“Gu… Gu Fan…”
My lips parted hesitantly, but all I could do was weakly call out Gu Fan’s name.
All the carefully prepared words got stuck in my throat and refused to come out.
Fortunately, my childhood friend was much smarter than me and didn’t stubbornly cling to a single topic.
He amusingly reached out and pinched my slightly flushed cheek, then smoothly shifted his chair closer to me, placing the mini camera on the table.
“Here, Zhì Nián, look at this.”
The sudden photo earlier had left me with a bit of psychological shadow.
When I heard Gu Fan say this, I instinctively corrected my posture and the tightly furrowed brows on my forehead suddenly relaxed.
I forced a smile that I thought looked fairly composed and raised my right hand to make a peace sign.
“Yay…?”
“Hmph? Silly little cat, what’s with the ‘yay’?”
“I-I thought you were going to take a picture.”
“Nope, that’s not it. I just want Zhì Nián to look at the photos we took today together. These are memories of us both; you can’t let me enjoy them alone.”
A large hand gently wrapped around my shoulder, and the mini camera placed on the table was slid by Gu Fan’s finger to show the two tightly stuck prayer slips we took earlier.
That’s when I saw what was written on Gu Fan’s prayer slip.
Compared to my fragmented wishes, his was noticeably simpler and more practical.
He methodically went through hopes for good health, cheerful moods, academic success, and financial fortune, ending with a wish that we could both get into the university in Huacheng together.
“By the way, Zhì Nián, why did you only write things related to me? Why not write something about yourself?”
Likewise, with the photo as proof, Gu Fan saw what I wrote on my prayer slip.
“Ah… I accidentally forgot, and on top of that, the pen ran out of ink at the time, so I was annoyed and just ignored it. It’s fine though, since you wrote things about me, your blessings are enough.”
I couldn’t very well say, “I didn’t think about myself at all. I was only wondering when you and I could get married and have babies.”
Though I knew lying was immoral, if I had to obediently spill out the impulses I’d been suppressing all at once, it’d be better to just kill me outright.
If I had to come up with a better solution, it would be to have Gu Fan punish the “dishonest little cat” by taking me back to his bedroom for a serious lesson, using strict and efficient physical methods to break my habit of lying and bragging.
Hmph~
“Dummy Zhì Nián, you’ve got to think more about yourself sometimes.”
Gu Fan shook his head helplessly and glanced at the long johns still on my legs that belonged to him.
If I hadn’t been forced to put them on before we left, I probably would’ve frozen into an ice pop by now.
“I’m really worried you’ll be kidnapped by bad people someday, or get scammed out of all your money and worse.”
Gu Fan spoke with a hint of worry, then quietly took the plastic cup and drank the matcha.
There wasn’t much matcha left at the bottom of the cup.
The plastic cup bumped against the matcha under the suction of the straw, making a “zzshh zzshh” hollow sound.
I rubbed my teeth, hesitated for a moment, and then, taking advantage of the gap when the waiter carrying a freshly made, steaming hot cup of matcha was walking over to us, I took a deep breath and temporarily surrendered control of my body to my reckless courage.
“If you’re so worried about these things happening, then wouldn’t it be better if you just protected me for life?”
“…….”
** The sound of matcha stopped abruptly.
My words shocked Gu Fan so much he even stopped breathing.
Those warm amber eyes rarely showed a trace of panic.
He tilted his head to look at me, licking his upper lip as if brewing up something to say.
Fortunately, my guess was correct.
The waiter who just brought the hot matcha was heading straight toward us.
Just as Gu Fan was about to say the first syllable, the waiter—unaware of the situation between us—set the tray down on our table.
“Your second cup of matcha. Thank you for your patronage. If you need a takeout bag, you can get one at the front desk.”
“Ah, thank you. Sorry to trouble you.”
Gu Fan replied hurriedly, obviously not expecting the waiter’s timely arrival.
The words he had prepared to say to me had to be set aside for now.
The waiter politely finished speaking, gave a slight bow, and left with the tray.
Gu Fan wordlessly pushed the warm cup of matcha toward me.
I took it into my palm and then stood up.
“Let’s go. We’ve finished the cake and had the matcha; let this one cool off as we walk. I want to go buy some clothes.”
I didn’t want to hear what Gu Fan would say in response.
He wouldn’t say anything cruel enough to hurt me, but I also wasn’t about to hear any sweet talk.
Gu Fan wasn’t the kind of guy to make such bold moves before we confirmed our relationship.
Since that was the case, I might as well vent what I wanted to say and then immediately change the subject, so Gu Fan wouldn’t have to make a tough decision.
“… Okay.”
Gu Fan’s self-regulation was excellent.
Seeing that I wasn’t interested in hearing his answer, he quickly smoothed the somewhat tangled expression on his face, casually tossed the empty plastic cup into the trash, and followed my pace as we walked toward the clothing mall.
Perhaps because of that little episode, we barely spoke the whole way.
From time to time, I stole glances at my childhood friend behind me using the glass windows of the shops along the street.
He kept his eyes slightly lowered, thick eyelashes covering those bright amber eyes.
His fingers absentmindedly tugged at the hem of his down jacket as if lost in thought.
Had I done something wrong? Gu Fan was ignoring me…
That thought popped into my mind as we reached the lingerie store.
After saying, “I’ll wait for you outside,” Gu Fan walked over to the men’s lounge area.
I went inside the store and unintentionally looked back.
Gu Fan wasn’t scrolling through videos on his phone or flipping through the mini camera’s photos like before.
Now he sat upright, eyes unfocused, staring at the floor, clearly still tangled up over the boundary-crossing words I had just said.
After all… we were just childhood friends.
How could I say such nonsense about wanting him to protect me for life?
That had no sense of boundaries at all.
A talkative person like me should just have shut my mouth.
My mood was somewhat heavy.
I took off my down jacket and lethargically answered the salesperson’s question about my size with “I’m not really sure.”
She then measured my three dimensions over my clothes with a soft measuring tape.
“Wow, little sister, you’ve developed so well. How old are you this year?”
The salesperson seemed surprised, as if she rarely saw girls my age develop this much.
I silently sneered at myself.
So what if I had a good figure?
If my brain wasn’t sharp, one sentence could leave Gu Fan troubled for a long time.
Could it be that the prejudice about “big breasts, no brains” was actually true?
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