White Roses Dyed Blood Red

As soon as the people realized that the show was over, they returned to their shopping. Themselves included.

Now that they had their phones, the next thing she and Angli were going to look for was a tablet/ iPad and a laptop.

While she was looking for matching items, another person came up beside her. The boy beside her felt familiar, curious she looked up and met eyes with the familiar presence.

"Hey!" The boy showcased his dimples, "I'm Samu-, Sam, we met last night,"

She nodded, not caring for his face.

"I'm sorry about my sister just now," It seems like Sam had just realized that he was starring in a one-man show. He looked at her hopelessly, hopeless, "But could you tell me what happened last night? Like about your meltdown?"

As if right on cue, her friends formed a protective semi-circle around her.

"That is none of your business, now shoo," Sheng Rong shot a bossy look at him while Angli wrapped a possessive arm around her.

Sam backed off with two hands in the air, " Alright, alright, I'll talk to you later Iris," And with that, he left the shop.

Their group quickly wrapped up their shopping and left to meet everyone else on the first floor.

For the sake of their empty pantry back at their team house, the boys and the girls split up. Mu Jian Nu left with Angli and Jiexu to buy some groceries while the girls and herself left to purchase the rest of the basic necessities.

A whole hour later, everybody was gathered by the front entrance with heaps of bags in their hands.

"Maybe it would be better to head back and come back tomorrow," Long Ao looked at all the bags hopelessly.

The team voiced out their agreements and rushed off to the subway station, eager to rest their arms.

As soon as they reached the station, everybody found a place to it and pant for a while. Angli handed her another banana milk to sip while he bit into a granola bar he bought while grocery shopping.

She played around with her new phone, familiarizing herself with it while she was at it.

Then out of nowhere, her phone gave off a ding~.

At the top of her screen displayed a new incoming message, Hu Angli looked over her shoulder curiously.

"What was it?"

"I don't know," Her thumb moved up to click onto the banner.

The banner brought her to the messaging app, that was odd, she had already added her friends' numbers. Angli knew of this too, and looked up to see if he could find any clues to the mystery number. Seeing none, he moved his eyes back to the screen to take a look at the message.

' Take cart 10. '

"Should we do it?"

ding~

' Trust me, '

' I can only do this much to protect you now, '

"I think we should do it," Her head snapped towards Angli.

"But we don't even know who this person is!"

"But this person knows you,"

"It could be some rival team or something!"

"Let's just do what this person told us for now,"

Her eyes searched his for any sign of reconsideration. Seeing the stubborn look in his eyes, she nodded and complied.

Just at that moment, the train arrived, and they indirectly led everyone onto cart 10.

Since they were first to board a train cart, it was natural for everyone else to follow suit to avoid getting lost.

And so, everybody ended up in cart 10 surrounded by various shopping bags.

Upon their return, they ran into another group. They were their new neighbours from Japan. The Japanese were polite and offered nothing more than simple bows seeing the amount of bags in their hands, they didn't want to hold them back.

Leading the Japanese team was a man that was anything but cute, he looked strict and had a stone-cold expression. He reminded her of the stoned-face bodyguard she nicknamed Stoney. She wouldn't be surprised if the strict looking man had a robotic voice as well.

All of a sudden, she found herself appreciating their tour guide. If anything, she preferred the humourous man in a pink suit to a strict businessman with a talent for hiding his thoughts and emotions.

"How are the crest designs coming along?" She as Yuan Fa Ren, she was curious about the various options the design team had come up with.

Fa Ren looked up from his new tablet and then leaned in to show her a few designs.

"These are the rough sketches I made just now, and these ones are just pictures from my sketchbook." In contrast to his words, his 'sketches' were remarkably detailed and looked as if they had taken hours. It was hard to believe that he had made ten of them in four hours. "You should check out the others as well, they are just as good as mine,"

Yaorui nodded and added to her list of to do's.

Out of habit, her hands reached into her pockets and begun to play with the small blue rock, rolling it around in her hands. Now that she thought of it, where was her bag?

Frantically, her arms reached to feel her shoulders and back, Angli saw this and immediately knew what she was worried about. It was then that Yaorui's eyes finally drifted over to his direction, she let out a visible sigh of relief and shot her best friend a grateful smile.

She looked over to see that Fa Ren had dedicated himself to a discussion regarding one of the designs, she left the two to their own devices and caught up with her younger sister instead.

Her baby sister was busy setting up her phone and seemed to be oblivious to Xun Shouhan being teased by his other friends next to her.

At least, that was what it seemed like.

Having observed her sister for a full two minutes, she saw the quick glances at the boy her sister made. The corners of her lips lifted up into a bright smile.

Her darling baby sister had a crush~~~~!

_____________________________________________

"Maybe we should go for Peking duck today? And then mix it up a bit with some sushi in the side?" Jian Nu's frenzied voice sound about four inches above her ears.

"We have vegetarians, we can't make sushi the side dish!"

"What about porridge then? Spring rolls? We can also do a few western dishes,"

Sheng Rong was currently listening to her best friend going on about what to cook for dinner with a fellow chef by the name of Ysa (Ee-sa) Reyes (Ray-es), Ysa being the given name and Reyes the surname. Ysa was one of the transfers from the Philipines and specialized in Asian food.

Unlike her friend, who's talent laid in western food.

Both of her hands were currently occupied, one was holding a bunch of bags, and the other was linked with Jian Nu's in a vile attempt to calm his frenzied state.

"Just make pasta," Her statement had quieted them, "All you have to do is prepare the toppings, sauces, different noodles, and other stuff maybe, and then leave the rest to the everyone else, like a buffet,"

"But what about the gluten-free people?" The pastry chef next to Ysa voiced out her concern.

"Maybe you can stir fry a few things, or put out ingredients for rice paper or lettuce wraps? Those are delicious too, and also requires less work,"

"What about becoming our personal menu RongRong?" Jian Nu looked at her teasingly.

"I don't know~, you'll have to pay for my services then," this brought out a small laugh from the for of them.

Un-consciously, her eyes glided over to Jian Nu's smiling face, unknowingly putting herself into a trance.

If she hadn't noticed her other best friend's mischievous eyes, she wouldn't have snapped out.

She let go of Jian Nu's hand and excused herself to find out what her best friend was up to.

Sheng Rong pulled up to Yaorui's right side while Gebao pulled to the left.

"What are you up to now?" She sent a knowing look to Yaorui.

"Nothing~~,"

"Are you sure about that?" It was Gebao's turn this time to chime in.

"Yup," Her eyes followed her best friend's gaze, which landed on Aishi.

"I don't see it," her eyes squinted as if it was going to make sense if she did so.

"Look at her eyes, they keep looking over at Xun Shouhan," Gebao pointed out.

"Do I sense another romance?"

"I think so," Yaorui looked at her sister proudly.

"What is up with your family this year? First you, then your brother Long Ao, and then your other brother got engaged, and now your baby sister, all that's left is Anshi," Gebao led them into a skip as she pointed out the fact.

"Hey, hey, slow down, I'm holding a load over here," She scolded her friends.

"Let's split the load then," Yaorui suggested.

Because Gebao and Yaorui had handed their bags to Angli and Jiexu to hold, their hands were currently free and had nothing to do.

Not a minute later, they were all sharing her load.

As they neared their team house, her mind drifted off to her brother, she wondered how he was doing all alone in the outside world. Hopefully, he has some company. Sheng Rong missed her brother, even though it was normal for them to be separated for long periods, this would be the longest they were apart for.

She wouldn't be able to see her brother again until she was seventeen or eighteen.

That was two to three years!

Sometimes she really hated herself for accepting the school's proposal, fingers crossed that it would be worth the wait.

The girls all found their respective rooms, the sound of the speaker turning on was heard throughout the east wing.

"Attention all present students and teachers, we kindly ask you to remain in your team houses until further notice to ensure your safety and the safety of others for reasons we cannot disclose as of now. If you have any questions please use one of the phones in the house, please and thank you,"