Chapter 18

The drop-in for one of the sculpture classes was before his date. Sun Fang showed up on a rainy summer Tuesday with an umbrella over his head and dressed in a long black skirt and a loose white shirt that he thought looked quite fetching on him. He whistled as he walked up the sidewalk to the entrance, cars passing by on the busy road.

His butler was joining him on this outing; it was the one carrying a large umbrella that covered the both of them easily enough. As they reached the door and it opened automatically for them, Sun Fang glanced up at the sky.

It was one of those rare days when it was covered with angry, dark grey clouds, the blue sky and the sunlight nowhere to be seen. It meant that more people than usual were out on the streets, taking advantage of the lack of sweltering heat.

The building they were entering was four floors high and fairly wide. From what he’d seen online before he left, there were plenty of different creative groups that held classes here and the sculpture for beginners class that he was checking out was only one of many. There were already couple of people taking up space in the lobby when they walked in.

The lobby was small, but warmly decorated and the cream-colored walls were utterly covered by paintings. There had been clear directions on the website and so Sun Fang walked straight through it and headed toward a stairwell. Behind him, his butler packed away the umbrella and signed them in at the reception.

Sun Fang went up to the third floor and prowled through the hallways, his eyes shifting every which way. There were plaques on all the door, denoting this or that classroom. His hand trailed along the walls, and he stopped abruptly when he finally reached the right room.

Pushing the door open, he walked through it.

The next hour was spent stalking though every inch of it, watching intensely as the students did their best to sculpture things of decent quality. The people taking the class was of all ages, but there were mostly betas here. Some of them gave him weird looks when he passed them by for the third time in a row, and he only grinned brightly back at them.

When he had seen everything he could, Sun Fang decided that he would make his decision after he’d gone to visit the other candidate for his future hobby. He didn’t want to commit to anything yet and regret. Although, it would be very easily fixable if he didn’t end up liking the class so it wasn’t a big deal. But regret was a heavy sensation at the pit of his guts that he didn’t enjoy having, and most of the time he did his best to steer clear of it.

Leaving the sculpture class behind, Sun Fang walked back out into the hallway. Androids weren’t allowed in the classrooms, and so his butler had been forced to wait outside. Sun Fang would have preferred not wasting its time like that, but he hadn’t known how long this would take.

”Ready to go?” the butler asked. Sun Fang made a confirmative noise.

They were walking through the colorful hallway when he saw an open door. Curious, Sun Fang swung his head around to gaze through it as they sauntered past. Then he blinked and stopped in his tracks.

”Young Master?” his butler asked.

”Just a sec,” Sun Fang distractedly answered. He stepped through the doorway and into the classroom, watching the spinning plates on the devices. He had no idea what they were called, but it looked like fun.

So this was pottery, huh? It didn’t look like he’d imagined.

Not like he’d spent a lot of time imaging it, though.

”Excuse me,” he called out to the elderly woman who appeared to be in charge.

She turned around to face him, smiled and said with an asking tone, ”Yes?”

”Is this a beginner class?” he asked, already starting to rearrange his plan. He’d have to cancel the other drop-in and it seemed kind of messy, this pottery business. He’d have to find suitable clothing to wear for this hobby.

”No, those are on Wednesdays and Sundays. Two in the afternoon, each class an-hour-and-a-half long.” She saw his doubtful look and added, ”That’s enough time for beginner projects. More advanced classes have more time for more complicated projects. Are you interested?”

”Yes,” Sun Fang said. This class certainly looked more fun than that sculpturing one and hadn’t he enjoyed playing with mud when he was a kid? And mud was basically clay.

This could be fun.

He got signed in to the beginners class right then and there—there was no use in wasting time. Settling the bill for the first month (with a bit of discount because some of the month had already passed) he was welcomed back the next day to take his first ever class in pottery.

Sun Fang nearly skipped out of that building. When they exited it, his butler opened up the umbrella with a loud whoosh, shaking the heavy rain still falling. Sun Fang hurried in under it and they began to walk the distance to the car. It’d had to be placed further away then he wanted to due to a lack of available parking space.

They managed to make it through the rain undamaged. Sweeping into the car, Sun Fang settled back and pulled out his phone as his butler climbed into the driving seat. Soon enough, the car started running and they were setting off.

He opened up the Stargazer app and scrolled through the recent posts. None of his family had answered the comment he’d posted on Sun Yi’s post, but there were plenty of other replies. Grinning, he stuck his tongue out and got started on fanning the flames. The hilarious thing was that his engagement with Marcus had been a long and well-known one. Really, what reaction from the public was his brother expecting?