Always In Your Smile

Chapter-2:Arriving

‘I haven’t actually seen him in person for over six months and the first time I do, it’s here!’ Tong Yao thought to herself as she stared up at the hotel she was going to be staying in for the next couple of days.  ‘And why oh why did it have to be CK Gaming? Luck really must have decided I need a bit of bad to go with the good.’

Doing her best to ignore all the signs and the people hanging around the doors of the hotel, she made her way into the lobby, shaking her head slightly. ‘And I thought my old sport was crazy-mad at times.’

Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she swiftly pulled up the picture she had been sent of ZGDX’s manager, Xiao Rui (not that she was going to admit she already knew what he looked up, it was just to confirm to him that she was the person he had been speaking to.)

‘I am so going to be entangled in webs before I leave Shanghai!’ Tong Yao actually rolled her eyes at her own thoughts. ‘He better appreciate this.’

Looking up once more, she found the person she was looking for at the booking desk and waved her phone at him.

Looking up from where he had just finished booking in ZGDX and Tong Yao, Xiao Rui looked up and found his own eyes widening.
The petite pretty girl with large dark eyes in an overly large yellow coat was most definitely not what he had been expecting.

 ‘We’re going to tower over her!’ was the first thought that went through his mind. ‘I wonder if this is why she didn’t want me to share her picture with the team even if she decided in our favour,’ was his second one.

‘And why do I have this sudden feeling this is not the first time I’ve seen her.’ Was his final thought as he picked up the card he had been collecting and moved towards her still smiling, “Hi, you must be Tong Yao.”

“Xiao Rui.” Tong Yao smiled slightly, glad to know her cousin’s description of his teammate was spot on.

“Here’s your room card,” Xiao Rui handed it over with a broad smile, “The team is due to arrive at any moment, do you want to meet them?”

“No, no!” She was almost frantic in her refusal. “I… no, they need to concentrate on their match, not meeting someone new who still hasn’t decided!!”

“Are you sure, every other trainee has wanted to…” but she was shaking her head in refusal before he had even started talking. “It may just be as well; the press has somehow got wind of Ming’s retirement…”

“God Ming is retiring!” Even in her shock, Tong Yao managed to keep the level of her voice down, even as her mind raced wildly around the hotel lobby and back again. But before either of them could say anything further, the noise suddenly increased.

“That will be them arriving,” Xiao Rui said calmly, “Would you like to see…” He looked down at the slight girl beside him and that sense of déja-vu hit him again.

Tong Yao nodded, her eyes lighting up. “Yes, of course.”

Both moved into place, Tong Yao slightly behind and to the side of the taller ZGDX team manager. However much she was stunned inside from the bombshell he had just dropped about her favourite Mid, she was not ready to actually face her cousin yet.

(And watching them arrive was almost heart-breaking; she had never really got used to the way the press and fans descended on sports people when they had the scent of a story in their teeth and seeing it happen to her cousin’s team!!

And Lu Si Cheng. ‘Chessman’, the way he had looked at her – as if he had known her, which in a way he possibly did. A shiver went down her spine. ‘Those webs, those spider webs!’)