The Boy and Girl Next Door

[xxxRAWRS]

Hello, everyone. Here's an Advanceshipping fanfic I wrote. It's based on those Korean/Chinese dramas (which, if you're Asian or you have Asian parents that watch the Asian channels a lot, you see all the time). The story WAS gonna be in South Korea, but because I don't want to waste my time researching their customs (even if they're pretty much the same as Chinese and Japanese), it takes place in China. Here are the names so you don't get confused.

Xiao Yiao: May
Xiao Zhi: Ash
Xiao Guang: Dawn
Xiao Xia: Misty
Xiao Gang: Brock
Xiao Yue: Max
Xiao Jien: Tracey

In the hot summer of China, a fourteen-year-old girl looked out the tall window. She had brunette hair that seemed to be split, and crystal blue eyes. He uniform consisted of a white-collar shirt, and a circular symbol on the right side of her chest. Her tie and skirt were a deep blue. She wore a pair of dull black shoes and black stockings to match. If anything, she described herself as plain.

“Xiao Yiao,” the girl next to her asked, “did you hear about the new transfer student?”

Xiao Yiao looked up to see another beautiful girl with long, blue hair. Her eyes were a sparkling blue. She adorned golden hair clips, and a bracelet on her left wrist. She wore stylish brown boots with faux fur at the top, and long black socks up to her shin.

“I could be less interested,” Xiao Yiao shrugged. “Boy or girl?”

“Boy. I hear he’s really cute.” The blue-haired girl flashed a cute smile. “Don’t be like that! We’ve been best friends ever since we were little girls!”

“You’ve been the most popular student since we were little girls, Xiao Guang.” She looked out the window again. “Seven, to be precise.”

“When did you get so boring?” Xiao Guang snorted. Then she winked.

In her mind, Xiao Yiao made a list of accomplishments her best friend, Xiao Guang, had made. Made number one in cutest girl contest in school, greatest singer, won the most hearts of boys, idolized the most by all the girls, known as a saint…

“Oh, come on!” Xiao Guang pleaded. “Just think about boys! I don’t know what you don’t see in them… Have you ever considered changing your style for once? I mean, you’re pretty, and tall…”

“I can’t help it if I’m the tallest girl in class. I mean, five-five, everybody else should be as tall as that.”

“Nope.” The flashy grin showed up again. “Have you ever considered being a model?”

“Sh’yeah.”

Riiiing!

“Get back to your seats!” a voice called.

Xiao Yiao didn’t bother watching her four-foot-ten best friend wave and walk back to her seat in the front. Thankfully the substitute teacher was gone and their regular teacher was back. She was getting tired of each of her friends sitting in the empty seat next to her everyday.

“Now, before we continue with our schedule, we have a new student today.”

Oh, God. Please, no. The new student. The male student. Xiao Yiao glanced uneasily at the empty seat next to her.

“Everyone, please say hello to Li Xiao Zhi.”

A boy, much taller than Xiao Yiao, stepped inside. The shirt and tie of his uniform wasn’t much different, but like most of the boys or a few girls, his shirt wasn’t tucked in to his log, navy blue jeans. His hair was black and spiky, and he had little zigzags under his eyes.

The teacher wrote his name on the board, and then turned back to the class. “Please treat him kindly. Now, Xiao Zhi, you can sit…”

Xiao Yiao clasped her hands together and prayed. Please, please, please…

“…next to Xiao Yiao.” She moved her finger in the direction of the empty seat.

No!

Most of the students stared as the boy walked over to his seat and sat down. Now that Xiao Yiao had a closer look, he was a bit good-looking. He was taller than her, and slender.

“All right, now take out your textbooks…”

…

“My gosh, you have no idea how lucky you are!” Xiao Guang was gloating about how cute the new kid was. “You have bigger chance than every other girl of talking to him. And you throw it away!”

“Shut up, shut up!” Xiao Yiao whispered sharply.

“Jeez…”

“No, he’s walking to our table. Pick your lunch up and move!”

“Omigosh, he IS? How’s my hair?”

“The type that boys drool over. Now let’s go.”

“Why do you hate him so much?”

“I don’t—“

“Hi,” Xiao Zhi greeted. Then he pointed to the empty seat next to Xiao Yiao. “Can I sit there?”

“I—“

“Of course!” Xiao Guang squealed.

“DUDE!” Xiao Yiao shouted. It was a bit too late though, since Xiao Zhi had already taken his seat and begun eating.

Xiao Yiao chewed at her food, frustrated. “My name is Xiao Guang,” her oh-so-idiotic best friend introduced. “You already know Xiao Yiao.”

“Talk to the hand,” Xiao Yiao replied, shooting her hand in front of him.

“It smells like strawberries,” Xiao Zhi said.

“Really?” She hadn’t used that much hand cream, had she? She sniffed the palm of her hand. Before she knew it, someone had smacked her hand, causing it to fall on her face.

As soon as she regained consciousness of what had just happened, she glared fiercely at Xiao Guang, who was choking out of laughter, and then at her attacker, who was grinning.

Frustrated, she stormed out of the cafeteria.

…

“How was school?” Xiao Yiao spun around to look at her mother. People often said she looked like her. Impossible. Other than the brown colored-hair and the eyes, there was no similarity.

“Fine.”

“Just ‘fine’?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you know we have new neighbors?” her mother informed her. “Xiao Yue is over at their house right now.”

“Really?” Xiao Yiao, out of boredom and procrastination for homework, she decided to embarrass herself by walking next door along with her black-haired brother.

But she regretted that decision. As soon as she walked through the door, she saw her own brother playing with the attacker from lunch. “Xiao Zhi?” God, what a mistake that was.

“So you do remember me.” He flashed that stupid grin again.

“Crap.”

[xxxRAWRS]

The next chapter.

Xiao Quan: Kenny

Xiao Hu: Drew

“What are you doing here?” Xiao Yiao asked.

That was a pretty strange question. “I live here,” Xiao Zhi replied. He blinked. Was it just him, or did she have the “Damn, I shouldn’t have come here” look on her face?

“Big bro is cool,” the little kid with glasses, Xiao Yue, said, “and so are his brothers.” Cute kid.

“Nice to know,” she said dryly. Was there something wrong? She had seemed pretty mad about what happened during lunch period, but no one really holds a grudge about that for more than ten minutes or so.

“Xiao Yiao, was it?” Xiao Zhi asked. “Nice name.”

In return, she shot a glare at him like it was an insult. Crap, she took it the wrong way, he thought, hitting himself mentally. She’s gonna get worse.

“I didn’t ask for you to know my name. So shut it.” Thought so. That was funny. Most girls didn’t act so cold to the new kids, especially if it was a guy.

“I’m going home.”

“Well, I want to stay,” Xiao Yue said defiantly.

“Did you do all of your homework?”

He nervously turned his head to look at his backpack. “Um…”

“I helped him with it,” Xiao Zhi interjected. He wasn’t going to let her bad mood spread like a cold.

Xiao Yiao shrugged and walked out the door. “Shouldn’t you be locking this thing?” she asked.

“Shouldn’t you knock before barging in?”

“It was slightly open anyway.” At that, she walked back to her home. Xiao Zhi sat down on the floor, cross-legged, and let out a huge sigh.

“Don’t worry about her. She’s always like that,” Xiao Yue explained. “Can you really, really help me with homework? I hate it. It always has to ruin everything. I never get to play with my friends because I’m always doing homework. It sucks.”

Gee, I wonder where he learned that kind of language, Xiao Zhi thought sarcastically. “Yeah, I gotta start my own, too.” Bringing out their notebooks, they began writing. Occasionally Xiao Zhi’s mother, who wore her long bronze hair in a ponytail and had the same brown eyes as her son, walked in and brought a snack or so.

After a long silence, Xiao Yue apparently got bored. “Big Sis wasn’t always so mean,” he said, chewing on an egg roll. “She was one of those icky girls that liked dresses and stuff. But she hasn’t been the same since Middle School.”

That was pretty interesting. “Why?”

“I don’t know. But she hasn’t liked boys since. The only boys she ever talks to are her friends, Daddy, and me. I don’t know why, but she doesn’t like anyone else. And Daddy is on a business trip right now, so she doesn’t talk to any boys at all except for the ones Xiao Guang plays with.”

“Really…” He began to wonder what could possibly happen to her to make her resent boys so much.

“Don’t bother worrying about her, I read in a book that she’ll get over it.” Then he made a face. “I don’t know why my sis read books like that. It was about these people who fell in love or something. I’m glad she isn’t such a girl anymore.”

…

“Morning.” Xiao Yiao looked away and stared at the window again. “Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot yesterday…” Xiao Zhi began as he took his seat.

“Wow, no way.”

“Hey, Xiao Zhi!” Xiao Guang squealed as she skipped over towards him. “I have some people that you might want to meet. She brought over a green-haired boy and another one with brown hair. “This is Xiao Hu” (she put a hand on the green-haired boy’s shoulder) “and Xiao Quan.” She pointed to the brown-haired boy.

“Hey.” They both said simultaneously. Xiao Quan gave him a wide grin and Xiao Hu turned to look at Xiao Yiao, who was still staring at the window.

“See, this is the one I was talking about,” Xiao Guang said.

“Xiao Zhi, right?” Xiao Quan held out his hand to shake. He took it eagerly.

“Yeah. Nice meeting you.” Then he turned to Xiao Hu. Why was he looking at Xiao Yiao like that? It was a bit irritating. “Hey.”

Xiao Hu quickly turned to Xiao Zhi. “Huh? Oh… Hi.”

“You already said that.”

“He likes Xiao Yiao,” Xiao Guang whispered.

“Do not!”

Xiao Yiao, clearly, hadn’t been paying attention. “Who likes who?”

“Nobody,” Xiao Zhi and Xiao Hu said quickly.

[xxxRAWRS]

Love triangles are so common.

Over the course of the next few days, Xiao Zhi had gotten along well with Xiao Quan, and his other friends felt welcome to sit with them all. Xiao Yiao had liked it better when the group was smaller, and she felt uncomfortable with all the other boys around. At first she saw this as an opportunity to get him off her back, but it was different. He made sure to talk to her, and absentmindedly, she would answer. She hated herself for it.

“How long have you known Xiao Hu?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Almost as long as Xiao Guang. He showed up two years later.” She leaned towards the tree the two were sitting against. “I think he got some kind of disease in sixth grade, though. He started going red all the time. Or maybe he just hates me, because he doesn’t look at me or talk much when I’m around. Plus, he always stutters. Probably some kind of speaking disorder.”

“Really?” Xiao Zhi scooted a little closer towards her. “I’ve noticed that too. But it’s just around you.”

She sighed. “Poor guy. I’m surprised that he hasn’t been admitted to a hospital or anything. Maybe he needs a psychiatrist too.”

“Yeah, maybe.” He changed the subject. “Where’s your dad?”

“Business trip. Europe or something. What about yours?” Where had his dad been anyway? The only men in the house were him and his brothers, Xiao Gang and Xiao Jien.

“Dead. Car crash.” He lowered his head a little.

“Oh… Sorry…” So he was dead. Then why had he asked that question? “My dad is hardly ever around, but he gets a pretty good salary. We can get a lot of good stuff, and…” She stopped talking. This might’ve been painful.

“So…” Xiao Zhi said after an awkward silence. The bell rang, and they got up to walk back to class.

…

“Why are you walking with her?” Xiao Hu asked Xiao Zhi after school.”

“We’re neighbors,” he answered casually.

“You… What?” He looked surprised.

“Yeah, he’s sort of my new neighbor,” Xiao Yiao said quickly. “Sorry I never told you.”

“Oh. Okay.” He sounded like there was a twinge of jealousy in his voice.

While the two walked, they chatted a little about what their life was like. “And one time my brother found bugs and spiders around the house, and we wanted tried keeping them as pets,” Xiao Yiao was saying. “Then Dad accidentally knocked the cup over, and they started crawling all around the house. Mom was screaming…”

“Oh yeah? One time Xiao Gang had a pet bird, and while he wasn’t looking, I brought it out to the backyard to teach it tricks and stuff. Then when I opened the cage, it flew away. He wouldn’t speak to me for three months.”

“Once I made a bet with Xiao Quan…” It carried on like that until they had gotten home. After realizing she had revealed more that half of her life to Xiao Zhi, she banged her head against the wall. What had she done? “What if he tries to talk to me about it later? Aagh!”

…

Sometime around the late afternoon, Xiao Yiao went outside to borrow some envelopes from Xiao Zhi. Her mother was going to visit her father on the trip soon, and they needed to write him a letter before doing so.

Knock, knock. “Hey, Xiao Zhi, you home?”

The voice coming out through the door was a little muffled, but she could still hear it clearly. “Yeah, hang on.”

A redheaded girl that Xiao Yiao thought looked a little familiar opened the door. She had her hair tied up to the side to her head, and she wore a yellow t-shirt with denim caprice. “Oh, hello,” she greeted.

“Oh, Xiao Yiao, do you need something?” Xiao Zhi asked.

“Um… Envelopes, I guess… Who are you?” she asked.

“My girlfriend,” Xiao Zhi replied casually.

“My name is Xiao Xia,” she informed with a smile, holding her hand out as if to shake.

The first thing that came to Xiao Yiao’s mind was, Wow that was fast. Is he really that well known? Very awkwardly, Xiao Yiao took her hand and shook. “Y-you look familiar… Do you…?”

“I go to your school. I’m a third year,” Xiao Xia answered.

“Oh… I see.” Now he had older girls who liked him? But what did he see in her anyway? Her blood boiled a little, and she suddenly had a desire to scream.

“Oh, and those envelopes you wanted? They’re right there.” He pointed to the shelf next to the TV.

“Um… Yeah, okay.” Very slowly, she walked over to the shelf and reached for the envelopes.

Xiao Xia plopped down on the couch and squeezed in next to Xiao Zhi. As soon as Xiao Yiao spun around, she froze at the sight of it. What were they doing?

“Hey, you got frozen or something?” Xiao Zhi asked with the same idiotic grin that was usually on his face.

Stupid!

“No. I’m leaving?” With that, she ran out and slammed the door. “And lock it while you’re at it, you bastard!”