“Hah... Why’s this taking so long...? Is this guy messing with me on purpose?”

Chu Yao glanced impatiently at his watch. He was sheltering from the sun beneath a building, holding three boxed meals, sweat pouring down his face.

Beside him stood a casually dressed guy who chatted with Chu Yao like they were old friends. “So, Chu Yao, when’s your little girlfriend coming down? You look like you’re about to burst from waiting.”

“I told you, I’m just waiting for a friend. Why won’t you believe me?”

A hint of disdain crept into Chu Yao’s voice, but the other guy acted like he hadn’t heard a thing. He just kept talking nonsense as if nothing had happened.

He was one of Chu Yao’s elementary school classmates. Meng something-or-other, Chu Yao couldn’t remember his name anymore. But he did remember that they’d never gotten along, and after graduation, they hadn’t met even once or exchanged a single word. They’d happened to run into each other here today, and now the guy was clinging to him like a dog-skin plaster, talking nonstop.

Honestly, Chu Yao didn’t want anything to do with him ever again.

After a few more minutes of pointless chatter, a graceful figure at the far end of the street caught both their eyes.

“Holy crap, she’s gorgeous!”

Chu Yao stared without blinking at the girl in a white-and-blue dress, who looked like a forest fairy. Beside him, the Meng kid’s eyes had gone wide too.

Huh? Is she coming over here?

............

“Ha... ha... ha...”

The girl’s little mouth kept letting out tempting, breathy gasps. She’d barely made it down the stairs, and already she was drenched in sweat.

Chu Yao, you little punk. You’re making me come all the way down to get you? You’d better be grateful!

After walking a little farther, she was getting close to Chu Yao’s location.

Hmm-hmm... He should be around here. If he’s hiding from the sun, then unless something unexpected happened, he’ll be right here.

But this sun is so damn—!!! Uh, no. Be ladylike, be ladylike... This sun is really #@*@￥ hot.

After grumbling a few random things to herself, Mo Zhiyuan spotted a figure cooling off beneath the building.

【Ah, there he is, there he is.】

The heat made the air ahead shimmer, and Mo Zhiyuan couldn’t see the figure clearly. But she recognized him at a glance. It had to be her dear son—... No! Her dear bro, Chu Yao!

Now that she’d found her target, she didn’t want to keep suffering in this patch of Hell a moment longer. She set off at a jog toward him.

Huh?

Once she got closer, she saw there was someone standing in the shade behind Chu Yao. She immediately grew a little wary. She had no intention of letting anyone else find out who she really was.

“Um, miss, you...”

“......”

Without another word, Mo Zhiyuan grabbed Chu Yao by the wrist and started pulling him away.

“Hey, hey?”

Chu Yao let out an ambiguous little cry. He had no idea what was going on with this girl. Just grabbing someone and dragging them off like that—how improper! Heh heh heh......

“Wait a second.”

The guy whose name was something-Meng reacted quickly and grabbed Chu Yao, bringing Mo Zhiyuan to a stop too.

Mo Zhiyuan looked at him with a hint of irritation.

“Ahaha... Sorry, sorry. I just wanted to ask you something.”

Under Mo Zhiyuan’s glare, the Meng guy grew a little flustered. He turned and gave Chu Yao a hearty slap on the back. “And you were saying she wasn’t your girlfriend! You lucky dog. Your girlfriend’s so cute.”

“What the hell? I don’t even know her!” Chu Yao protested, feeling like this guy was way too familiar with him.

That bastard. Did he have to hit so hard? Was he jealous or something?

Scritch, scritch, scritch—

At the sound of a pen moving across paper, both of them turned around. Mo Zhiyuan was writing something in a little notebook.

「Come with me.」

“Uh, could you at least tell me who you are first? And can’t you talk?”

Chu Yao figured a guy had to protect himself when he was out and about. He wasn’t about to foolishly run off with some strange girl!

Well, unless the girl was really cute. Then it was different.

He had no idea that Mo Zhiyuan was cursing up a storm inside.

You’re so damn slow! If I could tell you who I was, I would’ve already. Unless you get that guy beside you to leave, that is.

Mo Zhiyuan scribbled furiously.

「For fuck’s sake, just come with me! Why do you have so much to say?!」

“Uh...” The neat handwriting in the notebook conveyed words that were anything but refined. Chu Yao’s worldview shattered.

“Well... see you next time, whoever you are. I should get going.” With no choice, Chu Yao went along with what Mo Zhiyuan wanted and let her lead him away.

Tap, tap, tap, tap......

But an irritating set of footsteps followed behind them. Chu Yao glanced back and saw the Meng guy trailing after them.

“Mind if I tag along?” The young man named Meng shrugged casually. His flippant attitude made Chu Yao frown.

“This is between her and me.”

“Sure, sure. You two go on ahead. I won’t bother you.”

The Meng guy backed off, taking the hint. But Mo Zhiyuan had barely led Chu Yao any distance before she stopped.

The guy was still following them from about fifty meters away. When he saw them stop, he stopped too.

This time, Chu Yao didn’t bother hiding the disgust in his voice. He walked up to the guy and confronted him. “Seriously, what do you want? Are we even friends?”

“Come on, I’m just heading the same way.” The Meng guy had a hide like a rhinoceros and wouldn’t admit it.

Mo Zhiyuan’s cheeks puffed up despite herself. Why was this guy so annoying? He was like a total thug.

And the guy still thought he was hot stuff. Mo Zhiyuan had already cursed his entire family tree, all the way back eighteen generations, along with the billions of descendants he’d splattered against the wall.

She didn’t want to see that annoying guy’s face anymore. Chu Yao’s words had made it clear that he and this jerk weren’t on good terms, so Mo Zhiyuan made her own position clear too.

「You. Get lost!」

“Uh...”

The Meng guy was so taken aback by Mo Zhiyuan’s bluntness that, as he stared at those three words in the notebook, his body moved before his brain could catch up. He walked away, confused and deeply unwilling.

Hmph! That guy definitely had bad intentions toward me!

Mo Zhiyuan watched him get about twenty or thirty meters away, then gave Chu Yao a look. The two of them took off in a flash, with Chu Yao close behind her.

Once she was sure they’d shaken off that annoying pest, Mo Zhiyuan leaned against the wall, panting.

D-Damn it...! Why’s this body so weak? I haven’t even run a hundred meters...

Chu Yao, on the other hand, looked like he could keep going all day. After all, he was a full 1.8 meters tall. Keeping up with little short-legged Mo Zhiyuan was a piece of cake.

“So, can you tell me who you are now?”

“......” Mo Zhiyuan looked at him for a moment, then wrote in her notebook: 「I’m Chuanzi. Do you believe me?」

“Huh? You’re Chuanzi? Hey, can you stop joking around? Sure, you’re cute, but—hey!”

The girl in front of him barely reached his chest and looked delicate and frail, yet she suddenly punched him hard in the stomach. Luckily, he had abs. It felt like he’d been punched, and that was about it.

“Hey, what have you been doing this whole time—? Wait, don’t cry! Why are you crying all of a sudden?”

When Chu Yao saw a few bright tears welling up in the girl’s eyes, her expression so close to tears that it broke his heart, he panicked.

Wait, am I crying?

Mo Zhiyuan blankly wiped a hand across her face and realized that she really was. She froze for a moment.

No way!

She hurriedly raised both hands to wipe the tears from her eyes, still feeling a little dazed.

Was she scared?

Of course she was.

She’d summoned all her courage to meet an old friend in this new identity. What if he didn’t believe her and thought she was some kind of cross-dresser?

And if things went even worse, what if he told everyone? Her social life would be over. She’d spend the rest of her life enduring people’s strange looks.

So when Chu Yao gave her that look that said, “Don’t joke around,” it felt like one of the tightly wound nerves inside her had snapped.

Why are you crying? Only sissies cry!

Mo Zhiyuan pinched her own arm hard several times, until the skin turned red and purple. The sharp pain forced her tears back.

She took a deep breath and wrote in the notebook again: 「Come with me first.」

“N-no, seriously, I don’t know... you... Uh, cough, cough—ow, shit! I know you, I know you. Got it. I’ll come with you.”

Chu Yao had only gotten halfway through his sentence before he started coughing violently. It was all because of the line written in the notebook.

—「I accidentally let it slip.」