"Let's sit here." The voice was familiar.

Katie looked up from her lunch. Daoming Si, Ximen Yan and Feng Meizuo stood in front of her with their lunch trays. Before she could protest, Daoming Si took the seat next to her and the other two boys sat across from them. She sighed internally. These boys didn't take a hint, especially Daoming Si.

He looked over at her lunch tray and screwed his face in disgust. "What ARE you eating?" he scoffed. "There's only vegetables. No meat. What are you, a cow or a goat?"

Katie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Daoming Si was undeniably the most aggravating person she has ever met in her life. Every time she thought she understood his level of weird, it was possible for him to be weirder. "Neither," she replied. "I was late to lunch so this was all they had. Don't criticise my food - you'll hurt their feelings." And she shoved a cherry tomato in her mouth quickly.

"Did you see the video of Shancai kissing me in Sanya gone viral on the Internet?" he asked gleefully. The other two boys were pleasantly quiet.

"You mean the one where she accidentally fell on your lips?" Katie said and his face fell a little. The two boys smirked. "Yeah, I saw it. I couldn't miss it if I wanted to. You looked like you had fun."

He was about to retort when two girls walked up to the table and stood in front of Daoming Si. They introduced themselves as classmates of Shancai then started ratting her out for being disrespectful and unfaithful to Daoming Si, claiming that they had video evidence of Shancai and Huaze Lei being intimate on one of their mobile phones. Meizuo tried to see the footage first but they insisted it was for only Daoming Si so he took the phone in annoyance and started watching the footage.

Katie leant over just a bit to see the footage. It was merely Shancai dusting off something on Huaze Lei's hair on the rooftop. It would have been nothing to anyone else except this was Daoming Si, and the girls wouldn't stop rambling on about how inappropriate it was that Shancai kissed Daoming Si in Sanya and here she was getting close with another.

Before Katie could tell them to shut up, Daoming Si beat her to it and he was furious. Katie had seen him furious before on several occasions but he was a whole different level of angry this time. His eyes were frighteningly murderous. He got up from his seat and violently pushed his way through the two girls, storming out of the cafeteria.

The rooftop. Katie suddenly realised that all hell was about to break loose. She quickly grabbed her bag. "You girls should really mind your own goddamn business," Katie growled at them before she hurriedly chased after Daoming Si. She lost him around a corner. Damn his long legs. She thought of the shortest way to the rooftop from the cafeteria and rushed there as fast as she could.

At the top of the stairs, she burst through the door to the rooftop and spotted Daoming Si and Shancai. He had one hand against the wall next to her head while she looked like she was trying to press her entire being into the wall behind her, looking terrified and cowering away from him. He had her cornered and he had crazy in his eyes. The bad kind of crazy.

"Daoming Si!" Katie yelled as she ran up to them and planted herself between the both of them. She faced Daoming Si and looked up at him, into the lunatic's eyes squarely. Their faces were only an inch from each other's. "You need to calm down. You're scaring her. Look at her." His eyes were glazed over and empty.

"Move." He said to her coldly. "I was talking to her."

Katie didn't budge. "This isn't talking," she told him firmly. "This is intimidation. This isn't how you work out your problem." He didn't argue. "Moreover, Shancai is my friend. I won't let you frighten or bully her. This isn't negotiable." She expected him to slap, smack or shove her by now but he didn't move. Katie took a chance and side-glanced at her friend. "Shancai, you need to go. Now."

"But you …" Shancai's voice quivered.

"Just go." Daoming Si said unexpectedly. "Go before I do anything I might regret later. I don't want to hurt you." His body soften a little.

Shancai raced off the rooftop deck quickly and disappeared. Katie backed away into Shancai's spot earlier and leant against the wall with a big sigh of relief. "Daoming Si," she began. "I can see that you like her very much but you need to control that nasty temper of yours. A relationship cannot hold strong if you lose your head at anything anyone tells you about Shancai. Frightening her intimidates her and that will only drive her further away from you. Can you understand that?"

Daoming Si looked the other way, refusing to meet her gaze. He probably heard her but didn't want to acknowledge or admit it. Katie was still leaning against the wall when she turned towards his hand on the wall. She didn't notice before that it was a fist. A fist that was partially embedded in the metal. He must have punched it. Hard.

He finally detached it from the wall and Katie noticed his knuckles were bleeding and severely bruised. Concerned, she took his hand before he could retract it. "You're hurt," she stated. He didn't pull his hand away. "Here, I have something for it." With one hand holding his, she reached into her bag with the other and pulled out a cosmetic bag. "Sit down." She instructed and he obliged. They both sat on the rooftop floor.

"Don't put make up on my hand," Daoming Si said. "I'm not a girl."

Katie rolled her eyes. "It's not make up, stupid." She unzipped the cosmetic bag and pulled out an alcohol wipe and an ointment. "This will sting. Sorry in advance." She applied the alcohol wipe over the bleeding sites. His hand flinched and she saw his face screw up in a wince. "I fall down a lot when I dance so I have this ointment to help with the bruises. That's all." She started applying a generous amount of the ointment onto each knuckle.

"A dancer who falls down a lot …" he said with a smirk. "You're not a very good dancer then." Was he making jokes now? But he was right about one thing.

"No, I'm not," she admitted as she wrapped a dressing around his knuckles. "It's more like an interest. My family expects other things of me so I took up dancing for an escape." She bit her lip. She had said too much.

"I know that feeling," Daoming Si said. "I have to take over the family business when my mother says I'm ready. I can't run from it - she says it's my birthright. That's why I'm learning about stock exchange, so I can prepare myself for the day I quit the family business." He admired Katie's handiwork. He was more relaxed now.

"Don't you want to inherit the family business?" she asked curiously.

Daoming Si shook his head. "It's not a satisfying achievement when you're being given something," he replied. He seemed more normal now. There was no cheekiness, no arrogance, no temper. He was just a normal person. "Wouldn't you think so?" He looked at her with a small unsure smile.

"I don't know what to think," Katie said. "I haven't thought it through that far."

He saw her look at the time. "Do you have to be somewhere?"

"Class." She replied. "And yet again, I've missed most of my lunch." She got up and patted him on the shoulder. "See you around."

Katie walked out of the studio she had been cooped up in for yet another few hours that day. The instructor finally let her go after grilling her hard about her posture. She had to hold her back so ridiculously straight throughout practice that it felt stiff and fatigue. As usual, after dance practice like this, she just wanted to go home and dive into bed. But she wasn't about to achieve that any time soon, for she saw Daoming Si leaning against her locker that day.

"Hey," she said tiredly. He seemed startled by her voice and presence, as if he didn't expect it. He stood up straight and allowed her to put in the access code to her locker. He was unusually quiet. "Can I help you with something?" Katie finally asked after the longest silence ever between them.

"I … er, I'm …" he muttered and darted his gaze back and forth on the ground. "I need your help. I'm not sure what to do."

"What to do with what?" Katie was trying very hard to focus on the conversation but the silence was deafening and comforting at the same time. If she could, she would very much like to close her eyes and fall asleep right there and then. She was that exhausted.

"Can you please just hear me out without that annoyed tone in your voice?" he asked, with pleading in his voice. It was also sad.

Katie straightened up and looked at him intently. "What's wrong?" she asked him, genuinely concerned. "What is it?" It wasn't like him to behave like this. She was used to this cocky prick strutting and stomping his way around everyone, barking orders and being a self-absorbed narcissist. This version of him was the total opposite.

"I feel … cheated," was what he said before he bowed his head and looked to the ground, or perhaps his fancy shoes, with a heavy sigh. "I don't know what to do or feel. I mean, I feel cheated … and angry, but I don't know what else to do now."

The campus was quiet. It was getting late. There was no one else around except the both of them. Katie groaned on the inside. She really wanted to brush him off and go home. But she didn't want to leave him in a heap like this. She was worried he'd be so fragile he might actually do something stupid to himself, or others. Who knows. "Buy me dinner and I'll hear you out."

He looked at her in bewilderment. "What?"

"Buy me dinner and we'll talk about it," Katie rephrased earnestly. "Then we'll see if you can be salvaged out of whatever situation it is you're in. But hurry, my legs are killing me. You might have to carry me if you're not careful." She tried to make jokes and he only managed a small smile. "Oh, come on, it can't be that bad. Nothing is that bad. Let's go."

They walked together - he was walking; she was almost hobbling the last 10 metres - to his car, a blue BMW. Katie mentally cringed at the shade of blue - it wouldn't be her pick, but it suited Daoming Si just fine. He didn't conform to normal anyway so why would the choice of colour for his car be any different?

Daoming Si opened the front passenger door for her and shut it after she got inside, like a gentleman. It only took him about 5 strides with his stilt-like legs to walk around the bonnet of his car to reach the driver's side and he got in and started it up. He was fairly quiet the whole time, concentrating on the drive to their destination: a fine dining Japanese restaurant in the city centre of Shanghai. Katie had never had time to wander and explore Shanghai since she arrived a month or so ago, so she was gawking at the lights and the bustle on the streets through the window. When they arrived, he helped her out and gave the keys to the parking valet without a word as if he owned the place.

The lady in reception smiled at Daoming Si politely then took one look at Katie and frowned. "I'm sorry, she's not in appropriate attire for entry," she said. "We have a dress code policy here." She politely pointed at a sign on the wall that said, "Dress Code: formal attire only."

Katie quickly gazed down at herself: denim jacket, long-sleeved blouse, black tights and one-inch boots. It really wasn't anywhere close to formal. "Daoming Si, maybe we should go elsewhere."

He held up a hand, nearly smacking her nose. "Could I speak to the manager please?" he asked her nicely. As if on cue, a pudgy man in a suit and gold-rimmed round glasses appeared, smiling eagerly.

"Master Daoming Si, welcome welcome!" the manager said to them then turned to his staff. "He is our most VIP customer so he can bring along whoever he wants, however they may be dressed." The manager looked at her politely and smiled brightly. "Miss, don't worry about the attire - it's just a guideline for everyone else. For Master Daoming Si, anyone is welcomed. Come on in, his usual room is available." He stepped aside and gestured for them to enter the premise.

Whoa! Katie thought as she followed the manager with Daoming Si behind her. That was insane. How does he get that kind of privilege and special treatment? They took their seats and while Daoming Si made the order, she gazed at him for a bit, out of curiosity. She recalled her third day at Ming De when she was stalking his student profile and Google results. She thought it was an exaggeration but she was starting to think it was all real. At least, most of it.

When the manager finalised the order and left the room, she leant forward. "Okay, tell me what's the problem." If he was buying her this fancy dinner, the least she could do was look interested in his problems.

He started telling her about the photo someone put up on social media of a foreigner taking a selfie photo of himself and Shancai who was asleep in a hotel bed in the background. It went viral and it was receiving a lot of unwanted bad attention. But it was worse. Before the photo went viral, he had seen the foreigner in person on campus before. He was a French guy who was apparently asking Shancai for directions on campus when Daoming Si caught them talking together. Shancai was adamant she didn't know him and the French guy behaved as if they were strangers to each other. So seeing the photo of the both of them later that day only made him feel confused, cheated and at loss of what to do. Shancai had confronted him that day to tell him that she only cared if he believed her but he couldn't bring himself to after her lies.

"And here I thought, now that Huaze Lei is out of the picture, we could stand a chance," he said with clenched fists. "But she did this sort of unforgivable things."

"Oh?" Katie blurted, surprised. "Where is Huaze Lei?"

He looked at her with treacherous eyes. "He's in Paris trying to win his beloved, Jing, back but that's not the point here. Can we focus on me and my problem?"

"Sorry." Katie replied apologetically but he was still such a self-centred child at heart. "So do you believe Shancai or a photo?"

"A photo speaks a thousand words."

"Yeah, but it must also be taken in context. Some are abstract."

"But she didn't have to lie that she didn't know him."

"Maybe she didn't. Maybe he just took the photo."

"In a hotel room? Together?"

"She looked pretty passed out. It's possible she didn't know a photo was taken of her. Or that she was there."

"Who is stupid enough to let herself be taken into a hotel room and have her photo taken?"

"I'm not saying it's stupid on her part but this happens all the time to girls who have been taken advantaged of. Have you considered that? That she was the victim, not the crime."

"Why did she pretend that she didn't know him and lied to my face?"

"Maybe she didn't know him so it isn't a lie if he's the one who took advantage of her."

"It didn't look that way when I approached them. She was flustered and couldn't wait to get rid of him. That was before the photo on social media."

"Good point."

"You're not helping."

"I'm being objective."

"You're supposed to be her friend."

"But you're the one asking me for help and buying me dinner so I can afford to be impartial here. I'm a fair person okay?"

"So what do I do?"

"What do you want to do, Daoming Si?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you want to believe Shancai or a photo?"

"I want to believe her but …"

"Then believe her."

"But I don't want to be taken for a fool if she's playing me."

"Well, you can't have the best of both worlds. Believing someone means you take on everything. That's what believing is. Even if it means you might crash and burn. But you might not. It's a game of chance when you believe someone."

"What do I do about the photo then?"

"Why does it matter? If you believe her, the photo is nothing. It's just a photo of a guy taking a selfie with Shancai in the background. Who cares?"

Other people do."

"Do you care what other people care about?"

"I'll be a laughing stock if …"

"Daoming Si, since the day I've met you at your most arrogant and obnoxious, you've never cared about what other people think or do. You only ever cared about a few good people including Shancai. So what's changed now? A photo?"

He was silent.

Katie continued. "Daoming Si, it sounds like you are all she cares about. She didn't care if no one else believed her but she told you, word for word, that she only cared if you believed her and not the photo. What other reason could you possibly be searching for to believe her? The girl is literally begging you to believe her."

He was still silent.

"Let's put it this way," she added. "If someone from campus was here tonight and took a photo of us having dinner together and posted it on social media, would you want Shancai to believe you were cheating on her or just having dinner with me?"

He opened his mouth to say something then snapped it shut quickly. Then, he was deep in thought. The food had arrived and she dived right in like a homeless person who hasn't eaten for days. He ate in silence the whole time with impeccable manners. She decided not to interrupt his thoughts, whatever they were. It was a sumptuous dinner and she reminisced when she used to have such cuisine on the rare occasion with her parents in London. When they both had polished off all the food, he settled the bill with his swanky shiny credit card and the valet returned promptly with his car and keys. They both got into the car and drove away.

Katie couldn't believe Daoming Si held his silence for the past 45 minutes. It was unnerving now. As she was about to start to make small talk, he stopped the car and she realised she was home. That was fast. They must have been closer to her home than she thought. She took a hint and let herself out. Before she shut the door, she stooped to the window and asked him, "So what did you decide?"

"I'm going to see her now. Shut the door." He growled and she nudged the door shut quickly.

The Daoming Si she knew was back. The world was right again.