So she had never had a friend she could truly confide in. All this time, she had relied on her parents' support, used her dreams as fuel, and drawn motivation from her pitifully small number of fans just to keep going.
And Chu Yuanqing was her first true friend.
Kiriwake Yayoi looked at the towel, still warm in her hands, and gradually came to understand.
So that's it. I'm jealous—or rather, I hate it. I hate that my friend is being taken away from me?
No, to be more precise, it was possessiveness. Like a child clutching a marble in her fist, or a treasure she didn't want to share.
But if it was possessiveness, why didn't Little Wangshu make her feel this way?
When Chu Yuanqing interacted with her, Yayoi felt only warmth, harmony, and ease. But when Tang Liuli showed up, those negative emotions sprang up like venomous snakes gnawing at her heart.
It was as if her instincts knew that Chu Wangshu was as harmless as a pet, and wouldn't interfere with her relationship with Xiao Qing.
Tang Liuli was different. She was a threat lying in wait to snatch away her food, a pest that would meddle in her friendship, a ferocious beast that needed to be driven off and killed.
Kiriwake Yayoi couldn't make sense of it.
Because these were answers she had sniffed out by instinct.
But she understood one thing perfectly, and murmured:
"If... Xiao Qing only had eyes for me."
The girl's bewildered emotions swelled beneath the frigid atmosphere. She casually stuffed the towel into her bag, and the focus in her eyes slowly returned. It was as if dark mist swirled around her. Before she herself even realized it, she murmured in the faintest whisper:
"Everyone else is such a nuisance."
Dormitory.
Xie Qingxuan and Liang Xiaoxiao still weren't in the room. They had clearly thrown themselves into training, unwilling to waste a single moment.
Chu Yuanqing washed up, changed clothes, and leisurely blow-dried her hair until it was half-dry.
She sat alone on the edge of the bed, lost in thought. Faint golden arcs shimmered in the depths of her lowered eyes, and a few strands of pure white seemed hidden among the soft black hair spilling down her back. She was clearly so mentally exhausted that even her magic disguise was faltering.
That was only natural.
For Chu Yuanqing, concentration and mental energy were limited bars of blue. Both were the scant reserves she had managed to squeeze out of the Sea of Truth's curse. If she used them all up, the consequences would be a serious pain.
The girl wore an unusually languid expression. Her eyelids drooped as she gazed into empty space, giving her the quiet beauty of an autumn leaf.
Tang Liuli felt a little like going crazy, but decided that would be too perverted and held back.
The little girl's gaze quietly wandered to Chu Yuanqing's legs.
She wasn't particularly tall, but her legs were exceptionally well-proportioned, almost perfectly following the golden ratio, which made for a very pleasing overall effect.
And on closer inspection, they really were eye-catching.
Her thighs were full and rounded, their inner lines curving naturally inward. Her calves were slender and fair, their outer lines curving outward to create a perfectly balanced shape. Even the lines around her knees flowed smoothly, without a hint of awkwardness.
Even casually resting on the bed, they stood out thanks to their perfect degree of fairness.
I want to squeeze them.
The thought popped into her mind.
Tang Liuli asked, as if possessed:
"Want me to massage your legs?"
As soon as the shameless words left her mouth, she wanted to slap herself.
Oh no. Wasn't that even more perverted than what she'd just been thinking?
Chu Yuanqing didn't think too much of it and instead gave it some serious consideration.
She had stretched before running, but her leg muscles really were sore now. She'd have to massage them before bed, or she'd suffer during tomorrow's Second Evaluation. Besides... she really was sleepy.
The girl blinked and said hesitantly:
"If you don't mind the trouble, I don't mind."
Tang Liuli replied at once:
"I don't mind!"
Strangely enough,
Tang Liuli had thought that once she touched those legs, her mind would fill with the sort of thoughts you'd find in internet fiction. They'd probably go something like this:
Hehehe, Qingqing's legs are so soft and fair???
I want to pour ice cream on them and lick them clean???
Haha, I'm never washing my hands again!
But in reality, the moment she touched them, it was as if all the filth in her mind had been washed away.
Tang Liuli saw the blue sky reflected in Walden Pond. The bells of a Catholic church rang in her ears, and beneath her hands lay the medium through which the divine had bestowed its sacred text.
Solemn, holy, sublime, pure.
Qingmen???
With tremendous willpower, Tang Liuli suppressed the instinct to press her palms together. Her mind was now free of all distracting thoughts.
Like a little maid in some landlord's household, she dutifully massaged Chu Yuanqing's legs for half an hour. Several times, Chu Yuanqing felt embarrassed and tried to stop her, but Tang Liuli's devout gaze stopped her cold each time.
So that night, in return,
Chu Yuanqing fought off her drowsiness and read this sleepless child a little from Autumn Leaves.
After a long while, she looked at Tang Liuli, fast asleep, her sleeping face still a little troubled. Her slender fingers touched the furrow between Tang Liuli's brows and gently smoothed it away.
These girls always seemed to be under so much pressure, whether awake or asleep.
My adorable daughter handles pressure much better. She's disciplined and lively, loves to laugh, and is so cheerful and sunny!
The more Chu Yuanqing thought about it, the prouder she felt.
She quietly lay back down, feeling the exhaustion throughout her body. She felt relaxed and happy, and looked forward to tomorrow more than anything.
Tomorrow was the Second Evaluation. And judging by the timing, the first episode should be airing too.
In other words, the terrible news that her public persona had collapsed must already have spread across the entire internet. Who knew how many fans would hate her hypocrisy, abandon her, and turn against her, making her infamous and the target of a full-scale online hate campaign?
Chu Yuanqing sank into this beautiful fantasy, but after a moment, she decided she shouldn't get too optimistic.
That interview might get cut, after all. She'd have to put in the work during the Second Evaluation.
As long as she managed to drop a grade, there was no way she'd climb back up later, not with Flash Dance's cutthroat competition format!
But there didn't seem to be much to worry about.
After all, even Xie Qingxuan still hadn't returned.
She was a First A-Class contestant. If even she was working this hard, the other contestants would only be even more diligent. With that kind of competition, how could anyone dance worse than her?
Chu Yuanqing wasn't stupid. She had watched the theme-song performances of the other C-Class trainees, as well as Yayoi, Xiao Shu, Tang Liuli, and Liang Xiaoxiao, and had gauged her own true ability.
So she was a hundred percent certain she'd drop a grade tomorrow!
Vol. 1: 59. If You Want Me, Come Take Me Yourself. (5,200 words)
Meanwhile, as one particular contestant dreamed of dropping a grade as hard as she could,
Kiriwake Yayoi was still standing in the corridor outside the C-Class practice room, seemingly trapped in a nightmare with no escape.
The girl's delicate, innocent features were lowered, but the hollow look in her eyes revealed a chilling obsession. The sincere words she had murmured not long ago kept echoing in her ears.
In that instant, she had even entertained the awful idea of getting the other person eliminated, so the space around Chu Yuanqing would be clear. The emotions behind it were too unreasonable, too aggressive: jealousy, possessiveness, arrogance.
But... no. She couldn't, and shouldn't, be like this.
She had no friends, and didn't know how to interact with them.
But she understood that becoming possessive after knowing Chu Yuanqing for only a week was wrong. Wanting to drive away everyone in her friend's circle and leave herself as the only one was even more awful, so ugly it was almost shameful.
Kiriwake Yayoi wanted to become an idol who was more idol-like than any other.
That was a dark will forged through seven years of bitterness, despair, resentment, longing, and love.
In her view, the brilliance she wanted to shine with onstage could never be mixed with such impurities. Not even the slightest trace of an emotion so utterly lacking in beauty could be allowed in.
Friendship was a precious treasure.
Jealousy was a devouring serpent.
Chu Yuanqing was like a jewel surrounded and coiled around by a nest of snakes. Try to touch her, and the snakes would bite, poisoning you with greed and jealousy until you were no longer pure.
Either stay away.
Or possess her.
Kiriwake Yayoi was an obsessive person.
Or rather, she couldn't have made it this far without obsession to support her spine. To hold on to an idol's convictions and pride through an environment like that, and make it past all those hardships, would have been impossible otherwise.
The girl's definition of an idol was perfect and demanding to the point of seeming almost puritanical. She had even created the Perfect Performance Method, which was good enough to let her enter a state of [Flow State]. That showed just how obsessive she was.
So when she fully realized the "filth" in her heart, she began doubting herself, as if in a reflex. She spent an entire hour wandering around, torn over which path to take.
If she stayed away, she'd be lonely again, without any friends.
If she got closer, or even tried to possess her, she'd gradually become someone she wasn't and end up hurting Chu Yuanqing.
To an outsider, this might have seemed like a ridiculous cycle of thought. But for Kiriwake Yayoi, who lived by those ideals, it was a true prison and cage. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't find an answer.
Until...
"Sis Yayoi?"
"Are you here to see Qingqing too?"
Chu Wangshu spoke as she looked at the little Sakura Girl in front of her, confusion and wariness rising in her heart.
She had just finished training and taken a shower. The reason she'd dragged her tired body all the way to the C-Class practice room in secret was that she wanted to cuddle with someone and replenish her supply of motherly love.
But before she even made it inside, she'd run into her greatest enemy!
Kiriwake Yayoi was a moment slow to react. She looked at Chu Wangshu and asked dazedly:
"Xiao Shu, do you think... idols should feel possessive of their friends?"
"I feel like I'm becoming someone I'm not."
Only then did Chu Wangshu realize that the innocent, delicate-looking Sakura Girl before her seemed a little dazed.
The girl was stunned. She instantly imagined all sorts of scenarios, picturing the pitiful story of a Sakura Girl from a foreign land who was taken advantage of by a Great Xia girl into girls-love, thoroughly seduced and then cruelly abandoned. Her heart filled with sympathy.
Yayoi is always trying to steal Qingqing from me, but she's a good person. Who put her through this?!
That's awful. It must be those nasty women who like to tie people together as a ship and leech off their popularity!
Chu Wangshu was indignant. Thanks to her blind spot, it didn't even occur to her that this had anything to do with Chu Yuanqing. She answered seriously:
"Of course! Idols are people too. People have possessiveness. It's perfectly normal!"
"My dad says possessiveness is fundamentally about wanting to be the only one someone cares about. It comes from feeling insecure."
"Everyone's afraid of being lonely, and everyone's afraid of being left out."
"Being left out makes you lonely."
"Being lonely makes you uneasy."
"And when you feel uneasy, you become possessive of a specific person."
Chu Wangshu launched confidently into a few comforting words. The more she spoke, the more enthused she became, as if she'd finally understood what Chu Yuanqing found so enjoyable about it. She kept pouring it on:
"But look at it the other way around. You just have to tear off the label that says [the only one]. Make more friends, and your unease will be spread out. Once you don't have anyone who's your only one, no one can use you!"
"How's that? Doesn't that make a lot of sense?"
Kiriwake Yayoi understood:
"I see."
So there was a third path!
As long as she made more friends and eased her insecurity, the source of her possessiveness would disappear. Then she could stay close to Xiao Qing without having those improper feelings toward her!
Before you continue