Give Me Another Smile - Chapter 90: Chance Encounter

Chapter 90: Chance Encounter

The optical shop was situated at the entrance of a plaza. As a result, many pedestrians and vehicles traveled through the area, with students accounting for most of them since it was the weekend.

When Tang Yu arrived at the shop, the establishment had plenty of youngsters walking around wearing corrective lenses and a few who were looking through the display cabinets in search of their favorite frames.

A girl in a casual shirt noticed Tang Yu entering the store. After dropping the price list in her hands, the girl approached Tang Yu and asked, “Hello, how may I help you?”

“I made an appointment in advance. May I know where I should go?” Tang Yu asked.

“Oh, you can head over to that counter,” the girl said as she pointed at a relatively isolated counter.

“Thank you,” Tang Yu politely thanked the staff and approached the counter in question.

There was a young man busy registering information behind the counter. When he saw the silhouette of a person appearing in front of the counter, without even looking up, he subconsciously said, “If you want to have your eyesight measured, you have to wait by the cubicle to the left of the entrance to get registered.”

“Hello, I made an appointment in advance,” Tang Yu patiently said.

“Oh! My bad, my bad!” The young fellow quickly reacted and looked up. Then, with an embarrassed smile, he said, “There have been a lot of customers coming in without an appointment today, so I just assumed you were the same. I’m truly sorry, haha!”

Tang Yu shook her head to express that she didn’t mind the misunderstanding. Then, after she gave her name to the young man, the other party quickly found her appointment, gave her a number, and had her wait for her turn.

“Someone else is having their eyesight tested right now, but your turn will come up right afterward, so it won’t be a long wait,” the young man explained while pouring Tang Yu a cup of warm water.

After saying so, the young man returned to his station and resumed his work, leaving Tang Yu sitting in front of a coffee table near the shopfront.

Like the young man said, Tang Yu didn’t have to wait long before she heard her number getting called. After tidying up her slightly wrinkled shirt, she went inside the cubicle.

“Huh? Big Sis Tang?”

A surprised voice came from the person walking by Tang Yu. When Tang Yu turned to look at the other party, she saw it was Zhao Yu.

“What a coincidence. Did you also come to get your eyes checked?” Tang Yu responded, following common courtesy.

Holding up the black bag in his hand, Tang Yu smiled and said, “Yes. I’m also here to buy Doctor Gao a new pair of glasses while I’m at it.”

“Hm?” Zhao Yu’s answer confused Tang Yu. If she remembered correctly, Gao Rang still wore his usual pair of gold-rimmed glasses to work this morning, and the glasses didn’t seem like they needed replacement.

“I accidentally broke Doctor Gao’s glasses the last time I visited his house. I never found the right time to buy a new pair for him. Seeing that I’d be taking an eye examination today, I figured I’d buy him a new pair now,” Zhao Yu explained. However, despite the reasoning he came up with, he didn’t actually have any vision problems. His eye examination also proved that his vision was far from imperfect. In reality, the eye examination was nothing but an excuse to buy Doctor Gao a new pair of glasses.

Speaking of Doctor Gao, Zhao Yu realized that Gao Rang hadn’t contacted him in a while, and he couldn’t help but wonder if the other party still remembered him.

“I’ll be going over to the hospital now. I’ll also visit Brother Zhao while I’m there,” Zhao Yu said with a meaningful smile before paying his bill and leaving the optical shop.

…

In an office filled with the faint scent of disinfectant, a young man in a white robe listlessly stared at the potted plant on his desk, his pupils lax.

Suddenly, a knocking sound came from the door, bringing Gao Rang out of his stupor. After seeing that his colleague was absent from the office, he rubbed his face to get his act together and said, “Please come in.”

Gao Rang originally thought it would be a patient coming through the door. He never thought it would be the young man he had longed for to appear before him.

“Why…are you here?” Gao Rang got up from his chair in a panic, behaving like a subordinate who had just encountered a surprise inspection from his superior. Then, he suddenly thought of something and hurriedly checked Zhao Yu’s body for any injuries while worriedly asking, “Are you feeling ill? Did you get injured again?”

Zhao Yu didn’t expect Gao Rang to have such a reaction, and he couldn’t help but pull back his hand from Gao Rang’s hands in a panic. The other party was someone with a “record,” and he was more or less averse to this “record.” After all, he was a straight male.

Indeed. Some time ago, Zhao Yu had met Gao Rang on the street, and the other party had invited him to his home for a tour and to play some console games. Boys tended to lose their sense of decency when they played games. Meanwhile, partway through their fun, Gao Rang brought out a bottle of wine from his cupboard.

Initially, Zhao Yu didn’t really care that Gao Rang had started to drink. Instead, he was focused on helping Gao Rang clear a stage the other party had never conquered.

By the time Zhao Yu remembered he was in another person’s home and the house’s owner hadn’t rejoined their game, Gao Rang had already drunk. Then…Gao Rang had seemingly mistook him for his girlfriend and took his first kiss unceremoniously. To make matters worse…it was a wet kiss…