After hearing "boyfriend and girlfriend," Lin Tian was visibly stunned.
Then, the young man let out a rather helpless sigh.
So that was what this was about.
Looking at Gan Yan Yu in front of him, covering her face and lowering her head shyly.
He understood.
This was another very Gan Yan Yu thing to do.
In Gan Yan Yu's eyes, she and Lin Tian were only partners. They might not even count as friends.
Yet they were always doing things that seemed very disruptive.
Lin Tian cooked for her at home, ran alongside her when she exercised, and even practiced, performed, and filmed at his house.
That had clearly gone beyond the scope of being "partners."
Someone as popular as Lin Tian certainly wouldn't lack girls around him. If he wanted to date another girl, and she found out there was a girl staying at Lin Tian's house every day, how would that be appropriate?
So Gan Yan Yu chose restraint. Whenever the two of them seemed about to have a deeper exchange at Lin Tian's house, she would make a tactical retreat!
But what Gan Yan Yu didn't know was that, first, there were no girls around Lin Tian.
Second, Lin Tian's recent popularity at school was also related to the rumors about him and Gan Yan Yu flying all over campus.
Lin Tian rubbed his chin and thought for a moment.
Actually, this time, he could understand Gan Yan Yu.
This definitely wasn't an eighteen-year-old girl overthinking because of adolescent syndrome.
It really was a little inappropriate.
Putting himself in her shoes, if Lin Tian were more upright and considered Gan Yan Yu's feelings, then for the sake of her reputation, it wouldn't be appropriate to keep dragging her along to drink and chat all the time, would it? Not to mention, Lin Tian had massaged her feet twice!
But the little figurine really was fun to play with. It wasn't Lin Tian's fault.
And besides,
his thoughts about Gan Yan Yu weren't all that upright either.
The reason the two of them had ended up in this awkward, neither-here-nor-there situation was because—
back then, they had skipped the stage of becoming friends and directly established a relationship as "partners."
And this word, "partners," had a lot to unpack!
At its grandest, it meant revolutionary comrades who would share hardships and attend the same university.
At its smallest, they did not even know whether they counted as "friends."
So what Lin Tian needed to do now was figure this out completely.
What exactly were "partners"?
"Why do you think that? I think partners should be like this," Lin Tian said.
"Huh?"
Gan Yan Yu raised her head, her eyes widening in surprise.
"I think being partners is a relationship that goes beyond friendship. Relationships between two people aren't just about romance. Trusting each other and working together—wouldn't that kind of relationship be great too?"
"That kind of relationship is fine, but..."
"But if we get too close, it might trouble me, right?"
Lin Tian's expression darkened as he leaned forward.
The girl's space to retreat shrank even further. Gan Yan Yu covered her head and crouched down on the floor.
She made a helpless, slightly aggrieved sound.
"Yes."
"Yes, my ass!"
Lin Tian flicked Gan Yan Yu on the forehead.
She clutched her forehead and let out a wail.
"Did you ask me? How do you know I'd be troubled? You made the decision on your own because you wanted to consider my feelings, but wasn't that itself failing to consider my feelings?"
Logical and well-supported, impossible to refute.
After Lin Tian's speech,
Gan Yan Yu was completely rendered speechless.
She could only remain half-crouched on the floor, staring at Lin Tian with a rather aggrieved look.
Seeing that Gan Yan Yu had finally settled down, Lin Tian felt too embarrassed to keep pinning her against the wall like that.
He withdrew his hand, then held one out to Gan Yan Yu.
After hesitating for a while, the girl cautiously reached out her hand.
Lin Tian grabbed Gan Yan Yu's hand and pulled her up from the floor.
Look how nervous he'd made the poor girl!
Usually, she could argue with perfect logic, but the moment he pinned her to the wall, she turned into a fragile little flower.
Lin Tian continued seriously:
"I think that even good friends, even close friends of the opposite sex, can eat together and run together every day. That's completely normal! There's no need to act all awkward just because we're partners!"
"Then is it normal for us to always do things like a little couple?"
Gan Yan Yu said weakly.
"Well..."
That really left Lin Tian speechless.
It seemed Gan Yan Yu had really latched onto this issue.
Sure enough, when he had massaged Gan Yan Yu's feet that day, he had given the girl adolescent syndrome.
It was understandable.
Gan Yan Yu's body was so delicate that if a stranger touched her ankle, she would kick them away without hesitation.
Yet under Lin Tian's master-level massage, she had been thoroughly tamed.
It was hard for Gan Yan Yu not to overthink things.
It wasn't that she had any objections to Lin Tian. She just felt especially conflicted inside!
After all, if their roles were reversed and it were Lin Tian, an innocent young man, his mind would already be imagining a sweet, delicate wife massaging the legs of her husband after he had worked hard all day.
"Then let's do this!"
After thinking carefully, Lin Tian found a solution.
"So that you won't worry about troubling me, and for the sake of your reputation too."
"If, next time, while we're spending time together, we do something that might cross the line for 'partners,' then if either one of us says stop, the other has to stop immediately. How about that?"
At this point, before Gan Yan Yu could speak, Lin Tian added:
"The premise is that we interact normally, like partners who trust each other. You can't keep making up some random excuse to run away and leave me guessing, okay?"
Finally, Lin Tian did not forget to add the positive meaning behind it:
"We're partners who are going to create music together. Only if our way of getting along is healthy can our work become better."
Gan Yan Yu twirled a loose strand of hair around her finger, wearing a thoughtful expression.
Then she nodded.
"Okay!"
After hearing Lin Tian say that, Gan Yan Yu felt a little guilty too.
She also felt that her behavior had been too childish.
They were partners who were going to pursue their dreams together. If there were problems, of course they should communicate together.
Lin Tian had put it so well.
Only if their relationship was healthy could they create the best works together.
"Lin Tian, it's amazing that you could think that far."
Gan Yan Yu could not help praising him sincerely. Then her expression dimmed slightly as she said in a low voice, "Unlike me. I've interacted with too few people, so whenever something happens, I never know what to do."
"It's fine. Then it's settled."
Seeing that the conflicted Gan Yan Yu was finally no longer conflicted, Lin Tian smiled and said,
"From now on, if either of us does something that crosses the line, you have to remember to say stop."
"Mhm, mhm."
The girl clasped her hands together in front of her chest, as though making a promise to Lin Tian.
Her beautiful face was utterly resolute.
"I definitely will!"
"Now that we've sorted out our relationship so clearly, shouldn't we change how we address each other too?"
"How we address each other?"
"Yeah. Do you like it when I call you Teacher Gan?" Lin Tian asked.
To be honest, there had been a bit of spite in Lin Tian calling Gan Yan Yu Teacher Gan.
You little brat, always being so polite to me!
Then I'll be polite to you too and call you something distant!
In the end, Gan Yan Yu had no reaction at all whenever she heard that form of address. It could only be said that it suited her character perfectly.
"Then call me something else," Gan Yan Yu said.
Though she did not answer directly, she had already answered—she did not like that form of address.
"Then... Yan Yu?"
Before you continue