Keychain
Yun Mi walked alone to the washbasin. She lowered her head, feeling the sun-heated tap water wash over her palms, and felt her eyes burn.
She twisted the old-fashioned rotary knob shut. No wonder they always called her "little sister." So they really did treat her like a sister.
The oppressive summer heat, paired with the deep greenery in the corner of the campus, was irritating. Yun Mi's nose stung. She rubbed her face, then sadly rubbed her eyes.
Stupid jerk. Bastard.
He had been so good to her before, and it was all because of this.
Now he didn't have to worry about anything—carefree and unrestrained—but what about her?
She had fallen for him.
Yun Mi pressed her military cap onto her head and looked up to see Chen Yiyang walking toward her.
The moment his dark eyes met hers, Yun Mi took a deep breath and turned her face away.
Chen Yiyang didn't know what was wrong with Yun Mi. The girl hid her soft eyes under the brim of her cap and let out a "hmph."
"Yun Mi?"
As soon as he called out, Yun Mi retorted, "Sorry, can I help you?"
Chen Yiyang had just run into Ding Yuan. He said, "Your friend is looking for you."
"Who?"
"Ding Yuan."
I thought you came for me. Yun Mi said, "Oh."
She took a step forward. On the tree-shaded path, the boy's figure blocked her. Yun Mi slowly looked up, seeing his high nose bridge and sharp jawline.
Yun Mi met Chen Yiyang's eyes and asked, "Anything else? Don't block the way."
Chen Yiyang said indifferently, "Nothing. Your eyes are red."
Yun Mi glanced at the sky and said, "The sun's too bright." She thought for a moment and added, "Maybe it's because you're an eyesore."
"..."
Her pretty lips spat out annoyed words, and her amber eyes gave him a white look.
Yun Mi pushed past him and left.
The girl's ponytail swung, carrying a faint white floral scent.
Yun Mi saw Ding Yuan waving and ran over with a smile.
Ding Yuan had just been eating some gossip. She had been looking for Yun Mi for a while and said, "I heard from someone else. Do you know why Jiang Miyan likes Chen Yiyang so much? Damn, I think her infatuation is actually understandable now."
Yun Mi was gloomy, kicking the grass on the playground and asking, "Why?"
Ding Yuan gestured: "Jiang Miyan has asthma! Back in middle school, Chen Yiyang bought her asthma medicine."
Off being a good person again. No wonder.
He treated everyone like a "little sister."
Yun Mi laughed dryly and asked, "Did Chen Yiyang forget her?"
Ding Yuan said "No." She thought about it and said, "Chen Yiyang said, 'You've got the wrong person. That wasn't me.'"
Yun Mi didn't believe it.
She looked at Class 23's formation from afar and lowered her head.
Shancheng University Affiliated Middle School's military training was always touted by the school as "steeling the will and working the body." A bunch of students were miserable, and at night they collapsed on their beds like corpses.
After a whole day of standing in attention, goose-stepping, and drilling formations, Yun Mi wasn't that tired.
She had brought practice problems to school. After showering, she sat at her desk and quietly worked through them.
A roommate came out of the bathroom with a washbasin, drying her hair as she passed by. She deliberately leaned over to look at Yun Mi's open practice paper, let out a "yo," and said with a mix of teasing and sourness: "Yun Mi, you're way too into studying, aren't you? Even during military training you're still grinding. Are you aiming for Tsinghua or Peking? Zhou Shihui got a recommendation. What, you want one too?"
Yun Mi propped her chin on one hand and looked back, saying matter-of-factly, "How do you know?"
The previous day, they had been gossiping behind her back about her and Zhou Shihui's rumored relationship, and Ding Yuan had told her everything.
Apparently, it wasn't nice.
Yun Mi didn't care much. She said with a smile, "I really do want to get into the best university. Did you figure that out? I'll take it as you cheering me on."
The girl pursed her lips and said, "One person studies, the other hides outside playing video games. Not afraid of getting reported. Whatever. We still have to get up early tomorrow. You keep studying, but if you can't get up tomorrow, no one's waking you."
The "playing video games" she mentioned was Ding Yuan. Yun Mi couldn't be bothered with these people, but suddenly she heard a sarcastic echo from the neighboring bed: "Tsk... someone like that hanging out with the top students like Chen Yiyang and Zhou Shihui? They're not even the same kind of people."
Hearing Chen Yiyang's name, the girl's pen paused slightly on the scratch paper. In the corner of the exercise book were key marks Chen Yiyang had annotated. She thought about everything Chen Yiyang had done.
Yun Mi's eyelashes fluttered, and she wrote a line:
"I kind of don't want to like you anymore. You're too much, Chen Yiyang."
...
The scorching military training sun made people dizzy. After a day of training, Yun Mi was getting food in the cafeteria when she heard someone say that the dormitory had been inspected.