Her heart was beating much louder than she had imagined. After saying "I like you too," she was no longer paying attention to what was coming next. Although she knew that Xiao Nan had feelings for her, she was still incredibly nervous.
But when he heard her slightly arrogant response, Qin Zhou felt his mind go blank for a moment. His palms were sweaty, perhaps because he had gripped her too tightly. He slowly loosened his grip, feeling a little weak, but more than that, he couldn't believe it.
"Could you say that again?"
"Why, why do you have to say it again..." Strands of hair on Xiang Xiaonan's face were twirling around her fingertips. She looked away slightly, her cheeks flushed, as if they could drip water.
I never thought I could say such lines, although they weren't really lines, but rather my true feelings.
I'm very shy and embarrassed.
Even so, I still want to reciprocate his feelings.
"I didn't quite hear it just now, so I'd like to hear it again." Qin Zhou pretended to be calm and turned his face away, pinching his thigh hard. The clear pain on his thigh reminded him again and again that this was not a dream.
This is true.
"Honestly, it's so embarrassing to say something like that..."
Xiang Xiaonan pouted unhappily, but still tried to speak slowly in a calm yet shy tone, repeating her reply once more: "I said—I like you too... Don't make me repeat myself so many times..."
Her watery eyes flickered slightly, her nervous anticipation conveyed through her simple words, hoping that Qin Zhou could clearly hear the sincerity in her response.
After he finished speaking, the atmosphere between the two fell silent again.
Qin Zhou seemed to have no intention of speaking. He lowered his head, rested his elbows on his thighs, and rubbed his face repeatedly as if trying to wake himself up.
Even after rubbing it so much, when he looked up again, he could still meet the shy gaze of the girl next to him.
"Say something! Where did your usual chatty energy go? It's so awkward having only me talking..." Xiang Xiaonan punched his arm hard in embarrassment, then pretended not to care and looked away. Her heart had never beaten so loudly since birth.
Qin Zhou pursed his lips, then suddenly looked up and scratched the back of his head. He reached into his backpack with his other hand and rummaged through it. In the front pocket, he finally found a band-aid carefully preserved in a transparent protective bag.
Xiang Xiaonan noticed what was in his hand and her eyes widened. "You, why are you still keeping this...?"
"I don't know either, but I just want to keep it with me as a talisman." Qin Zhou held it in his palm as if it were a treasure, his eyes never having been so gentle. "I wanted to thank you last time, but I was too embarrassed... I don't know if it's too late to thank you now."
"And the injury on your face..."
"It's been fine for a long time."
Qin Zhou touched the small wound on his cheek; there was still a faint mark.
Actually, the wound had healed a long time ago, but I just couldn't bear to take off the band-aid recently, and I kept lying to my mom that I was changing the band-aid.
The band-aid will fall off automatically once it loses all its stickiness.
I felt like I was still sleeping that day. When I woke up in the morning and got up to wash, I found that the band-aid on my face was gone. I was so nervous that I wanted to turn the whole house upside down to look for it.
Fortunately, it just fell off by accident while I was sleeping at night, and the band-aid is now lying quietly on my pillow.
"You, you're a pervert, you even kept the band-aid..." Xiang Xiaonan muttered, attacking him as usual, but her words were much more clumsy than before.
Looking at the band-aid he was clutching tightly in his hand, I felt my face burning hot.
"So what if a man is a pervert?"
Qin Zhou retorted defiantly, and after rubbing it for a while, he carefully put the band-aid back into his schoolbag, and said slowly with his head down, "I want it to stay with me for the rest of my life."
"...Don't say such embarrassing things..."
He whispered to Xiao Nan, his voice trembling slightly.
Winter nights are always cold, and a gust of wind can freeze your face. But at this moment, I don't feel my face is cold at all. My flushed cheeks make our hearts beat faster.
After a long while, perhaps when they had both calmed down a bit, Xiang Xiaonan turned to look at him, then lowered her head and slowly asked, "You really like me?"
"When have I ever lied to you?"
“You said you would buy me taro balls last time, but you didn’t.”
"...How come you remember this so clearly!" Qin Zhou's voice rose a little, then returned to its usual comical tone.
His voice was very loud, to put it bluntly, it was like a croaking duck's voice, especially when he shouted.
But just now, perhaps influenced by the atmosphere, every word he uttered was incredibly gentle, low-pitched, and youthful, completely unlike him.
"You've finally returned to your old self. I didn't dare look at you with that serious expression just now, hehehe..." Xiang Xiaonan covered her mouth and chuckled, her mood relaxing as well.
"I'll buy you two cups later... no, two buckets, okay? I'll make you drink until you throw up!"
Qin Zhou crossed his arms in an annoyed manner. Although the other party still remembered his "grudge," the back-and-forth banter made them seem like they were back in school, always playing around together.
"I'll skip it if I drink until I throw up. I'll just buy myself a cup later, hehe."
"Just one cup? There's none for me?"
"Go buy it yourself! Do you expect me to treat you?" Xiang Xiaonan said irritably, flipping her hair. She hadn't styled her hair in a while, and her medium-length hair had gradually reached her shoulders, instantly giving her a more feminine look.
"cut……"
Qin Zhou stood up, slung his backpack back over his shoulder, glanced at the deserted avenue, hesitated for a few seconds, then turned away and silently reached out his hand.
Xiang Xiaonan blinked as she looked at his outstretched hand. "What? Do you need a leash to walk like a dog?"
"I want to hold your hand...!" Qin Zhou's face turned bright red as he stammered, and after a long pause, he continued, somewhat annoyed, "What about what happened earlier? What have you thought about it?"
Xiang Xiaonan got up, stretched, patted her bottom, and pretended not to understand, then took a few steps.
"What's wrong?"
"You...!" Qin Zhou panicked, but there was nothing he could do. He could only blush and repeat, "It's about dating..."
"Oh...about dating."
"Well, so you should consider it..."
Before he could finish speaking, Qin Zhou felt his hand being gripped by something soft, palm to palm. He could clearly feel the sweat on the other person's hand, but even so, Xiang Xiaonan didn't let go. She lowered her head and whispered shyly:
"Well, I'll just consider it that way... I've thought it through..."
Qin Zhou swallowed hard, staring at Xiang Xiaonan's profile in silence. After a while, he shouted again, "Give me a straight answer! I'm so stupid... I won't understand unless you explain it clearly."
"...If you want to talk, then let's talk. I'm fine with it..."
She turned her face away, her blushing cheeks revealing her youthful innocence, their hands clasped tightly together.
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