The morning sunlight lazily spilled across the classroom floor through the wide, bright window, casting a warm and soft patch of light.
Meng Wange sat upright in her seat, a black gel pen pinched between her fingers. She appeared to be diligently taking notes on what the teacher was saying at the lecture platform, but her thoughts had long since drifted elsewhere.
—Specifically, to the black-haired girl beside her, whose features were delicate and expression indifferent.
Su Wanli rested her head on her crossed arms, her face turned sideways as she silently gazed out the window at the unchanging scenery. The sunlight softly illuminated the top of her head, painting a gentle golden outline along the bridge of her nose.
Judging purely by her face, Su Wanli seemed calm and composed at the moment. However, the pen tip she kept poking up and down on her textbook betrayed her true feelings.
—Irritation, frustration, and a certain indescribable pressure.
“Mm…”
Starting from when she called her to get up in the morning, Meng Wange had keenly sensed this.
Miss Su was indeed acting very abnormally today.
No, rather, Su Wanli hadn’t tried to hide it from the start.
—When she called her to go to the banquet hall for breakfast, Su Wanli said, “Not eating.”
—When she asked her to get in the car together, she said, “Don’t want to.”
Even during the break in the last class, when Meng Wange tried to write down some adjustments to the textbook on a piece of paper and hand it to her, Su Wanli pushed it away without a second thought, not even leaving a signal, with a look of rejection on her face.
Everything seemed to be clearly conveying the same message to her.
—So annoying, you hateful person, stay away from me.
Meng Wange took a deep breath and gently tapped her pen on the desk in front of her.
In theory, all this strangeness started after that conversation at home last night.
But why?
Before going to sleep last night, Meng Wange had replayed every detail of that conversation in her mind countless times, yet she still couldn’t figure out which link had gone wrong to cause Su Wanli to feel such strong resistance toward her.
…Was it because she tried to pry into Su Wanli’s fantasies about the future?
That was some kind of embarrassing topic for her, and so she lashed out in anger?
No.
Su Wanli wasn’t the type to hold a grudge over such a small thing.
Even if she did, one night should have eased it somewhat. It shouldn’t have escalated like this instead…
Let me reimagine this, Meng Wange.
Think carefully, where exactly did the problem lie that made Su Wanli suddenly start to hate her.
Hate… me?
Just then, the words Su Wanli had spoken that morning flashed through Meng Wange’s mind—
“—What nonsense are you talking about!? What’s wrong with you!? Don’t keep your distance from me!”
“—You need to control the distance between us yourself! How old are you! Don’t you have any social skills at all!”
“—You’re too cautious! It’s fine to get a little closer!”
Meng Wange blinked slightly in confusion, then turned her head to look at the back of Su Wanli’s head.
Although her rejection was very obvious…
This wasn’t actually genuine coldness.
In fact, quite the opposite.
Every resistance Su Wanli showed her now seemed like some kind of…
Combat reaction?
Like a small animal instinctively curling up, raising its fur and baring its teeth to hide its panic when touched unexpectedly.
After pondering for a long time, a bold guess quietly surfaced in Meng Wange’s mind.
—Maybe she hadn’t done anything wrong at all.
On the contrary, she was too correct, leaving Su Wanli momentarily at a loss.
I see.
Combat reaction…
After all, openly discussing the scene many years later was probably a situation that was hard for Su Wanli, who wasn’t good at handling social relationships, to imagine, right?
Just as she had investigated, Su Wanli had never had a social relationship that lasted long enough in her life.
People like Zhang Shiyu were already the furthest distance Su Wanli had ever reached.
Other than them, only Su Heng and Zhang Ma, who had been by her side since birth, remained.
So, when faced with Meng Wange’s bold speculation about the many years ahead last night, Su Wanli suddenly panicked, unsure if she could stay by her side forever.
Thus, she used this clumsy, all-rejecting method as a form of inner self-protection?
If that were the case, then…
“Ding—ding—ding—”
Just then, the class bell rang.
Meng Wange pursed her lips, gently put down her pen, turned around, and adjusted her sitting position to face the black-haired girl who was still staring out the window.
“—Miss Su.”
…
Upon hearing her call, Su Wanli’s shoulders immediately trembled slightly, but she didn’t turn around. Instead, she forced out a cold snort through her teeth.
Meng Wange gently shook her head, then cleared her throat twice and spoke softly to Su Wanli in a relaxed, natural tone.
“The next break is a full twenty minutes. How about we hang out in the classroom for a while and rest up?”
As expected, after her suggestion, Su Wanli reacted as if she had stepped on a live wire. She immediately turned her head, glared at Meng Wange with a fierce look, then gritted her teeth and jerked her head to the side.
“No!”
“…I see.”
Meng Wange still wore that gentle smile, as if she hadn’t noticed the resistance in Su Wanli’s tone.
“Then, would you like to go out and take a walk by yourself?”
“No.”
“Mm, in that case, would you like me to go out and take a walk by myself?”
“No! Why do you keep asking the same question! Stop talking to me!”
“Sorry, I just noticed you seemed a bit upset, so I wanted to double-check a few more times.”
Meng Wange cut off her questioning at just the right moment, stood up, walked around to Su Wanli’s front, and held out her hand with a smile.
“Then, shall we go now?”
Feeling her wrist grabbed by Meng Wange, Su Wanli’s eyes widened with disbelief.
“…Huh? What do you mean? Who said I’m going with you?”
“Because I happened to find a pretty nice-looking spot on the school map that might help with our later rehearsal.”
Meng Wange smiled and winked at Su Wanli, then subtly pulled her up from the chair.
“Besides, didn’t you say you didn’t want to stay in the classroom with me, but you also didn’t want us to go out separately? Could it be… you mean to bring Zhang Shiyu and the others along with us? That would indeed be more lively.”
“Of course not! I don’t like lively things! But… hey! Stop pulling, I’ll walk on my own!”
…
Sitting in the back row, Xiao Fen, Da Zhuang, and Potato Thunder watched the two girls in front pulling and teasing each other as they left through the back door of the classroom, and couldn’t help exchanging glances.
“Did Boss Su and Meng Wange… have a fight?”
“I don’t think so.”
Xiao Fen thoughtfully scratched her forehead, then silently sighed.
“Maybe it’s a sign of their relationship taking the next step?”
“…Huh? Really?”
“Well, I was going to ask them about the setting, but I guess we’ll have to wait until rehearsal.”