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Part 5
Page 2
"I got a question for you," Liang said, pressing
his cheek to the back of his girlfriend's neck. "Why does everyone do that?"
"Do what?" Shujuan answered, trying not to squirm
under the contact. It was bad enough with his arms around her waist. Even
if it was the back of the arcade where no one could see.
"Call you 'angel.' Is it some sorta running joke
thing, or is it a nickname, or...?"
She waited until he'd stopped spluttering, accidentally
catching a gelled spike of her hair in his mouth. "It's just a thing,"
she told him. "Used to be everyone around here thought I was some bully
an' a good-for-nothing. Then when I got outta school, everyone said I was
useful. Regular angel. Just 'cause I started up Xiaolong."
"And what's Xiaolong 'sposed to mean? If it's just
that one book--"
"It's stupid."
"I don't mind hearing your stupid stuff. You know
that."
Yes you do.
"Fine. It's 'cause when we were little, all the
boys said Wen followed me around like a puppy. Like, even when Jian didn't.
And they said Wensley was being a toady an' trying to scheme with me and
be like the second-in-command of the gang or something. An' they said,
'you're not Wenlong, you're Xiaolong. Cos you're just Xiao's pet.'" She
shrugged. "We thought it was a good name."
Liang tried kissing the base of her neck near the
hood of her sweatshirt. "They do kinna follow you around like dogs. Maybe
you oughta talk to 'em about us, 'cause they growl like I'm some sort of
kidnapper every time I stop by."
"They're not servants."
"I didn't mean--"
"I mean," Shujuan said quickly, "they're not pets.
That's what I was thinking. Idunno how that word came out."
"You've been doing that a lot lately."
"Hm?"
"Freudian slips and all."
"It's not Freudian..."
"Okay, okay." He lost the battle and let go of her,
so she could stand up to stretch. "So hey, are you really okay lately?
You've been kinda distant."
A nice shiver ran down his spine when she looked
around at him.
God what a thin body. It made her look older
instead of younger, with the muscle tone she'd built up. He couldn't blame
his friends for still calling her a boy, either; he slipped up a lot himself,
even in his own head.
"I'm fine," she told him. "Just work, you know?"
"Heard you got some sorta gangster in your shop
last week."
"One Triad. It's nothing. We don't discriminate
with customers. Dis-crim-in-ate," she repeated, seeing the knotting confusion
on her boyfriend's face. "It's an easy word. Aren't you a high school student?"
"Lower end of my class," Liang admitted, embarrassed.
"I know it. Just weird hearing it from you. You're doing that a
lot lately too. Are you like reading on your own time?"
"Don't be stupid."
"This Triad guy, is he gonna come back? Those guys
are always trouble, you know. My mom had a cousin that got hassled by them
till he left town. It's not that they're like violent or anything, not
really, but you don't wanna piss them off..."
"I'm not getting hassled. Actually, we're forgetting
about it."
"Is that really a good idea?"
And she had these intense, masculine blue eyes.
Well, they were purple, but humans didn't have purple eyes, so it had to
be blue. Intense, brilliant, angry blue eyes.
"We're not afraid of them," Shujuan said.
Liang Dawei shook his head. "Whatever happens, I'll
protect you."
"You, protect me?"
"I've gotta. Boyfriend's duty and all, right?"
He slung her back into his arms and kissed her again
before she could get the protest out. "Don't worry. I'll keep my angel
safe."
"...Whatever you say, Dawei," the blonde sighed.
He nipped her nose. Fixed their gaze.
"Wanna play Tekken?" he asked.
"...."
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