Unexpected Confessions and Lingering Questions

“I owe you one for this morning, brother.” No sooner had the bell rung than Huang Zhouyu was by my desk. “Those blasted disciplinary committee members always rifle through my bag the instant they spot me. It was a stroke of luck you were willing to lend a hand. What would you like to drink for lunch? My treat.”

‘Why was he so familiar with me? Had we even exchanged a few words before last night?’

“You don’t have to get me anything to drink. Just take it; it’s cluttering up my space.” With some effort, I extricated the laptop from my desk drawer and, under the scrutiny of curious onlookers, passed it over to him. Only then did I become aware that we had drawn the gaze of our classmates.

“Oh, much obliged, much obliged,” he chirped, beaming as he gleefully accepted his laptop. “Say, you didn’t run into any trouble on your way, did you? It just dawned on me that Class B had physical education this morning.”

“What’s so special about Class B having PE?”

“One of the disciplinary committee members, a formidable woman from Class B, is notoriously fierce. I had a friend once who, having forgotten his student ID and with no time to retrieve it, tried to barge through the school gates, only to be utterly subdued by her,” he explained. “She’s responsible for countless point deductions in our class, and let me tell you, she’s absolutely detestable.”

“Does she have very long hair, tied in a high ponytail?”

“Exactly! And, well, she’s quite… amply endowed.” ‘I hadn’t noticed that particular detail.’ He pressed on, “She has a fierce gaze, she’s tall, but that… that thing…” He cast a quick look at the girls in the classroom, then gestured with his hands in an exaggerated curve across his chest, indicating a certain anatomy. “That *area* jiggles when she walks, you know what I mean? Was that the girl? Did you run into her?”

“I did. And I got a surprise inspection from her.”

“Holy hell!?” he exploded into another excited expletive. “And your belongings weren’t confiscated? Impossible. Either she was in an exceptionally good mood today, or she’s got a crush on you.”

‘I offered no reply; the logic behind others’ actions was beyond my accurate conjecture. However, Huang Zhouyu’s description of that girl diverged wildly from my own impression of her this morning. We can never fully comprehend another person, often presuming to know them based solely on a single facet. I understood this wasn’t the right way to interact with people, yet we rarely get the chance to glimpse other sides of an individual. Thus, we are often left to form hasty judgments.’

“Regardless,” he had, imperceptibly, rounded my desk and draped an arm over my shoulder, “not only did you narrowly escape that ordeal, but you’ve also apparently gotten ‘involved’ with the prettiest girl in first year. Your luck is insane, kid! Next time I’m pulling from a gacha, I’m coming to you.”

“My Play Rough with 90% accuracy can miss three times in a row, so you’d better not count on me.”

“Oh, you play Pokémon too? We should totally battle sometime,” he chuckled. “And missing three Play Roughs? That’s some truly abysmal luck. How on earth did someone like you manage to charm Yu Tianman…? Damn it, I’m so incredibly jealous! That’s Yu Tianman! After Senior Sister Shaoyue graduates this year, she’ll be the undisputed campus belle. How do you get to be so damn lucky?”

‘What on earth was he talking about? Huang Zhouyu rambled on, barely a few sentences of which I understood, though I gathered he was referring to last night’s events.’

“We just went out as friends.”

“No one has ever *seen* Yu Tianman with a male friend before, you know,” he stated, his face serious. “And didn’t you yourself admit you’re ‘just friends *for now*’? I’m telling you, given the circumstances last night, you absolutely have a shot with her.”

‘I still couldn’t quite grasp what he was trying to convey. Watching him work himself into a self-indulgent frenzy, I found myself at a loss for how to respond. He continued whispering in my ear… *ask her out… dinner at a hotel… take her home*… uttering words that were half-understood, half-confounding.’

It wasn’t until the class bell rang that he reluctantly returned to his seat. My ears instantly found peace, though he did tell me to ‘continue after class’ before he left, sending a fresh wave of dread through my stomach.

Only after Huang Zhouyu had departed did I have the chance to retrieve the textbook for the next lesson. As I rummaged through my drawer for the book, I noticed Gao Qinghong, seated beside me, casting glances my way, as if he had something to say but couldn’t quite bring himself to voice it.

As the teacher entered the classroom, the class president was the first to rise. With a crisp “Attention!”, the entire class stood in unison, greeting the teacher.

My gaze, for some reason, fell upon the class president, who had been the first to stand and the last to sit. Tang Xiaoxiao. She was one of the very few classmates whose name I actually remembered, even though everyone in class typically referred to her simply as “Class President.” Since entering high school, there were often various extracurricular tasks—teacher evaluations, “Youth University” studies, group chain messages, and the like—and as I frequently neglected to check class group chats, she would always friendly remind me via WeChat or by jogging over from her seat.

“Hey, Yi Chang.” The voice belonged to Gao Qinghong, and it seemed to be the first time he had ever spoken to me directly. “Did you… start dating Yu Tianman from Class A? How did that happen?”

‘I’d always thought of Gao Qinghong as the no-nonsense type, so it was surprising to find him interested in gossip. In all the time I’d sat next to him, this was the first I’d heard him bring up topics of romance, let alone discuss them with me.’

“We met by chance, and it just… happened,” I replied.

‘At that moment, I was still unaware that “start dating” carried a particular connotation.’

“What exactly happened, though?”

‘Gao Qinghong pressed on, clearly unsatisfied with my vague answer. Honestly, at that moment, I’d much rather have focused on the lesson than discussed such topics. I had only just escaped Huang Zhouyu’s relentless chatter, and now Gao Qinghong presented another unexpected situation. It seemed that one outing with a girl had completely altered my standing within the class.’

“She lost something on the way home, and I helped her find it,” I briefly recounted the events. “Later, we happened to join her club, and after chatting for a while, we became friends.”

“I see,” he nodded, as if a revelation had struck him. “So the key is the opportune moment, right?”

‘I had no idea what conclusion he had drawn from my experience, nor what he intended to do. Gao Qinghong was a member of the basketball team, with a wide circle of friends in school and a place in many different cliques. Why would he need to consult me for advice on making friends?’

“Me, I like the class president.” He blurted this out abruptly, somewhat nonsensically. “Haha, it’s not really a secret, I’m sure you already knew.”

‘How would I have known that…’

With his words, my attention during class involuntarily drifted towards the class president. Many in our class harbored affections for her—a piece of gossip I’d picked up inadvertently. She was a remarkably gentle person, naturally extending that kindness to everyone in the class. And the boys in our class were easily swayed by such tenderness. I recalled a time when I had fallen, scraping a large patch of skin off my knee. After the sports committee member escorted me to the infirmary, the teacher wasn’t there, and it was the class president, who had followed along, who applied medicine and bandaged my wound.

Though I had been warned by some of the other boys because of that incident, the warmth I felt inside remained vivid in my memory. She must have captured the hearts of many boys through such moments, time and again. If I were no different from anyone else, I would surely have secretly fallen for her too.

“But you know, our class president is high-tier; she’s not the type you can just ‘start dating’ on a whim,” he continued, and to my surprise, I detected a hint of shyness in the big man’s voice. “But I like her so, so much. There are so many people who like Tang Xiaoxiao, both inside and outside of class, I want to give it my best shot.”

His gaze was resolute, his tone sincere, possessing a heart brimming with youthful longing, like that of both a boy and a girl.

“So please,” he said, “can you impart your techniques for ‘winning over’ Yu Tianman to me? Let me be your disciple!”

‘…’

‘Utterly bewildered.’