“Reason…?”
Gu Fan tilted his head, glancing at me from the corner of his eye.
“It’s simple. Because Zhi Nian hasn’t been feeling well, I wanted to cheer you up by treating you to a good meal.”
As he explained, Gu Fan reached out and gently touched my head.
His fingertips brushed my cat ears, making them twitch in response.
As expected, Gu Fan was as attentive as ever.
Before coming to find Gu Fan, I had already imagined that he might have noticed my faint dark circles from staying up late, or my weary expression—any reason, really—to show concern and care.
Knowing the reason gave me a sense of reassurance.
Just as we were about to reach the parking lot, Gu Fan suddenly stopped.
I looked at him, puzzled, as he apologized quietly.
“Oh no, I forgot to grab my backpack.”
Heh, so Gu Fan makes mistakes too.
I covered my mouth and chuckled softly.
We were about to get in the car and go back when this sudden interruption happened.
Gu Fan put the key back into his pocket and hesitated for a moment before pulling it out again.
“Zhi Nian, wait here for a bit. I’ll go back to the classroom to get my backpack.”
Come to think of it, Gu Fan usually doesn’t bring his backpack home.
Only occasionally does he bring it in the afternoon.
What’s in the backpack that makes him take it so seriously?
As Gu Fan walked past me, I sensed something strange and quickly grabbed his arm.
Gu Fan turned back to look at me.
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
I lowered my gaze, feeling sorry for disturbing him but unwilling to let go.
“Is Gu Fan not coming to school this afternoon?
That’s why he needs to bring his backpack back first.”
This was the only possibility I could think of. If it were someone else, I would assume they were feeling unwell or had some urgent matter to handle.
But when it comes to Gu Fan…
I couldn’t help but suspect he might be skipping class to do something—and keeping it from me.
Thinking carefully, tomorrow is Gu Fan’s birthday.
It’s quite possible his friends are planning to meet somewhere early to celebrate, and my foolish mind could only imagine such a scenario.
“Hm, I have something to do this afternoon, so I took a leave.”
“…What kind of thing?”
Could it be that I guessed right?
A stubborn fire burned in my chest.
I pressed my lips tight and chose to annoyingly keep asking.
If today was going to be comfortable at all, I had to know what Gu Fan specifically took leave for.
“Uh… that’s a secret.”
For the first time in a while, Gu Fan showed a troubled expression in front of me.
After thinking for a moment, he dismissed my question with a casual tone.
Why… keep it from me?
If it was just a birthday party, wouldn’t it be nice to talk about it with me?
Why deliberately avoid me?
I exhaled deeply.
My chest filled with black sludge that slowly seeped into my lungs, making even breathing feel disgusting.
I had almost forgotten, but now I recalled what Shiratori said: “Gu Fan invited a lot of people, but didn’t he invite you?”
Every time I thought about it, I felt maybe Gu Fan had accidentally left me out—or wanted to tell me personally.
But we had already been together for almost half an hour, and Gu Fan still hadn’t mentioned it.
Did he think a gloomy, solitary person like me didn’t deserve to attend his birthday party?
Thinking like that, it was kind of true.
Someone like me at a party would just put on a sour face and deal with others, unable to happily chat and play games.
“Gu Fan, you stay here and rest for a bit. I’ll go get your backpack.”
After a silent stalemate, I let go of Gu Fan’s arm and said this to myself, then headed back toward the teaching building.
Gu Fan didn’t resist my choice.
I kept my cat ears alert to the surroundings but didn’t hear any other footsteps besides mine.
As for why I took the initiative to go get Gu Fan’s backpack…
I guess my subconscious wanted to use the solo walk to shake off the gloom weighing on my chest.
Of course, I still had a small suspicion that I needed to verify—I really wanted to know if there was some unspeakable secret hidden in that backpack.
From what I know about Gu Fan, if there was nothing important in his backpack that he didn’t want me to see, he would have allowed me to pick it up for him.
But there was also another possibility—that Gu Fan completely trusted me, believing I wouldn’t go snooping through his backpack.
Come to think of it… is what I’m doing invading his privacy?
That seems kind of bad.
Halfway on my way, I started worrying about privacy issues.
If I didn’t get caught, that would be fine—only my conscience would blame me.
But if I were discovered, it might cause a big rift between us, one that would be very difficult to repair, maybe even for a lifetime.
Tsk, the price of snooping through a backpack seems pretty high…
Walking back to the classroom, I felt that the gloom on my chest hadn’t lifted much; instead, it seemed to grow stronger.
If I chose to do nothing, the unsatisfied curiosity would keep popping up in the days ahead, scolding me for missing this chance—no matter if I got scolded, I needed to know which woman was stealing Gu Fan away.
Uh, wait, no, no—I can’t just assume what’s hidden in Gu Fan’s backpack has to do with some other woman.
Maybe it’s just stuff from his family, haha.
It definitely is—otherwise, why would Gu Fan feel okay letting me go get his backpack alone?
As for completely trusting me… that’s okay, as long as no one sees me, and as long as Gu Fan doesn’t check the security cameras, the secret won’t be exposed.
Letting my thoughts run free, the chain of reasoning I put together comes from my true needs and instincts—I don’t want to deny them.
Clenching my fists against my chest, I had already arrived in front of the classroom building, psyching myself up.
I thought the deeper cause of my crossing the line might be that perverse dream I had during the last class of the morning.
The emotions born in the dream hadn’t disappeared; they were hiding like a game of hide-and-seek deep inside my mood, evading the large-scale cleanup of waking up, then erupting the moment Gu Fan chose to keep things secret, eroding my already fatigued mind from lack of sleep.
I knew this about myself, yet I chose indulgence—I didn’t stop myself from invading Gu Fan’s privacy.
I’m really going too far…
The version of me in the dream fantasized about imprisoning Gu Fan to keep him from going to handle his matters, while the real me wants to snoop through Gu Fan’s backpack to see what exactly is worth hiding from me.
I haven’t slept enough today and am prone to wild thoughts; compared to usual, the chance of suddenly falling into madness is a bit higher, so I guess it can be forgiven, right?
After today, I’ll go back to being a well-behaved and obedient catgirl.
Besides… who knows, maybe everything in Gu Fan’s backpack is perfectly normal—he just simply wants to bring it home to deal with some family matters in the afternoon.
And also, what if some ill-intentioned girl slips a love letter into the backpack?
That would cause trouble for Gu Fan.
If I take care of it ahead of time, wouldn’t that be a good thing?
Continuously brainwashing myself, barely calming my restless heart, I finally walked into Gu Fan’s classroom.
“…No one else here…? Hehehe…”