1:32 AM.
‘I slept for how long?’
‘A whole day?’
When Li Xingya woke up, her head felt foggy and heavy.
She looked at the street outside, which had gone completely dark, then at Lin Jin’an sleeping beside her.
‘My sleep schedule is completely wrecked now.’
With the fever gone, Li Xingya felt unnaturally energetic.
“…Come to think of it.”
She suddenly turned over to the edge of the bed and, sure enough, spotted her school uniform carelessly discarded on the floor.
When she picked it up, she saw that the collar, which should have been snow-white, was soaked through with the color of brown sugar water. She could even faintly smell a hint of sweetness.
“Can this even be washed clean?”
The academy provided two sets each of summer and winter uniforms, so Li Xingya wasn’t worried about having nothing to wear to school tomorrow.
It’s just…
‘What the hell was I even doing?’
At this moment, fragments from before she fell asleep occasionally flashed through her chaotic mind.
Herself, pulling Lin Jin’an into bed to sleep together.
Herself, saying all sorts of ambiguous things.
The more she thought about it, the more irritated Li Xingya became, and she shook her head in frustration.
‘Forget it.’
‘My stomach feels terrible.’
‘Let me go get something to eat first.’
Even the nuclear-powered donkey from her previous life needed to fill its stomach before working—let alone Li Xingya, who was physically weak right now.
Having slept all day on an empty stomach, she simply didn’t have the spare energy to think about anything else.
Li Xingya slipped on her slippers and went downstairs to the first floor. In the refrigerator in the kitchen, she found the remaining half bowl of brown sugar water.
After briefly heating it up in the microwave, she picked up the bowl and took a small sip.
Li Xingya licked her lips in satisfaction.
‘So sweet.’
‘Tastes good.’
‘I feel like my head is a lot clearer already.’
So… what should she do next?
Going back to sleep was definitely out of the question. Li Xingya also had no interest in lying in bed staring at Lin Jin’an all night. She needed to find something to do.
And when it came to doing things, the first thing that came to Li Xingya’s mind was naturally playing games.
Since Li Xingya thought it, Li Xingya would do it.
She went to the living room, turned on the PS5 and the TV with practiced ease, grabbed the controller, and lay down on the sofa, starting to think about what game to play.
‘Right, I need to turn the volume down.’
‘If Sister finds out I’m secretly playing games in the middle of the night, she’ll definitely be really mad.’
***
Meanwhile, on the second floor, in the bedroom.
Lin Jin’an reached out and felt around beside her.
She grabbed nothing but air.
Lin Jin’an’s hazy consciousness sharpened a bit.
‘Xiaoya…’
‘Did she run away again?’
The reason Lin Jin’an thought this was because every night in the latter half, Li Xingya would unconsciously push Lin Jin’an away because she felt too hot. During this process, Lin Jin’an would occasionally be lightly woken up.
After it happened enough times, whenever she couldn’t hold Li Xingya, her first reaction was that the girl had escaped.
What to do at times like this was simple—
‘It’s useless.’
‘No matter where you run, your sister will catch you.’
***
All she needed to do was reach her hand toward the edge of the bed, and soon she’d be holding Xiaoya’s fragrant, soft, warm body… body… Hm?
Where did Xiaoya go?
Lin Jin’an opened her eyes.
Looking at the empty space beside her, Lin Jin’an finally realized that Li Xingya was gone.
‘Did she get hungry and go find a late-night snack?’
Lin Jin’an glanced at her phone to confirm the time.
That made sense. Having slept through the whole day in a daze, she’d definitely be hungry by nighttime.
Lin Jin’an sat up in bed and stretched.
“Should I order some late-night food?”
she muttered to herself.
Just then, she noticed a message on her phone.
[Are you awake]
A message from two hours ago. It was from Jiang Chiyue.
[Just woke up]
Lin Jin’an replied with just two words.
[Where’s Li Xingya]
Lin Jin’an looked at the sunken pillow beside her.
[Xiaoya is sleeping soundly]
She didn’t tell Jiang Chiyue the truth.
[Can you tell me now what exactly happened between you two?]
[…Nothing happened]
On the other end of the phone, Jiang Chiyue sat at her desk, staring silently at the dim yellow desk lamp.
With the help of sleeping pills, she’d finally managed to fall asleep.
Though the process wasn’t comfortable and she’d even had nightmares, she finally had the energy to start thinking about Li Xingya.
Looking at the message from Jiang Chiyue, Lin Jin’an half-leaned against her pillow, feeling a mix of amusement and exasperation.
‘Stubborn as always.’
[As long as you’re fine, then I’m going to sleep.]
Since Jiang Chiyue wouldn’t say anything, Lin Jin’an couldn’t be bothered to pry.
Compared to her, Lin Jin’an was more interested in seeing what Xiaoya was doing right now.
Not to mention anything else, just on the matter of self-care alone, Lin Jin’an would have to slap a “questionable” label on Li Xingya.
She was afraid that if Li Xingya got hungry enough, she’d recklessly grab the brown sugar water from the fridge and chug it down.
‘I need to keep a close eye on Xiaoya during her period.’
[Wait]
Just as Lin Jin’an was about to get out of bed, Jiang Chiyue sent another message.
[What now?]
[I want to ask you for a favor]
[…]
Lin Jin’an sighed:
[Go on]
[Since Li Xingya is sleeping, take a photo of her and send it to me]
In the dormitory, Jiang Chiyue, who had typed those words, felt her body go limp as if all her strength had drained away.
‘I want to see Li Xingya.’
Before falling asleep, this thought had been lodged in her mind.
Even after waking up, it wouldn’t go away.
That was why she’d suddenly contacted Lin Jin’an in the middle of the night.
[Are you insane?]
[?]
[You two are in that kind of mess, and now you come to me saying… you want a photo of her?]
Even if Jiang Chiyue didn’t say anything, that didn’t mean Lin Jin’an didn’t understand what was going on between them.
She didn’t know the cause of it, but Lin Jin’an understood very well what Jiang Chiyue had done.
She didn’t want to give Jiang Chiyue the photo.
More importantly… she couldn’t even take a picture of Li Xingya right now.
Lin Jin’an looked at the empty bed.
‘How am I supposed to take a photo like this?’
‘…Unless.’
Lin Jin’an opened her photo album and found that candid shot of Li Xingya sleeping.
‘I can’t just send a photo like this to Jiang Chiyue.’
From the background of the photo, it was obvious it had been taken in the morning. Sending it to Jiang Chiyue would definitely expose the lie.
[Do you think a single photo is going to solve the problems between you and Xiaoya?]
[Jiang Chiyue, there are some things that running away from won’t fix.]
At this point, as an elder six years older than Jiang Chiyue, Lin Jin’an naturally had to put on the proper air of an elder.
[You’ll have to come back during winter break anyway, right? When that time comes, do you think you can avoid Li Xingya?]
Watching the [Other person is typing…] indicator flashing on her phone screen, Lin Jin’an was confident she’d managed to scare the girl.
‘Good. Let’s just bluff my way through tonight for now.’
[Think about this matter carefully. Come find me when you’ve made up your mind.]
After sending that message, Lin Jin’an immediately turned on her phone’s Do Not Disturb mode without a second thought. Then she got out of bed, slipped on her slippers, and walked out of the room.
‘Let’s put Jiang Chiyue’s matter aside for now.’
‘I’m going to go find Xiaoya.’
Arriving on the first floor, Lin Jin’an only needed one glance to notice the faint glow coming from the living room.
And…
Li Xingya, lying on the sofa with a death grip on the controller, playing to her heart’s content.
‘So this is… the reason you don’t sleep properly at night?’
The wall clock was already approaching 2:00 AM.
She was on her period.
She’d had a high fever this morning.
‘And she can’t even put on proper clothes.’
Looking at Li Xingya, who was only wearing underwear, Lin Jin’an’s mood sank to the very bottom in an instant.
“Li Xingya… turn off the game.”