at the other man, she carefully began to speak in a faint voice. "Quon, this is Min Zian, my fiancée…and Zian, this is…this is Hou Quon, my…boyfriend."

A very long moment of silence stretched out, while the shop's other patrons went about their lunch around the three of us. I stared in shock at the other man standing before me. He was a little taller than I was, and his short and slightly messy hair stuck straight up into the air, his challenging eyes a darker shade of brown than his hair. He was a very active, outdoors-type person, judging by his sporty clothes, tanned skin, and obviously fit body.

Quon irritated me in so many ways.

Not a minute later, Heng appeared beside us, looking curiously from face to face as he leaned on my sore shoulder. "What's going on?"


Last year when I was planning this alternate ending, giving Jiao a boyfriend sounded like the easiest and most believable way to break up her and Zian. And so, here is the seventh addition to the Socks: Quon (meaning bright).