It’s not that no one likes you. I just came late.

That line kept ringing in my head, like a wind bell in an empty corridor.

Lu Qiqi—someone I’d never even traded words with—had said it to my face like a sudden spring shower.

Even I, stubborn as a stone in a stream, felt a flush of trouble ripple through me...

“By the way, Wenquan, your comprehensive exam this term was a fail, right?”

While I drifted off like a leaf on still water, that familiar face popped up right in front of me, as if stepping out of mist.

“Lu—Lu! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Saying I wasn’t startled would be a lie; even after getting used to her off-script entrances, her silent arrivals still hit like a clap of thunder behind me.

“Hahaha, sorry, sorry. I saw your score on the board and got a little worried.” She pressed her palms together like a playful apology, yet her smile was all sunshine and no remorse.

“Want tutoring?” Her voice chimed like summer wind through a wind chime, but paired with that hunting-cat glint, my heartbeat sped like a startled sparrow.

I wanted to refuse.

Years of weather taught me: no one is kind for no reason; free shade hides hooks.

Lu Qiqi is dangerous.

I thought that, yet somewhere deep, a door I’d kept barred swung open to her knock.

I hesitated. The feeling sat heavy like humid air before a storm, the first time I’d ever tasted it.

“It’s fine, Lu. I’ll figure it out myself.”

“But if you flunk the makeup exam, it’ll be a headache, won’t it?” Her teasing smile sharpened like a fox’s, and even knowing she had an angle, my resistance melted like frost under sun. “You finally crawled to the end of term. If you have to come in every day for remedial classes, that’s pretty miserable, huh?”

“Plus, if you’re stuck on campus, your plan to work during break and help with expenses will sink like a stone.”

“......”

She knew me too well. Thoughts I never voiced, plans I never aired—she read them clean, like clear water over river stones.

She was like the little worm living in my belly, knowing every twist before I made it.

“So, tutoring?”

I wanted to refuse, but she’d cornered me like a slow deer into a bright snare. There was nowhere left to back up.

“Okay.”

“Great. Then tonight, let’s teach each other till dawn! At your place~”

Eh? I agreed, but “till dawn” sounded like fireworks thrown into a quiet courtyard...

“Don’t say stuff that makes people misunderstand, Lu!”

“But if we don’t pull an all-nighter, you won’t be ready for tomorrow’s makeup test!”

Eh?

“Tomorrow is the makeup exam?” That came like thunder on a clear day.

“Yep. You’ve been so busy with shifts you forgot, right?”

“.......”

She did that on purpose.

With that sly little look, even an idiot would catch on: she’d kept the date to herself like a cat hiding a fish.

And yet... even so, I had no grounds to blame her. It was my lapse, my loose knot that let her slip the rope in.

“So, tonight—please take care of me.” She leaned to my ear, her whisper a warm brush of wind, and my cheeks heated like embers.

...

“So, Wenquan, what part don’t you get~~” She hummed a happy tune, and I felt the warmth of her arms at my back like a quilt heated by sun. My nerves tightened like a drawn bow.

“Even if it’s tutoring, you don’t have to stick this close!” I tried to sit up, but she didn’t let me slip away; instead, I sank deeper into her hold like a pebble into soft sand.

“Nope~ If I’m not right beside you, my energy gauge runs low, and I can’t teach at all.” She said it breezy as a cloud, then picked up my workbook with practiced hands.

“So it’s factoring?”

“b^2 x^2 - a^2 x^2.”

“Listen. This kind of problem works like this...” One arm around my waist like a warm ribbon, she took my pen and drew formulas I struggled to catch, like rain streaking past lantern glass.

“Ah... can’t follow?” My silence made her glance over, and her smile brightened like sunlight through leaves.

“Wenquan, let’s say a is you, b is me, and x is those creeps who want to mess with you. Turn it into x^2(b+a)(b-a), and kick those guys clean out.”

“Oh... that makes sense.” Put that way, it clicked like a key turning, though the method felt dangerously easy to misunderstand.

My heart, which had just settled, sped again like drums before a lion dance. All her fault.

“You’re not the type who can’t study,” she murmured as she guided my hand, her tone soft as rain on bamboo. “I heard you used to ace this stuff. You’re only stuck because you haven’t put in the care yet, right?”

“With a solid push tonight, I believe you’ll pass tomorrow.” She sounded more sure of me than I was, like a lantern believing in the wick more than the flame does.

Strange.

I was the one taking the test, yet she had the faith of a mountain, steady and warm.

“And if you fail and repeat a grade, and we can’t go to school together next term, I’ll be really lonely.” She always tossed out lines that curved like fishhooks.

Not that I minded.

...

Ah... I fell asleep completely...

Jolted awake by a nightmare at midnight, I surfaced like a diver gasping. I must’ve lost to the drowsy god halfway and dozed off.

Where’s Wenquan? No—where’s Lu?

I lifted my head on instinct and met a face so close it filled my horizon.

Her eyes were closed, lashes long as brushstrokes, her breathing even as a tide.

So close... one breath away.

My heart, newly rested, started pounding again like rain on a drum.

This girl... came to tutor me and fell asleep first.

I scolded her in my head, but there was no ember of anger in it, only the glow of coals.

The blanket wrapped around me had to be from Lu, tucked over me halfway through like moonlight on a window.

Warmth seeped in. Even if gentleness hid a bottomless trap, I felt I’d step forward without flinching, like walking into a garden knowing the thorns.

For a beat, held in her arms, I thought: if it’s her, even if she plots something against me one day, I might just accept it. Absurd, but bright as a shooting star.

Then a note by my elbow caught my eye like a white petal on a dark pond.

“There’s late-night snacks and breakfast in the fridge. Heat them up if you wake!”

“By the way, for this exam, watch the formulas on pages 76 to 82; they’re prime test spots. Also memorize the ones on page 90. Below are problems I made for you; answers on the back. If you can solve these, you should be fine!”

Plain words, no sugar sprinkled. Yet reading them, warmth spilled through me like tea down my throat.

She’d done this much for me. I should answer with something solid.

Thinking that, I gripped the pen she’d used, and set to the problems with a steady breath, like tracing constellations.

...

9:30 a.m.

I crammed at the last minute, but was this really all I could pull up?

Staring at the sea of symbols on my desk, I drooped like a wilted leaf.

A burst of effort doesn’t always buy the harvest you dream of.

But...

As I skimmed the paper, a spark flickered. My mood lifted like dawn through fog.

These few problems... she covered them last night.

And this formula...

And this one... even this...

Oh! If I add the points I’m sure of, I’ll hit the pass line exactly.

That means no remedial classes. I can keep my holiday job. And Wenquan will—

I stopped cold, eyes on the paper, caught like a fish in a net.

No.

It should be this.

.......

“Ah... seventy points? What a pity...” She sounded almost regretful, a hand to her temple.

The results were out. Lu Qiqi held my test, brow creased like a folded fan, as if she hadn’t expected me to actually miss the line.

Even so, she comforted me with a grin, tapping my page like knocking on wood. “Still, better than before, when you drew little turtles on the answer sheet. Your attitude’s way better now. As your teacher, I’m moved. Not bad, not bad. Keep at it!”

Attitude... adjusted, huh...

Listening to her, I rolled a white eraser in my fingers—the one I’d only used once—and my thoughts drifted far, like kites tugged by wind.

Compared to our first messy meeting, maybe I really have adjusted my attitude toward this girl. Quite a lot, in fact.