Zhou Lei sat on the comfort of the couch. Beside him was his sister, who had her palm over her mouth, as if trying to hold back something.And on the couch directly opposite, sat one Jiang Zi Yun.
She wore a baggy t-shirt that clearly was too large for her small and thin body. She wore underwear that Zhou Lei took from his mother"s closet without her permission.
At the current moment, she had a slightly red and frustrated face, her arms crossed and her lips curled downwards. Her eyebrows creased as the s.p.a.ce between them sunk.
With the tense atmosphere around the house, it was clear why Zhou Lei felt uncomfortable. "Zi Yun, listen-"
"I don"t want to hear it." Jiang Zi Yun raised her palm, interrupting Zhou Lei midway. "Leilei, you listen to me instead."
Zhou Lei nodded, although his expression told a different story.
His indignance radiated from his body, even reaching Jiang Zi Yun and triggering her sharp senses. "...You can call it an accident all you want, but use your common sense."
"I just leaned on the door, anything wrong with that?" Zhou Lei truly wasn"t willing on giving in and admitting that he was wrong.
"See, the thing is, why would you lean on the door when you had full knowledge that I would open it?"
"Er..." Zhou Lei scratched his head, thinking of a reply. "I, uh, was only planning on leaning for one second..."
"And that"s your excuse?" Jiang Zi Yun raised her eyebrow, questioning the boy sitting on the other couch.
"...Okay, fine. It was my fault." Zhou Lei didn"t have any reb.u.t.tals for her argument anymore. "Anyways, we"ve already seen each other naked before, what"s the big deal now?"
"..." Jiang Zi Yun.
"..." Zhou Zhenya.
"...Leilei, do you need me to explain that the two times you saw me unclothed were both accidental as well?" Jiang Zi Yun nearly gave up on reasoning with her friend. "Not to mention the huge crush you had on me back then."
"D- don"t bring that up!" Zhou Lei stood up, slamming the table. His whole body was red, embarra.s.sed by what he just heard.
Beside him, Zhou Zhenya just spit out some saliva in shock.
"Eh? Seems like you"re still not over me rejecting you..." Jiang Zi Yun still had her stone-cold face on, but the tone of her voice became playful.
Despite her usual disposition, once Zhou Lei got close to Jiang Zi Yun, the latter would constantly tease him in any way.
At first, he was put off by this. Halfway in, he got used to her always bringing up embarra.s.sing subjects.
However, as the gap between their last interaction and now was half a decade, naturally, Zhou Lei needed to get used to her teasing again.
"Why would you bring that up in the first place? It has nothing to do with the accident this time."
The tense atmosphere was alleviated a bit, as Zhou Lei wasn"t as indignant as he was before.
"Well, you might be tempted by my alluring figure..." Jiang Zi Yun was slowly getting used to talking to her old friend again. "Strangely, it doesn"t seem like he has changed that much..."
"Huh? Tempted? By what? You? Heh heh heh..."
"Okay, I change my mind. He"s definitely changed!" Jiang Zi Yun didn"t expect Zhou Lei to be this brazen now! "In the past, he would always refute me by saying "Who cares about your body!" like a girl..."
Zhou Lei continued, "The only girl that can tempt me now is my G.o.ddess, my idol, Lin Guiying! She"s so beautiful..."
As he rambled on this meaningless tirade of his, he knew himself that he had lied a small bit. He was filling his thoughts with his G.o.ddess Lin Guiying to distract him from the scene of Jiang Zi Yun"s body...
"Ah, I gotta erase that from my mind! I"m doing my idol injustice!"
Time went on, and Zhou Lei kept on talking about Lin Guiying. He had talked about the shows she was in, the songs she had sung, the movies she led... as he got deeper into the subject, the two listeners got more frustrated.
Zhou Zhenya couldn"t be bothered to listen anymore. His brother hadn"t done his rambling these past few days, so she thought that he had gotten over it.
"Well, his fanaticism is tearing its ugly head yet again..." She stood up and left, heading on for her bedroom.
Meanwhile, a frown slowly grew on Jiang Zi Yun"s previously apathetic face. She had never seen this side of Zhou Lei before, but now that she did... it made her slightly uncomfortable.
There was also an untraceable hint of an emotion that Jiang Zi Yun had never felt in the past.
"Leilei, please stop... You"re making my head spin with all this info about your "G.o.ddess" or whatever..."
As she lived the life of a beggar, she didn"t have much exposure to the explosive rise of the rookie Lin Guiying. Sure, she had seen the latter on a poster or a billboard, but she had no idea who she was because she couldn"t be bothered to remember an idol"s name.
"Hmm, anyhow. Don"t bring up my crush on you again. Well, unless you develop some sort of crush on me... Heh heh heh..." Zhou Lei scratched his hair cheekily.
Jiang Zi Yun rolled her eyes at Zhou Lei"s suggestion. "Crush on you? Please. I would never."
Looking at her disbelief that it would ever happen, Zhou Lei felt displeased. He headed to the other couch and sat right beside Jiang Zi Yun.
"Hmm? What are you doing?" His sudden movements startled Jiang Zi Yun, who was still denying that she would ever have a crush on Zhou Lei.
To her surprise, Zhou Lei inched his face closer to hers. "Look, aren"t I super handsome now? You can"t deny any possibility nowadays, you know..."
"...Super handsome?" Jiang Zi Yun leaned backwards in an attempt to increase the distance between her face and his. "Well, you are, indeed, super handsome now."
To be honest, she was still bewildered about how that average-looking cla.s.smate of hers from 5 years ago turned into such a knockout handsome teen that looked like a supermodel.
"However, you won"t ever be my crush," Jiang Zi Yun smugly said.
"Oh really? You want to bet on that?" Zhou Lei seemed like he had a plan in mind.
Jiang Zi Yun curled the corners of her lips upward, looking at Zhou Lei"s smug face directly beside her.
"Bet? I don"t have any money."
"..." Zhou Lei.