Lemon Soda Candy - 43

Tuesday.

Bai Lingyun and Xie Jingyi both chose to just study in the dormitory, skipping the trip to the library to sleep ten extra minutes.

When Zhou Anran and Yu Xinyue arrived at the library at 7:55 AM, Chen Luobai was already standing outside.

The boy wore a black-and-white baseball jacket today. His eyes looked tired, like he was barely awake. Maybe he didn't sleep well last night. He gave off an air that said: ‘I'm in a bad mood, don't bother me.’

As Zhou Anran walked over, he noticed several girls sneaking glances at him. But maybe they felt his unfriendly air; none of them dared to approach him or ask for his WeChat.

She walked slowly, stopped in front of him.

Chen Luobai, seeing her approach, stifled a half-formed yawn and said in a low voice, "You’re here."

Zhou Anran looked up at him. Up close, she noticed his gaze seemed to soften, but the exhaustion on his face was even more apparent. "Did you not sleep well last night?"

 

“A little,” Chen Luobai replied.

Why did he still come to the library today?

Was it really just to meet her by chance?

These questions circled in Zhou Anran's mind, but she didn’t dare to voice them.

Last Sunday night, even over WeChat, she hadn't been brave enough to ask if he was teasing her.

Now, face-to-face, she was even more afraid to ask.

Zhou Anran lowered her head, forcing out a dry, "Have you eaten breakfast yet?"

"I have," Chen Luobai replied. The girl had tied her hair into a bun today, and as he glanced down, he caught a glimpse of her fair neck. "What about you?"

"I've eaten too."

"..."

At exactly eight o'clock, the library doors opened.

With one more person joining them, Zhou Anran once again sat at a six-person table.

She sat in the middle, Yu Xinyue to her left and Chen Luobai taking a seat on her right.

As they settled in, Zhou Anran saw He Mingyu walk over to the empty seat across from her, carrying a stack of books.

The inexplicable sense of guilt from Sunday night resurfaced.

He Mingyu’s gaze lingered on her for a second before shifting to Chen Luobai. Since the library had just opened and people were still moving around, he didn’t bother to lower his voice. "What a coincidence? You also ran into her?"

Zhou Anran: “…”

Zhou Anran didn’t know how to respond.

That familiar lazy voice, tinged with amusement, sounded beside her ear. "Yeah, just happened to run into her."

Zhou Anran: “…”

…That’s not true.

He Mingyu lowered his gaze, set his books down, and didn’t say anything more.

Zhou Anran opened the book, but her mind wandered. Her thoughts, like the words on the page, seemed to float aimlessly.

Suddenly, a notebook was pushed towards her by a slender, large hand.

On the blank page was a line of bold, familiar handwriting.

The same handwriting she hadn’t seen since that love letter.

It was just one short sentence.

“You made plans with him too?”

Zhou Anran's momentary melancholy over the ‘love letter’ evaporated instantly at these words.

What does ‘You made plans with him too’ mean? 

With his excellent Chinese grades and his ability to maintain boundaries with girls, how could he use the word ‘too’ after ‘made plans’? Didn't he know it could easily be misunderstood?

Zhou Anran wasn’t sure if she was overthinking it, but she could indeed sense a subtle, almost imperceptible ambiguity in the way he interacted with her lately, and it seemed to be growing more obvious.

The uncertainty was tormenting. She had to guess his thoughts constantly. But him asking her to lunch alone, sending her back to her dormitory, and coming to the library together were all things she had never dared to dream of. No other girl had ever received such treatments from him.

 

So, amidst the torment, there lay sweetness.

Which was why she didn’t dare to bring it up.

Afraid that if she did, the colorful bubble before her would burst and disappear.

Zhou Anran pursed her lips, not daring to mention the word ‘plans’, and wrote below his line: "No, just another coincidence.” 

After writing, she glanced down at her small, neat handwriting beneath his.

Zhou Anran was glad she had practiced her handwriting as a child. While it wasn’t particularly beautiful, it still looked presentable.

She pushed the notebook back to him.

Chen Luobai stared at her neat and beautiful handwriting, then shifted his gaze to her fair profile, before briefly glancing at He Mingyu across the table.

He lowered his head.

A few seconds later.

Zhou Anran saw his reply.

It was another very short line—

“You two seem quite fated.”

Zhou Anran: “…?”

She was still processing this when he took the notebook back.

This time, he reached over with his right hand, and she caught a glimpse of a small brown mole on his wrist.

Zhou Anran couldn't resist stealing another glance at him.

The boy's messy hair fell across his forehead, his jawline was sharp and handsome. But from the side, she couldn't really see what expression he had.

He was looking down, holding the pen with slender fingers, the tip crossing out the words he had just written with two long strokes, then added a few more strokes on the last word.

When he pushed the notebook back, there was an additional sentence.

“I’m going to sleep for a bit, wake me at 8:30.”

Zhou Anran’s gaze lingered on the almost completely crossed-out ‘You two seem quite fated’ that was now hard to read. Her heart started pounding irregularly.

She paused, then stole another glance at him.

His face was still full of exhaustion.

Zhou Anran lowered her head and wrote back: “Do you want to go back to the dorm to sleep?”

This time, he answered with only three words: "Send me away?"

Zhou Anran gripped her pen tighter.

Once again, she felt his choice of words was a bit ambiguous.

What did he mean by ‘send me away’?

She had no right to send him anywhere.

“No, I mean you can sleep better in the dorm. Won't it be uncomfortable to sleep on your stomach?”

“I'll stay. It's rare to meet you by chance. Wake me at 8:30?” 

This time, when Chen Luobai pushed the notebook over, his eyes also fell on her face.

Zhou Anran regretted tying her hair into a bun today. She could feel her ears heating up. She stared at ‘It’s rare to meet you by chance’ for a few seconds. A strand of hair fell from behind her ear as she lowered her head to write one word.

“Okay.”

After pushing the notebook back, Zhou Anran noticed the corner of his lips curling up slightly. He closed the notebook, rested his arm on the table, and buried his face in it, leaving only the back of his head visible.

He always sleeps like this in high school too.

His entire face was buried in his arms.

She had secretly watched him many times before.

But this time, he had given her the responsibility of waking him up.

With so many people around, Zhou Anran didn’t dare to look at him for more than two seconds. She averted her gaze, lowered her head and switched her phone from silent to vibrate mode, setting an alarm for 8:30.

Just as she was about to put her phone away, she unlocked it again and opened a food delivery app.

Zhou Anran forced herself to study for the next half an hour.

At 8:30, as soon as the alarm vibrated, she immediately turned it off.

Zhou Anran turned her head, reaching out to nudge him, but pulled back just as her fingers were about to touch the boy's arm.

 

After hesitating for a few seconds, she put the cap of her pen on and slowly reached out again, stopping once again just before touching him.

Even with the cap on, she still felt like it's still a bit too hard.

Poking him with it probably wouldn’t be very comfortable.

Zhou Anran bit her lip, then decided to set the pen aside. She reached out to gently nudge him.

The boy's arm felt different from her own, even through two layers of fabric, she sensed the strength hidden beneath.

Zhou Anran lightly nudged him once.

No response.

She nudged again.

Still no response.

This time, she added a bit more force.

Still no reaction.

Remembering how tired he looked today, Zhou Anran began to hesitate whether she should wake him up at all, but she was also worried about disrupting his study plan. In the end, she braced herself and nudged a bit harder.

This time, she finally got a reaction.

The boy’s head lifted slightly, his black eyes opening, his brows furrowed from the irritation of being woken up, carrying a hint of annoyance.

He looked somewhat fierce.

Zhou Anran quickly pulled her hand back. 

No wonder no one dared to wake him up back in high school.

Chen Luobai rubbed the corner of his eye.

As if finally seeing her clearly, the trace of annoyance in his face instantly vanished, and he seemed to look docile in an instant.

Zhou Anran felt that describing him as ‘docile’ was a bit odd.

But she couldn’t think of a better word at the moment.

It was as if a fierce beast had suddenly turned into a docile domesticated cat.

"Already 8:30?" His voice was very low.

Zhou Anran nodded.

Chen Luobai actually only fell asleep a short while ago.

He'd been rushing to finish a major assignment until nearly 3 AM last night; otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen this time to catch up on sleep. But whether it was because she was sitting so close or because the notebook had picked up her scent when she touched it, her fragrance lingered faintly in the air.

He probably only slept for about ten minutes. 

But if he slept any longer, the whole morning would be gone.

Chen Luobai stood up, his voice still soft: “I’m going to wash my face.”

The girl beside him obediently nodded.

When he returned after washing his face and sat down, he saw her slowly push a pack of tissues towards him. Her nails were neatly trimmed, her fingers slender and fair.

Chen Luobai took a tissue to dry his face, then noticed her pushing her notebook toward him. 

On it was still that delicate, pretty handwriting.

“I bought some coffee, do you want any?”

Chen Luobai wondered if he wasn't fully awake yet, he suddenly wanted to hear her say these words to him in her soft, slightly husky voice.

Seeing his lack of response, the girl hesitated before turning to look at him. Her eyes were clear and innocent, with that pure and somewhat obedient expression that made others want to tease her.

She blinked in confusion.

Chen Luobai’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

He didn't know where he'd tossed his pen before sleeping, too lazy to find it, he took the pen from her hand. With a lowered head, he wrote a single word in her notebook.

“Yes.”

Zhou Anran looked at the notebook pushed back in front of her, then at her pen in his hand.

He doesn't seem to have any intention of giving it back to her. 

Zhou Anran wanted to ask him for her pen but was afraid of disturbing others. After a second of hesitation, she decided to simply take out a spare pen from her bag.

“Then wait a moment.”

Zhou Anran went downstairs and came back with four cups of coffee. She placed one in front of Yu Xinyue, another in front of He Mingyu, then sat down and wrote on her notebook: “You were asleep earlier, I didn’t know what flavor you wanted. You can choose between these two."

She then pushed the notebook and the two cups of coffee toward him.

Chen Luobai glanced at the cup of coffee next to He Mingyu, then slowly looked back.

Two seconds later.

Zhou Anran saw a new line added to her notebook.

“He also gets one?”

The feeling of guilt crept up again.

They were all sitting at the same table, it wouldn't be right to only buy for one person.

And if she only bought coffee for him, it would be too obvious.

Zhou Anran lowered her head and replied: “My roommate has one too. We’re all classmates.”

Chen Luobai stared at her words, narrowing his eyes, and wrote back word by word: "All classmates?"

Zhou Anran: “…”

If not classmates, what else could it be?

She wanted to ask him back, but didn't have the courage to.

Besides, he also didn't say anything when his roommate called her ‘classmate’ in front of him.

Zhou Anran kept her head down and wrote a single word beneath his line: "En."

Her pen paused, she began to hesitate.

Just replying with a dry ‘En’, lumping him in with everyone else as just a classmate, she felt somewhat unwilling.

She was starting to feel a little greedy after receiving special treatments from him. 

She didn’t want to be just his ordinary classmate.

Zhou Anran's pen hovered over the paper. She wanted to scratch out the previous word, but stopped again. 

Crossing it out would be too obvious.

She still didn’t dare to fully reveal her feelings to him.

After much internal debate, Zhou Anran finally just added a cute emoticon after the word ‘En’, the kind that Yan Xingxi and the others often used.

The notebook was pushed back by a small hand.

Chen Luobai, seeing how long she had taken to write, had expected a lengthy response.

But when he looked down, all he saw was a simple ‘En’. He twirled the pen he had taken from her and let out a soft, amused and helpless huff.

His gaze then lingered briefly on the tiny emoticon beside it, the corner of his lips curving slightly once more.

Zhou Anran waited for a moment, but when no reply came, she couldn’t help but secretly raise her head to look at him again.

Just in time to see him close her notebook and tuck it under his own. Then he opened the ‘Jurisprudence’ book he had brought, twirling her pen in one hand while lowering his head to seriously review.

His profile was as handsome as ever.

But—

What about her notebook?

Is he not going to give it back?

Zhou Anran didn’t want to scribble on her textbook, so she leaned over slightly and whispered, "Notebook."

“What?” Chen Luobai looked at her.

Not wanting to disturb others, Zhou Anran leaned in a bit closer, pointing at his desk, her voice still soft. "My notebook. I only brought this one."

Her voice was soft and gentle, echoed close to his ear. Chen Luobai felt his ear tingle, “Really?”

Zhou Anran nodded heavily.

Chen Luobai stared at her without saying a word.

A second later.

Zhou Anran watched him pulled out his own notebook and casually tossed it in front of her.

"...?"

"Use this one.”

---

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