After about 20 minutes of driving, Yangyang stops at a hotpot restaurant. The place is pretty crowded, and is well known in town for their popular hotpot.

"We're here!" says Yangyang as he parks his car. He gets out of the car and opens the car door for Xiali.

At Xiao Hong's Hotpot...

Yangyang and Xiali walks inside the restaurant to see that it's almost a full house.

"Hello! How can I help you?" ask the waitress as she walks over to Yangyang and Xiali.

"Table for two please," says Yangyang.

"Right this way," says the waitress as she leads Yangyang and Xiali to the their table.

Yangyang and Xiali takes a seat and start reading the menu. Both of them agree to go with a good hotpot along with two glasses of orange juice. After writing their orders, the waitress walks back to the kitchen.

Xiali's POV...

I watch as the waitress walks back to the kitchen to prepare our orders. I turn my head to see Yangyang smiling as he stares at me.

"So how's college life?" ask Yangyang.

"Good," I say. "How about you and the guys?"

"We're good actually," says Yangyang. "So how is Ten? Is he being a good guardian?"

"He's doing fine, though he can be overprotective at times," I say.

The waitress then walks back with two glasses of orange juice, before walking back to the kitchen.

"That's exactly what I told him to do," Yangyang says before he takes a sip of his orange juice.

"And I literally told him that he didn't need to be overprotective in the first place," I say before I take a sip of my orange juice. "I'm an adult."

"Well, you still need protection for your safety," says Yangyang.

"You got a point," I say as I roll my eyes.

The waitress then walks back to our table with a big hotpot pan, as well as the ingredients for the hotpot. She puts everything on our table before walking away.

"Ok, dinner time!" says Yangyang.

"Yeah," I say as the two of us starts to put the ingredients inside the hotpot pan.

Through out dinner, Yangyang and I decided to share stories with each others about one another. He told me that his dad is good friends with Ten's dad back in the days, in which he had already been friends with Ten since he was little. It was a bit surprising because I've never seen Yangyang having other friends besides me when we were both little.

"So you guys had been friends since you were kids?" I ask.

"Yes, but Ten's parents decided to move to Bangkok when he was 5 years old. Ever since that, our dads still kept in touch and would sometimes meet up everytime Ten's family came to visit Fuzhou for the holidays," says Yangyang. "You could say they are like brothers."

"I see," I say before I take a sip of my orange juice. "I never knew about that. I almost thought that I was your only friend when we were little," I say as I feel a little embarrassed at my own thought.

"Well, you're not my only friend, cause you're my only sister," says Yangyang with a small smile, making me let out a small laugh at his sentence.

"And you're my only friend as I remember," I say.

"How can I forget that you used to be the little introvert in the neighborhood?" says Yangyang. "I have to admit, when I first met you, I thought you were scared of me."

"Haha, yeah right. I was never scared of you. I guess I was just too shy," I say before I continue to eat.

Time pass and the two of us soon finish our hotpot. Again Yangyang keeps talking about the surprise he's gonna show me after dinner. I wonder what it could be.

"So can you at least just give me a clue about this surprise?" I ask with curiousity.

"Fine, I'll give you a clue. It's a place where we can reborn to be children again," says Yangyang as he continues to drive and keeps his vision on the road.

Reborn to be children? I thought in confusion.

I glance over at Yangyang to see he has this secretive smile on his face. After all these years, this guy really didn't change at at all. I still see him as the childish boy who I can actually rely on in a weird way to be my all time best friend, or brother.

After a 30 minutes ride, we finally arrive at our destination and Yangyang parks the car.

9 PM...

"Where are we?" I ask as I remove my seatbelt.

"We're at the beach," says Yangyang as he hops out of the car and close his door.

Yangyang opens the car door for me and I walk out. The two of us starts walking to the beach, as we start to observe how quiet it is. There's no one around other than the two of us.

"It's so quiet," I say as I continue to observe the quiet beach while walking.

"Yeah," says Yangyang as he stops in his steps to hear the sound of the waves. "And peaceful."

I start walking back to Yangyang and join him in watching the waves. I see that there are a few stars in the sky tonight, which makes the atmosphere more beautiful.

"The view is so beautiful," I say to Yangyang.

Yangyang glance at me with a bright smile. "Hey! That's just a small part of the surprise," says Yangyang with excitement in his voice. "I haven't show you the big part yet!"

"Then what's the big part, Yangyang?" I ask as I stare at him while putting my hands on my hips.

"Close your eyes," says Yangyang with a shy smile.

I close my eyes and wait for whatever to happen since Yangyang said that it's part of the surprise. I could feel the ocean breeze which makes me feel peaceful, but just then I could slowly sense that someone is getting closer and closer to me. His steps became closer and I could feel our faces only inches apart. In my mind, it's gotta be Yangyang. Maybe he has another crazy idea in his mind for the surprise.

"Tag! You're it!" says Yangyang as he tag my hand and starts running off like a little boy.

I open my eyes in surprise as I see the boy running around while laughting.

"Catch me if you can, Xiali!" says Yangyang.

"Liu Yang Yang! I'll get you!" I almost scream at my sentence as I start running around to chase Yangyang.

The quiet beach suddenly feels lively as we run around chasing each other in a game of tag. For a moment, I feel like a little kid again as we run around carelessly while laughting at each other. From Yangyang's face, I could tell that he's also expressing his inner child with joy.

Tonight reminds me how much I haven't had this much fun in years. By that, tonight I wish I don't have to be an adult for a moment. We even got sands on our clothes at some points for the amount of times we had tripped each other and fall on the sand. Yet, that didn't matter. At least for now, I just want to behave like a kid again with Yangyang.

"Haha got you!" says Yangyang as he catches me from behind, making me laugh harder.

"Ahh, ok! You win," I say as he still have his arms wrapped around my waist. I slowly glance down to see his arms releasing me slowly. I turn back to face him as we stare into each others eyes.

"That was fun," says Yangyang as he stares deeply into my eyes.

"Yeah," I say as I stare back into his eyes.

I notice how Yangyang had grown to be a fine young man, yet his youthful aura remains within him. Since we were little, I always knew he would grow up to be a cool guy, yet I never imagine myself to actually be mesmerize by all of his charms when we grew up. Even under the night sky, his messy black hair and beautiful dark brown eyes still looks breathtaking.

Slowly he walks closer to me, making us only a few inches a part. He slowly puts his hands on my waist, as his face gets closer and closer.

I was about to close my eyes and just let the moment flow, when I notice a man slolwy walking to our direction. The man had a black cap on and a black mask covering his mouth.

"Yangyang," I say. "Someone's here..."

Yangyang pulls away with a puzzled look. "Who's here?" he ask with confusion.

"There's a man behind you. He's wearing a black cap and a mask," I say in a low tone, fearing that if I talk too loud, the man could hear us. "I think he's a friend of the stalker..."

Yangyang turns his head to observe the beach and notice the guy is standing not far from them. He looks like he's smoking as he watches the waves.

"Hold my hand. Let's get out of here before he starts trouble," says Yangyang as he holds my hand tightly.

"Yes," I say.

The two of us starts walking out of the beach. Just when we almost reach our car, the man from the beach suddenly walks in front of us covering our way along with his friend, who is none other than the creepy stalker I saw a few days ago.

"Well, well, look at the kid," says the man with a wicked tone.

"Xiali, hide behind me," Yangyang says in a whisper tone. I slowly hide behind his back.

I could feel footsteps coming closer to us, when Yangyang suddenly pulls out a gun from his pocket and pulls the trigger as he aims for the stalker. The stalker ends up on the ground as Yangyang had shot him on the chest.

"Move any muscle and you're next!" says Yangyang as he moves to point the gun at the man.

"You're trained well, kid. But I'm just here for the girl. Hand her over to me," says the man before he starts laughting in a wicked manner.

"Over my dead body!" says Yangyang. "Stay away from her before you have to deal with the consequences!"

"Look, kid. I'm only here for the little brat. You better just hand her ov-"

The man wasn't able to finish his sentence as Yangyang had shot him in the chest, making him fall to the ground. Yangyang then grabs my hand and runs to our car. The two of us enter the car and speeds off leaving the beach.

"Hey, are you ok?" ask Yangyang as he keeps his vision on the road as he drives in high speed.

"Just...shocked..." I say as I was still shivering at the thought of almost getting kidnapped by two strangers.

"You're staying at our place tonight," says Yangyang. "You need extra protection."

I glance at Yangyang. "Ok," I say.

My mind is still traumatized by what just happened. I definetly don't want to sleep alone tonight. At this point, I guess I really do need protection from Yangyang and his friends.

10:45 PM...

At the boys' house...

"We're here," says Yangyang.

I walk out of the car and Yangyang holds my hand to comfort me as the two of us enter the house. We see that the guys are playing a game of cards in the living room.

"Hey, you're back!" says Kun to Yangyang before he moves his vision to me.

Meanwhile, Ten looks at me with a surprised look as his eyes stares at both Yangyang and I who are holding hands. I try to avoid eye contact with Ten since it feels awkward.

"We almost got attack by some random guys," says Yangyang with a serious tone.

"What? Where? Who?" ask Xiaojun with a shocked tone.

"At the beach. I was at the beach with Xiali when two guys approached us when we were about to leave. They wanted to take Xiali but I shot them faster before they could do anything else," says Yangyang as he still holds my hand to comfort me.

Though I'm still scared of everything that just happened, holding Yangyang's hand did made me feel a bit comfortable. My rushing heart beat starts to beat normally as my fear go down slowly.

"This is dangerous. Who are those guys?" ask Kun with a serious tone.

"We don't know. They were both wearing black mask, and I don't think we've seen them before," says Yangyang. "Chances are they could be a new gang."

"Or maybe we had just found out about them. Whatever is the name of their gang, these guys sounds dangerous," says Xiaojun.

"And they tried to take Xiali," says Yangyang.

"Someone dangerous is really after her," says Ten. "We have to give her extra protection and find out who is after her."

"Yes," Yangyang adds.

The guys continue to talk about their next plan to protect me and find out who is the person who's after me. As they all talk, I just sit in silence as I continue to hold Yangyang's hand. As it gets later, I start to feel sleepy.

"Xiali, you look sleepy," says Ten as he stares at my sleepy face. "You should get some sleep."

"We already tidy the guest room for you," says Xiaojun. "Please, make yourself at home."

"Thank you, guys," I say before I yawn. "Well, I'm gonna go to bed first. Goodnight," I say before walking upstairs to the guest room, or tonight I could call it my room for a moment.

At Xiali's room...

I walk inside the guest room to see that it's all tidy and clean. There is also a bathroom inside. I walk inside the bathroom to get myself clean up before bed.

11:30 PM...

I finished cleaning myself up and is now lying on the queen size bed. I just called my mom saying that I'll be staying at a friend's house tonight, in which she don't mind. I put my phone on the table and walk over to turn off the lights, when I hear a knock coming from the door.

I turn on the lights again and walk over to open the door. I open the door and see that Ten was standing alone.

"Ten. What's up?" I ask.

"Nothing. I just thought I check up on you," says Ten. "I just wanted to make sure you're ok," Ten adds.

"I'm ok," I say as I look at him who had a puzzled look on his face as he looks at the ground. "You want to come in?" I ask.

Ten slowly moves his glance to me. His face looks confused and puzzled.

"Sure," says Ten as he walks inside my room.

To be continue...