"Uh... I'm afraid I can't."
This was probably the first time Xia Yunuo had taken the initiative to ask Song Yunshen if he wanted to eat with her.
At any other time, Song Yunshen would have agreed without a second thought.
But not today.
Feeling rather put out, Song Yunshen turned her down tactfully and racked his brains before finally forcing the words out. "I just made plans to have lunch with Teacher Song, so I can't eat with you."
Hearing that, Xia Yunuo felt a little disappointed.
But since he was eating with a teacher, Xia Yunuo couldn't very well say anything. She even began to wonder if Song Yunshen was planning to ask Teacher Song again over lunch about helping her find a tutor.
At that thought, Xia Yunuo pressed her lips firmly together. She instinctively picked up a potato chip, popped it into her mouth, and murmured, "Mm."
So tasty...
The last time she'd had potato chips had probably been over a month ago.
As Xia Yunuo savored the wonderful flavor blossoming on her taste buds, ripples spread through her heart.
"Ahem... Then I'll get going." Seeing her eat a chip without any particular expression, Song Yunshen breathed a sigh of relief, waved, and turned to leave.
But just as Song Yunshen left the classroom, Xia Yunuo heard his inner voice in her head.
[That was close. If she found out I was going to eat with Xia Jinshu, I'd be in trouble.]
The words exploded in Xia Yunuo's mind like a sudden clap of thunder.
She sprang to her feet, suspicion and alarm in her eyes, hardly able to believe it.
Just now... what did Song Yunshen say?
Xia Jinshu?
He said Xia Jinshu, didn't he?
He went to see my sister?
There probably wasn't anyone else at school with that name.
But... why do they know each other...?
Xia Yunuo was full of doubts and confusion, unable to make sense of how Song Yunshen had met her sister.
They had even made plans in advance to have lunch together?!
Song Yunshen shouldn't normally have had any way to meet her sister at school. He went to class and studied, ate with either Xu Zhuoyue or her, and at most played a little basketball in his free time.
When would he have had the chance to meet her sister?
In that case... Xia Yunuo recalled how Xia Jinshu had asked her several times recently about her relationship with Song Yunshen, and couldn't help biting her lip.
Honestly, sis.
I already told her I don't like Song Yunshen and there's nothing special between us, but she still had to come and test him for herself?
She's sticking her nose in too far.
Xia Yunuo was somewhat unhappy, but she couldn't say that directly to Xia Jinshu.
She had finally worked up the nerve to ask Song Yunshen to eat with her, only to be turned down.
And the reason was that Song Yunshen was going to eat with her sister.
The more Xia Yunuo thought about it, the angrier she became. At last, in a fit of impulse, she hurried to her feet and chased after Song Yunshen.
Her sister must have been worried she would be deceived by a boy, so she had approached Song Yunshen herself.
There was no telling what she intended to say.
Did she want Song Yunshen to stay away from her?
Or did she simply want to get to know Song Yunshen up close first?
If it was the latter, that was fine, but if it was the former, wouldn't that be terribly rude?
She and Song Yunshen were just perfectly ordinary classmates... at most, at the very most, they were... they were... friends, maybe?
As Xia Yunuo walked briskly along, all sorts of thoughts kept popping into her head.
When the word "friends" suddenly surfaced, her heart began racing.
The word was so unfamiliar that it burned like molten lava in her mind, scorching her thoughts.
So... what does Song Yunshen think?
Does our relationship now count as... friendship?
Xia Yunuo had never had any friends.
She wasn't gentle by nature like her older sister, nor cheerful and free-spirited like Ningning.
She just wasn't likable.
Even Bai Feini, her deskmate who sat beside her, never spoke to her.
Xia Yunuo knew that very well.
She had been shunned by the people around her since childhood. Apart from her mother and sisters, no one in the world would come near her.
Of course, there were also the boys who inexplicably confessed to her.
Song Yunshen really was different.
She could hear his inner voice and know what he was thinking whenever he approached her.
That reassured her, and she let down her guard without realizing it.
But she had just heard Song Yunshen's inner voice and learned that the reason he had turned her down was that he was going to eat with her sister.
Xia Yunuo's mood plunged into an ice cellar, and a feeling of betrayal welled up inside her.
It felt awful.
Her chest felt tight.
As though she couldn't catch her breath.
She didn't know what she would say if she found Song Yunshen and Xia Jinshu, either.
But she had followed them anyway.
In any case, whatever she had to say, she would find the two of them first.
Xia Jinshu and Song Yunshen had agreed to meet at the cafeteria's side entrance.
The second-year teaching building was closer to the cafeteria, and Song Yunshen had been delayed for a while by what had happened earlier, so Xia Jinshu arrived first.
She stood by the side entrance, near the foot of the stairs.
The teachers' dining hall was upstairs on the second floor.
But the teachers generally used the stairs on the east side and rarely came this way on the west, which was why Xia Jinshu had chosen this spot to meet.
The side entrance faced the school basketball court. Only after eating would boys going to play and girls going to watch gradually start coming this way.
So at the moment, apart from Xia Jinshu, hardly anyone was coming or going through here.
She waited quietly, looking around from time to time or peering into the cafeteria, wondering if Song Yunshen might come from inside.
But after a few minutes, she began to worry that Song Yunshen had forgotten about it.
He had clearly mentioned it in yesterday's diary. Surely he wouldn't have forgotten?
As she thought this, Xia Jinshu suddenly spotted a figure approaching in the distance.
The boy wasn't wearing his uniform jacket. In a simple white short-sleeved uniform shirt and sky-blue uniform pants, he walked straight toward her.
Xia Jinshu was a little nearsighted, though not severely, and she still couldn't quite make out his face at this distance.
Only when he reached the side entrance and smiled and waved at him did Xia Jinshu finally make sure.
So this was Song Yunshen.
Xia Jinshu stared at Song Yunshen's face for several seconds, as though trying to confirm something.
Well, all right.
Xiao Nuo's still saying one thing and meaning another.
Could a face like that be called average?
And she said there was nothing between them.
She ate with him from time to time, and he was such a handsome boy, too.
Given Xiao Nuo's personality, how could she possibly have eaten with him so many times if she had no interest in him?
"We finally meet." Song Yunshen greeted Xia Jinshu with a smile. "Shall we go in and get in line first? We can talk while we wait."
Unlike Xia Jinshu, Song Yunshen had seen her at the English Club before.
Seeing her again now, he found her just as beautiful as ever.
Only when he got closer did Song Yunshen realize how exceptionally tall Xia Jinshu really was.
He was 1.85 meters tall, yet the top of her head reached his lips.
She had to be at least 1.7 meters, right?
Xia Yunuo, by comparison, only came up to his chin.
Not to mention Xia Kening. If she charged headfirst into him, she'd reach his chest at most.
Xia Jinshu naturally had no idea that Song Yunshen was already comparing her with her two younger sisters.
She murmured her agreement and prepared to enter the cafeteria with Song Yunshen.
But the next second, both Xia Jinshu and Song Yunshen saw a familiar figure suddenly enter through the cafeteria's main entrance and look around. Both were instantly startled. They hurriedly reached out, grabbed each other, and ducked into the stairwell beside them.
Only after fleeing into the stairwell did Song Yunshen and Xia Jinshu suddenly realize they were holding each other by the forearm.
They hurriedly let go and stepped back two paces, putting some distance between them.
"Sorry..." Song Yunshen coughed. "I just saw a classmate of mine. I thought it would be better if other people didn't see us together, so..."
"Mm... me too." Xia Jinshu nodded, her expression somewhat unnatural. Her left hand touched the spot Song Yunshen had just grabbed, and a strange feeling rose in her heart.
Xia Yunuo almost saw us...
The two of them thought the same thing almost simultaneously.
Song Yunshen took the thought a step further, and a shitty feeling welled up inside him.
This feeling... when I cheat behind my wife's back in the future, will I also sneak out to meet Xia Jinshu, the woman in front of me who'll be my ex-girlfriend by then, just like this?
Is this a rehearsal for the future, in a way?