She still doesn’t like me
Qiao Yu hadn’t expected to receive such a profound answer.
It was as if the whole person was laid open, a love confessed without reserve.
Even she could clearly perceive the true nature of these emotions.
“…This is love.”
Qiao Yu heard her own voice, murmuring as if in a dream, as she looked at Lin Qing almost devoutly, voicing her answer with absolute certainty.
“You are in love… with that person.”
The last three words were uttered indistinctly, as she felt her throat incredibly dry at the moment. It was a glaringly obvious answer, one she believed Lin Qing was also clearly aware of internally, but as Qiao Yu spoke the words, she felt her heart subtly sink.
Confused, she reached out to press her own chest, not understanding why she felt this anomaly.
Meanwhile, Lin Qing, who had been gazing at her intensely, shifted her gaze away at this moment, concealing the disapppoinment in her eyes. She took a deep breath, as if to break the ambiguous tension, and spoke up briskly.
“How about it? Can it help your friend?”
“Ah, ah, I think it will be of great help.”
Qiao Yu also came to her senses, suddenly propelling herself up, barely steadying herself on the nearby railing to stop the dizziness and palpitations that stemmed either from squatting too long or from being overwhelmed by the content of the conversation just now.
“Are you okay?”
Lin Qing hurriedly stood to support her, and Qiao Yu reassured her with a smile, her heart, however, felt covered by a layer of fog, hazy and unclear.
“Host? Why not advise the female lead to confess her feelings.”
“……”
“Host?”
Indeed, such a good opportunity—if Lin Qing has already recognized her own feelings, then Qiao Yu, who knows the ins and outs, should push things forward. Acting as Lin Qing’s best friend, she should safeguard the blooming romance for her.
Even if she doesn’t urge Lin Qing to confess her love, she should at least coax out who Lin Qing has a crush on here. In this way, Qiao Yu’s future efforts to foster the relationship between Lin Qing and Cong Ye will be more logical.
However, the system’s direct inquiry made Qiao Yu a bit irritated.
Ignoring the system’s question, she walked down the stands with Lin Qing. Mi Yi, standing on the sports field’s grass, was waving at them. Using the excuse of going to buy a bottle of water, Qiao Yu left first.
The crisp mineral water trickled down Qiao Yu’s throat, but it couldn’t wash away the indescribable bitterness welled up inside her.
Surely, Lin Qing’s liking for Cong Ye was the natural unfolding of a splendid thing.
It was supposed to be so.
Clutching the bottle of mineral water, Qiao Yu walked back toward the field from the snack stand, when suddenly a soccer ball leisurely rolled to her feet from the direction of the field. Looking up, she saw Cong Ye, drenched in sweat by the goal post, waving at her and shouting, “Qiao Yu, kick it back for me, will you?”
She glanced down at the soccer ball, expressionless, and deliberately kicked it even further in the opposite direction.
“What are you doing—! Qiao Yu, you really are—”
“Shut up!! Go get it yourself!!”
After shouting, Qiao Yu walked away with the nameless fire inside her burning even more fiercely after seeing Cong Ye, leaving him behind, confused and clueless.
Now that she had her answer, and a more detailed one than she expected, Qiao Yu took the opportunity of the next class break to summon Song Wanwan out.
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She looked at Song Wanwan, the young lady who seemed a bit nervous, uncharacteristically obedient, waiting for her to speak first.
Reflecting on Lin Qing’s words, Qiao Yu cautiously began to speak.
“…Song Wanwan, do you feel scared when you’re by my side?”
For some reason, Qiao Yu resisted reciting those words in full to someone else, choosing instead to lead with this question, fumbling through her thoughts as she spoke. The crux of her message revolved around the anxiety of gain and loss.
She felt her speech was all over the place, uninspiring even; as though love is always accompanied by pain and entanglement, like chains of thorns that wrap around tightly, suffocating yet willingly nurtured with one’s own blood, all for the sake of a flower that might never bloom.
After a monologue that left her mouth dry and tongue parched, a silence fell between the two, both wearing unpleasant expressions.
“That’s how it is.”
It was Qiao Yu who broke the silence first; she gazed at Song Wanwan, taking in the latter’s confused expression completely.
“How do you feel about it?”
“…I don’t understand.”
Song Wanwan shook her head, her voice soft and filled with confusion.
“Shouldn’t falling in love be a happy thing?”
“It is a happy thing, but it’s not just about happiness.”
Qiao Yu thought of Lin Qing just now, her voice carried a kind of resolute despair similar to cutting off one’s own wrist when she spoke.
“…Especially having a crush, it’s probably something sweet yet painful, isn’t it?”
Ah, what a mess.
Back then, Lin Qing was obviously so beautiful, but Qiao Yu didn’t want to see her a second time.
“Qiao Yu is acting strange; she actually ran out as soon as class ended.”
“And when you ask her what she’s going to do, she’s all evasive.”
“Isn’t she going to the restroom?”
“No way, she definitely looks like she’s hiding something from us. She was acting weird during gym class too, wouldn’t even kick the ball back to me.”
Cong Ye gazed at Qiao Yu’s empty seat, his eyes burning with a keen intensity. He exchanged theories with Lu Yao next to him, both speaking with authority and conviction.
Mi Yi didn’t join in this conversation. In contrast to the boys’ wild and baseless speculations, she had a faint inkling of the truth.
She glanced at Lin Qing’s upright posture and couldn’t help but inwardly sigh at how composed this person was.
Her mind wandered back to the exchange during gym class. Qiao Yu’s departure was actually convenient for her, allowing Mi Yi to approach Lin Qing without any reservations.
‘What did you two talk about just now? Qiao Yu’s complexion seemed a bit off.’
After the karaoke incident, their relationship became even closer. Lin Qing didn’t hide anything from her and recounted the whole event, only glossing over her response to Qiao Yu with ambiguity.
‘Hmm…’
Mi Yi listened and frowned, raising her eyebrows as she asked Lin Qing,
‘What do you think?’
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Lin Qing’s gaze settled on the empty air, her expression unchanged.
‘At first, I thought she was talking about herself.’
Her voice was crisp and cool, the emotions within indiscernible.
‘It was only later that I realized, she seems to actually have such a friend.’
‘…Why?’
Although Mi Yi also felt that Qiao Yu wasn’t just using the old ‘I have a friend’ as a cover, she couldn’t help but be curious about the reason behind Lin Qing’s thought process. To make such a judgement under those circumstances, should one call it composed or something else?
‘Just take one look and you’ll know—Qiao Yu has never been good at hiding her emotions.’
Lin Qing lowered her eyes, only the tight line of her lips revealing that her heart was not as serene as her appearance suggested.
‘She isn’t testing me because she knows my secret, nor does she have someone in her heart. Her eyes tell me that she doesn’t understand.’
‘She doesn’t know that I… like her, and she doesn’t like me either.’
Lin Qing’s voice was soft, pausing for the duration of a breath before continuing.
‘At least for now, she doesn’t like me’
Mi Yi didn’t know how to comfort Lin Qing. She knew all too well how painful this kind of situation could be and that any consolation from others was futile. No one in this world can truly feel what another person feels; the myriad tastes of an unrequited love are known only to those who experience it.
So she didn’t continue—didn’t point out who that “friend” of Qiao Yu’s actually was. But Mi Yi believed that with Lin Qing’s intelligence, she had probably already guessed. Thus, the two shared an unspoken understanding and remained silent.
Back to the present, Mi Yi squinted at the clock, the usually indifferent she couldn’t help but feel indignant on behalf of Lin Qing.
Right now, Qiao Yu is probably talking to Song Wanwan… using the love diagnosis methods learnt from Lin Qing, Qiao Yu, you’ve really got some nerve.
… What kind of mess is this, she can’t even feel happy about winning the bet.
Seriously, there’s got to be a limit to foolishness, right?
Fool? Qiao Yu was also very unhappy. Now, she sat at her bedroom desk again, staring at the light screen and the blank document interface, unable to type a single word.
Since she separated from Song Wanwan and returned to the classroom that afternoon, she couldn’t figure out why the three people around her were acting so weird towards her. This time, Mi Yi was the worst; she wouldn’t even look Qiao Yu in the eye, treating her as if she was unworthy, which only dragged her already low spirits down further.
The only silver lining was that the issue with Song Wanwan seemed to have come to a close. Although the young lady still looked somewhat baffled, she still hesitated before she retracted her confession.
‘Maybe you’re right, I really don’t quite understand what love is yet.’
Song Wanwan contemplated, then sneakily glanced her way again.
‘Then, can we still be friends afterwards? I at least like you as a friend, that has to be correct, right?’
The breath that Qiao Yu had been holding for several days was finally released, and her expression softened as she replied that of course they could be friends. Watching Song Wanwan walk away with renewed vigor, Qiao Yu thought that this would probably also resolve the feelings she harbored for Cong Ye.
No matter how you look at it, today was a beautiful day. In such a short span of time, there were two major breakthroughs in this story: the female lead admits her love for the male lead, and the second female lead no longer clings to the male lead. Besides, Qiao Yu, a side character, avoided the outcome of never crossing paths with Song Wanwan again and even made a new friend — but let’s not dwell on that for now.
On such a momentous day, with so many things to write about.
But! Qiao Yu! Just! Can’t! Feel! Happy!
Qiao Yu frustratingly tousled her own hair.
An unidentified emotion had been swelling in her chest since the afternoon, and Qiao Yu found it took so much effort to resist blowing up at Cong Ye when she saw his face — sometimes she didn’t manage to hold back.
She guessed this was probably anger, the reason for which was glaringly obvious.
In the midst of Lin Qing’s day-after-day unrequited love, Cong Ye had clearly told Qiao Yu yesterday that he had no one he liked.
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She knew this wasn’t the time to be angry. There were a million things she ought to be doing, each and every one of them more important than getting angry for Lin Qing. After all, wouldn’t everything be solved if she could just help bring the two of them together… right?
Qiao Yu didn’t know. It didn’t make sense to her. All she knew was that the rage was scorching her insides, and she couldn’t vent those fiery words to anyone. She could only let it burn her beyond recognition.
She didn’t have the slightest energy left to help enlighten Cong Ye and bring those two together.
Now, she had been sitting in front of her screen for half an hour, yet it was as if there were shackles weighing a thousand pounds on her hands; her fingertips were so stiff they couldn’t move. The system, noticing her anomaly but unable to grasp her emotions, thought the host was in poor condition. So, kindly taking the cue, it retracted the screen, suggesting the host take a good rest today.
“What…”
Qiao Yu muttered to herself, slumping over the desk with her eyes blankly staring at the grain of the wood.
Her mind once again replayed the image of Lin Qing on the stands.
Her figure, appearing particularly slender beneath the school uniform, her delicate wrists, her trembling voice, the faint scent of her presence, and those eyes—so full of emotion when she spoke that it took one’s breath away.
Qiao Yu clenched her fists.
“Cong Ye, he really is—”
The last two syllables of her sentence blurred together, indecipherable to anyone. Like the first drop of a new rain, they fell onto the room’s floor, quickly vanishing without trace.
