CH 86

Chapter 22.1 (TL: Bara Chou)

The movie was at a part with lots of bright shots, illuminating the theatre and its occupants.

Ruan An’an was staring blankly at Gu Jue. He was awfully close, his fingers still on her face.

His eyes were wide open, accentuating the uptilted leaf shape of his lids. It seemed less aggravating than when he hooded his eyes, and less alluring than when he smiled with them, but these eyes that were trained on her seemed so beautiful.

Somehow, being this close, Ruan An’an’s mind suddenly drifted to their first encounter.

Truthfully, the School Boss from her youth, the legend who was rumored to have graduated early, had always been on her mind.

She couldn’t help but compare the brave souls who dared to confess to her, as well as anyone good-looking enough to catch her eye, to the boy from her memories – even though she had only seen his silhouette and not even his visage.

Looking at it like that, what she felt towards that person should be considered unrequited love, right?

However, it was different when she first saw Gu Jue. Instead of this vague and ambiguous feeling, she knew it was love at first sight, loud and clear.

What a phrase, “love at first sight.”

Ruan An’an knew her tendency towards the aesthetically pleasing, but she considered herself to be very rational and not at all the romantic maiden type. To think that, one day she would be using this phrase.

When she was talking about it with her best friends, she described the attraction as mostly physical. While it wasn’t wrong to say that, it wasn’t like she only liked him for his looks.

In the moment when their eyes met, her brain stopped working. It was like trying to describe the sound of a flower blooming – there was just no way to describe it with words.

It was simply… a wonderful moment.

At first, before his true colors were revealed, Gu Jue was the perfect image of a university hottie: innocent and hot, even cool-looking when he was expressionless. Not to mention his long legs, thin waist, and perky butt.

She used to exclaim over how he seemed too perfect.

And then she found out, he really wasn’t that perfect.

He had trouble getting up in the morning.

He couldn’t afford to repair his phone screen.

There was a strand of hair that was always sticking up on the back of his head. He had terrible sitting postures, but at least he stood handsomely. As a student, he never once brought a pen to class despite never forgetting to bring candy.

The closer you became to him, the more outrageous things he would say to you. It was a mystery exactly how little shame he had, with how he never blushed once despite all the things he had said.

…

At first, the name, Gu Jue, as well as the person it represented, seemed like a character out of a comic book. Later, the more she learned about his adorable quirks, the more dimensions were added to this character, the more they interacted, the more he became a part of her life, and the more his image changed in her eyes.

And now.

He said…

“I like you.”

Ruan An’an’s words were caught in her throat, unable to come out. She completely lost her usual ability to tease back and seemed to have been plagued by the same vocabulary deficiency that Chen Song and Murong Yunhai had.

TL/N: Murong Yunhai is the male lead in Meteor Shower (aka. the Chinese version of Boys over Flowers)

Ruan An’an tried to collect her thoughts and sort through what had just happened.

Then, her lips moved, and a small voice came out. “…Did you plan this out beforehand?”

Gu Jue patiently waited for the young lady to react. When he finally saw her open her mouth, he thought he would get something along the lines of “I like you too,” but instead, she asked him a question.

He paused, “did I… plan what?”

The movie had ended right then, and the credits were rolling. Chattering returned to the theatre.

It was no longer a good place to talk, so Gu Jue retracted his hand and spoke into her ear “let’s get out of here first.” She nodded while hugging the still half-full bucket of popcorn.

The crowd was moving slowly. The couple that was sitting beside them ended up right behind them. The poor guy was still digging his own grave. “Honey? Honey, what’s wrong? Don’t ignore me. Did I say something wrong? That was my taste before, but I like you now. Hey?”

“…”

In the sounds of a confused man’s questioning, Ruan An’an followed Gu Jue out the doors. The pair headed to the couch they were sitting on before they got their tickets.

Gu Jue: “What did you ask?”

“I asked you…” Ruan An’an hesitated, a little embarrassed about her choice of words, “um, did you plan out the stuff for the confession beforehand?”

Gu Jue raised a brow. “What’s ‘the stuff for the confession’? What stuff?”

“Er, like.” Ruan An’an thought back to his string of verbal maneuvers and summed up, “the plot twist.”

I.e., b̲u̲l̲l̲s̲h̲i̲t̲t̲i̲n̲g̲ about his type being sexy blondes, the exact opposite of her, then shocking the world by turning back on it and saying “oh, that was all a lie, but what’s true is that I like you.”

Plot twists – very dramatic, very extra, very Gu Jue.

“…” Gu Jue immediately knew what she was talking about.

He was between speechless and wanting to laugh. Instead, he explained to her sincerely, “I really did not.”

Who, the f̲u̲c̲k̲, would use nasty tactics in a confession? He just wanted to tease her.

Despite his explanations, the expression on Ruan An’an’s face said she was still suspicious… Looking at her face, Gu Jue wondered if he had exposed too much of his true personality.

He sighed. “Screw it, I’ll just say it.”

“To be honest, I’ve actually wanted to confess to you for a while… but compared to this,” he seemed lost in thought for a moment, then he smiled. “I’ve said this before, I thought I made my advances quite obvious. It wasn’t like you rejected me either.”

Many of Gu Jue’s quotes had become memes within the B̲i̲t̲c̲h̲ Squad. They’ve been used so much that Ruan An’an could easily recite any of them.

“Sure, I didn’t reject you, but you never said anything else either, so I didn’t need to give a response…”

Gu Jue didn’t mind her words and continued, “I searched it up online and found a love-advice forum for women.”

“I saw a lot of girls saying they thought the courting period was the sweetest and that they really enjoyed the stage between friendship and dating…” Gu Jue leaned back and lazily made a “tsk” sound, “I mean, I wouldn’t understand since I’m a guy, but with so many girls agreeing, I thought…”

He paused for a beat.

“I should put more effort into pursuing you and give you more time before I confessed.”

Ruan An’an was shocked that he put that much thought into it.

Then, she saw a smile spread across his face, showing off his unbridled spirit. “After all, once we start dating, you wouldn’t be able to experience this pleasure anymore.”

“…”

When he puts it like that…

The pure touching emotions Ruan An’an was feeling were now tainted with a smidge of cringe. “Teacher Gu, just how narcissistic are you?”

Gu Jue saw Ruan An’an making a weird expression again, so Gu Jue decided to re-center the conversation that had slipped off-track. “No more joking, for real this time.”

He wiped off his smile and said earnestly, “you are the first girl I’ve ever pursued.”

“…”

“I feel like we haven’t known each other for… too long.” He made a pause when he said “too long”, but the rest came out without a hick. “I didn’t want to seem improper if I confessed too early.”

Ruan An’an didn’t want to interrupt him, but she couldn’t hold it in after roughly calculating the time, “So… you think one month is not too early?”

“Still early.” Gu Jue admitted cleanly.

Two seconds later, he added, “but I can’t control it anymore.”

Before Ruan An’an could react, Gu Jue suddenly pinched her face. “For example, this would be harassment if we’re not dating.”

The corner of his mouth curled up. “—but it’ll be fine once we are dating.”

“So, Miss Ruan An’an…” He pinched her face again, “are we dating now?”

“…”

The spot on her face that he was pinching felt like it was on fire. It burned continuously, spreading heat from that small patch of skin to her entire body.

She gave a few moments.

Then, she copied him and pinched his cheek.

“… We’re dating.”

The newly formed couple didn’t leave the theatre immediately.

She said they were dating.

She was his girlfriend now.

Gu Jue was in bliss. He was finally living his dream of being able to touch this girl, his girl. He relaxed into the couch, questioning his life prior, “how did I manage to endure it before…”

“Hm?” Ruan An’an gave him a questioning look in-between bites of the popcorn she was working to finish.

“No touching despite seeing you every day,” Gu Jue rubbed her head and sighed, “that was torture.”

Ruan An’an paused her munching. “…” Wasn’t that her as well?

No touching with hands even though her eyes did it all the time…

Who wouldn’t consider it torture?

After all, he was THE Mr. Perky Butt and Divine Waist.

On the epigram thread about Gu Jue, there was a new crowd-favorite after “Gu God doesn’t need a knife, he can kill with his sharp waist”. A twelve-word masterpiece:

Ruan An’an thought back to the poem as she continued munching on the popcorn. Her boyfriend suddenly questioned, “what do you have against the popcorn? Just toss it if you’re full. I’ll take you somewhere else.”

“… Toss it?” Ruan An’an stopped popping popcorn into her mouth and turned to face him. “How can you be so wasteful?”

Gu Jue: …

Wasteful? Waste what—

Oh, right, he was supposed to be a broke student who worked hard to earn his living.

This was a careless mistake that he wouldn’t have made if he wasn’t so high on happiness. He cleared his throat and was thinking up an excuse when–

Ruan An’an spoke for him.

“This is the popcorn, that my boyfriend bought, with the hard-earned money, that he got from tutoring.” She intentionally paused several times for emphasis. “Of course. I. Will. Finish. All of it.”

“…”

There was indeed too much popcorn in the bucket that had been bought with Gu Jue’s hard-earned money. In the end, it took two people’s combined efforts to finish. Perhaps it was the way the pair huddled around a popcorn bucket, focused solely on finishing its content, that seemed funny, Ruan An’an could swear passersby were staring at them.

However shameful it was, she was determined to finish the popcorn. Even if they weren’t dating, she would still finish every last bit of any food Gu Jue bought for her.

After all, it wasn’t easy to earn money as a university student.

Poor kid.