26 Not Quite As It Used To Be 1 (2/2)

”Hum?” Gu Qi blinked, his head tilting adorably to the side as her words slowly sunk in ”Ah, well... I don't think I did anything wrong.”

She rolled her eyes.

”Remember what I told you about not being used as a buffer between the two of you anymore?”

”Ah Ying! I'm hurt!” he gasped, a hand landing dramatically over his heart ”Isn't it what friendships are for?”

”Hum, I don't think so” she laughed, unable to keep the stern face ”Again, don't even think in letting me to deal with you brother... Already gone there once. No need repeat it”.

The girl shivered slightly, the memory of a particularly trying conversation with Gu Ye suddenly coming to mind.

Yep. Definitely not doing that again. A girl just had so many lives to live!

”Yi Ying...” he sighed, his face dejected ”I thought you were supposed to be Great Daoist Master's only disciple... ! Aya, To think someone like my brother could actually frighten you... Tsk... It is really disheartening... Aren't you making your Master lose face?”

Instead of feeling offended – as she knew was his aim with the daunting words – she just rolled her eyes, stopping right beside Gu Ye and bowing her head on a friendly greeting.

”Young Master Ye” she smiled.

”Master Ah Ying” he repeated, his eyes barely moving from his brother. She had not even begun asking him some trivial question when he said ”You are late. Again”

Sam rose back from her curtesy, exchanging a worried look with Gu Qi, whose face had turned into a peculiar shade of green.

'Uh-oh'.

”Gu Qi pays his respects to Elder Brother” the younger twin suddenly said, apparently regaining his ease and matter-of-factly manners ”Hope your morning was better than your face betrays it to be...”

Gu Ye didn't even blink. Without giving neither of them a second glance, he turned on his heels and started to the door.

”We should enter. Class will begin soon”.

It was clear, then, that whatever was stuck on his windpipe, it was for only his brother's ears to listen. He would wait for them to get home.

In the two months she had known the two of them, she had never heard Gu Ye speak more then five or six words at once. He was always the silent party, just nodding and eventually contributing to the conversation with one-word sentences.

It always astounded her how could two people that looked exactly the same have such different personalities.

Where Ye'er was calm and reserved, with a mind to strictly follow every moral code and rule that was pounded on his head, Ah Qi was a free spirit, a well known rogue that would spend his afternoons singing and playing to woo any beautiful girl he could lay his eyes upon and enjoy his evening between the sheets of the most expensive brothels of the Imperial City...

Actually, he had been the one to spot the jade-flute, still tightly knotted onto her belt, on that first day, and the reason why everyone now though of her as Young Master Yi Ying, the one and only ever known disciple of Great Daoist Master.

A joke, really. Even more considering she could barely trow a punch without breaking her hand.

Sam only hopped the Yi Rea himself saw all that as amusing.

She sighed.

”I don't get why you provoke him so much” she mused as the two of them started off to the school, just a few steps behind Gu Ye.

”Hum?” Gu Qi turned, a small, lazy smile turning the tips of his lips ”Oh? You mean my brother?” he laughed ”I was not provoking him”.

Sam rolled her eyes, giving him a pointed look.

”Young Master Gu, I may not understand exactly what all this is about, but I know petulance when I see it.”

Gu Qi only laughed harder.

”You know, you are actually a really cute kid”.

”I'm not a kid! I'm...” she stopped, her righteous indignation deflating ”I'm not that younger than you guys” she completely, looking abashed.

Yeah. Fifteen. If there was something she would take sometime to get used to it was the age... Gosh, she hated being so young again!

”I'll see you later, then?” he asked again, just as they arrived at the classroom. ”I mean, you are going, right?”

Sam fidgeted, fighting the urge to bit her lower lip and look as unsure with the exchange as she felt. If was always the hardest part... Fighting those reactions that could blow her cover and denounce her for being what she actually was.

A girl. A girl that had no place on a only-boys school.

Well, at least that was what everyone on that place seemed to think – and something she would manage to change, if only at her own household!

To Ah Qi, she said.

”I told you already, I have a few things to manage after school” rolling her eyes for effect ”I'll meet you there, though... If I have time”.

”That's good too” he agreed, his smile growing larger, his thin lips the color of roses as his eyes shone with a light glint ”I might even keep a few untouched flowers for you to choose... See you later, kid” he laughed loudly, his head almost falling back at her struck, wide-eyes expression.

Sam gulped furiously, fighting the warmth that suddenly rushed to her cheeks at Gu Qi's implications.

”Pig!” she mumbled, huffing fervently as she pushed her sleeves back, watching as he disappeared to his seat between the few waves of students with the ease and grace of a dancer. Sometimes, being surrounded by all that perfection felt slightly tiring...

Ah, what a fate, what a fate! Being reborn on a place where there where no awkward teens, no growth spree, no skin problems...

”So unfair...” she mumbled to herself, marching on the direction of her desk.

Two sons of a Duke could not really be in too much trouble, anyway. Her brother, on the other hand...

Shaking off that line of thought for another time, she looked just briefly to the side, seeing that her table partner was already sat at his side, back straight, square shoulders...

And a frown most definitely directed at her.

Sometimes she wondered whether he could actually smell her. As ridiculous as that could be, it was the only explanation for his ever present scowl before he even spotted her!

Trying to keep her face neutral, she sat at by his side with a plong, trowing her bag on the floor and trying not to make much of a fuss as she took out the introductory books and a couple of brushes and ink.

”This is no place for a girl”.

'And... here we go' she thought to herself, fighting a little, petulant smile.

Slowly, Sam looked back, her eyes landing on the stony expression of Bai Jian Hua.

As usual, he didn't turn her way to speak, merely keeping his eyes down, focused on what looked like an old poetry book, his voice loud enough just so she could hear him.

Also as usual, she retorted on the same careless, unrepentant way.

”Whatever you think you know, Young Master Bai, you can go and tell Professor Jiao. Ah Ying will not stop you”.

At this point, after two months of attending classes together every day, the exchange felt almost automatic, like some sort of ritual between the two of them.

She couldn't be sure if he really knew her identity, or if Bai Jian Hua was just reaching for catch something without seeing... Whatever the reason, though, she was just grateful he seemed to growl more than bite.

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Gu Qi seemed to think it was amusing that she and the Gu twin's cousin seemed to be at odds from the very beginning, bu he was usually too carefree and easygoing to think much about it. Gu Ye, she knew, was another story entirely.

He was the one always looking, trying to understand what she and Jiang Hua would spoke so low to each other whenever they were out of reach.

Different from his twin brother, Gu Ye was not someone she could take lightly. Different from Young Master Bai, the heir of the Duke's household would have no qualms on denouncing her as a girl sneaking around a boy's only school — the only type of school that existed on that place.

”Stop. It is annoying”

She looked back at Bai Jian Hua, surprised at his sudden words.

”I didn't say anything!” she retorter, confused.

”You were thinking. It's annoying”

Sam didn't know whether to laugh or cry at his words.