Yun Chu and Jian You were lying in the same bed.
Shoulder to shoulder, leg to leg, hand in hand. They didn’t take up much space, and as time went on, the space grew smaller and smaller, until Yun Chu couldn’t resist burying her head in Jian You’s embrace, nuzzling against her and whispering, “So soft.”
Jian You chuckled and pinched her earlobe. “Little pervert.”
“You are too,” Yun Chu mumbled, then quickly changed the subject. “Teacher Jian, I feel like I’m dreaming right now. Are you really lying in my bed?”
“No,” Jian You said.
“Huh?” Yun Chu tilted her face up, her lips brushing against Jian You’s collarbone. She couldn’t help but give it a lick.
Jian You’s body trembled slightly. She leaned back, stopping Yun Chu’s next move, then carefully pulled her into her arms and said, “My soul isn’t here.”
“Then where is it?”
“At the film academy.” Jian You lowered her head, resting her chin on top of Yun Chu’s head. She smelled the fragrance of her hair, took a deep breath, and said, “Your turn.”
“…Wh-what?”
“Confession brings leniency; resistance brings severity.” Jian You’s fingertips slid lightly from her earlobe to her neck, like a current of electricity, causing a shiver everywhere they passed. “Tell me, when did you start liking me?”
Earlier than her, longer than her, and with much more premeditation.
She really wanted to hear this story.
Yun Chu wriggled out of her embrace. Under the thin silk quilt, a heat wave was rolling. She was a little breathless. After taking a couple of breaths of fresh air, she composed herself and asked Jian You, “Do you remember the senior I told you about, the one who first made my heart flutter?”
Jian You hummed noncommittally. “Why bring her up now?”
She hadn’t thought about it, but now that it was mentioned, a faint annoyance stirred within her. She was also Yun Chu’s senior, and she had also taken Teacher Chen’s class. Why wasn’t she the one to make her heart flutter? Why was it some senior who came out of nowhere?
“That senior was you.”
“…?”
Jian You fixed her questioning gaze on Yun Chu’s face, blinked, blinked again, and finally managed only a single syllable. “Huh?”
Yun Chu pressed her lips together. “You really don’t remember.”
“I-” Jian You was speechless for a moment, then slowly reached out to cup her face. Her lips brushed against the corner of hers as she whispered an apology, “I’m sorry, I was too busy back then.”
That was the first semester of her senior year. She was busy writing her thesis, doing practical work, earning money, and applying for opportunities to study abroad. She was spinning like a top, only daring not to miss her important major and elective classes. Who she met, who she spoke to, who she helped out of kindness—none of it remained in the river of her memory.
Had she really… missed Yun Chu just like that?
“It’s okay.” Yun Chu pecked her on the lips, kissing her back, then shyly covered her eyes. “I dreamt about you that night.”
Jian You was curious. “What did you dream about?”
She dreamt that she and Jian You had become roommates. They went to class together, left class together, ate together, and even went to the countryside to watch the stars together. She was so close to Jian You, an intimacy disguised as friendship. Sometimes she was happy, sometimes she was heartbroken. Sometimes when she saw someone hitting on Jian You, she would get angry for no reason, and Jian You would come to coax her.
Jian You chuckled. “So in your dream, I didn’t like girls?”
Yun Chu hummed in agreement.
Although Jian You had once said she liked girls, because she had rejected even the girls who confessed to her and had never been in a relationship, people speculated that it was just an excuse to avoid romantic entanglements.
Maybe Jian You still liked guys.
So in her dream, she was willful. She used the guise of friendship to be jealous, to make Jian You coax her, to make her say, I don’t like that guy, and I won’t get into a relationship. Then she would play hard to get, saying, Go ahead and date, it’s fine, just don’t choose romance over friendship.
“You’re quite good at push and pull.” Jian You ruffled her hair. “And then?”
“Then I confessed to you.” Yun Chu’s voice grew lower. “It’s so strange. In my dream, it’s like I was born knowing how to punish people, how to guilt-trip them. I knew you couldn’t leave me, that you couldn’t bear to part with our friendship, so I forced you to date me, and then-”
“And then?”
And then came the R-rated scenes. In the dream, Jian You agreed to give it a try with her. They kissed on the lower bunk of an empty dormitory. The bed curtains trembled with their movements. She smelled the scent on Jian You’s body, so near yet so far. In a state of infatuation, her flower bloomed in the rainy season.
As soon as she finished speaking, Yun Chu rolled to the side. “Ahhh, I know it’s bad, but I couldn’t control it in my dream!”
Jian You pulled her back. “What you think about during the day, you dream about at night.”
Yun Chu swore, “I wasn’t thinking about doing that with you during the day!”
Jian You: “Oh?”
That single “oh” made Yun Chu lose her confidence. She whispered that it was true, then continued, “When I woke up, I went to find someone to get your class schedule. That day, you rushed to your department’s building.”
“So brave? Why didn’t you confess?”
“Uh,” Yun Chu said sheepishly, “How would I dare?”
She had indeed rushed to the directing department that day and was the first to arrive for that class, earning a lot of praise from the teacher. Fortunately, it was a combined class for two sections, so everyone just assumed she was from the other section.
Afraid of being recognized by Jian You, she sat far away from her, but her eyes were glued to Jian You for the entire class.
One look, so much love.
Another look, still so much love.
After many, many looks, still so, so much love!
So she secretly took a picture and sent it to Zhou Zhitao. Zhou Zhitao was clearly not paying attention in her class either. She sent back a question mark, asking why she was sending her a picture of a beautiful woman.
Yun Chu: Pretty?
Zhou Zhitao: Very pretty.
Yun Chu: My future wife.
Zhou Zhitao: Are you crazy?
It took Zhou Zhitao half a month to accept that her childhood friend had turned gay. First, she condemned her for not liking her if she liked girls, and then she pried, asking why she hadn’t made a move if she already had a target.
“Why didn’t you make a move?” Jian You also asked.
Yun Chu retorted, “If I had really made a move, wouldn’t you have rejected me?”
Jian You was taken aback.
She toyed with Yun Chu’s hair and thought for a while, concluding that she probably would have rejected her. At that time, where would she have found the energy and time for a relationship?
Yun Chu said, “I told you so.”
So she chose to have a secret crush, trying to get noticed in order to gain some attention. But at that time, Jian You’s mind was entirely focused on more important things. She was weary of dealing with social interactions and had no time to pay attention to the sparkling eyes that looked her way.
And it was precisely because of this that on the day of her graduation, under the influence of alcohol, she had wanted to let loose.
“What about that night?” Jian You pressed. “What were you thinking that night?”
“You were the one who initiated it that night!” Yun Chu sat up. She had just been kissed by Jian You on the bed, and in the struggle, her pajamas had become wrinkled, hanging off one shoulder, revealing a jade-like, smooth shoulder. She leaned closer to Jian You and recalled seriously, “I was originally just trying to do a good deed…”
“Just?”
“And maybe take a little advantage…”
“Maybe?”
“Alright, I premeditated taking a little advantage.” Yun Chu said righteously, “I had already helped you to the side of the bed. Was it so wrong for me to want to kiss you as a reward?”
Jian You gave her a gentle tug, and she fell right onto Jian You’s body, into a field of softness. Her face immediately turned red, and she struggled to get away, but Jian You pressed a hand on the back of her head, stopping her movements, while her other hand moved down. “So it was you who initiated it first.”
“…Alright.” In the face of beauty, Yun Chu had no resistance. She let Jian You rewrite history. Then, as if remembering something, she defended herself, “I was waiting for your call the next day.”
She had waited for a long time, absent-minded in everything she did, staring at her phone all day, afraid that she would miss a message from Jian You. But from dawn till dusk, and as she lay in her dorm that night staring at her silent phone, she finally accepted the fact that Jian You didn’t want to take things further with her.
After midnight, she posted a Moment.
“A Moment?” Jian You frowned. “I looked through your Moments. You didn’t post anything.”
“You only saw the ninth one and then left, didn’t you?” Yun Chu sighed. If only Jian You had scrolled down a little further, they wouldn’t have missed each other for all these years.
She had posted a Moment that day.
She had said: To you, it may have been just a fleeting encounter, a passing goose without a sound. But to me, it was the grandest confession and the most beautiful dream of my youth. I will immerse myself in this beautiful dream until I want to walk out of it. JY.
The comments under that post were also brilliant. Some thought she was heartbroken and wanted to teach the heartbreaker a lesson. Some, seeing her being emo online for the first time, found it strange and asked if her account had been hacked. Still others asked where she had copied the line from, so they could copy it too. Only Zhou Zhitao commented: Forget it.
As she spoke, Jian You’s hand on the back of her head tightened slightly, and her voice came from above. “You’re not allowed to forget.”
“Well, I didn’t forget.” Yun Chu wrapped her arms around her waist, nuzzling her comfortingly. She looked up at her, her upward glance alluring. “We both didn’t forget. That’s great.”
Jian You looked at her.
The gentle light enveloped the two of them. The darkness beyond the light was terrifying, making this spot seem exceptionally tender. Her hand slowly slid to Yun Chu’s face, cupped it, and kissed her lips.
One kiss, then another, like a dragonfly skimming the water, as if she were the most precious treasure in the world.
“I’m sorry,” Jian You said, “Yun Chu, for making you wait for me for so long.”
Yun Chu’s nose tingled, and her eyes reddened. She hummed with a nasal voice, “Well, you- you also waited for me for so long. It’s okay. Teacher Jian…”
“Hm?”
“I want to kiss.”
“…Just kissing?”
“Huh?” Yun Chu was startled and stammered, “We can’t do anything else here!”
It felt like they would be discovered.
Jian You chuckled. “Then just kissing.” She asked, “How do you want to kiss?”
Her question made Yun Chu’s face flush and her heart pound. She boldly kissed Jian You first, showing her with her body what kind of kissing she wanted. From simple kisses to a passionate make-out session, the temperature in the room soared.
Under the silk quilt, Yun Chu’s leg moved, and her embarrassed, annoyed words came out muffled, “Just kissing!”
Jian You: “I am kissing.”
Yun Chu: “Your hand-”
Jian You: “What?”
Yun Chu: “Mmm…”
In the living room.
Wen Xi was eating half a watermelon. Meng Zhaozhao said with disgust, “If you eat that now, aren’t you afraid of running to the bathroom all night?”
Wen Xi: “None of your business.”
Meng Zhaozhao: “Heh, it’s not my business.”
Wen Xi: “Why haven’t you gone to bed yet?”
Meng Zhaozhao: “…I’m afraid something I’m not supposed to see might be happening upstairs.”
“What?” Wen Xi let out an “oh.” “You mean Teacher Jian? Why isn’t Teacher Jian down yet? Even if she was watching the stars, she should be down by now, right? Isn’t it cold?”
Meng Zhaozhao: “There really are no stars tonight.”
