When the desserts arrived again, they were all a little reluctant to part—the sky was about to darken. No matter how well they got along, once the day ended, they would still have to say goodbye for the time being.
"Dagger and Sheath is performing next week... Do you watch plays?" Chloe looked at the two friends beside her. "I can get the best tickets."
"Where?" Jahadorei asked.
"Probably downtown," Lu Qi Zhen said. "It's quite a famous play. The venues chosen for its tour are usually Grand Theaters."
Chloe looked at Lu Qi Zhen in surprise. "You know so much about it!"
Lu Qi Zhen smiled and sighed. "Because I've seen it so many times. I've dragged my fiancé to see it three times alone... or was it four?"
"You have a fiancé..." Chloe froze, then immediately looked intrigued. "Do you have a photo? Let me see!"
"Yes!" Jahadorei answered for Lu Qi Zhen.
Chloe and Jahadorei pressed close to Lu Qi Zhen again, one on either side, watching as she took a photograph from her wallet. He really was a handsome man, Chloe thought, though he was still nowhere near as good-looking as Kovishik.
"How long have you known each other?"
"Many years," Lu Qi Zhen said. "We met in middle school."
"Classmates?"
"He was two grades above me." Lu Qi Zhen thought back. "It's been almost ten years."
"Almost ten..." Chloe suddenly realized something was wrong. She stared at Lu Qi Zhen's face. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-six."
"What!" Chloe shot upright. "You—you're already twenty-six?"
Jahadorei's eyes widened too.
"I didn't know... Is that very old? I still feel like my twentieth birthday was yesterday... How did I suddenly become twenty-six?" Lu Qi Zhen looked up, equally confused. "How old are you two?"
Jahadorei said, "I'm sixteen..."