Monday, 14th of November.
Zhang Li was bored out of his mind. He had been there for an hour already. If he tried to get up and go to another desk Zhang Yin would follow him like a shadow, so the only way to district himself was his deskmate. Unfortunately, he decided to come late.
It was only ten minutes till self study started when Lin Yuan arrived.
Zhang Li glanced at his deskmate.
"Huh?"
He had expected to see him with his head in an exercise book, but unexpectedly Lin Yuan was playing on his phone.
Zhang Li thought this kid had really let himself go recently. He looked around the room. Fortunately, they were in the corner of the classroom so the hallway was obscured.
Zhang Li leaned over to see what was engrossing this honour student so much.
"Lin Yuan, why are you looking at cat products so intensely? Did you get a cat or something?"
"Oh?" Lin Yuan seemed surprised by his question. He looked up from his phone with a calm expression, "Yeah."
Zhang Li was about to reply but then he suddenly thought of something.
"..."
After a few minutes of silence.
"Do you want to see him?"
"No, it's fine."
"..."
"Hahaha, I'm just kidding!" Seeing Lin Yuan's stunned expression he couldn't help but laugh. Zhang Li thought he was quite adorable -
Cough! Cough!
Stop! Steady the mind!
"What's wrong with you?"
Zhang Li cleared his throat with some embarrassment, "Nothing. Let me see the pictures!"
"Woah! That is one fat cat!"
"His name is Baozi." Lin Yuan decided not to announce the full title anymore.
Actually Lin Yuan was troubled. When he tried to go to school this morning, the fat cat had followed him. Whenever he brought him back, he would follow him again. Lin Yuan thought Baozi was still scared, so he had no choice but to wake up his sister and let her watch over the cat.
This time it was okay since his sister was staying at home on an extended break, but he wasn't sure what to do after she went back to the company.
…
…
…
Lunch time.
"Why are you sitting next to me today?"
Zhang Yin looked at the beautiful girl next to her.
"Huh? Do I usually need a reason to sit with you?" Jing Yao put on a confused expression.
"Yes."
"Ugh, I just wanted to talk to you Zhang Yin!"
"You had a fight with your friends?"
"No!"
Bingo.
Zhang Yin looked around the classroom. Considering the sunny weather, most people had gone outside. She turned back to Jing Yao who was slumped onto the table staring at her with an aggrieved expression.
Zhang Yin sighed, "Alright, alright, but don't distract me. I have to go through the weekly test."
"What's the point of that? You're already first!"
Jing Yao didn't understand, everyone thought Zhang Yin's marks were already good enough to get into the top universities but she was still working so hard. Meanwhile, she was still in the middle of the class even though she went to cram school twice a week.
"I'm not first in maths. Lin Yuan's always first."
"..."
Jing Yao glanced toward the empty seats at the back of the classroom.
"By the way, are you close to Lin Yuan?"
"Huh? Oh, somewhat. He's friends with Zhang Li." Zhang Yin was a little absentminded. She was adding all the questions where she had made a mistake into her exercise book.
"He's real quiet, isn't he?"
Jing Yao waited for a response but Zhang Yin was silent. So she had no choice but to poke her, "Hey, are you listening?"
"Yeah, what is it?"
"I said Lin Yuan, he doesn't talk much. He's pretty cold."
"Hmm…" Zhang Yin looked up her book and thought for a moment. Even though he seemed cold, he was quite kind. He returned her notes back very quickly too. Anway he seemed to get along well with Zhang Li.
"I don't think so, he's pretty talkative once you get to know him."
"Really?" Jing Yao didn't quite believe it.
She felt like for the two years they had been in the same class the only person she had seen Lin Yuan talk to regularly was Zhang Li. Though last year she heard he was preparing for the olympiad, she remembered the teachers telling everyone not to distract him.
Still, thinking back to the weekend and how Lin Yuan was saying all those embarrassing things with an expressionless face she couldn't help but laugh.
"What's so funny?" Zhang Yin glanced at the strange girl who suddenly started laughing out of nowhere.
"Nothing, nothing. I just thought you were probably right after all."
…
…
…
"Hey, did you hear what happened at lunch with Jing Yao?"
"What?"
"Someone confessed to her, I heard it was Ye Fan from Class 2!"
"Woah he's pretty gutsy, isn't he afraid of the head teacher?"
"Well, Teacher Wei is pretty lenient about that stuff."
"Still, what if he tells their parents?"
"I mean people used to confess to her before..."
"But he's the first one since the start of third year. So what happened? What was her reply?"
"I don't know but I saw Ye Fan after and he didn't look upset or anything."
"So they could actually be dating? Dammit!"
"Why? You have a crush on her?"
"...No."
"Actually, I heard Liu Wei likes Ye Fan."
"Huh? Liu Wei and Jing Yao are friends right?"
"Yeah that's why it's tense!"
Lin Yuan glanced at Zhang Li who was learning forward almost off the table and straining his ear to listen to the conversation happening a few seats in front of them.
It was the end of school for day students, so they were in the middle of packing up.
"What are you doing?"
"Shhh! Don't disturb me right now, I'm listening to some amazing gossip!"
"Are you bored?"
Hearing this, Zhang Li glanced at him and shook his head.
"Don't lie Lin Yuan. I know you secretly like this kind of stuff. 'The Forbidden Love of the Emperor's Attendant'? It's really popular online, right?"
"…"
"Hehe, I saw it on your phone, the window was accidentally open." Zhang Li leaned back when he realised the conversation in front had turned to other places. He looked at Lin Yuan who still had an expressionless face and continued with an understanding smile.
"So that's why you never checked out Battle Through the Sky even though I told you many times!"
"That's because it's a stupid harem novel." Lin Yuan retorted.
"You!"
However before he could explain to Lin Yuan the intricacies of the harem genre, Zhang Li realised something "Ah! Is that why Ye Fan wasn't at basketball at lunch?! He must've been confessing, that bastard!"
At the same time, Zhang Li couldn't help but feel some pity for Jing Yao. He sighed wistfully, "It's hard to be popular huh?"
Lin Yuan looked at his smug expression and felt like complaining.
"By the way, isn't Jing Yao friends with Zhang Yin?"
"Are they? You know they seem to be hanging out a lot recently." Sometimes when Zhang Li went to Zhang Yin's table he would see Jing Yao talking to her.
"Well she doesn't have to worry about Zhang Yin ruining their friendship because she likes someone. That girl only cares about studying!"
"Is that why you're so confident?"
"What?"
"Hehe."
"You look a little disgusting right now…"
"..."
"So how about you, do you like anyone Lin Yuan?"
"No."
"Figured. I can't really imagine you dating someone."
"Then have you dated someone before?"
"Hehehehehe…"
"So, no one."
"Damn it!" Zhang Li sat up with a serious face, "I really need to find a cute underclassmen, ah but we'll be in university next year, so I'll have to wait until I'm a sophomore at least."
"Why does it need to be an underclassmen?"
"You don't understand, only girls younger than you are good, older girls are ruthless. I mean just look at my dad, he can never stand up in my house. If I find a girlfriend she has to be younger than me!"
Hearing this Lin Yuan glanced toward the front of the classroom, "Why don't you find an underclassmen now?"
Zhang Li was shocked.
"Lin Yuan, you've become so rebellious! This is the last year we need to focus on the college exams, there's no time for dating!" He said righteously.
Lin Yuan found it hard to believe that Zhang Li would care about something like that, but still he actually agreed with him.
He didn't understand people like Ye Fan, confessing in front of everybody, with everybody talking about you, knowing everything in your heart. He felt something like love should be secret, between two people and no one else.
Lin Yuan glanced at Zhang Li. Well maybe he was a little hypocritical.