Nocturnal Reveries: A DiYue One Shot Collection

Thumbs-up

"Hello, Shen Yue?" Wang He Di said.

"Oh, hi." The guy on the other line said. Wait a minute, this isn't her. Didi thought.

"Who is this? Where's Shen Yue?" he asked a bit aggressively, slightly panicking over the thought that she might've been kidnapped and now being held hostage somewhere.

"Yeah uhm.. this is Sun Ning. Her friend," the voice said.

"Oh. It's you," said Didi, who is now calm but still full of questions.

"She just went to the restroom and left her phone. I thought it might've been something related to work so I answered. Sorry," Sun Ning said.

"So you don't know who I am?"

"I kind of guessed through your voice but to be sure I'm going to ask you. This is Wang He Di right?" Sun Ning asked.

"Yes it's me, but how come you don't know that? Don't tell me she doesn't have my number saved on her phone?"

"Oh, no! It's saved on her contacts list, alright. It's just there's no name, just an emoji," Sun Ning said and afterwards let out a soft chuckle.

"What's the emoji then?"

There was a bit of a scuffle on the other line as Didi waited for Sun Ning's answer that unfortunately didn't come. He heard a voice—her voice—laughing while trying to grapple her phone from Sun Ning's grasp. He waited a few seconds before she finally spoke on the other line.

"I'm really sorry!" Didi heard Sun Ning's faint voice.

"Don't mind him, I'm going to beat him up later. Why did you call, Wang He Di?" Shen Yue asked, now on the other line.

"It's because you're clumsy leaving your phone behind," he said coldly.

Shen Yue was taken aback by the chill of his voice despite him being not physically present. She sensed a teeny bit of jealousy but decided to disregard it as her imagination playing tricks on her. He's probably had a rough day and needs to vent. Be a good friend and listen. She told herself.

"Rough day?" she answered calmly.

No reply. She kept hearing him take deep breaths as if he's taking up the courage to say something or keeping himself poised to prevent himself from blurting out his anger. Which of the two, she has yet to find out.

"Hey, why did you call?" she asked, putting in extra effort to soften her voice.

After a minute, he talked. "I didn't know you were out with them now."

If she heard jealousy a while ago, she wasn't sure. But now all she heard was sadness. He was sad and probably feeling terrible to have called her while she was out with her friends.

"Yeah, it wasn't planned. Just a spur of the moment kind of thing since we're all free anyway," she tried to assure him.

"I'm sorry, I'll just call some other time then," he said glumly.

"Hey, you can talk to me now. What is it? Why did you call?"

"No, just... enjoy your time with them."

She knew he was feeling miserable but she didn't know why. So in an attempt to lighten up the mood she asked him, "Are you jealous?"

"What?!" he shouted at her from wherever part of the planet he was.

"I asked if you were jealous. That I'm out with my friends," she explained.

"Of course not! That's your life! And they seem nice to you and they protect you. And you are comfortable and happy with them..." Didi said then went on to mumble things about how fun their company must be compared to his, how gentler they are when treating her, how interesting they are compared to him. He then proceeded to ultimately wallow in self-loathing about his apparent weakness which are emotional scenes.