“Dong Yin’s been really busy lately,” Zou Yuxi said. “I asked her for help these past few days and she kept saying she didn’t have time. I don’t think she can make it. Are you guys eating without her?”
“Busy? Busy with what?” Xie Mingjun said. “You seem to know her pretty well.”
Zou Yuxi let out an awkward laugh.
Xie Mingjun’s tone was icy, not like she was joking at all.
“Tell her this. If she doesn’t come pick up her clothes today, I’m throwing them out.”
Then she hung up.
Zou Yuxi held his phone, went back into the game, hit “ready,” and queued up again.
Next to him, Chu Ning’an was scrolling on her phone, trying to ignore how empty her stomach felt.
“Come on, come on, one more round. It’s only four-thirty anyway.”
When she finished, she gave Lu Hanqiu, who was sitting beside her, a little kick.
“Don’t you think Xie’s being weirdly serious about this today? Any idea why?”
Lu Hanqiu thought about it.
“Probably something to do with a woman’s dignity.”
Xie Mingjun lifted one long leg and kicked, sending both of them tumbling off the couch together.
On the other side, Dong Yin had just loaded into a match and picked up a gun when a notification popped up on her phone. It was a call from Zou Yuxi.
She hung up and kept playing.
Zou Yuxi called a few more times. That round ended in a loss, and Dong Yin, already in a foul mood, finally replied to his message.
“What do you want? I’m really busy right now!”
Zou Yuxi got annoyed too. He hadn’t gotten through to Dong Yin, and when he called Xie Mingjun back, she’d torn into him. So he called Dong Yin again.
“You left some clothes at Xie Mingjun’s,” he said. “She told you to come get them, or she’s tossing them. And I’m serious, she really will.”
The moment Dong Yin heard it was about Xie Mingjun, her little temper vanished. She actually kind of missed her too. Her voice went soft, with a faint, fluttery lilt.
“You want me to come over now? I… it’s not a good time for me to go.”
She’d walked off way too coolly yesterday. If she went back now, Xie Mingjun would definitely hit her. She was a little scared, and even more, she wanted Xie Mingjun to be the one to come find her.
“So you don’t want your clothes?” Zou Yuxi asked.
“I do,” Dong Yin said quickly. “It’s just… it’s really late… Can she come pick me up?”
Zou Yuxi was completely lost.
Dong Yin wanted Xie Mingjun to come pick her up?
Seriously? With how things were between them, shouldn’t it be Dong Yin going to pick Xie up?
Normally, Dong Yin was extremely sharp and sensitive to people’s moods, but right now her sense of what was appropriate seemed to have short-circuited. Her voice stayed soft and sticky.
“Please? Can you talk to her for me?”
Zou Yuxi could tell she was acting cute at him. He sighed, said “fine,” hung up, and called Xie Mingjun.
On Xie’s end there was none of that softness. Her voice was chilly.
“Tell her this. If she still doesn’t come, I really am throwing them out.”
Zou Yuxi called Dong Yin again.
Dong Yin said, “Then tell her… I miss her…”
“Huh?” Zou Yuxi waited, but nothing else came. “Miss what?”
“I…” Dong Yin’s voice was barely audible. “I want to see her tomorrow. Tell her that.”
Zou Yuxi almost couldn’t hear her. He didn’t know if he was going deaf, or if Dong Yin was just too shy. Either way, he felt like this human telephone line was about to explode.
Dong Yin really was that shy. Asking Zou Yuxi to tell Xie Mingjun she missed her? That was way too embarrassing. How could she say something like that?
She scolded herself.
Dong Yin, you’re awful!
“I mean,” she corrected herself in a rush, “I want… I want her to bring them to me tomorrow. I really can’t go get the clothes today. Is that okay?”
“Dong Yin…” Zou Yuxi let out a long, heavy sigh. “When you talk, you don’t have to rush. You can take your time. Don’t pause in such weird places.”
A few minutes later, he called Xie Mingjun again.
“Dong Yin says she misses you,” he reported crisply.
“Hm?”
“No, wait.” He was getting tied in knots by her too. “What she meant was she wants you to bring the clothes to her. I’m guessing she’s out of bus money. It’s the end of the month and she’s broke.”
“If you really want her to take that stuff away, I can drive her over later.”
“Enough, no one asked you to play hero,” Xie Mingjun laughed. “Let her keep missing me.”
After she laughed, she added, “Tell her this. She’d better not provoke me. Otherwise, I have plenty of ways to deal with her.”
Then she hung up.
Zou Yuxi passed the message to Dong Yin word for word.
“Did she really say that?” Dong Yin asked.
“Yeah. So stop poking at her all the time.”
“…Oh.”
Dong Yin pressed her lips together, her heart bursting with joy. If Xie Mingjun wanted her to keep thinking about her… did that mean Xie was thinking about her too?
There was so much she wanted to say to Xie. She said instead,
“Then… I’ll wait for her on the third floor of the library tomorrow. I’ll probably be wearing new clothes.”
“You’re still going?” Zou Yuxi felt a strange, scorching kind of exhaustion.
“Am I not allowed to?” Dong Yin sounded a little disappointed. “I just want to dress up a bit, so she’ll find me a little easier on the eyes and like me a little more and want to hang out with me. That way you can get to know her better too. I don’t mean anything else…”
“Fine. Dressing up a bit is good,” Zou Yuxi said. He was even a little moved listening to her. Not bad. Out of all the fish in his tank, Dong Yin was probably the one that swam the hardest and tried the most.
He spoke seriously.
“She usually dresses really well, kind of trendy. You don’t need to feel pressured. Your style’s different from hers.”
“What kind of style do you think she likes on me?” Dong Yin asked carefully, picking up a pen to write it down.
Zou Yuxi answered honestly and told her to try going for a cute look. Her foundation wasn’t bad—she wasn’t short either—it was just that she never knew how to dress herself and always wore really cheap-looking outfits.
“Got it. Thank you,” Dong Yin said earnestly.
No one usually talked to her about things like this. She’d always been feeling her way through the darkness, trying to figure out how to make Xie like her. She was completely lost. With Zou Yuxi helping her, things were much better.
That night Dong Yin hugged her pillow and rolled back and forth on the bed a few times.
She was ridiculously happy.
Tomorrow, Xie Mingjun should come back… right?
She touched her own lips again.
She definitely would… right?
Early the next morning, Dong Yin went to wait at the library. The campus library sat directly across from the main gate. It took her more than forty minutes to walk there, and there were already a lot of students practicing spoken English outside.
Dong Yin waited at a small stone table off to the side. She sat there quietly as the time ticked past.
Six o’clock turned to seven. When the library doors opened, she immediately headed for the third floor. It was getting crowded; she needed to grab a good seat.
After a while, a young guy sat down next to her.
“Um, miss,” he asked, “is it okay if I sit here and read for a bit?”
Dong Yin lifted her eyes. Seeing that he hadn’t taken the empty spot she was saving, she nodded.
The guy said again, “Miss, could I add you on WeChat?”
“WeChat?” Dong Yin tightened her grip on her phone. “We don’t really know each other.”
“I just want to make a new friend…” the guy said, smiling.
Dong Yin had just held out her phone when he finished adding her and started chatting.
“So, did you come to study for grad school exams? I’m a senior too.”
Dong Yin shook her head.
“No.”
“Then what are you here for?” he asked.
Just behind them, half hidden by a wall, stood Xie Mingjun. No one outside had noticed she’d arrived.
She pulled a book from the shelf, flipped through a couple of pages at random, then turned her head to look at Dong Yin. Her gaze went a bit blank and then stayed on her for a long, long moment.
Dong Yin was sitting by the window. Morning light—well, it was already eleven, not really morning anymore—noon sunlight streamed in through the glass, skimming gently over her profile and pooling on the desk in front of her. She gave a small, shy smile, and all that far-flung light gathered on her face.
Dong Yin pressed her lips together, the corners of her mouth curving up. There was a modest, bashful air about her, but also a hint of pride.
“A date,” she said. “A date at the library.”
She wore a pink top with a little bow at the collar and three-quarter sleeves, paired with a plaid skirt and black ankle boots. She sat by the window, with a book laid open on the desk in front of her.
“Oh… I see.” The guy looked a little awkward. He glanced at Dong Yin, then turned his head. His eyes landed right on Xie Mingjun. He froze in surprise, then, as if this wasn’t entirely unexpected, quietly packed up his things and left.
Dong Yin didn’t see Xie Mingjun. Her back was to her.
She only noticed her when Xie walked over, tapped a book against her head, and left it resting there.
“Got that happy over being hit on?”
Dong Yin looked up. Her hand went to the little backpack at her waist. It wasn’t the old black schoolbag she used to carry, but a cheap transparent mini backpack she’d bought online recently, with a pair of little ears on it.
“Xie Mingjun!”
“Why’d you drag me out here?” Xie folded her arms halfway across her chest. She didn’t pick up the book, and Dong Yin didn’t dare move, letting it sit on her head.
“To read together,” Dong Yin said, smiling. “It’s fun.”
Xie glanced around.
“This? You can’t even talk in here. What’s so fun about that?”
Dong Yin gave up the seat she’d been saving and pushed Xie toward it.
Xie only shot it a brief, disdainful look, but Dong Yin tugged on her sleeve.
“I got here at six to claim this seat for you,” she said.
When Xie still didn’t budge, she tugged again.
“Trust me. I’ll make it fun for you. Really.”
“Yeah? I’m curious,” Xie said. “How exactly do you ‘play’ in a library?”
A moment later, she found herself being pulled down into the chair by Dong Yin.
