I Fell In Love With My Rival (GL) - Chapter 17.1
It took Su Chunyin quite a while to grasp what her best friend meant. She stiffly turned her head and took a sip from her drink, only to suck up a huge chunk of lemon. The sourness made her scrunch her face into a tight knot.
Song Rao was still going on: “The more I think about it, the more I feel like this is a solid plan. You’re so pretty and cute—not just guys, even girls would fall for you. You’ve already had some history with her, right?
So now if you just go for it, act persistent and clingy, you’ll definitely win her over. You know the saying, ‘Even the fiercest woman fears a persistent man’? It applies to girls too. Once she falls for you and gives up
on Lu Fang, you can dump her and tell Lu Fang you were only seduced for a moment, that you’re not actually into girls. Then everything flows naturally, and you can be with Lu Fang again.”
Song Rao was all fired up, but Su Chunyin’s mind had already wandered. She suddenly remembered how Fu Erqiu once reached out to brush away the cookie crumbs from her face. She’d been so close then—her breath brushing against Su Chunyin’s ear, making it burn from the tips down to her cheeks. Thinking of it again made her heart skip in an uncontrollable rhythm.
When Song Rao finally finished her long-winded monologue, she took a sip of her drink and wrapped things up with a flourish: “It’s perfect!” She looked up and was startled. “Why is your face so red? It’s not even warm in here.”
Flustered, Su Chunyin turned her face away. “Drink your juice!”
And so, Su Chunyin decided to seduce Fu Erqiu and start a relationship with her—a decision that took less than a few hours from suggestion to execution. The idea was unanimously approved by the members of the “Chirpy Study Support Squad,” with only a slight concern voiced by Xu Chang, who worried Su Chunyin might get taken advantage of by a real lesbian.
[What if she takes advantage of you?]
Su Chunyin didn’t take it seriously. She’s a girl, I’m a girl. What could she possibly take from me?
Once the decision was made, a plan had to follow. Everyone started throwing out suggestions:
[Winning someone over? It’s always the same tricks.]
[Bring her food, write her letters, give her flowers.]
[Movie dates, park strolls, aquarium visits!]
The ideas sounded nice, but putting them into practice was another story. Finals were approaching. Even if Su Chunyin wanted to invite Fu Erqiu to a movie or the park, there was no way she’d agree. That left her with only the food, letters, and flowers.
She tried delivering breakfast first. One early morning, she lugged a luxury breakfast box all the way to Class 1, only to find Fu Erqiu already at her desk, studying. And not just her—many of Class 1’s top students were already poring over textbooks. Awkwardly, Su Chunyin approached with the food box and asked, “Have you had breakfast?”
Upon hearing yes, she was left standing there with a meal she could no longer offer. In front of Fu Erqiu’s gaze, she mumbled, “I just thought the view in Class 1 is especially good—really enhances the eating experience,” then opened the box and ate the luxurious breakfast herself.
Fu Erqiu glanced around the room—packed with students buried in books—and then out the window at the gloomy sky and heavy clouds. She didn’t call out Su Chunyin’s obvious lie.
The breakfast plan was a total flop, and Su Chunyin vented in the group chat:
[WTF! Why is she up so early?!]
[I even came 15 minutes earlier than yesterday, and she was STILL there?!]
Su Chunyin just couldn’t manage early mornings, so she had to give up on delivering breakfast.
Next came the letters. She handwrote a whole pile of them—gushing declarations of love, dramatic lines about love at first sight. When she ran out of words, she shamelessly copied sappy lines off the internet, ending each letter with her name. Her plan was to have someone deliver one in the morning and one in the evening every day, hoping that persistence would eventually melt Fu Erqiu’s heart.
But reality wasn’t so romantic. Su Chunyin had completely forgotten something Li Zihan once told her: “She doesn’t even read love letters from others.” After several days of sending letters with no response, Su
Chunyin assumed: If she’s not showing signs of disgust, maybe that means I’ve got a chance? That night at the laundry shop, she casually asked, “How did you like the letter I sent you yesterday? Pretty well-written, right?”
That letter had included a cheesy line she found online: “You are my moon and stars. Without you, my world is nothing but darkness.” She thought it sounded poetic, so she picked that one to be sent.
Fu Erqiu frowned. “What letter?”
Su Chunyin froze, then suddenly jumped up and grabbed her collar. “A love letter! The pink one! I put it in your desk yesterday morning!”
“A love letter?” Fu Erqiu looked puzzled. She figured maybe someone had asked this pampered girl to deliver it on their behalf—it wouldn’t be unusual since Su Chunyin had been hanging around her more often lately. Her eyes lowered slightly as she said calmly, “I threw it away.”
The rage hit Su Chunyin like a rocket, shooting straight from her feet to her skull. “You threw it away?!”
Fu Erqiu looked back. “Why wouldn’t I? Someone gives me something, can’t I decide what to do with it?”
Well… fair point.
Su Chunyin deflated. “Fine, fine, you can do whatever you want.” She remembered what Li Zihan said and silently blamed her own forgetfulness.
With food and letters both failing, flowers were her last shot.
This time, Su Chunyin did her homework. After confirming that Fu Erqiu didn’t have a habit of tossing flowers, she carefully picked out a large, stunning bouquet of red roses and had them delivered to the school gate.
When Fu Erqiu came down to pick them up, she looked slightly surprised at the extravagant bouquet—but in the end, she took them with her.
Hiding nearby, Su Chunyin breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she accepts the flowers, I’ve still got a chance!
That night, when she arrived at the laundry shop, Su Chunyin was full of anticipation. She threw her bag on the table and looked around. “Where’s the bouquet?”
Fu Erqiu calmly folded clothes. “What bouquet?”
Su Chunyin strolled around her, unable to stop smiling. “Don’t play dumb. Everyone at school saw you get a bouquet of red roses today.”
Fu Erqiu didn’t stop folding. “Mm.”
Su Chunyin waited for her to say more. Nothing came. She gaped. “That’s it? Just mm?”
She half-sat on the counter. “Come on, where’s your sense of romance? Where’s the bouquet? I don’t see it anywhere.”
Fu Erqiu looked at the glass countertop Su Chunyin was perched on, took a feather duster, and tapped her legs with the stick part. “It’s glass. Don’t break it.”
After shooing her off the counter, she finally responded, “I sold it.”
Su Chunyin jerked her head up, unable to believe her ears. “You sold it?”
Fu Erqiu met her gaze, unbothered. “Yeah. What about it?”
Su Chunyin grabbed her hand. “Where did you sell it?”
Fu Erqiu, slightly confused, pointed outside. “Ziyue Flower Shop, in the Huaniao Market.”
Before she could say more, Su Chunyin had already bolted out the door.
The flower market wasn’t far. Ziyue Flower Shop was in a small corner. Luckily, Su Chunyin arrived in time—the bouquet hadn’t been put on display yet. Gasping for breath, she pointed. “That bouquet! Did a tall girl just sell it to you?”
The shopkeeper eyed her curiously. “You want to buy flowers?”
Su Chunyin whipped out her bank card. “Wrap it up for me. Just tell me—did a tall girl sell it to you?”
The shopkeeper’s attitude warmed immediately. “No need to get worked up. Yes, a girl just sold me that bouquet. But whether it’s the same girl you’re looking for, I don’t know.”
She quickly wrapped it up and swiped the card. Moments later, Fu Erqiu received a text from her bank—280 yuan spent.
That cheap? Su Chunyin looked at the bouquet she’d originally bought for 999 and couldn’t help asking, “How much did you pay for this?”
The shopkeeper hesitated, then, seeing she’d already paid and was clearly a new face, answered honestly, “Eighty yuan.”
Su Chunyin almost passed out.
When she returned to the laundry shop, still fuming and holding the bouquet, Fu Erqiu had just finished organizing clothes and was wiping down surfaces.
Seeing her with the flowers again, she raised an eyebrow. “You bought it back?”
Still annoyed, Su Chunyin didn’t respond. She wandered around the store with the bouquet, finally placing it in a prominent spot.
Fu Ying came out from the back room and was startled by the sight. “Whoa, where did that giant bouquet come from? Did a customer leave it behind?”
Fu Erqiu glanced at the bouquet of flowers, then at the awkward Su Chunyin, and shook her head.
Fu Ying didn’t press further and instead waved the two over. “Erqiu, stop cleaning already. You’ve been doing it every day for the past few days—the walls are practically scrubbed raw. This shop is old, and no matter how much we clean, it still looks dingy.”
Su Chunyin, still trying to save face in front of the elder, reluctantly shuffled over while muttering under her breath, “This dump of a shop, what kind of sparkle could it possibly have?”
She spoke softly, and while Fu Ying didn’t catch it due to her poor hearing, Fu Erqiu heard every word. Her gaze darkened. “Su Chunyin, no one’s begging you to stay here and sulk.”
That shut Su Chunyin up completely. “You… you… you…” she stammered, but couldn’t finish the sentence. She hadn’t expected that after all her running around these past few days—bringing food, delivering notes and flowers—Fu Erqiu would still treat her so coldly.
A flood of hurt, shock, and frustration overwhelmed her, and she stormed off, slamming the tiny laundry shop’s door with the momentum of a grand palace gate. “Fine! I won’t stay! You think I want to?!”
They parted on bad terms. The next day, Su Chunyin stayed true to her pride and didn’t go looking for Fu Erqiu. Though fuming, she couldn’t complain to Song Rao and the others, so she turned to Qiu Ye instead,
venting with a twisted version of events, making it sound like the top student from F School was just another heartless jerk who had let her down.
Qiu Ye seemed to be busy lately, sometimes taking half a day to reply, and when she did, it was brief: [Maybe from their perspective, they really didn’t know.]
Fu Erqiu didn’t know F School’s top student was female. So, when Su Chunyin referred to them as a “heartless guy,” she simply assumed it was a boy. Su Chunyin saw this and didn’t bother correcting her.
Now that she’d cooled off, Qiu Ye’s words started to make sense. Thinking from Fu Erqiu’s perspective… maybe she really didn’t know?
Su Chunyin imagined herself in Fu Erqiu’s shoes: getting a random bouquet from who-knows-who, and because money was tight, deciding to resell it. Then some clingy girl came out of nowhere, bought it back, and had a meltdown over it. Yeah… that did seem… pretty bizarre?
Putting herself in Fu Erqiu’s position, she figured she’d have thrown a tantrum and made a huge scene. In comparison, Fu Erqiu had been rather patient.
Still, even though the anger had mostly passed, she couldn’t help but think: if Fu Erqiu had just read the card inside the bouquet, she would’ve known it was from her. She wouldn’t have sold it, and none of this would’ve happened. That thought made her irritated all over again.
After sulking for two days, Su Chunyin eventually decided to go see Fu Erqiu again. The final exams were just a few days away, and all the teachers had stopped lecturing, instead leaving lots of time for self-study.
That made it easy for Su Chunyin to slip in and out of classrooms unnoticed.
She arrived at Class 1 during a break. Fu Erqiu wasn’t in the room, so Su Chunyin slumped over her desk partner’s table and absentmindedly flipped through a history book.
The thousand-word summary that Mr. Chen had ordered her to submit before finals was still nowhere in sight. She stared so hard at the chapter on Emperor Wu of Han, it was a wonder she hadn’t burned a hole through the page, and yet no inspiration came.
Just then, someone tapped on the desk. Su Chunyin looked up and was surprised to see Lu Fang.
She immediately sat up straight, stammering slightly. “H-hi. Can I help you?”
Lu Fang smiled gently, giving off a warm and approachable air. If she hadn’t heard him say with her own ears that they “weren’t the same kind of people,” she might’ve been fooled into thinking he was still the same childhood friend who always stood in front of her and listened to her ramble.
He pointed at her book. “You’ve been staring at that page for ages. I’m pretty good at history. If there’s anything you’re stuck on, maybe I can help.”
Her eyes lit up. Heaven knew how long she’d been tortured by that awful essay prompt. Emperor Wu of Han—what the hell did he have to do with her? She wasn’t even from the Han dynasty!
“Yes, please, please! Could you explain Emperor Wu to me?” She knew Lu Fang had always been an academic overachiever, especially good at history. Even as a kid, he was praised endlessly by teachers for his insightful takes. Afraid he’d change his mind, she grabbed her book and plopped down at his desk. “I want to know what his life can teach our generation.”
Lu Fang smiled again and patiently began explaining.
That was the scene Fu Erqiu walked into: the bright, sunny girl with rose-adorned hairbands chatting with a boy, their heads bent close together. Sunlight poured in softly, and they both burst into laughter over something.
Fu Erqiu looked once, then again, then walked to her seat and sat down with a scrape as her metal chair screeched against the floor.
The two stopped mid-conversation. Su Chunyin blinked, then ran over. “Erqiu, I memorized the physics formulas you gave me last time!”
Fu Erqiu didn’t look at her or reply, just slowly sat down.
But Su Chunyin had no shame. As if she hadn’t slammed the door just days ago, she clung to Fu Erqiu. “Want to quiz me?”
Just then, the bell rang. Fu Erqiu didn’t respond, and Su Chunyin sat down beside her. The teacher didn’t care much, and the class was mostly left to their own devices. Gradually, Su Chunyin started to get bold—poking Fu Erqiu’s arm, nudging her shoulder, even leaning close to peek at her notes. Her warm breath brushed against Fu Erqiu’s neck, impossible to ignore.
Despite Su Chunyin’s relentless antics, Fu Erqiu remained focused, unbothered, immersed in her studies. Su Chunyin felt discouraged, but then remembered—she was the one chasing Fu Erqiu, so giving up now would be far too premature. She pushed herself to stay upbeat and followed Fu Erqiu out of class after the bell.
This time, Fu Erqiu’s annoyance showed. “Su Chunyin, stop following me.”
But Su Chunyin refused. Not only refused—she doubled down. East? She followed. West? She followed. All the while rambling, “I memorized everything you gave me and even practiced a bunch of problems. But there are a few question types I still don’t get. Can you go over them with me later? Maybe write out a few more formulas?”
Fu Erqiu suddenly stopped.
She turned around and looked down at the girl trailing behind her. “Su Chunyin, I told you to stop following me.”
Su Chunyin paused, then widened her eyes and jutted her chin out stubbornly. “No! I won’t!”
Fu Erqiu sighed deeply. She didn’t know what to do with her. For the first ten-plus years of her life, her days had been dull and monotonous. With her mother’s poor health and being raised by a single parent, she had to take on household responsibilities early.
She was disciplined, top of her class, and took on part-time jobs to help with expenses—living a life that was rigid, restrained, and far too grown-up for her age. She’d missed out on fun, on joy, even on simple social interaction.