"You waiting for me?" Jane Sampson stood beaming in front of James Black, "Iām not coming to your place tonight, Iām heading back to my dorm."
After a pause, Jane added, "Iāve got food in my dorm, so I donāt need to come over for a late-night snack either."
This morning, she had even used the bottle James Black gave her for yogurt to make peanut soup and bring it back to the dormitory.
"Heh." James knew that once she had food in her hand, there was no bringing her back.
"Oh, right." Janeās eyes lit up suddenly, and then she said, "Iāve also prepared a gift for you! You gave me lipstick last time and I never returned the favor."
"By the way?" James gritted his teeth, mulling over the phrase, feeling nothing but displeasure at those two words.
As a husband, his gift was something āby the wayāā was that something to be happy about?
Fine then.
Itās better than nothing, I suppose.
James, who had been sulking for half the evening, was indeed surprised, and then finally reached out his hand to Jane with enthusiasm, saying, "Hand it over."
Jane hummed an acknowledgment and pulled out from her pocket a gift wrapped the same way as the ones for Peter Gingery and the others, but this one had āFor James Blackā written on it in three words.
Jane placed the item into Jamesās palm and instructed, "You are not allowed to open it now! Wait until you get back to your dormitory!"
James held the item in his hand and hummed an acknowledgment, not minding the wait.
"Also, Jane Sampson, the 1000-word self-criticism," Jamesās voice was cool, "I hope I donāt need to remind you, do I? I told you that you must give it to me before you leave the guard team."
"Itās done, itās done!" Jane quickly pulled out a neatly folded square piece of paper from her pocket, "Youāre not allowed to look at it now. Wait until you go back. If you promise, then Iāll give it to you."
Considering that Jane might be shy, James agreed. He pocketed both items and then, amidst the gaze of the surrounding team members, with an indifferent expression, he took Janeās hand, and they left the grand auditorium together, hand in hand.
"Seeing the Chief holding our sister-in-lawās hand and walking off, I suddenly feel like the Chief and our sister-in-law make a strangely perfect match," someone murmured to Peter.
Peter shrugged his shoulders. Perfect match or not, who knows, right?
Anyway, Old Sir at home thought Jane and James were a perfect match since she was very young, but in over 20 years, Peter had never seen it.
However, he did seem to see a hint of it today.
James escorted Jane back down the dormitory building, and once he saw her scampering up the stairs without looking back, he snorted at her retreating figure before he left.
When he returned to his own dormitory, the first thing he did was to open the gift Jane had given him.
Peter hadnāt opened his gift on the spot, so James hadnāt seen it, but the gifts Jane gave to the others were all figures made of tree leaves.
James thought, considering Janeās character, the āby the wayā gift she made for him was probably the same.
But.
It wasnāt until he opened it that James realized he had underestimated Jane.
He stared at the white card in his hand with a green leaf crafted into the shape of a turtle and noticed an arrow next to the turtle pointing to three bold wordsā Bastard Black.
James was immediately struck by laughter.
The gift seemed oddly familiar, and James remembered that Jane once posted a picture of a big turtle in Moments with the captionā Bastard Black.
Jane, always eager to transform internet memes into material objectsā unscoldable, unsmackable, probably strutting about in heaven above now.