Chapter 2: 2. I don’t Understand

“You…why are you crying?” Yu Yanning gave up on his plan to leave, closing the door. 

Seren didn’t answer, only sliding down and gazing at the broken potted plant sadly. 

Yu Yanning followed her line of sight and he ran his fingers through his hair at a loss. “Hey,” he knelt beside her. “If you tell me, I might be able to help.” He coaxed. 

“You can’t.”

“How do you know I can’t if you don’t tell me?”

Seren was silent at this logic. Slowly, she peeked up and was surprised to see his face so close. He didn’t give her a chance to hide again as he grabbed her chin, forcing her to stay there. She didn’t know if it was because of the alcohol but his hand felt too hot against her flushed skin and it was extremely uncomfortable.

He frowned and chided, “You shouldn’t drink carelessly if you’re such a lightweight.” Then she was pulled up and guided to the bed. “A hangover will be the least of your problems if you get alcohol poisoning.”

Yu Yanning looked around in the kitchen and found medicine. While he was heating water, he inadvertently came across a keychain with an ID attached.

Seren Le 2nd year political science, international relations 12/22/xx

“You’re underage and dared to drink so openly?” He laughed angrily looking at the card. He glanced around and also noticed  a whiteboard with a calendar of her schedule—she had class tomorrow so he quickly finished the preparation, bringing the warm honey tea and medicine over.

Sitting down on the bed, he said, “open,” as he held a pill near her lips. 

Seren looked at it without budging. Yu Yanning sighed and decided to plop the pill in the tea, spooning it along with the liquid and bringing it up to her mouth again.

Seren smelled the sweet scent and obediently opened her mouth.

“You’re randomly drinking things again.” Yu Yanning muttered but still fed a few more spoonfuls of sweet tea to her. The tea wasn’t hot but the cup was so he had held it the whole time just in case. After he set the cup down on the nightstand, he asked. “Do you want to sleep now?

Seren shook her head.

“Do you want to tell me why you were crying?”

At the mention of this, tears welled up in her eyes, threatening to fall.

“Okay, okay! What do you want to do? We’ll do whatever you want so don’t cry, please.” He begged.

Seren began to clumsily unzip her jacket and threw it off the bed. “Makeup.” She said after she was done fighting with her clothes.

“…what about your makeup?”

“Take off.”

Yu Yanning spotted some baby wipes on the window. He opened it and handed a wipe over. He watched her rub her face roughly and held her wrist to stop her. “I’ll do it.” He said helplessly. He used a few wipes to remove her makeup saying, “close your eyes.” When he gently cleaned around her eyelids. “For a drunk, you’re quite particular about your routine.” He laughed, thinking of his friends who would just pass out no matter where or what position they were in.

Seren wasn’t a talkative drunk and just stared back blankly. 

The broken plant was bothering him since earlier and he was afraid she would cry again so he took it upon himself to sweep up the broken pieces and gather them in a plastic bag. He realized her phone lighting up and decided to help her plug it in for the night so she could reply to her messages tomorrow. He was just about to place it back down when a hand gripped his wrist.

Seren tapped the phone screen in a practiced way and brought up a site. She looked at it and started sniffling. Yu Yanning inwardly groaned. He tried to pull the phone away but the strength of the drunkard was surprisingly strong and he didn’t want to accidentally hurt her.

“It’s okay,” he consoled.

“No, it’s not! You don’t understand!”

“Okay, it’s not. I don’t understand so tell me hmm?”

Seren looked at him with watery eyes and he couldn’t hold back from wiping the stray tears away. “What’s making you sad?”

She didn’t reply for a while so he thought she would refuse to tell him again but then she pointed to the screen. “I want to read but I don’t know Mandarin.” She wailed. Her fingers moved to bring them to a book cover.

Yu Yanning caught the Chinese characters on the cover. She was following a novel translation for a boy’s love story and it was put on an indefinite hiatus three hours ago.

“Did you drink because of this?” He asked, completely stunned. 

Seren nodded fiercely. She flopped on the bed and soon enough, tears rolled out to wet the sheets. 

“Don’t cry, don’t cry, look I know Mandarin, you can just ask me to translate for you.” He said frantically. 

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Seren paused. “I can?”

“Yes, do you want me to? I’ll even promise.” He offered his pinky finger.

“No, put it on paper.” She demanded.

His jaw dropped. She was a political science major alright.

—

His retelling of the events opened the floodgates of memories and Seren was speechless at herself.

“Drunken thoughts can’t be taken seriously.” She complained.

“I am a man of my word, and the words are on paper as requested.” He said as he unfolded a piece of paper and presented it proudly.

I, Yu Yanning, promise to translate one chapter a week for Seren Le in exchange for practicing my English by reading the chapters aloud.

If one party fails to fulfill the mutual agreement, then it is up to the other party’s disclosure of the penalty.

Seren looked at the messy signature at the bottom of the paper. “What’s your penalty?” She asked lifelessly.

“What? Thinking about breaking our contract already?”

“It was a mistake,” she groaned. “You’re fluent, very fluent! You don’t need this.”

“I'm not understanding.” He said.

Seren gave him a look of disbelief. They communicated just fine, now he had selective fluency?

“What is your availability?” He asked cheerfully.

Seren wordlessly pulled up her class schedules and showed it to him.

“Let’s do Friday at noon.” He said as he compared their schedules.

Seren nodded noncommittally. 

“Did you change your password?” Yu Yanning changed the subject.

Seren had completely forgotten and it was a bluff in the first place.

He looked at her amusedly and said, “Be sure to change it by next Friday, or else I’ll just let myself in.”

“That’s trespassing!”

“Hmm? I don’t understand?”

Seren groaned. Yu Yanning pretended nothing was wrong and began ordering from the menu, even asking her what she wanted. She replied with her usual order of lavender matcha with soy milk and he copied her.

“I wanted to try this place, thanks for accompanying me.” He said brightly when he handed the menu over to the waiter.

Seren couldn’t be mean to such an attitude so she nodded.

After they were finished, he pulled out a laminated copy of their agreement to give her. 

Seren was once again stunned. “You didn’t have to be so thorough.”

“Mm, I wanted to. See you.” He waved and walked off, leaving her standing there speechless.

She finally went to pay but was told someone already did and she never felt more at a loss.

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