The air was knocked out of my lungs the moment my eyes connected with Zhuo Zhi's. Zhuo Zhi was wearing a baggy white t-shirt with words of different fonts and colours printed all over the front, with army-green Bermuda shorts. I recognised the hat placed on his head-- it was the black cap that he wore at the Festival. Memories we spent together at the Festival threatened to seep into my already disorganised thoughts. 

His lips were set in a straight line, his eyes extinguished of any emotion as his hands were shoved into his pockets, standing beside Jia Le coolly. I didn't realise immediately, but somewhere deep down, I was subconsciously missing his mild, casual smile, the one he always had on his face. Unable to look any longer, I averted my eyes away from his.

"Yue En. Ai Qi," Si Yang acknowledged calmly on behalf of his teammates.

"Eh? Nice to meet you guys here, too." Ai Qi looked pleasantly surprised at the appearance of the team. 

Seeing her delighted and curious mood, I forced myself to mirror her expression, conjuring up a charming smile. "What are you guys doing here?" I asked. "Aren't the semi-finals about to come soon?"

Da Chi spoke up this time. "We've been given feedback that everyone has been really tense because of the upcoming competition. Exams have just ended too, so we wanted to give everyone a treat today to relax."

"It was Little Lu Xia's idea," Jia Le piped up. "He said that Grandpa Liu from Number Six High School suggested it."

I nodded at their explanation, but I sensed something amiss. "Where's Lu Xia?"

"And Senior Yan and Xing Long?" Ai Qi added, which I only realised after she pointed it out. I silently did a headcount for the boys present before us-- Bai Yang, Qiao Chen, Zhuo Zhi, Jia Le, Da Chi, Si Yang. 

"Xing Long said he'll be helping his dad out at the restaurant, while Ah Yan is taking the day to meet his Hai Guang friend," Zhuo Zhi answered, but his eyes seemed to be looking at the space between Ai Qi and me. "They say it's therapeutic enough for them."

"And Lu Xia?" I repeated my question, wondering if Zhuo Zhi had ignored it on purpose or just forgot to address it.

"Oh, that lad," Qiao Chen snickered. "When he asked what to bring for the trip, I told him to bring a happy, energetic, good mood. He never replied to my message after that."

"You scared him away," Bai Yang stated bluntly, scoffing.

"Alright," Si Yang interjected, just preventing Qiao Chen's fist from hurtling in Bai Yang's direction. "Since everyone's here, how about we all go enjoy the rides together?"

"Uhh..." I paused, my eyes flickering over to Ai Qi's face, exchanging a glance with her, hoping to convey my hesitation to join the boys.

It's not that I don't want to join them, but it'll be tough to avoid the awkwardness between Zhuo Zhi and me.

I bit my tongue as I watched Ai Qi's eyes light up with hope, keen to agree to Si Yang's plan. She smiled eagerly, nodding excitedly as she pulled on my arm lightly, waiting for me to answer. 

I hadn't told anyone, including Ai Qi about what had happened between Zhuo Zhi and me. She probably thinks that I'll be okay with the idea, too. Ai Qi seemed to overlook the reluctant expression on my face. But seeing the wishful glimmer her eyes expressed, I couldn't bring myself to reject her, either. Gritting my teeth, I gave her a nod of approval.

Ai Qi grinned widely, giving my shoulder a grateful squeeze. "Sure! Let's go!"

The smallest of smiles emerged on Si Yang's face at her reply. As Ai Qi hooked her arm through mine and we followed the boys further into the park, I crossed my fingers and hoped that today wouldn't be too bad.

"Where should we go first?" Jia Le asked, gazing around the amusement park in childlike awe.

"Is there a map around here?" Da Chi mused thoughtfully. "Hey, hey," he moved out of our group to approach a staff member holding a couple of brochures in his hand. "Excuse me, can we take one of the maps?"

The man looked to be in his early thirties, sporting the red-polo-dark-jeans attire the staff of the amusement park all wore. His smile displayed his entire row of pristine-white teeth. "Of course!" he said welcomingly, handing Da Chi a map and passing another to Zhuo Zhi who stood close by. "Are all of you here to visit together?" The man added, sounding slightly hasty to tell us before we left. "We have a fun group activity that the staff of our park organised, are you interested in joining?"

Some of us raised our eyebrows sceptically, including me, which I edged closer to hear. The man seemed to sense our uncertainty and he gave us another charming smile. "There will be prizes for the groups that participate!"

"We're in!" Jia Le, Qiao Chen and Ai Qi's voices rang out almost instantly after the man mentioned the prizes. The other boys exchanged looks, which gradually turned into agreeing nods between each other.

"Awesome," the man beamed, beckoning us to follow him. Our group trailed behind the man as he led us to somewhere else.

Ai Qi nudged me. "You don't seem too enthusiastic about our activity," she frowned. "Are you feeling okay?"

For the act, I gave her a reassuring smile, making my eyes go wide with surprise at her statement. "What are you talking about? I'm curious to see what we are getting ourselves into, too." I added a tinge of anticipation to my tone to let it sound real.

Ai Qi's shoulders relaxed with relief, but she still looked slightly doubtful. "Don't lie to me. We can tell the guys that we will pull out of the activity if you want."

I punched her arm gently. "I already told you, I want to go. Besides," I cupped my hands beside her ear and whispered into it, "It looks like you like the idea of doing this with Captain Si Yang."

I giggled maniacally as I pulled away from her and Ai Qi's eyes went as round as saucers at what I said. "Mu Yue En!" she hissed, making some of the members turn around at our commotion. 

We quickly put on innocent expressions and smiled angelically at the boys. "Hi," I grinned, waving a hand pleasantly at them. I noticed Ai Qi's eyes dart over to Si Yang for a fraction of a second and I was about to collapse into another fit of giggles. The guys eyed us suspiciously and turned back around. Zhuo Zhi's eyes seemed to linger on me for a bit longer, I noted. It sent goosebumps all over on my skin.

The man finally stopped in front of a booth that looked slightly bigger and grander than the other booths around the amusement park. There were a couple of staff members wearing the same uniform manning the booth, their heads perking up at our presence. A middle-aged woman with framed glasses came to the front of the booth to address us. "Hi! Welcome to the Treasure Hunt activity. I'll be explaining the rules of the activity and what you're going to do.

"You'll be split into teams of three to four, and each team will be given different locations to go to and find the clues which will eventually lead to the treasure you're supposed to find. You simply enjoy each ride your team is assigned to, and once you're done, just approach one of our staff members and they'll give you a new clue on where to find your treasure. A wristband will be provided for everyone for the staff to identify your team as part of the Hunt.

"The rides for each team are different, and so is the final treasure location, hence there is no need for teams to work together to search for the final treasure. The teamwork is solely between your own members. There will be no specific time limit. The main point is for everyone to have fun! Everyone clear?" the woman held up an 'OK' sign with her hands, making sure that we knew the guidelines she just explained. We all hummed in approval.

Despite my moodiness moments earlier, I couldn't help but feel anticipation for the activity, my spirits lifting. "I'll team with Ai Qi!" I claimed, tapping Ai Qi on her shoulder with a smile on my face.

"I wanna be with Da Chi!" Jia Le raised one hand eagerly as he swung his other arm around Da Chi's shoulders.

The man who still hadn't left stepped forward. "Ah, we forgot to mention that our activity has one condition: those that come in groups of more than six have to do a lucky draw to decide their teams."

"Lucky draw?" Qiao Chen repeated, expressing his disbelief on behalf of all of us. "We can't choose our own teams?"

We all gaped in mild shock as the man chuckled lightly. "Well, of course, you can choose your own teams, but we will make the prize bigger if you choose your teammates by random."

What kind of system is this? I scoffed, thinking the whole pick-your-teammates thing was slightly outrageous. We all glanced at each other, unsure of what to think.

"Actually, there's nothing wrong with the lucky draw," Da Chi pointed out. "We're all friends anyway, right?"

"Da Chi is right," Zhuo Zhi said. "No matter what, we're all here to enjoy the day. Is everyone okay with the lucky draw?" I noticed how he seemed to avoid my gaze. 

I should be over him by now. Looks like he has decided to let our friendship go, anyway. 

Ai Qi leaned in and asked quietly, "Yue En, what if we don't get into the same team?"

I frowned as the possibility was brought up. I sighed, "We will. Cross your fingers, toes, eyes, whatever, we will still be in the same team. Okay?"

Ai Qi looked at me glumly. "Okay." She straightened herself up, perhaps to take a deep inhale of confidence. I gave Si Yang a nod, showing that we would go along with the lucky draw.

Si Yang turned to the man after confirming his team's decision. "We'll do the lucky draw."

"Great!" the man clapped his hands together, smiling widely. At that moment, that toothy smile felt almost irritating, sinister to me, like we had landed ourselves with a bad decision that was too late to turn back.

A girl, slightly older than us, emerged from within the booth holding a shoebox with a hole cut out on the lid. Her voice sounded slightly nasally as she explained, "There will be red and blue pieces of paper in the box. Same colour, same team. No peeking, though."

Zhuo Zhi reached his hand into the box first, feeling around before he finally pulled his arm out. The tiny square of paper was a deep crimson red. He seemed to think nothing much of it and stood aside to give space to Jia Le. When Jia Le also picked a red paper, he grinned and stood happily next to Zhuo Zhi.

Next was Da Chi, whose paper was a shade of sky blue. He immediately directed his regretful gaze over to Jia Le, who was frowning sadly, but gave him a reassuring smile as he moved over to the other side of the girl.

Ai Qi moved forward and stuck her hand into the box. She seemed to rummage through it for a while, but the girl holding the box was patient and still smiled warmly. Ai Qi took her hand out and the paper she held was blue. Without another word, she skipped over to stand beside Da Chi, holding out her hand for a friendly high-five. Da Chi grinned at her and clapped his palm to hers.

My mind was numb as I inserted my hand into the box, feeling around the tiny slips of remaining paper. My fingers brushed against its surfaces, blindly thinking that by touch I could decipher what their colours were. I kept my eyes trained on the bricks on the ground, afraid that one glance into the hole would cause the girl to call me out for cheating.

I finally picked my slip of paper and held it between my thumb and index finger. I bit my bottom lip in nervousness.

Please let it be blue. 

I pulled my hand out of the box, the colour of paper glowing under the sunlight.

It was red.

☆ ☆ ☆

I found this photo of Zhang Yi Jie online and I thought that I could use it for what I visualise as Zhuo Zhi's outfit, except just pretend that the hat is a black cap instead.

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~ Snowy ♡