"Zhang Dashan, your homework!"
"Hurry up. Let me copy your homework. The next class is the head teacher's!"
"Hahaha. Don't be scared!"
"Stop fooling around! Or I'll tell the head teacher!"
...
The summers of senior year in high school are always scorching.
In Class 3, scenes like this played out almost all day long.
Ji Siyue sat in her seat - the last row and the last column.
She stared out of the window, her eyes showing a maturity and melancholy that didn't quite match her peers.
As a transfer student in senior year, her withdrawn nature meant she had no friends. While the students in the class were getting along well, she seemed to be isolated from the world.
No one ever called her name, and no one ever asked her to play.
Three months had passed, and she had grown accustomed to this from feeling uncomfortable at first.
Suddenly.
"Siyue? What are you always looking at?" The voice trembled slightly, as if the speaker had mustered up great determination.
Someone had called her name, and it felt a bit surreal to her.
She slowly turned her head and saw a person standing in front of her desk.
He was wearing a white short - sleeved school uniform with a Pikachu embroidered on it. The stitching was rather amateurish, but it added a lot of vitality to this young boy.
The minty aroma was refreshing, just like his smile.
The wind that year was so hot that it made her sweat profusely, as if she had run in the rain.
"Siyue?"
Ji Siyue suddenly came back to her senses. In front of her was Qin Chengyao's deep and gentle face.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Ah? Me?"
She remembered that just now she had smelled that familiar scent, but it was a bit faint, and then she had just followed the scent.
Unexpectedly, she had gotten so close to Qin Chengyao's clothes.
Ji Siyue suddenly sat up straight, and her face instantly turned red.
"I... I just smelled a familiar scent, so I took a sniff. Sorry, did I scare you?"
"A familiar scent?"
Ji Siyue saw that his deep eyes behind the glasses seemed to flicker.
"It's just that I seem to have smelled it before... Oh, never mind! Maybe someone I knew before used the same laundry detergent as you..."
Qin Chengyao's eyebrows and eyes became even softer. "How do you know it's the same laundry detergent and not the same person?"
Actually, Qin Chengyao had given such obvious hints many times.
The familiar feeling about him was gradually magnifying Ji Siyue's subconscious. She and he should have known each other, a long time ago.
Ji Siyue was a bit dazed. Just as her mind was wandering, the Russian teacher stood on the podium and roared:
"The girl at the back. If you don't listen to the class, get out!"
Ji Siyue was startled. Knowing that the teacher was talking about her, she instinctively burrowed into the person next to her.
It used to be Tian Cheng, but she had forgotten that today the person next to her was Qin Chengyao.
Qin Chengyao's body stiffened for a moment, but where Ji Siyue couldn't see, he couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth.
Ji Siyue was stunned.
...Wouldn't she be accused of harassment?
However, Qin Chengyao just reached out his hand and gently patted Ji Siyue's back as if to soothe her. "It's okay."
In Qin Chengyao's embrace, that scent became even stronger, as if it was about to evoke Ji Siyue's memories, but in the end, she still couldn't remember anything.
For the next half - class, Ji Siyue was in a daze. She sat there like a log, and the teacher's words sounded like a mystery to her.
Finally, the class was over. Ji Siyue grabbed her bag and was about to leave when the person next to her suddenly grabbed her arm.
"Wait."
"Um... Does the senior have something else to say?"
Ji Siyue didn't even dare to look into his eyes.
"Your phone number. Give it to me." Qin Chengyao was concise. He handed over his phone, which was on the dialing screen.
Ji Siyue took it, entered her phone number, and returned it to Qin Chengyao.
Then, right in front of Ji Siyue, Qin Chengyao pressed the call button.
"Pikachu~!"
The phone rang.
Ji Siyue hurriedly took out her phone and hung up.
Qin Chengyao smiled.
"You still like Pikachu?"
"Yeah. I've liked it since high school. I think it's really fun."
Ji Siyue caught the word "still" in Qin Chengyao's words, but she didn't point it out. When she said these things, her eyes unconsciously fell on Qin Chengyao's bag.
She hadn't paid attention before. Now that she looked, the Pikachu on it, although dirty, looked a bit familiar.
"Pikachu~!"
The phone rang again.
Ji Siyue glanced at the note and quickly said to Qin Chengyao, "Senior, I have to go first. My roommate is calling me!"
"Okay."
As she turned around, she didn't notice that Qin Chengyao's eyes on her were burning hot.
When she got to the dormitory, all three roommates were waiting.
Each of them held a chair and blocked the door. It was just like a "trial by three".
Ji Siyue knew she was late. She was very sensible and squatted on the ground looking like she was begging for mercy.
"Three elder sisters! I was wrong! I'll treat you to dinner in the cafeteria tonight!"
"You still know you're late!"
Tian Cheng was holding a hanger in her hand and glaring.
"Exactly! Do you know what an important day it is for your sister today?"
The one who said this was Jin Zhiyan, a goddess in the eyes of the juniors, but a crazy girl in private. Today was the day when she invited her roommates to meet her childhood sweetheart boyfriend for a "vetting".
"Alright. She's here. Let's get ready and go."
This was An Wen, a little transparent. She had little presence in the dormitory, but she was a die - hard fan of Ji Siyue.
She was extremely excited every time she watched Ji Siyue's live - stream.
Especially when Ji Siyue agreed to the opponent and said the word "trash" in a contemptuous voice, she would cover her mouth and let out a scream like a marmot.
"Okay, okay! Sisters, wait a moment. Let me wash my face!"
While running to the bathroom to wash her face, Ji Siyue was still thinking about what had happened in class today.
It was so embarrassing. How could she face Qin Chengyao next time?
No, was she already fantasizing about seeing him next time?
With a complicated mood, she came out of the bathroom. She wiped her face, grabbed her bag, and was about to leave.
Tian Cheng stopped her.
"Are you going like this?"
Ji Siyue spun around to show herself and asked a soul - searching question.
"Otherwise?"
"Today, the roommates of Jin Zhiyan's boyfriend are also coming. There are four of them on each side. Aren't you going to put on some makeup?"
"Why do I need to put on makeup just to meet her boyfriend?"
"Sister, do you know? The point is 'the roommates of Jin Zhiyan's boyfriend', not 'Jin Zhiyan's boyfriend'. So go and put on some makeup quickly. Don't disgrace our dormitory!"
Under Tian Cheng's coercion and inducement, Ji Siyue reluctantly and casually applied some BB cream and lipstick, looking more energetic.
Actually, she didn't have much of a concept of her own appearance. Others' evaluation of her was "a waste of natural beauty".
Why? Because she lived so sloppily.
She was a quite beautiful girl, but she never put on makeup and just relied on some basic skin - care products. She didn't seem like a delicate contemporary female college student at all.
The place they had made an appointment with the boys was a coffee shop at the school gate.
Ji Siyue walked at the back, dawdling.
She actually had little interest in such group activities.
In high school, she had no friends because of her withdrawn nature. After entering college, she was determined to change this situation and forced herself to socialize with her roommates. Although she felt awkward, her roommates were nice. After knowing her situation, they didn't put too much pressure on her and let her be comfortable.
So in college, she hardly interacted with anyone other than her roommates.
When she entered the coffee shop and looked up, she was completely stunned, as if she had been struck by lightning a hundred and eighty times.