Chapter Text
Two lines. There was no mistaking the two bright pink lines, clear as day. 17-year-old Hung Sheung Sin stared at the stick in disbelief with a racing heart, while her mind became a clouded mess. It was as though the walls of the bathroom stall were closing in on her, suffocating her into a tight, claustrophobic space until she could hardly breathe. How could this happen? How could I be so stupid? She thought. Hung Sheung Sin wasn’t the type to make mistakes; she earned perfect scores on every exam. How could she make the gravest mistake of her life?
Suddenly, the school bathroom door swung open. She jumped, the pregnancy test skittered out of her shaking hands and across the tiled floor. Fuck.
It landed at the feet of a pair of perfectly polished Prada leather mary janes, which could only belong to Linda Lung Lik Lin. She had been parading around the school with those shoes all week, bragging about how there were only ten pairs in the world, and she was the only person in Hong Kong to own a pair. It appeared that she was alone, without her posse of wannabes trailing behind. If Sheung Sin hadn’t already felt like dying, she certainly did now. At this point, flushing herself down the toilet didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Why couldn’t it have been literally anyone else in the world? Why did it have to be her frenemy/arch rival? Linda and Sheung Sin were notorious for always competing with each other whether it be in academics, athletics, or elsewhere, even meals at the cafeteria. Hung Sheung Sin hardly smiled, but in the rare moments where she did, it was probably due to Linda Lung’s misfortune. Although they occasionally shared friendly moments, these were usually fleeting and they would quickly pretend nothing happened.
Linda crouched down and picked it up slowly, catching a glimpse of the beat-up secondhand Doc Martins behind the bathroom stall. It was the same pair that she often teased Hung Sheung Sin for, calling her poor to her face. A wave of aching pain washed over her tightening chest as she glanced from the two pink lines to the stall door.
“Hung Sheung Sin? Is that you?” Linda asked, giving the door a gentle knock. “Are you okay?”
Sheung Sin did not answer, though she wiped the salty tears with the back of her hand and took deep breaths to steady herself. Fuck it. If there was one person she couldn’t hide from, it was Linda. She flung the door open and glared at her, arming herself with hostility as her greatest defence mechanism.
“How’d you know it was me?” she growled, snatching the pregnancy test from her hands and shoving it in her backpack. Sheung Sin continued to wash her hands nonchalantly, as if nothing happened.
“I… recognized your shoes,” Linda replied. She continued to stare at Sheung Sin who appeared fine, but they both knew she was anything but.
“If you’re going to mock me or slut-shame me, go ahead,” she snapped, trying her best to put on the tough act, but her wavering voice betrayed her at the end.
For some reason, Linda’s heart stung again, watching Sheung Sin fight back tears. “What? No, I would never…”
Without saying anything further, she threw her arms around Sheung Sin, wrapping her into an embrace. Though she initially wanted to push her away, she ended up awkwardly placing her hands on Linda’s back. The warm feeling of her body against hers was surprisingly comforting, like a ray of sunshine in her moment of darkness. A tear or two had dripped onto Linda’s uniform, but she didn’t seem to mind.
The school bell rang, and they finally pulled apart.
“I’m always here if you need anything, or if you just want to talk to someone,” Linda offered.
Sheung Sin debated firing back with another hostile retort, but ended up mumbling a “thank you”. Just before she exited the bathroom, she turned and narrowed her eyes. “By the way, if you tell anybody about this, I’ll kill you,” she warned.