My Sister Likes My Sister - Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Are You Free Tomorrow?

She finally returned alone to her high-end rented apartment. Yu Si-yan opened the door, and the bright, soft light filled the room, dispelling the increasingly thick darkness outside.

She unhurriedly changed her shoes, picked a bottle of wine from the bar, and in a few moments, mixed a simple, hazy cocktail. She leaned on the sofa, slowly sipping it.

The bouquet of irises Shen Jianlan had sent her last time was now withered. Yu Si-yan thought for a moment and threw it into the trash bag.

The shirt she had never washed was also thrown into the washing machine.

Everything was back in its place, except for the sticky note Shen Jianlan had left for her, which she casually put on the refrigerator door.

The note’s adhesive wasn’t very strong. It was precarious, looking as if it would fall off if the door were opened a few more times.

Yu Si-yan calmly sipped her cocktail. The warmth from the floor quickly rose, filling the entire space. The faint coolness from the balcony collided with the warmth at one point, creating a small but distinct breeze.

Having the heating on while feeling the cold wind in winter was like using an air conditioner while covered in a blanket in the summer. It gave a strange sense of pleasure.

By some coincidence, the small breeze came to a rest right at the refrigerator door in the living room. The thin sticky note swirled in the clash of hot and cold air, like a leaf on a branch at the height of autumn, looking as if it would flutter down at any moment.

Yu Si-yan unhurriedly finished the last sip of her drink, gracefully stood up, and with a touch of her slender fingertip, put the note back in place just as it was about to fall.

Standing at the intersection of hot and cold air, with rising warmth on her left side and a bleak cold wind on her right, Yu Si-yan, with her good memory, took one more look at the note and committed the string of characters to memory.

She closed her eyes, and as her long lashes trembled, she felt her heart was just as conflicted as the mingling hot and cold air.

The bottom edge of the paper was unconsciously rubbed between her fingertips until it was wrinkled and worn. Only then did Yu Si-yan open her eyes as if waking from a dream. She had a soft heart after all and found a better place for the note.

She placed it neatly on the headboard, alongside a collection of postcards and a magnet. She pressed a small magnet over it, ensuring it would never fall off.

Yu Si-yan raised her hand and turned off the light. In the faint green glow of the luminous refrigerator magnet, she could still easily make out the words on the sticky note.

Beyond the words themselves, she appreciated the handwriting.

It was neat and graceful, written with a black pen, one stroke at a time. The line of letters and numbers was perfectly straight, with no deviation.

It looked as if it had been written with a ruler.

Yu Si-yan couldn’t help but picture Shen Jianlan holding the pen and writing the note.

She must have written it long ago, but when she was writing it, did she deliberate over it again and again, and then carefully write it down, and then struggle for a long time over whether to give it to her?

Lost in her thoughts, Yu Si-yan finally realized that her mind had jumped from the handwriting to Shen Jianlan’s hand and then to other parts of her body.

In just a few minutes, she had replayed the details of their two times together from beginning to end, until she lightly tilted her neck, feeling that even just the memory was almost too much for her to handle.

Yu Si-yan closed her eyes and let out a soft, self-mocking laugh.

She had no idea she was such a lustful person. But after only one night apart, this was when she missed it the most.

Her thoughts turned back and forth. As if she had made a decision, Yu Si-yan opened her bedside drawer, grateful that she had the good habit of keeping her phone charged.

But she would have to take a shower again later.

It was a long night. Yu Si-yan’s hair was half-wet, and she lay on the soft, smooth pillow without a care. Just before sleep completely took over her mind, she suddenly realized that she had forgotten to ask for the woman’s name again.

But even if she had asked, would the other person have answered truthfully?

It was another boring day. Yu Si-yan was so tired of staying at home that she wanted to ask Guan Xianglin out. The other person sent her an emoji: “[Politely declined]”

Yu Si-yan: “?”

Guan Xianglin: “Sorry, I have to be with my girlfriend.”

Yu Si-yan blinked. “Which one?”

Guan Xianglin: “Formal statement: I only have one girlfriend at a time. I’m extremely loyal.”

Yu Si-yan: “Okay. What about tomorrow?”

Guan Xianglin: “Don’t even think about it for the next month.”

Yu Si-yan sent three question marks.

Guan Xianglin wasn’t a hard person to get a hold of, which made it all the more strange.

Guan Xianglin: “My dear lady, have you forgotten again? It’s almost the New Year. I have to go back to my hometown.”

Yu Si-yan: “Oh.”

Guan Xianglin immediately retracted the previous message and sent a new one: “Okay, pretend you didn’t see that, but I really don’t have time.”

Yu Si-yan casually sent an emoji and turned off her screen. She lay on the sofa, her already depressed mood becoming even more sullen.

Her old friend knew she didn’t like to see words like “hometown,” but even though the message could be retracted, the emotions it brought couldn’t.

She couldn’t help but open her phone again and ask Guan Xianglin, “What about your girlfriend?”

Guan Xianglin’s response was quick: “Going back to their respective homes and their respective mothers.”

“Great. Everyone has a home to go back to.”

Yu Si-yan looked at the plane tickets. The tickets to all the popular tourist destinations were already sold out. All that was left were flights at terrible times or first class, and they were several times more expensive than usual.

She glanced at the work group chat. It had been eerily quiet since the holidays started. No one had sent a single message.

At this moment, she really wanted to go to work overtime, rather than enjoy the long vacation of more than ten days.

Unfortunately, the company didn’t allow it. They didn’t want to pay overtime, so they wouldn’t easily ask people to work.

She watched a TV show distractedly. Yu Si-yan could see with her own eyes that the number of delivery riders was gradually decreasing. An order that used to take half an hour to arrive now took a full hour.

She took the takeout from the butler, ate it, and found everything in the house to be spotless but equally uninspired.

Yu Si-yan thought about the photos of various cute pets on her social media and wondered if she should get a cat.

She browsed through cat breeds for a while and learned some knowledge about raising cats. She then flopped back onto the sofa. Her phone’s screen lit up with a timely invitation: “Sis, you live in the city center, right? I just happen to be passing by the subway station near your place. Are you free to meet up? I know a hidden gem of a store, and I’d like to treat you!”

The words were enthusiastic and sincere, and accompanied by a few cute emojis, it was hard to refuse.

Yu Si-yan looked at the message. There was no name saved, and no chat history. She had a hard time recalling her memory based on the date she was added. It must have been from the last time she was at the bar.

The day she first met Shen Jianlan, she had also casually added a few other girls on WeChat.

It was her habit to mute notifications from people she added outside. She would occasionally reply when the red dot count increased, and on a better day, she might even meet up with them.

Meet up, have a meal. Even though it was their invitation, she would politely pay all the bills and say a courteous goodbye after the other person got into a taxi.

She was thoughtful, and then there was never a “next time.”

This was a big reason why the younger members of the queer community in Lin City were willing to fall for Yu Si-yan.

Aside from her beauty and charisma, just getting a free meal with a beautiful older woman was a win.

Not to mention, what if something else happened afterward…

Unfortunately, there was never anything more. Yu Si-yan was always able to control the distance to the appropriate measure with a casual smile. It seemed like there was only a thin veil between them, but it could never be broken.

The barrier was more than just a thin veil.

Because of this, she never thought of herself as a good person. One could even say she was promiscuous.

Since she didn’t reply, another message popped up on the screen: “Sis, I’m the one who added you at the bar last time, the one who said ‘Happy first snow’ to you. I don’t mean anything else. I just wanted to see you again and be friends. If it’s not convenient, that’s okay.”

It was a hurried explanation, both naive and bold. Clearly, the other person was not a seasoned player.

Yu Si-yan let out a laugh and slowly typed her reply, word for word: “Sorry, I already have plans.”

She had no plans at all, but when she received the message, Shen Jianlan’s indifferent eyes flashed in her mind for no reason.

She felt a strange sense of guilt, like she was having a secret affair.

Even though she hadn’t done anything.

The other person quickly sent a string of “it’s okay” and “sorry” messages. Yu Si-yan glanced at them and closed the chat box, then remembered that she didn’t even have a chat box with Shen Jianlan.

But for some reason, she was being faithful to her here, not even willing to go out for a meal with someone else.

She took a deep breath, opened her long-neglected personal email, and typed out a message to Shen Jianlan, word by word.

“Dear LAN,

Are you free tomorrow?

YUAN”

It was a simple message, just three lines. The opening followed the habit of emailing in foreign companies, the middle was her invitation, and the end was her signature.

She was inviting her again after only one day. Would Shen Jianlan think she was too lustful?

Yu Si-yan lowered her head and laughed softly, thinking a little shyly about how to tell Shen Jianlan that even during the day they were apart, she was seriously thinking about her.

Almost half an hour passed, and there was still no reply. Yu Si-yan tentatively sent herself an email from another account and received it immediately.

It seemed the email was not broken.

She checked the sent folder several times, and it showed that the email had been delivered.

Yu Si-yan thought to herself silently, “I should have asked for a read receipt.”

The worst-case scenario was something Yu Si-yan hadn’t considered.

Every now and then, she would check her email for new messages. Eventually, she just left her phone right in front of her eyes, afraid of missing even the slightest vibration.

But the message she wanted never came. Instead, unrelated people kept sending her chat messages one after another.

Yu Si-yan calmly set her phone to silent, wondering why phones didn’t have a feature for specific app notifications.

It was like an addiction withdrawal. She forced herself not to open her phone or check for new messages. But whenever she did something else, she couldn’t help but think about the email she had sent.

Was it too flippant? Or was the signature too unclear? Would Shen Jianlan think it was a spam email?

Or had the email gone straight to the junk folder, lying there with all the other advertisements, and would never be opened in this lifetime?

As her thoughts went back and forth, Yu Si-yan felt she couldn’t bear the torment any longer.

At that moment, the phone screen suddenly lit up. It was exactly the app she had been waiting for.

Before she could open the email, Yu Si-yan’s anxiety didn’t lessen. It only intensified.