He rolls his eyes, but there’s a matching grin on his face now. “Yangyang,” he corrects. “It’s my small name. My full Chinese name is Gong Wenyang. Mum’s side of the family insisted. Well, my great-grandpa specifically. He wanted our names to share one of the same Chinese characters.”

“What’s his name?” I ask curiously.

“Liwen,” Emmitt says almost fondly. “Apparently Mum threw a fit when he tried to name me, but Dad wanted to get into her family’s good graces, so he immediately agreed to it.”

“Can’t blame your dad for wanting to win points with the in-laws,” I say, laughing quietly. “And either way, it’s a lovely name.”

“It’s what I use as my hotel alias,” Emmitt says, his smile widening until his dimple appears.

“Not Ezra Rivera?” I tease.

“Maybe next time,” he says, his eyes bright with amusement.

I squeeze his wrist. “You know, Bangladeshi people have this thing called a dak nam, which is a similar concept to a small name, I think. Mine is Poppy.”

“Also a lovely name,” he says, before tilting his head in consideration. “Yangyang and Poppy. Sounds like a rom-com waiting to happen.”

“You wish,” I say, shoving him away half-heartedly.

Emmitt laughs, throwing his head back. “Am I wrong?”

“Be quiet.” I wave him off, turning back to the script. “I’m trying to focus.”

He hums, resting his head against my arm and reading along with me. I consider shaking him off, but that’s more effort than it’s worth.

After a moment, he leans over, using a pen to scratch something onto the page. “Yangyang,” he says in explanation.

I raise my brows but slowly jot down something beside it. Even though I don’t know how to read or write in Bengali, I have the characters of my own name memorized. “And Poppy.”

龚文阳 + পপি

“I told you they look good together,” he says smugly.

I roll my eyes fondly and return to reading the script. Ms. Somal is the next person to arrive, and she looks at us with a raised eyebrow. As usual, she remains blessedly silent as she heads to her usual seat in the back of the classroom.

Other club members start filing in soon after, joining us. Linli comes over to me, pulling out her script.