Eternal Spring: Chapter 2 [F/voyer/exhib]

**Chapter 2:**

It’s 6:30am, and my train has finally arrived in the business district of the city. I still have one hour before I need to get to my office, so I’ll go find some quick breakfast nearby. My face still feels warm and flushed from my earlier embarrassment, thinking of all the people I ran past on my way to the subway. I walk up and out of the subway into the bustling street, already crowded with the morning rush for breakfast and work. Thinking about the upcoming client deadlines at work, I walk down to a small alleyway that sells dumplings. It’s a cute but very old alleyway of a forgotten time when the streets of China still looked very Chinese, and less like glass and concrete jungles. As I walk in, I’m greeted by the owner of the restaurant, an old lady I call auntie. I call her auntie because I frequently visit this little restaurant on my way to work. It’s cheap, delicious, quick, but most importantly, makes me so full. I take a seat and order 10 pork and chive dumplings with a “bao” bun on the side to take with me to work. While I’m waiting, I absentmindedly scroll through social media to check up on what my friends, family and colleges have been doing recently. Married – like. Dreaming of traveling – like. Lots of food photos – like. Oh, here’s my food! “Thank you auntie!” – OK, time to get stuck in.

*ding*

Oh a message, at this time? Strange. Mid mouthful of dumpling, I look at my phone and it’s from my boss. “Song. I’ll be out of the office this morning. Please take care of the urgent letters on my desk. Thanks”. Ah, another wonderful Monday.. More work on top of all the work I already had! I can’t complain though, my boss, Mr. Zhao has been so helpful to me and I’m still quite new here. I need to make a good impression! “Sure thing boss! You can count on me.” I reply back to him. Right, back to these dumplings.

*ding*

You have to be kidding me now what?

“Song. Please take the staff out tonight to treat them. They have been working hard. You all deserve some fun. Use the company card”.

Oh, that’s not quite what I expected. I guess he’s a good boss to all the employees, not just me.

“No problem. I’ll take them to a KTV and buy some food and drinks. See you when you’re back”.

I put my phone into my bag with my bao bun and finish eating my dumplings, ready to take on the day ahead. I pay the restaurant owner and quickly make my way out of the alleyway back to the main road. The wind chill has dropped significantly now as the sun has come up and as expected it’s a beautiful spring day. This must be why they call this city the “city of eternal spring” I think to myself.

As I’m walking along the road, I make sure to hold my tote bag away from me so I don’t make the same mistake as earlier. There are thousands of people around now, not like at my house, and having half my ass showing would draw a huge crowd. Oh cool a new sportswear shop! I’ll check that out another day. Too much to do today.

I arrive at the building my office is in and walk through the front doors towards the security check in, saying hello to the security guards and front desk administration guy. One of my colleges said he fancies me, but I think he’s younger than me, which isn’t really my thing. I’m quite sure he still lives with his parents as well, which is not too strange given the price of property, but dating someone with a more stable situation would suit me better I think. He’s cute though, I’ll give him that at least. I walk up to the lift and press the button, then take out my phone to burn some time. These lifts are always super busy so I might as well start work by checking through my emails. The lift chimes and I look up briefly and squish myself in with everyone else. Damn, so many emails. One of my clients wants a progress report today, OK sure I’ll fast track that with my team. Some spam emails. Delete delete delete. Oh, my boss sent a company wide email saying he will be out for a few days. OK cool I guess I’m taking over for a few days. I look up from my phone to see what level I’m at and right in front of me is a tall girl with a blue skirt, white top and blue jacket. No way… She works here too?! This is such a strange feeling. I just saw her an hour ago and now she’s right in front of me! The lift stops, and a few more people get out. There’s only 2 levels still selected on the wall of the lift – My level, and what I assume is her level. The lift chimes again and the doors start to open. She looks at me, smiles and walks out. Has she met me before? Maybe she has seen me in the lift some other time. Maybe she’s just being polite? She looks different when she’s just in front of me compared to when I see her through the window of my bathroom. She’s almost as tall as me with dark long hair tied up into a bun and has a similar, slender but fit body. I should make friends with her so we can swap clothes! “heh” I scoff to myself as the lift doors close again. Two more floors to go and I’ll arrive at work. I wonder if anyone else is there yet?

I open the door to the office and walk in and to my surprise, a few of the staff are here already as well. I guess good management does mean dedicated workers. “Hello. Good morning. Big day ahead!”. I walk to the back corner of the office where my team, the editing department sits and sit at my desk. Behind me is the glass wall of the building that overlooks the south of the city towards where my apartment is. I get my laptop out of my bag and open it at my desk, then put my bao bun next to my water bottle. Alright all set! First things first, I’ll get Mr. Zhao’s request sorted and book a KTV booth for tonight. The team will love that. Let’s see what’s close-by so we don’t have to walk too far.. oh ok this one looks good! “Excuse me, Millie. Have you been to Wanda Plaza KTV before? Is it good?”.

A girl with blonde hair looks up from her desk. “Morning Miss Song. Yes I have been there before. It’s really new and the music selection is great! May I ask, why do you want to know about a KTV so early in the morning?”

“Oh, haha yeah. Mr. Zhao has asked me to take the editing team out tonight to enjoy ourselves. He is paying for everything so I’m just making sure where we go is nice.” I smile back at Millie, who looks back at me with a cute youthful smile. I’m only a few years older than her but she is a natural baby face.

“Cool! That will be fun! I’ve never seen you go out before Miss Zhao”.

“Yeah, I don’t really go out too much anymore. I prefer to focus on my work and hobbies”.

Millie smiles at me again, then goes back to her desk. “What a cutie” I think to myself. OK, booked for 5 people, lets get an email out to the team to let them know. They might need to tell their families or partners they will be home late.

“Hey all, just a heads up – Tonight after work we will go to a team building event at Wanda Plaza KTV courtesy of Mr. Zhao. See you there!”

Short and sweet. Good.

As the morning progressed and the other staff turned up, they were in high spirits, which is rare for a Monday, with the team looking forward to having some fun after work. As the day went on and the emails flowed, I kept thinking of the girl from the apartment across from me and what it is she was doing. Why am I so intrigued by this person I don’t know? Whatever, I need to finish this work so I can enjoy myself later!

As the sun started setting over the city I looked at the time on my computer – 5:42pm – OK, I think we have achieved enough for today. “Hello team, lets finish what we are doing and get organised to go. The KTV is booked for 6:30 so there’s no rush, but it’s better to be early than late!”.

Almost as soon as I finished talking, Millie, An, Chloe and Liz closed their computers and started packing up.

“Wow, you guys are quick haha”

They chuckled and An said “We are just keen to have some fun and see you partying for once instead of working!”

Am I really that old I thought to myself. An is only one year younger than me but he really seems to think I’m like his auntie. I finished packing up my bag and we all left the office together. Leaving a bit earlier makes a huge difference on the people in the lift, as we were the only ones there apart from one other guy. Maybe I should leave earlier more often.. As we walked past the front desk, I heard Millie and Liz giggling to each other. I turned around and smirked at them, and they burst into laughter. Girls love some gossip, maybe I should give them some food for thought. “See you tomorrow!” I said as I walked past the front desk guy waving at him. The girls immediately stopped giggling and seemed shocked by my brazenness to speak with that guy. “What?” I asked as I turned around to the girls. Don’t you talk to other people too? I turned back around with a triumphant smirk on my face. Silly girls.

We walked down the main street of the city towards a large shopping center called “Wanda Plaza”. It was easy to find the right direction, as it’s one of the newer and taller buildings in the city and stood out quite clearly. The streets were busy with people and as the sun disappeared behind the mountains, the brisk wind was cool against my skin. If I had known before getting dressed for work this morning that I’d be walking around the city at night, I would have worn a different dress or some pants. My skirt was quite short, and I had to keep holding it down with my hands to stop the wind from blowing it up and all my staff seeing my underwear. “Are you cold Miss Song?” Liz asked. “No, I’m OK. We don’t have too far to go now. I’ll be fine” I smiled back at her. Finally, we arrived at Wanda Plaza. It was so much warmer in here compared to outside. We went up the escalators to the top floor of the plaza and into the KTV. I showed the staff my booking, and they took us through to our room. The room was very nicely set out, with a large low set couch on one wall and 2 large TV screens across from it. The speakers were huge on each side of the room and there were two microphones on the table. We all took a seat and starting scrolling through the iPad on the table to choose some songs. A staff member entered the room with a trolley full of fruit, nuts, snacks and drinks. “Woah, you really are treating us tonight!” An said as the staff started unloading bottles of whiskey and beers. “It’s all thanks to Mr. Zhao. I’m only the bringer of good news!” I exclaimed as the music started. Millie was up first to sing, so I started pouring shots of whiskey for everyone and passed around the food. “What style of music do you like to listen to Miss Song?” An asked. “I like some of the older classic love ballads. They are fun to sing and everyone knows them” I answered back. “Haha of course you do!” He replied. “What do you mean by that!” I said. “Oh, nothing. It’s just that you act like you’re 50 when you’re only 25 hahaha”. “Wow An, don’t hold back!” I replied while he laughed loudly. “I’ll have you know that I can be a lot of fun in the right situations!”. “Oh yeah? We will see”.

What a little shit. Am I really that boring and old fashioned? If they tried harder at work instead of partying so much, maybe they would have got a promotion instead of Mr. Zhao hiring me to come in. I’ll show them I can be fun.

“OK, who wants a drink?”

“Allright! Miss Song is having fun!”.

I handed out drinks to everyone and cheered them. “After the food arrives, lets play some drinking games!”

“Oh what kind of games?” Liz asked.

“Just like playing with dice, but if you lose, you have to take a shot”

“Oh ok I know that game. Sure! It’ll be fun!”

We all sung and had some drinks while waiting for the food to arrive. The room was quite warm, so I took off my sweater. Liz and Millie also took off their coats and An took off his hoodie. As he took it off, his shirt got caught in the hoodie and he flashed his chest for a second. Wow.. This kid has a great body. Who’d have thought that such a nerdy looking boy has such a great physique! “Oooohhhhhh!” Liz and Millie said while tapping An’s abs. “Stop showing off An nobody is interested in you hahaha”. An quickly pulled his shirt back down and took another swig of his drink. When the food arrived, we turned the music down a bit so we could have a chat while eating. The food I had ordered was stir fry noodles with meat and vegetables. Something I usually wouldn’t eat for dinner so I don’t get pimples the next day, but it was one of the better foods available on the menu. The team didn’t seem to mind though, as they all got stuck into it. “OK guys, now that we have some food in our stomachs, who would like to have a shot with me?”. “ME!” Millie shouted. “Lets drink to a happy future!”. We clinked our glasses together and shot our drink. “Millie, drink with me too”. An poured Millie another drink and they did another shot together. “Lets all drink to Mr. Zhao” I raised my glass and we all clinked them together and took another shot. Liz turned the music back up and asked me to sing a song. I chose an old but classic Jay Chou song that everyone knows and asked Liz to sing it with me. As we sung the song, An and Millie continued doing shots. Wow those kids can really drink! We all sung a few more songs then An said he was going to go home. “Oh is everything OK?” I asked. Yeah, I just don’t think I can drink any more without throwing up, so I’ll just go home.

“Noo, don’t go An! We are having so much fun, just stay for a bit more!” Millie cried out.

“OK,fine. I’ll just go to the bathroom and come back soon” An said as he walked outside the room. As Millie sat back down, she lost grip of her beer and it landed on my shirt hitting my right breast. “Oh my god. Shit!”. As the beer soaked into my white shirt and stuck to my body, my breasts and stomach became very clearly outlined. “Woah. Miss Song. Let me help you quickly”. I stood up and I was absolutely soaked in beer. It was dripping off me. I quickly grabbed my sweater and covered myself while Millie struggled to get herself up from the chair. Liz quickly tried to soak up the beer with some tissues but my shirt was far too wet. Millie made her way over and started saying sorry while trying to dry my shirt. “It’s OK girls, I’ll just take off my shirt and put my sweater back on. It’s not a problem just an accident”. “I’ll help! I’m so sorry!” Millie said as she pulled my shirt up over my head to reveal my bare chest. “Wow Miss Song, you really have a great body. Just… Wow!” “Thanks Liz. Can you please help me dry my skirt while I put my sweater on?”. “Of course, I’ll get some more tissues”. As Liz walked over to the table, Millie grabbed my sweater and said “Arms up!”. I put my arms up and she pulled the sweater over my face. Millie then pulled the sweater down over my shoulders and brushed her hand against the side of my breast. “I’m so sorry Miss Song. I really didn’t meant to spill the drink on you!”. “It’s OK Millie, but I think I’ll go home now and get some sleep. It’s getting late anyway”. Liz came over and started dabbing tissues on my legs and on my skirt. “I’ll do it” Millie said as she took the tissues from Liz. She started dabbing my skirt against the front of my thighs and around my upper leg. “Can I?” She asked while pointing under my skirt. “Sure. It’s not too wet”. She put her hand up my skirt and started dabbing the tissues around my upper thigh. Suddenly the door to our room opened and An came back in. “Whoa what the hell are you guys doing? What did I miss?”. I stood up and said “We had an accident with a drink and it fell on me. I’m going to go home now though so I can get some rest. You guys can enjoy the rest of these drinks”.

Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/rrl4go/eternal_spring_chapter_2_fvoyerexhib