A Moment Too Late (GL) - Chapter 25

*Splash*

The coffee flowed down her coat, soaking her completely.

The air turned still.

The restaurant was filled with guests having dinner on New Year’s Eve. Some curious onlookers turned their gaze toward the commotion, their eyes full of curiosity.

Nan Xue’s gaze was icy. She looked at Xiao Yi, her voice dripping with sarcasm and mockery, unable to hide her anger: “What right do you have?”

“Have you ever considered her feelings?”

“Her” likely referred to Shu Yubai.

Xiao Yi looked at Nan Xue, meeting those icy eyes. She was momentarily stunned, overwhelmed with shock. The scalding coffee had drenched her, dripping steadily down her coat.

After a moment, it all seemed both laughable and distressing.

“You…”

She struggled to speak, trying to explain.

How could she explain?

Without a clear explanation, at such a critical moment, she feared that her long-lost first love might become suspicious.

The girl across from her, who had just returned to the country and didn’t know many people, was confused by the situation. She only stared at them with doe-like eyes, unable to understand what was happening. She stood up, glaring at Nan Xue: “Are you crazy? What are you doing!”

Nan Xue said nothing, her cold eyes fixed on Xiao Yi, carrying a light mockery and disdain: “You should ask her yourself what she did.”

Xiao Yi’s girlfriend looked at her, her lips parting as if she guessed something. She asked softly, “What’s going on?”

Xiao Yi picked up a wet towel to clean her clothes and said quietly, “Did you misunderstand something?”

She hadn’t told her recently returned first love about the pretense of being a couple with Shu Yubai, mainly to avoid suspicion. She had planned to let the issue pass unnoticed, but now, at this critical moment, Nan Xue had appeared.

It was a headache.

She wanted to say something, but her gaze froze.

In the distance, Shu Yubai was walking toward them, her long hair flowing, wearing soft makeup.

Her eyes searched for Nan Xue, but when she saw the three of them, her face went pale instantly.

Xiao Yi was sitting with coffee spilled all over her, her woolen white coat stained with brown coffee marks, and the coffee pooling on the floor, its slightly bitter aroma spreading. Across from her was her curious girlfriend, watching her. Nan Xue stood, just having placed her coffee cup down, and was turning to look at Shu Yubai.

“Nan Xue…?”

Shu Yubai’s eyes flashed with a myriad of emotions, and she walked over, her palms sweaty.

She grabbed Nan Xue’s sleeve.

She looked at Xiao Yi and her girlfriend, her voice soft: “You’re here too?”

At that moment, she suddenly realized she had said the wrong thing.

“‘You’?” Nan Xue looked at her and asked, “Do you know them?”

No one answered her question.

It was as if a fragile lie, painstakingly put together, was about to be pierced through with a single poke.

Shu Yubai’s face quickly turned pale. For a while, she didn’t know how to explain and could only stand there awkwardly.

“Hello, is there anything I can help with?”

A waiter in a suit vest came from the front desk.

Xiao Yi was in disarray, drenched in hot coffee.

Her girlfriend quickly called the waiter over to help clean up, and amidst the commotion, many people were looking their way.

“Sorry to interrupt your date.”

Shu Yubai’s heart raced, and she didn’t even dare look at Nan Xue’s expression. She pulled her toward the exit and said, “Let me explain.”

The waiter cleaned up Xiao Yi’s clothes, but Xiao Yi was still uneasy, glancing at the distance—Shu Yubai was urgently pulling at Nan Xue’s hand, her expression anxious.

She turned to her girlfriend and said, “Wait here, I’ll check on them.”

“I’ll go with you.”

The hotel glass doors slowly opened.

Shu Yubai chased after Nan Xue, heading outside.

At night, Shu Yubai wrapped herself in a long coat, warm beige against the snowy backdrop. Yet in the snowflakes, her figure seemed excessively thin, excessively cold—as if a strong wind could blow her away.

Xiao Yi stopped in the hotel lobby, looking outside through a glass door.

Her girlfriend looked curiously at them, pointing at Nan Xue and Shu Yubai, and asked, “Are they a couple?”

Xiao Yi replied, “Sort of—accurately speaking, it’s a one-sided crush.”

Outside was a courtyard covered in snow, trees laden with snowflakes, and the lotus pond frozen over. Across the way was an asphalt road with vehicles roaring by, and the streetlights cast a cold light, bright and long.

Shu Yubai and Nan Xue walked quickly to a small path.

There, a streetlight cast its glow, and snowflakes danced around the lamp post.

She let Nan Xue lean against the streetlight while she stood in front of her.

They faced each other in silence.

Nan Xue looked at her, and some details suddenly became vivid, replaying in her mind.

Why Shu Yubai and Xiao Yi weren’t very close.

Why, despite being “together” for so long, Shu Yubai and Xiao Yi had never even shared a simple kiss.

Why Shu Yubai always, intentionally or not, mentioned that she liked her.

••••

It turned out that when she said she liked her, she was never joking.

“What’s going on?”

Nan Xue furrowed her brows, her thin and indifferent eyelids lowering.

At this moment, Shu Yubai finally came to her senses. The earlier panic was due to her fear that Nan Xue would find out she was deceiving her, that she would learn about her shameful little secrets, and that their relationship might become so awkward they wouldn’t even be friends anymore.

She suddenly wondered: After all these years, couldn’t she really tell?

Even if she said it out loud, so what?

Despite this, her palms were still sweating with tension, and she found it hard to look directly at Nan Xue.

“Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?” she asked softly.

“Whatever,” Nan Xue replied.

“That girl just now is Xiao Yi’s girlfriend.”

Shu Yubai looked down, her tone very light.

“…”

She held Nan Xue’s hand tightly, surrounded by silence, with only the sound of the wind.

After a long time without response, she slightly lifted her head to observe Nan Xue’s expression.

Nan Xue avoided looking at her.

Nan Xue asked, “And you? What are you?”

Shu Yubai took a deep breath.

Nan Xue’s thick lashes lowered, not looking at Shu Yubai. After a moment, she asked, “Did you break up and not tell me?”

The thin layer of pretense that Shu Yubai was about to tear through was now being patched up again by Nan Xue.

“No.”

Shu Yubai stared at her, her face paling, her fingertips pressing hard into her palm.

Nan Xue looked at her, with what seemed like a flicker of emotion in her eyes.

Shu Yubai looked down, sighed, and said softly, “It’s not true.”

“We were never together.”

“That was just an act, to test you.”

An act?

Fake?

Nan Xue’s mind buzzed. She supported her forehead for a while, then slowly looked at Shu Yubai.

The relationship that had finally become normal was shattered by these words.

“Why?” she asked.

Shu Yubai seemed unable to believe it. She looked at Nan Xue, incredulously saying, “In this situation, you still don’t understand why?”

“Do you really not know, or are you pretending not to?”

Nan Xue’s eyes fixed on her without blinking.

Shu Yubai sighed almost in resignation and embarrassment, and after a long while, she spoke very slowly, “How many times have I said I like you? Do you always have to wait for me to cover it up with jokes?”

She looked at Nan Xue, who was standing in the wind and snow, her black hair fluttering in the cold wind, her expression somewhat complicated.

She avoided Shu Yubai’s gaze.

“It’s not just between friends.”

She leaned close to Nan Xue’s ear and whispered, “It’s the kind of liking you understand?”

Nan Xue was stunned, and before she could react, Shu Yubai grabbed her collar and kissed her.

Shu Yubai’s mind buzzed.

Everything went blank.

The girl’s lips were softer than she had imagined, warm, with a faint fragrance. As they touched, it was the first time experiencing something so wonderful and beautiful. They intertwined their breaths, neither daring to move, fearing that this wonderful moment would be too fragile and vanish if disturbed. Their lips remained pressed together for a long time, and Shu Yubai slightly turned her face to gently brush against Nan Xue’s nose.

She gently held the warm lips, her tongue tentatively exploring.

A sensation that made one shiver.

But the next moment, Nan Xue pushed her away without hesitation, gasping in shock, “What are you doing!”

Shu Yubai felt as though a bucket of cold water had been poured over her in the frigid winter. In an instant, she was not only awake but her heart also felt cold.

In her anxiety, Shu Yubai finally acted impulsively for the first time in twenty years. But this impulsiveness had its price. It took her a while in the cold wind to slowly pull herself together, realizing she had done something irreparable. She felt panicked and confused, not knowing how to make amends.

She could no longer even be a friend.

Finally.

“Sorry, I’m really sorry.”

She lowered her head, breathing heavily, like a child who had made a mistake, with frightened eyes looking down, “Sorry, my fault, I just…”

Nan Xue looked at her, took a step back, and wiped the moisture from her lips with her slender finger, saying, “Sister, I think I need to be clear. I don’t like women.” (TN: 😭)

“Really don’t like?” Shu Yubai was heartbroken but still stared intensely at her eyes, asking, “Have you never felt moved at all?”

Her snow-white face was particularly indifferent and distant, yet her soft lips had a faint sheen, and her earlobes were tinged with a light pink, warm as red jade.

In the cold night, her voice was like shards of ice, devoid of any emotion.

“Even if there was, it was deceitful manipulation on your part.”

“Can it be taken seriously?”

Before Shu Yubai could speak, Nan Xue turned away without looking at her and said:

“Let’s take some time apart and calm down.”