Sweetness Is Incessantly Late

BRAINLESS AND UPSET

The morning sun was a little dazzling to the eyes, the youth beneath the tree frowned as he brushed aside the branches grazing the top of his head. He repeated the action several times before realizing that the branches would rebound onto his forehead each time, so he simply reached up and snapped it off.

Lu Man looked at the tall youth in front of her, with the fair skin and slightly pursed lips. A sliver of sunlight shone upon his face, and he narrowed his eyes. Lu Man was somewhat nervous as she fiddled with the material of her uniform skirt, then smiled and touched the small pigtail on her head: “You said before that you liked girls with ponytails. See, I can tie my hair up into a ponytail now.”

Knowing that her pigtail was still quite short, Lu Man dropped her hand and looked down with some resentment, not daring to look at him.

Fu Zhi’an’s thoughts had scattered a long time ago, he was unsure of how many times Lu Man had confessed to him already. He received quite a number of confessions from girls and the shyer ones would write him love letters or notes. If he didn’t respond, then they wouldn’t follow up. The ones who confessed to him face to face would usually give up after he gave them a random excuse.

Except for this person.

Fu Zhi’an once again regarded the girl standing in front of him with her head lowered. The first time she confessed to him, Fu Zhi’an hadn’t taken her too seriously, and had casually said he wanted to focus on his studies instead of dating. After that, Lu Man had shown up to every self-study period, sitting within his field of vision each time, staring at him until he got goosebumps.

Then, Lu Man confessed to him again. Not wanting to waste their time, he directly told her that she wasn’t his type. Afterwards, Lu Man showed up crying every day. In class, she would dry her tears with a napkin while looking at him in despair. Even their form teacher felt that something was off and called him over after class for a chat, full of suspicion.

The previous time, he looked at Lu Man’s short hair and earnestly said: I like girls with ponytails. He thought it would take her hair at least several months to grow out, but who would have expected it to be just a little over one month before she tied her hair up and came to look for him again.

A thread of respect rose in Fu Zhi’an’s heart; Even Sun Wukong[1] who was birthed from the fissure in a rock had once thought to give up his pilgrimage to the West, but Lu Man’s perseverance was truly a rare gem in this time and age.

“Strictly speaking, what you have can’t be considered a ponytail.” Fu Zhi’an spoke apathetically.

Lu Man slowly raised her head and grinned at him: “It’ll grow out into a proper ponytail someday.”

The corners of Fu Zhi’an’s lips twitched, and he irritably kicked out at the loose pebbles on the ground. There was nothing to refute in her words. With a sigh, Fu Zhi’an lifted his head, and suddenly caught a glimpse of a stranger’s figure under a tree, in the near distance.

“Sorry.” Fu Zhi’an’s dull gaze lit up in an instant. He regarded Lu Man somewhat apologetically and paused for a long moment before speaking again: “I wasn’t telling the truth before.”

“Actually, I already have someone I like.”

Lu Man fell into a daze, the smile frozen on her face. She had been classmates with Fu Zhi’An for nearly a year; Despite not having spoken to him much, she knew him quite well. Fu Zhi’an was only interested in studying, and while he was taking down notes, he never lost focus. He diligently handed in all his assignments, no matter the amount. The reason she had the courage to confess to Fu Zhi’an was also quite simple. Her friend had told her this: He had even rejected the school beauty, so even if she were to be rejected, it wouldn’t be humiliating at all.

In Lu Man’s heart, it didn’t matter how many times Fu Zhi’an rejected her, because he would never set his sights on someone else. She was merely using confessing as an excuse to talk to him more, until Fu Zhi’an, all smiles, said he already had someone he liked.

“Can I know who it is?”

Having expected her to ask, Fu Zhi’an directed a gaze full of emotion over to a near distance, speaking slowly: “It’s that person[2].”

Lu Man followed his line of sight and looked over, there was a slim figure beneath the Chinese scholar tree. Because this person had covered her head with her uniform jacket, Lu Man couldn’t make out her face.

“I’ll be leaving first.” Fu Zhi’an nodded at her, then walked off towards the classroom block without a backward glance, leaving Lu Man to stand alone in the small garden.

The class bell rang, but Lu Man couldn’t take even a single step. Her romance had been throttled to death in its cradle before it could even blossom. If she thought about it, Fu Zhi’an wasn’t even interested in the school beauty, so why would he become interested in her? Romance between the school beau and an ordinary student was something that only happened in fiction novels.

In the distance, there came the sound of rustling. The girl huddled up under the Chinese scholar tree slowly stretched out her legs, the kind of long, slim legs that Lu Man idealized.

But weren’t they a little too long?

The uniform jacket on the person’s head was abruptly tugged off. Under the head of fine black hair was a pair of bright, clear eyes. Further down was a rather straight nose bridge and rosy lips.

“Fuck, I overslept again.” The person under the tree stood up slowly and gave a lazy stretch, before seeming to notice Lu Man’s line of sight. That person turned around suddenly and glared at her, raising a brow while adopting an arrogant tone: “What the hell are you looking at.” Noting the lifeless and dazed way Lu Man remained standing where she was, that person picked the jacket off the ground and slung it over one shoulder, then yawned and strode off towards the classroom block.

Lu Man felt she must be hallucinating. She fiercely pinched her own arm, letting out a gasp. So she hadn’t gone blind.

Believing that his life would finally become more peaceful, Fu Zhi’an only noticed that something seemed to be wrong at the end of the first period, when everyone in class huddled together whispering, stealing glances at him occasionally. Fu Zhi’an took out his phone, and after tapping on it several times, finally found a post on the school forum, the topic being: Has my long-running journey of courting the school beau finally come to an end?

The upturned corners of Fu Zhi’an’s lips grew somewhat rigid, but he still maintained an air of nonchalance, as if he hadn’t seen anything, before lowering his head to continue working on his practice paper.

Chi Yu’s entire body was sprawled over his desk. He had spent the better half of last night playing games, then spent the rest of it stuck in a vicious cycle of dreams. He had skipped morning exercise to take a nap in the little garden and was caught red-handed by his form teacher when he returned to class. As a result, he had spent the entire period standing as punishment and was only able to take a break now.

But the classroom was so noisy it was giving him a headache.

“Hey, what’s with all the noise, can you guys shut up?” Chi Yu lifted his head impatiently, raising his voice at a group of excited girls gathered around the adjacent desk. In the past, once Chi Yu spoke, everyone would immediately back up at least two meters, but now, these girls merely grinned at him. The scene was seriously unnerving.

It was at this moment that Chi Yu realized, it wasn’t just these girls; All the students in class were holding onto their phones and crowding together. Even the ever-studious class representative had his neck stretched out, as if not wanting to miss out on some piece of explosive news.

Chi Yu stood up and leaned over his desk to peek at the seatmate in front of him. He stared unblinkingly at the screen in Lin Chuan’s hand. There were many words on the screen and Chi Yu didn’t have the patience to go through everything, so he merely scanned his eyes over the first few lines.

“What the fuck!” Chi Yu exclaimed, scaring Lin Chuan so much that he jumped up from his seat and dropped his phone onto the floor. He was met with Chi Yu’s blazing eyes once he turned around, and immediately raised both hands above his head to plead his innocence: “I wasn’t the one who posted it! I just saw it too!”

Bending over to pick up the phone, Chi Yu inhaled deeply and read through every line on the screen. Lin Chuan swallowed, saying nervously: “Uh, Chi Yu, be careful with my phone, don’t crush it…” The hand holding onto the phone had gone white. The expression on Chi Yu’s face flickered from black to red, even bordering on green.

“Who the fuck posted this!”

The classroom went deathly silent. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to tell, but they didn’t know who posted it, either.

Chi Yu tossed the phone onto the desk with a clatter and walked to the door, expression dark. He pulled the door open forcefully and slammed it close. Only when the students were sure Chi Yu had vanished down the corridor did the chatter resume in the classroom.

“This is too wild! But I’ve never seen them talk to each other?” A male student was scrolling through his screen, full of suspicion.

“Don’t be an idiot, they were obviously pretending not to know each other!” Another male student rolled his eyes.

“Huh.” A female student seemed as if her soul had left her body, sprawling lifelessly on her desk and mumbling: “Today must be a day of calamity for First Middle, we lost both school beaus in succession.”

“Oh, please.” A fierce-looking male student leaned over with a cold laugh: “Does their relationship have anything to do with you? Disregarding the one from Class 7, we’ll just take Chi Yu as an example. Since the start of our first year, he probably talked to dogs more than he talked to you.”

The number of times Chi Yu received detention notices was probably enough to be broadcasted on the news. If he didn’t leave school early, then he got into fights and brawls. The students of Class 1 were initially fearful of this tyrant, but they later realized that Chi Yu never created trouble within the classroom. After a while, Chi Yu became somewhat of a bodyguard, and everyone felt more secure with him nearby.

Even so, the girls who liked Chi Yu came in flocks. During a girl’s adolescence, there would always be a space in their heart reserved for the good-looking bad boys. But there were too many people who fancied Chi Yu, especially people from the neighbouring vocational high school. Nearly every day, there would be someone skipping classes and waiting at First Middle’s front gate for Chi Yu to be dismissed from school.

Fu Zhi’an, as one of the top students in school who constantly placed first in the year, had received enough awards to plaster them over half the classroom walls. That, and his delicate features, had won over the affections of both students and teachers. Compared to Chi Yu, the girls in school preferred him as a potential partner, because even though he was reserved and did not speak much, he wouldn’t randomly beat people up when he got upset.

Apart from studying, the girls in school often debated over topics such as “Chi Yu is more good looking” or “Fu Zhi’an is more likeable”. They were eager for Chi Yu and Fu Zhi’an to have some sort of interaction, so that they could finally conclude their discussions.

But the first year passed and there never was a day in which the both of them crossed paths.

Chi Yu was in Class 1 and Fu Zhi’an was in Class 7. Both sides had their respective washrooms and water dispensers, so on a whole, it was not easy for them to bump into each other. Even during the sports festival, despite each of them participating in four events, they managed to perfectly avoid one another. Forget interacting, the girls were convinced that these two would never even breathe in the same space.

Fu Zhi’an fished out his phone and looked over the forum post again. The post initially had a only a few replies, but now it had exploded and even earned the “hot topic” mark next to it.

The story was simple: Lu Man started the thread the first day she started chasing Fu Zhi’an and would update it daily with how she would court him that day, then follow up with his method of rejection. Replies to this thread was few and far between, since these types of posts were common, and no one had any idea how to tell if they were real or not.

Until Lu Man’s newest update two hours ago, which contained only a short sentence: He rejected me again today, but I’m not upset, because today is the day First Middle loses both school beaus.

Fu Zhi’an was rather good at literature, and he recognized each individual word. But when strung together to form a sentence, he couldn’t understand anything no matter how he interpreted it.

Before he was able to collect his thoughts, the backdoor was kicked open with a slam. A tall boy had one hand against the door, his clear eyes brimming with anger. His baggy uniform hung askew on his frame, revealing pretty and delicate collarbones. Chi Yu raked his sombre gaze throughout the classroom, finally settling on the boy near the window of the last row. He plastered on a fake smile, lips pulling up tight.

“You, get out here.”

[1] The Monkey King from the famous legend, Journey to the West.

[2] Here, Fu Zhi’an said 她, which is technically “her”. But it is pronounced the same as “him”, so I thought using “that person” would better fit this situation.