Chapter 19: A Blindingly Obvious Crush part 1

Maybe it was the alcohol. When Lin Yuran got home, her head was spinning. She took a quick shower and collapsed straight into bed.

The next time Lin Yuran opened her eyes, it was already 9:30 the next morning. Seriously, her tolerance was pathetic. Just a few drinks and she was out like that. Her head was still foggy when she woke, and she stayed curled up in bed a while longer, trying to gather her thoughts. She reached for her phone on the nightstand and started scrolling lazily.

There were more than a dozen unread notifications from her WeChat Moments. Lin Yuran tapped in. Under last night’s photo of her and Chi Ye, there were a handful of likes and comments.

One said:【As expected, a beauty’s boyfriend is never a downgrade.】

Another comment, from her cousin Lin Yiqun:【For real? You two got together?】

Lin Yuran replied:【Fake.】

Su Yirou also commented:【Yuran, you and Chi Ye finally made it official? Blessings to you both.】

Lin Yuran responded truthfully:【Nope. Lost a bet in a game.】

Lin Yuran only had about a dozen WeChat contacts, and almost all of them had liked the post. Lin Yuran gave a wry smile and exited out. She scrolled further down absentmindedly.

At 10:40 last night, Ye Hui had posted a group photo from the night, along with a selfie of just the two of them. The caption read: 【Us, six years later.】

The group photo was cropped, Chi Ye was cut out. Understandable. Ye Hui and Chi Ye didn’t get along. Chi Ye had been standing next to Zhang Kun and Ye Shaowen, who Ye Hui wasn’t close with either. Not posting them made sense.

Lin Yuran didn’t dwell on it and kept scrolling.

Xu Jianwei had also posted the group photo at 10:30 p.m., captioned: 【High school reunion 😊 It’s enough just to be able to sit together with certain people 😊】

Schemer girl, Lin Yuran thought with an inward sigh.

Lin Yuran truly envied Xu Jianwei’s openness in expressing her feelings. Lin Yuran lightly tapped the screen to give her a like. She then opened Xu Jianwei’s Moments to take a look.

Xu Jianwei had deleted a lot. The wild photos from her partying days were gone. The only post left was from three weeks ago, her birthday. A series of pictures of a blind-box doll called Princess Weiwei, and one selfie with Lin Yuran.

The caption: 【Mini-me handmade by my bestie Baby Ran 💖 Isn’t it cute? This is the skill of the creative director of our Beijian Studio.】

Lin Yuran genuinely admired her, posting birthday pics while slipping in a plug for her studio? Smart.

Exiting out of Xu Jianwei’s page, she scrolled down to the post Chi Ye had made the night before: 【Us.】

It was still up.

Lin Yuran stared at it for a long moment. He hadn’t deleted it overnight; maybe he just forgot. She tapped into his Moments again.

Chi Ye hadn’t posted anything else in ages, just that one post last night, and before that, a recruitment post for his project Ran Ye. That recruitment post had been made exactly a week after Xu Jianwei’s birthday post.

A thought flitted across her mind like smoke, but before she could grab hold of it, it vanished.

Lin Yuran exited Chi Ye’s page and scrolled down a bit more, quickly losing interest. She was just about to get out of WeChat when her eye caught something under Ye Hui’s post, a comment from a mutual friend flashed by.

It was Yin Hang, a classmate from their high school days in Class 9. Also an art major, though he studied violin. Back then, they often ran into each other when the teachers made announcements, and eventually got close.

Yin Hang: 【All these years and you and Goddess Lin are still together. So enviable!】

What the…?!

Lin Yuran frowned, rereading Ye Hui’s caption. Yeah… it could definitely be misleading.

She tapped on the comment thread and quickly typed: 【This is misleading. Delete and repost it properly.】

Then hit send.

Two seconds later. 

Yin Hang replied: 【Wait, what? You two aren’t together?】

Lin Yuran responded: 【Nope. Just friends. Always have been.】

She never minced words. Facts were facts.

A second later, Ye Hui replied: 【My bad. I’ll repost.】

Soon after, the post disappeared from her feed. Two seconds later, a comment popped up on her own Moments.

Yin Hang: 【Got it. So in the end, you chose Chi Ye!】

What the hell does he mean, got it?

Lin Yuran felt both speechless and a headache coming on. That old story she never cleared up back then, maybe it was time for an explanation. The memories came rushing back.

After returning from senior year intensive training, she’d fallen behind in her academic classes. By then, Yao A-ping was bedridden and being cared for by her grandmother, and no longer at home. That place didn’t feel like home anymore. Lin Yuran stopped going back. Every day after school, she’d head straight to Chi Ye’s VIP cubicle to cram.

The internet café was near the school. They went in at night and came out together in the morning, naturally, people saw. Rumors that the two were dating started circulating again, this time with more bite. Some even said they were already sleeping together.

Their homeroom teacher, Ms. Chen Wenli, heard the gossip and decided to investigate herself. She showed up one morning and caught them red-handed at the café.

Lin Yuran had dodged the question once before, giving vague answers, but now that the teacher had seen it firsthand, no amount of denial could undo it. Spending the night together wasn’t ‘puppy love’ anymore. Ms. Chen was furious. She called both Chi Ye’s mother and Hao Qinghe to school.

That was the first time Lin Yuran saw just how shameless Hao Qinghe could be.

Something inside her worldview shifted that day.

Later, Chi Ye half-joked, half-serious, “Lin Yuran, since they’re all saying this stuff anyway… maybe I should take responsibility? I know you’re serious about school. How about we make it official after college entrance exams?”

Lin Yuran couldn’t remember exactly how she felt then… happy? Sad? Mostly… reluctant. But her reply pierced them both.

“What are you even thinking? Playing games all day is a waste of time. I’d never date a guy who’s not serious about his future.”

Chi Ye’s bangs were tousled by the wind. His lips curved in a nervous smile that slowly faded. He stared at her with eyes that once brimmed with stars, now utterly dull.

His voice was hoarse, “Are you serious, Lin Yuran?”

The wind stirred the last leaves on the branches around them. She lowered her gaze and whispered so softly it was nearly inaudible, “Serious.”

Lin Yuran didn’t dare look at him again. She turned and walked away quickly.

From that day on, that easy smile never returned to Chi Ye’s lips. The brightness in his eyes seemed to scatter with the wind, never to return.

In the months that followed, Lin Yuran switched seats. She never spoke to Chi Ye again. Never went back to that VIP cubicle.

One afternoon, Lin Yuran returned from outside the school and happened to run into Ye Hui. They walked to class together. As they passed the playground, she saw Chi Ye standing still at the center of the basketball court, holding a pass from a teammate, eyes fixed on her and Ye Hui.

Lin Yuran quickened her pace, desperate to escape that gaze. Behind her, a basketball slammed hard against the hoop.

That evening, before the night study session, Chi Ye blocked her at the staircase landing. It was the first time he approached her since their parents had been called in.

He asked, “Lin Yuran, you’re definitely getting into Tsinghua University, right?”

She lowered her lashes, trembling just slightly.

“Yeah.”

Chi Ye gave a crooked smile.

“Then remember what you promised.” He paused, then added, “That question I asked that day? I was joking. Doesn’t count. Just remember your promise.”

Lin Yuran remembered exactly what that promise was.

So when rumors started that she and Ye Hui were going to attend the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris together, that she had broken up with Chi Ye and gotten with Ye Hui, she didn’t correct them. With college entrance exams around the corner, she figured: let the gossip die on its own. At least it gave Chi Ye a buffer.

Thinking back on it now made her chest ache.

Lin Yuran got up, changed into her loungewear, and shuffled to the balcony in slippers to get some air.

Remembering Yin Hang’s comment, she opened her Moments again and stared at the photo of her and Chi Ye captioned 【Us.】

His chiseled profile was tense, lips curved ever so slightly in a restrained, handsome line. But… if it wasn’t real, then it just wasn’t.

Lin Yuran replied to Yin Hang: 【It’s not what you think.】

Then she tapped the three-dot menu on the photo, hovered for two seconds over ‘Delete,’ but didn’t press it. Instead, she changed the visibility settings to Private – Only Me. After that, she opened Chi Ye’s post, tapped on the comment section, but in the end, typed nothing.

Lin Yuran switched over to his chat window instead and typed: 【You should probably delete last night’s post, or explain it clearly to everyone.】

After hitting send, she stared at the conversation for a while, her chest inexplicably tight. Lin Yuran never thought that the first real conversation she’d have with Chi Ye after reconnecting… would be about this.