Deskmates, as Before

It was lunchtime.

Cheng Siyi closed her lesson plan. Instead of heading to the staff cafeteria on the third floor, she turned and went down to the student cafeteria on the first floor.

She found Pu Yu and Xu Suiran eating together in a corner.

"Mind if your teacher joins you?" Cheng Siyi asked with a smile, holding her tray.

"Teacher Cheng!" Xu Suiran's eyes lit up, and she hurriedly shifted her tray aside. "Sit down, sit down! The sweet-and-sour pork is amazing today!"

After Cheng Siyi sat down, she chatted with the two girls about the food for a bit before naturally turning to the matter at hand.

"We'll be changing the seating arrangement during homeroom this afternoon."

"Huh?" At that, the meat in Xu Suiran's mouth instantly lost its appeal. "Then could you put me next to Yu? Or right in front of her or behind her? I can't even finish my English homework without her. Boohoo..."

Cheng Siyi shook her head gently. "This time, the seating will be arranged by academic level, using a one-to-one peer support system."

She looked at Xu Suiran, her tone earnest. "Physics is a subject both you and Yu need to work on. If you sit together, your weaknesses overlap, which won't help you improve each other."

With that, she set down her chopsticks and turned to Pu Yu, who had been eating quietly.

"By the way, Yu. Would you be willing to keep sitting next to Yuan Su if I arranged it?"

Pu Yu's hand paused around her chopsticks, surprise showing in her clear eyes.

Watching her expression, Cheng Siyi explained gently, "I asked your physics teacher, and he said Yuan Su's explanations have been helping you quite a bit. He may seem laid-back most of the time, but his combined science scores really are at the top-student level."

"Of course, if you find it a burden or feel any pressure at all, you must tell me. I'll follow the regular seating arrangement instead."

Before Pu Yu could speak, Xu Suiran grew anxious on her behalf.

She blurted out, "Of course Yu's willing! That day in town, she even swore-"

"Suiran!" Pu Yu interrupted hastily, her cheeks warming.

Cheng Siyi raised her eyebrows in mild surprise and gave Pu Yu an inquiring look.

Pu Yu's ears felt a little hot, but she did not avoid her teacher's gaze.

She lifted her head slightly and said softly, "I'm willing, Teacher Cheng."

There was no hesitation in her amber eyes, only a gentle resolve.

"Yuan Su... he's actually a very nice person. He isn't nearly as difficult to get along with as everyone says, and his explanations are really clear. He's helped me a lot."

Seeing how openly her student spoke, Cheng Siyi's remaining concerns vanished completely.

She cautioned her half-jokingly, "All right, we'll try it for another month. But let's make a deal: if you slip from twentieth in the grade, or he gets you into the habit of skipping homework, I'll have to 'forcibly' move you next month."

Pu Yu's eyes curved with her smile. "That won't happen, Teacher Cheng."

Beside her, Xu Suiran kept almost speaking, then stopping. She wanted to share the gossip with Teacher Cheng, but didn't quite dare. Fine, she would hold it in!

This little seedling hadn't even sprouted yet.

If it got nipped in the bud, where would she get her juicy gossip?

During homeroom that afternoon, the classroom was in utter chaos.

The piercing scrape of desks and chairs against the floor rose and fell as students carried armfuls of books through the aisles as though they were moving house.

The new seating chart had already been posted on the blackboard.

"Why have I been banished to the front row? Am I supposed to study the math teacher's beard up close?"

"Class monitor, please, move me to the back!"

Xu Suiran squeezed in to take a look too. She had been assigned to the third row in the middle.

Her new deskmate was Song Jinnian, the class monitor of Class Two, Senior Year, and an academic superstar who consistently ranked first in their class and among the top three in their grade.

"Boohoo, Yu..." Xu Suiran clung to Pu Yu's arm and pretended to cry. "I'm going to sit with the class monitor. I'll never be able to pass you notes in class again. It feels like moving out after a breakup. This is agony."

Caught between laughter and exasperation, Pu Yu patted her back. "It's hardly that dramatic. We can still walk together during breaks and after school."

"How is that the same?" Xu Suiran whined for a while, but finally accepted her fate and moved away with her stack of romance magazines.

Pu Yu stayed in her original seat.

Everyone around her was busy moving books and changing seats.

Only this corner remained as quiet as before, like an island forgotten by the sea.

Yuan Su entered the classroom just as the warning bell rang.

He had just returned from the repair shop. His black hair was a little messy, and a faint trace of rust clung to him.

"Hey, why is Pu Yu still sitting there?"

"Probably because nobody wants to sit with Yuan Su. There's an even number of students in our class, so there aren't any spare desks."

"She's pretty unlucky too. Won't her family come and kick up a fuss?"

"My mom won't let me get too close to him, anyway. I heard debt collectors were blocking his front door with knives a while ago. Scary."

Yuan Su entered through the back door and came face-to-face with the gossiping students.

The two panicked and stammered:

"Y-Yuan Su..."

The boy ignored them. His gaze swept over the chaotic classroom, and his brows drew together almost imperceptibly.

He walked straight toward the back row.

He had expected to find an empty desk.

Instead, that head of sleek black hair was still tilted there.

Yuan Su stopped. His gaze rested on her for two seconds before he pulled out his chair and sat down.

"You're not moving?"

His voice was very low, like an evening breeze wrapped in hesitation and tentative inquiry.

Pu Yu tilted her face up toward him, a soft, clear smile in her eyes. "No. Teacher Cheng said we should keep sitting together."

In truth, she felt a little inexplicably nervous as she said it.

Back in town, she had only said it in a moment of desperation to put Suiran off. Now, remembering the determination and possessiveness in her declaration that they would "keep being deskmates forever and ever" made her so embarrassed she wanted to sink through the floor.

Would he think she was clinging to him?

Or would he think she was an annoying girl who didn't know when to leave him alone?

After hearing her answer, Yuan Su shoved his bag into the desk compartment with a somewhat rough movement.

Teacher Cheng said so.

Not her.

So it was Cheng Siyi who wanted them to keep sitting together.

He turned his head, his dark eyes fixed on Pu Yu, and spoke with an awkwardness and cold edge that were hard to define:

"Want me to bring you a new desk?"

Pu Yu blinked. "What?"

"Aren't you only putting up with sitting here because there aren't any empty seats?"

The boy's jaw was tight, as though he were simply stating an ordinary fact.

As far as he was concerned, unless they had no other choice, nobody would willingly approach Yuan Su, who was covered in trouble and saddled with a family that was a mire.

Pu Yu froze for a moment before understanding what he meant.

So that was what he thought.

He believed she had been forced to stay here because there were no empty seats.

Pu Yu set down the books she had been organizing and turned toward him, looking earnestly at his profile. "If I wanted to leave, you'd bring me a new desk?"

Yuan Su was silent for two seconds.

His Adam's apple bobbed, and he gave a very quiet "Yeah."

The word was soft and decisive, yet carried a muted bitterness.