บท 58: Play (11)
A piece of news about him and Feng Qi on the class' social website? Oh, that was definitely not a portent of anything good.
"It's on our class' Whatsapp group, you better go take a look," Cindy urged.
Both Jun Yang and Pei Ling did what they were told. Jun Yang took out his phone and logged into the app. Since he did not use it often, the young man took some time to look for the group.
Pei Ling though logged in earlier than he did and she released an audible gasp while holding the phone in her hand. When Jun Yang heard that, his heart skipped a beat. This was not a good sign.
Frantic to search for the group, Jun Yang did not notice that when Pei Ling did that, Cindy who was next to them did a surreptitious eye-roll. 'My God, she sure is a very good actor, I'll give her that,' Cindy thought with some trace of malicious disbelief.
Jun Yang finally found the group in question. His jaw fell to the ground when he saw the thing that Cindy was talking about, the reason why his classmates had been gossiping about him all day.
It was a series of pictures taken of him and Feng Qi at the theme park. All the pictures only had the two of them in the frames and the pictures suggested that the two boys were a couple. There they were toying with the animal ears headband, hugging each other so closely as they exited the Haunted House, there were also a few pictures where it was supposed to be a picture of the whole group but the other three had been edited out to make it seem like it was a private date between Jun Yang and Feng Qi at the park.
Jun Yang did not know what to say. He glanced at the time and noticed the pictures were shared to the group yesterday night, meaning his classmates had been talking and discussing this since yesterday night, that discovery made Jun Yang's stomach turn.
At a moment like this, the first thing one wanted to do was to find the culprit who shared these photos and demand an explanation. Incidentally, in the group, the pictures were shared by an account whose name and picture were not eclipsed.
When Jun Yang saw the man's face and his profile name, a wave of nausea hit him. He would never believe said person would do anything like that, especially not after he had explicitly warned him about it but as they say, seeing is believing.
"But…" Jun Yang stammered, "How could this be?" Even voicing it out loud, it still did not feel any realer to the young man.
He could not have been more familiar with the profile picture of the person who shared all of these pictures, it was none other than Feng Qi himself! But why would he ever do something like that? It made no god damn sense! …Or did it?
From the evidence that was placed before his eyes, what had happened was Feng Qi shared the pictures of them at the theme park to create an impression to the rest of his classmates or perhaps even the whole school that he and Jun Yang was a couple in love.
As if afraid that the pictures were not sending a clear enough message, at the very end, there was a written message by Feng Qi which said, "Feng Qi and Jun Yang, lovers 4ever." If the pictures did not drive the point home, that certainly did.
When Jun Yang saw the pictures for the first time, his initial reaction was there had to be a misunderstanding but as he saw more pictures and that written message, doubt crept into his heart.
"I'll get to class first, talk to you later. Bye, guys," Cindy excused herself but Jun Yang was not really paying much attention. All he wanted to do then was to race to Mist Café and demand an explanation from Feng Qi, that bastard. He had told him many times that they were not in a relationship and to think he would do something like this…
Jun Yang felt a touch on his arm and he was pulled back to reality. "Jun Yang, a quick word with you before the class starts," Pei Ling said as she looked at her phone with concern.
Jun Yang nodded dumbly like a shell-shocked victim. Pei Ling took a pause like she was gauging what she should say. Eventually, she began, "I think I know why he did this."
Well, that certainly came as a surprise to Jun Yang. He had no idea why Feng Qi would do something like this but she did?!
"It's kinda like a dog marking its territory." Pei Ling used imagery to make her point before adding, "In any case, these pictures are going to get people talking. But don't worry, I believe the situation can still be salvaged. Jun Yang, I'll talk to you after school and we'll definitely work this around. Don't think too much of it. Now, let's get to class before the teacher arrives."
Jun Yang was ushered by Pei Ling to his seat. All the time, he was thinking about what Pei Ling said. First was her explanation of why Feng Qi did something like this. As much as Jun Yang hated to admit it, he could see the rationality behind Pei Ling's speculation.
Like what she said, Feng Qi could have purposely shared these pictures so that people would stay away from Jun Yang, so that he could have Jun Yang all to himself. That was extremely shameless and rash, which incidentally aligned perfectly with Feng Qi's personality trait.
But, did he not know the kind of adverse effect this kind of publicity might have on Jun Yang? Imagine the pictures getting into the hands of Jun Yang's parents, Jun Yang shivered just thinking about. This hinted at the concern which Pei Ling raised, about how the pictures were going to get people talking. One of them could have easily passed the news to Jun Yang's parents.
Caught in the heat of the moment, Jun Yang did not realize how unlikely that scenario actually was. His parents had zero to no contact with his classmates as that was not the socially accepted way. The only way Jun Yang's parents could have found out was through his classmates' parents but the chance of the parents finding out was very low as well.
These children rarely shared their social life with their parents because that was not the important thing to talk about in the family, instead, the important things were business, inheritance, family name and tradition, such was the life of a successful and powerful Chinese family. Just take Jun Yang for example, how often did you see him share his life with his parents?
Furthermore, Jun Yang should have more faith in his popularity. With his kindness and generosity, Jun Yang was friends with almost everyone in his class. Knowing how this news would ruin his life, his classmates would only gossip about it and not shared it with their parents out of spite. They had too much respect for Jun Yang to do something like that, or rather, there was no competition between Jun Yang and his classmates to warrant them doing something like that.
In any case, Jun Yang was too disturbed to consider all these. All that was on his mind was how selfish could Feng Qi be to do something like this…
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