Realizing It Too Late

The rain still hadn't stopped, and the cold wind brought waves of chill with it.

Two pretty girls huddled together outside their dormitory, coats draped over their shoulders.

One of them, a girl with a ponytail, looked especially endearing.

For some reason, though, her face looked a little haggard.

Mo Yuqing had cried herself dry and had reached a calmer state.

Liu Yan looked at her best friend, whose eyes were red from crying, with helplessness in her own.

She pitied her misfortune but was frustrated by her failure to act.

Because... she really had given her plenty of advice.

Mo Yuqing had had so many chances, yet she had let them slip through her fingers, one by one.

"I really forgot all of it before," Mo Yuqing said softly, gazing at the curtain of rain beneath a distant streetlight.

She slowly reached out into the night and held her hand in midair, as if trying to catch the cold raindrops, or perhaps hoping the familiar young man would pull her to her feet as he always had.

But there was nothing.

Both the rain and the young man were too far away from her.

"Forgot what?" Liu Yan asked, somewhat puzzled.

"I forgot how good Chen Lu was to me." Mo Yuqing pressed her lips together, looking wistful. "All of it had become part of my life, and I overlooked every bit of it...

"Only now that he's left my side have I finally realized it."

Liu Yan listened silently without contradicting her.

A lot of people were inexplicably like that. They took the kindness of those closest to them for granted, yet were endlessly grateful for the slightest favor from outsiders and kept it close to their hearts.

The clearest example was the relationship between many rebellious people and their parents.

No matter how bitterly they fought with their families, when they looked back, they would find that the only people in the world who were truly good to them without expecting anything in return were their parents.

Only after entering society and taking a beating from it would they understand that, apart from their parents, no one would indulge them forever.

The corners of Mo Yuqing's lips suddenly curved upward, and she laughed softly, as if she had remembered something. Then tears abruptly slipped down her cheeks again. "If only he were a bad person. If he'd lost his temper with me more often, maybe I would've realized sooner how badly I'd been treating him all this time."

Liu Yan was at a loss for words. Frowning, she said, "So you're saying that if Chen Lu weren't such a decent guy, he would've won you over?"

Mo Yuqing shook her head, and her long ponytail swayed.

"You and Jiang Chao know him too.

"Chen Lu is so smart. He actually knows everything... He just likes me too much. He likes me so much that all he wants is to treat me well. He disdains things like slapping someone twice and then offering them a sweet date.

"From beginning to end, he refused to let me suffer even a little."

As she spoke, the smile on her face grew a little brighter. Then, when she abruptly realized once more that those beautiful memories no longer belonged to her, it froze.

Her tears had run completely dry. She could only stare into the distance, expressionless.

"Let's go back to bed."

After a long while, Mo Yuqing slowly got up and held out a hand to Liu Yan, pulling her to her feet.

That night, Mo Yuqing listened quietly to the rain outside the window, awake until morning.

No one knew what she was thinking.

At noon the next day.

Chen Lu was woken by his phone ringing.

"Miaomiao asked if we're going to dinner tonight. She said it's the drama club's celebration banquet..."

Although Liang Zhirou was puffing out her cheeks and pouting because Chen Lu had skipped breakfast that morning, her voice was still incredibly gentle.

There seemed to be a trace of shyness hidden beneath her words, though.

Chen Lu thought for a moment and asked with a yawn, "Do you want to go?"

He knew this silly girl was extremely shy around strangers, and he also knew she didn't know how to say no.

If Liang Zhirou didn't want to go, he planned to turn down the dinner and invite Lin Miaomiao to eat with the two of them in a couple of days instead.

Without strangers around, Liang Zhirou wouldn't be so nervous.

Some things couldn't be rushed.

The girl on the other end of the phone clearly hadn't expected to be asked that, and for a moment she didn't know how to answer.

When Liang Zhirou remained silent, he patiently explained, "Don't be embarrassed to say no. This dinner isn't what you think it is. Neither of us is the guest of honor, so it doesn't matter whether we go."

"If you're uncomfortable with so many people, just say you're not going. Then tell Lin Miaomiao I'll treat you and her to a meal in a couple of days.

"Don't worry. Not going won't hurt our relationship, and we wouldn't be in the wrong for doing that."

Liang Zhirou wasn't sure whether she had understood him. She kept turning that word "we" over in her mind.

"Do you want to go?" Chen Lu asked softly again.

The girl paused, then slowly said, "I don't..."

Being surrounded by strangers really made her feel suffocated.

"That's more like it. From now on, if you don't want to do something, just say so." Chen Lu was pleased. As he spoke, he lay back down on his bed. "If that's all, I'll hang up and sleep a little longer. I'm so sleepy."

The girl's voice suddenly grew urgent. "There's one more thing..."

"What is it?"

Liang Zhirou took several deep breaths and finally gathered her courage. "Let me treat you to a meal."

Her voice was very quiet, even trembling a little, but her tone was firm.

Those words had taken all her strength.

"Hello? Are you listening...? After all, I still haven't thanked you for helping me find a job..." After a few seconds, she cautiously tried again.

Only then did Chen Lu come back to his senses, completely unaware of the smile on his face. "I'm listening."

This silly girl, who can only bear to spend money on stir-fried shredded potatoes every day, actually wants to treat me to a meal?

Then she added, "Just you."

Chen Lu froze.

Well, would you look at that? She's already putting what she just learned to use.

For a moment, he didn't know whether to be happier that Liang Zhirou wanted to treat him to a meal or that she was earnestly learning to improve herself, little by little.

After the two of them agreed on a time to meet that afternoon, Chen Lu was just about to go back to sleep when Liang Zhirou called again.

"Is there something else?" Chen Lu seemed to have an endless supply of patience for Liang Zhirou.

"Miaomiao said... she moved the drama club's celebration banquet to tomorrow. She wants to treat just the two of us to dinner tonight."

"Impressive," Chen Lu commented briskly.

For a moment, he suspected that Lin Miaomiao hadn't thought things through at first.

The play just made it onto the school's official website. Does she have to be this happy?

This time, Chen Lu didn't ask Liang Zhirou whether she wanted to go. He agreed immediately. "I'm fine with anything. You two can take your time deciding. Remember to pick somewhere nice. After all, the two of us have been working ourselves to the bone helping her lately."

"Okay."

All the back-and-forth had left Chen Lu wide awake, so he simply climbed out of bed to wash up.

He didn't know when he had fallen asleep the night before. In any case, he had slept until now.

At this hour, once he had washed up and killed a little time, it would be time to go out and have a meal with Liang Zhirou.

Seeing that Jiang Chao was still asleep, Chen Lu grew angrier the more he thought about it and kicked him awake.

"Holy crap! What's wrong with you?!" Jiang Chao was startled and sat bolt upright.

He saw Chen Lu staring coldly at him. "Did your girlfriend turn you against me?"

"No way! I'll always be on your side, buddy," Jiang Chao said earnestly, as if it were a matter of course.

Seeing the earnest expression on the utterly clueless Jiang Chao's face, Chen Lu was even more speechless.

He sighed. "You might as well admit she turned you against me."

Jiang Chao was so baffled that he forgot he had been kicked. "Why?"

"I'm embarrassed for you." Chen Lu spat at him.

"What do you mean?"

Chen Lu slowly explained everything that had happened the night before, then kicked him again.

Although there was no harm in clearing things up with Mo Yuqing, the more he thought about being inexplicably set up, the angrier he got.

"Is every word you said true? Did you really do that?" Once it sank in, he leaned toward Chen Lu and asked.

Chen Lu nodded expressionlessly.

"...You little bastard." Jiang Chao suddenly didn't know what to say. Having witnessed Chen Lu's three years of painstaking pursuit since entering university, he had mixed feelings at that moment.

"Well, congratulations on breaking free, then."