Chapter 8
I decided to head downstairs until things blew over.
I bought some oden at the convenience store and settled by the window to enjoy the street view.
Ding-dong.
Someone came in.
Lu Liubai.
He’d changed out of that shamelessly seductive outfit.
Black trousers, a dark green jacket zipped right up to his neck. The very picture of virtue.
He bought some food and sat down beside me as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Perhaps Dad’s blunt announcement was the reason my heart felt like a ball of yarn a cat had got its claws into. A complete tangle.
Just like that, Dad had blown Lu Liubai’s secret crush wide open.
I looked at his oden.
“Is that daikon?”
“Yes.”
“Is that a tofu pouch?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like me?”
Lu Liubai went still.
For an instant, his warm smile seemed frozen in snow. Then a spring breeze swept through and the ice melted.
“Yes.”
An answer he’d thought about seemed more reliable than one blurted out without thinking.
“You were the one holding my hand in the library that day, weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
I told him what had been bothering me.
“Actually, I saw you throw away that girl’s love letter. And say, ‘What a pain.'”
Lu Liubai narrowed his eyes.
“And?”
“So I thought you weren’t sincere.”
Always hiding behind that gentle, polished mask, when underneath he was devious and calculating.
Perhaps my accusation was too harsh.
His expression darkened at once.
“Then what should I have done?”
“Read every word of her letter, then put it on a shrine and repent for letting down a girl’s sincere feelings?”
His voice grew colder.
“Or am I supposed to stay perfectly unruffled the whole time? Not even allowed to grumble without being accused of insincerity?”
“But, He Cheng, it’s with you that I’m most sincere.”
“You haven’t schemed even a little?”
Lu Liubai caught my wrist and pressed my hand to his chest.
“I have. For example, I wore that today because I wanted to show off for you. Peacocks get to spread their tails. Why can’t I show you my body to my heart’s content?”
His utter self-assurance stunned me.
“When did you start liking me?”
He turned his head away.
“I’ve liked you as long as you’ve liked me.”
Fine threads of rain tangled across the window.
Then came great, fat drops.
The weather changed so suddenly that passersby all came in to buy umbrellas.
By the time Lu Liubai and I emerged from our standoff, we discovered there was only one umbrella left.
He took it to the counter and paid.
I was so embarrassed I wanted to escape. Just as I was about to plunge into the rain, a large hand caught me by the back of the neck.
His fingertips were cool enough to make me flinch.
He pushed the umbrella into my hand and walked off.
I looked at the transparent umbrella, at a loss.
Three seconds later, I opened it and hurried after him.
He looked up at the umbrella over his head and said nothing.
I tried to ease the tension.
“Don’t catch a cold. You’ve already been soaked in cold water once today.”
“Achoo!”
Lu Liubai sneezed.
Me: …