The warmth of the girl’s body still seemed to linger on my fingertips.
The cold pool water enveloped her body below the collarbone.
One hand rested on the edge of the pool, while the other unconsciously swayed in the water.
The flow slipped through her fingertips, bringing a slight sense of resistance.
But no matter how she moved or touched that coolness, she still couldn’t wash away the warmth she had felt not long ago.
“They always say straight girls are traps…”
“Shouldn’t it be me, the ‘straight girl,’ who’s supposed to be in control?”
“How did it turn out like this…”
Flustered by the girl’s unreserved behavior, Situ Ling let out a long sigh, trying desperately to use other topics to wash away the thoughts that lingered stubbornly in her mind.
“‘Touch me one more time,’ she says…”
“…Really.”
She felt it was necessary to have a serious talk with that idiot Yin Xiaomeng about what a proper best friend relationship really meant.
But as soon as she remembered that she herself had very impure thoughts toward the other girl, the words of admonition got stuck in her throat, unable to come out.
Or rather, she actually kind of enjoyed this situation—being able to take advantage every now and then and satisfy her long-suppressed desires.
It was like those loser characters in anime who clearly love the ‘protagonist’ but act tsundere, pretending not to care at all.
While the ‘protagonist’ gets all lovey-dovey with other girls, they hide in a corner and live off fantasies.
When they finally get a chance to get close to the ‘protagonist,’ they secretly rejoice on the inside while putting on a face of complete indifference on the outside.
Sigh.
Sometimes Situ Ling really wanted to stop that fish pond owner who was playing with multiple boats, and ask tearfully:
“I was here first! Why don’t you look at me too?!”
She bit her lip and shook her head forcefully, shaking that vivid line out of her mind.
No, that’s not right.
Doesn’t that song lyric say it clearly?
‘Friendship lasts longer than love…’
“…”
Rather than risk becoming Yin Xiaomeng’s lover—
And being so afraid that a failed confession would mean they couldn’t even stay friends—she continued to play the role of the turtle, retreating into her shell with practiced ease.
But the arm swinging under the water had somehow dropped in front of her.
The fingers that had just touched her beloved fell onto the fabric of her swimsuit.
Compared to the warmth from before, her own body heat seemed even hotter?
Well, that was normal.
…
No, it actually wasn’t normal.
…
In the infirmary, the girl curled up under the blanket with a cooling patch on her forehead, her back to Yin Xiaomeng, who was sitting on a chair by the bed, quietly reciting an English vocabulary booklet.
She felt she had made a huge fool of herself today.
First, she got flustered and red-faced from the continuous teasing—even feeling a little damp.
Then, she slipped in the pool and almost drowned in the shallow end…
Finally, after being carried out of the water, less than one class period later, she was sent to the infirmary because of a high fever and unsteady steps.
“…”
She pulled the blanket over her head, feeling like everything she did today was a disaster.
‘I should have checked the calendar before leaving…’
‘Today must be my Mercury in retrograde day. I hate this so much…’
Instead of blaming herself for all the embarrassing situations, she conveniently attributed everything to the mysterious phenomenon of ‘Mercury retrograde.’
Although she always tried to act innocent, naive, and even a little simple in front of Yin Xiaomeng, she was still the young lady of a relatively famous family, so she had some pride to maintain.
Fortunately, most of the people who saw her make a fool of herself today were classmates, and the rest were complete strangers.
“Xiao Ling, would you like some water?”
A gentle voice came from behind.
Yin Xiaomeng, who had finished her temporary task, moved her chair closer to the infirmary bed.
She picked up the glass on the bedside table.
The girl, whose thoughts had been interrupted, shivered.
The relief she had felt just a moment ago shattered into pieces.
She instinctively wanted to sit up and respond, but her limp body couldn’t even support herself to sit up.
She opened her mouth, her throat dry and burning from the persistent fever.
The physical discomfort made Situ Ling give up on refusing after a brief hesitation.
Under the girl’s gaze, she nodded slowly.
Her flushed cheeks, red from the fever, provided the perfect camouflage.
Yin Xiaomeng leaned down and pressed the back of her hand to the girl’s forehead to check her temperature.
“It seems like the fever has gone down a bit…”
Either the cooling patch was effective, or the girl, inexperienced in taking care of others, had mistaken the physical cooling treatment for some special therapy.
After all, the gel-like interior looked strangely similar to those medicated patches, right?
She stood up, poured half a cup of hot water from the infirmary’s water dispenser, and filled the rest with cold water.
Maybe she was doubtful about the water temperature?
She turned her back to Situ Ling, who was struggling to sit up from the bed, and lowered her head, gently pressing her lips to the rim of the glass.
Of course, the girl who had just managed to sit up saw this perfectly.
But compared to her previous panic, perhaps because she was truly powerless this time, Situ Ling accepted this unexpected benefit with a certain sense of contentment.
‘If I can’t have a real kiss, an indirect one isn’t bad either…’
‘Settling for second best, huh.’
With her head lowered, her still-damp hair spread over her shoulders.
Her jacket, which had been worn loosely before, was now properly buttoned up, with the zipper pulled all the way to the collar.
After confirming repeatedly that the water wouldn’t burn her tongue, Yin Xiaomeng quickly walked back to the bedside.
But this time, she didn’t sit back down on the chair.
Instead, she sat down next to the golden-haired loli, who looked sickly from the fever.
Mimicking a scene she had once seen, she brought the cup to the lips of the girl in her arms.
She tilted the cup slightly.
The warm water moistened the dry lips and mouth.
The girl, who had lost the ability to resist, naturally accepted this semi-forced treatment.
She even began to enjoy it a little?
‘If only I could…’
The thought had just appeared when Situ Ling, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, stomped that damn idea back into the ground.
‘Stay sick forever? You might as well just kill me!’
‘Damn it, why did I have such an inhuman thought?! No matter how thirsty I am, it shouldn’t be this bad!’
‘This makes me look… so cheap…’
She weakly complained in her heart.
Turning her head slightly, her eyes met Yin Xiaomeng’s worried gaze.
“Do you want more water?”
The girl had misunderstood her intention, but Situ Ling, who was enjoying this moment of solitude, nodded along.
“…”
‘Fine, cheap it is…’
‘Those gossiping voices are just jealous that Xiao Meng is treating me like this…’
Just a moment ago, she had been the one leading the charge against temptation.
But in the next second, this righteous leader quickly convinced herself and fell back into the arms of ‘temptation.’
After another cup of warm water, her tired limbs were still weak, but she felt much better than when she had first woken up—too weak to even support herself and sit up.
“Class monitor…”
“What time is it?”
Lying half-reclined on the bed, flanked by curtains on both sides, the girl couldn’t see the clock on the wall.
She let out a sigh.
Her voice was still hoarse, but she had recovered some ability to speak.
Yin Xiaomeng instinctively pulled out her phone from the pocket of her uniform skirt.
She lit up the screen, glanced at the time, and generously turned the phone toward the girl.
The lock screen wallpaper—a photo with Bai Ruoxi that she hadn’t changed—made Situ Ling’s breath catch for a moment.
But she quickly recovered.
“…Almost four o’clock.”
“Class monitor, aren’t you going back to class? Your etiquette class should be ending soon…”
Her head was dizzy, but she still remembered that only three of the afternoon’s five classes had passed.
Although she really wanted the other girl to stay and accompany her while she was sick, the thought that Yin Xiaomeng—who had never even taken leave for a fever—had skipped half an etiquette class for her made her feel like she shouldn’t keep wasting the other’s time.
“Huh?”
“It’s fine. I already explained the situation to the teacher. The Chinese teacher gave us permission to skip one class…”
Yin Xiaomeng put the glass back on the bedside table.
Gently, she laid the girl, who was leaning against the headboard, back down and tucked the blanket over her.
“Besides, if I weren’t here, with your current condition…”
“You probably can’t even go to the bathroom by yourself, right? You don’t want to… in bed…?”
She didn’t finish the sentence, but the meaning was clear.
Fortunately, since Situ Ling’s cheeks were already flushed red from the fever, this teasing comment didn’t expose any further weakness.
Though there was still a hint of reproach in her eyes.
But she couldn’t be bothered to argue.
She had only woken up a short while ago, but her brain was already sending signals of fatigue to her body.
Almost as soon as she lay down on the bed, a wave of drowsiness that seemed to come out of nowhere took over.
Her eyelids grew heavy.
She tried to open her eyes, to retort, but before the words could leave her mouth, her heavy eyelids completely covered her vision.
A slight smile unconsciously curved at the corners of her mouth.
Despite the embarrassment at the bed-wetting tease, Situ Ling felt…
She was actually in a pretty good mood right now.
“…”
“Alright. Go to sleep now.”
“Keep the blanket on and sweat it out. Maybe after you wake up, the fever will be gone.”
Someone’s voice was so gentle, just like when she was coaxing other girls.
…
‘Actually, I’m still a little jealous.’
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