บท 69: I Can Teach You

In the end, Zhang Yu Han paid for their meals and the two of them left the restaurant after Li Qin Yao exchanged a few words with the restaurant owner and promised to come and visit him again.

As they were walking back to where they parked, Zhang Yu Han noticed that Li Qin Yao has been looking around the area, as if reminiscing the past. A thought crossed his mind and Zhang Yu Han then suggested, "Should we walk around for a while before returning to the hotel?"

Li Qin Yao paused and turned to the man beside her.

Facing the girl's gaze, Zhang Yu Han tilted his head down and coughed. "Well, we ate a lot, so it's good to walk around and help the food to digest."

Li Qin Yao gazed at the night sky. Seeing that the weather looks great, she then nodded. "Good."

A glint of joy flashed in his eyes. "Since you are familiar with this area, I shall let you lead the way."

The two walked side by side and silently enjoyed the night breeze. Meanwhile, Zhang Yu Han continued to watch the girl beside him stealthily. Though he was enjoying their night walk together, his heart was in turmoil.

Sure, he was enjoying his time together with the girl he liked. But as they arrived at a residential area, Zhang Yu Han began to regret his decision. All they did was to walk around without anyone saying a word. But the more Zhang Yu Han spent his time with her, the more that he found that he did not want to be apart from her.

Suddenly he found that he became greedy. He wanted more than what he has now.

Gradually Zhang Yu Han became tensed, knowing that he could not touch her or profess his feeling to her openly.

It was against his principle to snatch others' girlfriend. Even if he can go against his principle, he did not want to scare her with his feeling. Though he had first seen her years ago, to Li Qin Yao, she probably hasn't known him for a long time.

If he suddenly told her that he liked her, would she be scared and try to keep her distance?

Sometimes, even Zhang Yu Han was puzzled with how he could like someone so much after seeing her once. His friends thought that it was weird. Some of them thought that he was making excuses to shot down any love interest.

However, Zhang Yu Han simply could not get the girl he had seen in the basketball court out of his mind, no matter how hard he tried. The first time he had seen her, Zhang Yu Han had this feeling that someday, he was going to marry her. But, fate had another plan. Now that he had met this girl again, he found that she belonged to someone else.

Zhang Yu Han had reminded himself a few times to keep his distance, but whenever he saw her again, his heart refused to cooperate with his brain. His weak mind would let his heart win every single time.

"This is the area where I grew up."

Zhang Yu Han snapped out of his trance when he heard her voice and was surprised to see that Li Qin Yao was staring back at him. He immediately looked away and swept his gaze around.

There was a five-story apartment in front of them. From the way the girl beside him was gazing longingly at the apartment, Zhang Yu Han guessed that once upon a time, Li Qin Yao had stayed in one of the apartment rooms here.

"This is a nice neighborhood," Zhang Yu Han commented.

A small smile curved on her lips as Li Qin Yao reminiscence the short period that she had live in the neighborhood with her mother. "It was. The people around here were nice and friendly."

"There's even a basketball court here."

"Huh?" Li Qin Yao turned to Zhang Yu Han and soon, she followed his gaze. Fifty meters away from them was a basketball court. Because of the late hour, the place was empty. It was a weekday and it the neighborhood kid had to be home early or else, suffer from their parents scolding.

When Li Qin Yao turned again, Zhang Yu Han had moved and was heading towards the court.

Knowing that he enjoyed the game, Li Qin Yao trailed after him in silence. As the two of them stood behind the fence, Li Qin Yao began to reminiscent that period when she was interested in playing basketball after watching Han Yue Xiu's game a few times. But after practicing for a while, she began to accept that perhaps, she had no talent in this sport.

"It looks like they left a ball here," Zhang Yu Han said once they stepped closer.

"They always leave it there so that anyone can play when they wanted to," Li Qin Yao said. "Once, the neighborhood kid found that someone had stolen the ball, but the next day, they found that someone had bought a new ball and leave it there. No one knew who had replaced it."

Zhang Yu Han was intrigued by her story.

"You can use them if you want to," Li Qin Yao suggested upon seeing the excitement on his face.

"Should I?" When he saw Li Qin Yao nod of encouragement, Zhang Yu Han walked into the court, picked up the ball, dribbled it on the floor and passed it through his legs. He stopped and turned to Li Qin Yao who stood behind him. "Do you want to accompany me for one round?"

Li Qin Yao immediately waved her hand to reject his suggestion. "Me? No. I'm not good at basketball. I'm too short for basketball."

Zhang Yu Han tilted his head and watched her for a few seconds longer.

Being stared by Zhang Yu Han's eyes, Li Qin Yao felt warmth crept on her face. Once she recalled how they had a short conversation about her height not too long ago, her face turned a shade redder.

Her head only reached his chest area since she was not wearing a high heel. But he had said that her height was just right. Her head started to muddle as she wondered what does he mean by 'just right'.

Just right… for what? What does he mean when he said that?

Her thought dissipated as she heard the ball hit on the floor again.

"Though height would be an advantage in this game, you don't have to be tall to enjoy the game," Zhang Yu Han paused as he held the ball in his hand. "It doesn't matter if you're not good at it. I can teach you."