Although she didn’t know why Xiaoxi’s expression changed so quickly, Ye Xinglan soon gave up worrying about it and eagerly pulled Xiaoxi to choose a style.
“Great! It’s a rare opportunity. Xiaoxi and I can pick matching couple’s nail art~”
Da Tianxin shook her head. At noon, Ye Xinglan had shown little interest in getting nail art, but now at the mention of matching with Xiaoxi, she became excited.
Although they said it was choosing a style, Xiaoxi couldn’t offer any suggestions, so in the end she just went along with Ye Xinglan’s choice.
Even when sitting in front of the nail artist, Xiaoxi was still a bit nervous.
She had no clue about the process—filing nails, applying gel, curing under the lamp—and remained tense throughout.
Unlike the other two who were chattering away, Xiaoxi felt embarrassed just watching the nail artist apply and dab stuff on her hands.
Whether it was makeup, styling, perms, or nail art, these activities felt too “feminine” to Xiaoxi… even more embarrassing than wearing a skirt.
In fact, after being a Magic Girl for so many years, she had become quite accustomed to wearing skirts.
What’s more, nail art is easily noticed by others.
Xiaoxi secretly rejoiced that she was currently in a semi-vacation state and didn’t need to go to the Association every day; otherwise, if an acquaintance found out about her manicure, she’d be mortified.
No problem. Anyway, lately the most she had was to go out with Da Tianxin, so the chance of being discovered by acquaintances was very low.
She could keep the nail art until Da Tianxin’s stay was over, or maybe keep it a few more days to rest more?
Xiaoxi eventually dismissed the idea, not because she thought neglecting Ye Xinglan for too long would be bad… She just feared that keeping it longer would increase the risk of being discovered by acquaintances. Yes, that’s it!
“Don’t be so nervous, Xiaoxi. Just relax and sit still~”
Unable to reach Xiaoxi’s shoulder, Ye Xinglan tilted her head and blew air at Xiaoxi’s face.
“Let’s chat. It’s boring for you to just sit there staring at someone doing your nails.”
Xinglan was right. Xiaoxi adjusted to a more comfortable position.
Staring at her own hand being worked on was also embarrassing, so chatting to distract herself would be better.
“What are you two talking about?”
“Ah, we were just talking about going to the [Eternal Stars Club] in a couple of days!” Da Tianxin took over the conversation.
“You’ll come too, right, Xiaoxi?”
“…”
Xiaoxi suddenly regretted it. She’d rather sit in silence than talk about this topic!
She didn’t know how much time had passed, but eventually, when Xiaoxi’s legs had gone numb from sitting, the nail art was finally done.
Grimacing, she stood up, and Da Tianxin circled around her several times before nodding in satisfaction.
“Mm, not bad, not bad. It suits you. But Xiaoxi is already cute, so she looks good no matter what~”
Xiaoxi herself didn’t dare look at the finished nail art too much.
She just gently rubbed the smooth, rounded surface with her fingertips, feeling as if she held a guarantee that she wouldn’t be pounced on at night.
“Let’s take a photo to commemorate this. It’s Xiaoxi’s first time doing nail art. Come on, come on~”
Da Tianxin, being an outgoing, social person, was enthusiastic about documenting life with photos.
She pulled the two into a flurry of clicks. When raising her hand for photos, Xiaoxi blushed a little.
Since it was Xiaoxi’s first nail art, Ye Xinglan chose a simple style.
Xiaoxi’s slender white fingers were accented with a hint of pink, and under the light, her nails reflected a soft shine, looking very cute.
Both of them had designs only on their pinky fingers. If Xiaoxi and Ye Xinglan pressed their pinkies together (left and right hands), the patterns would combine into a simple heart.
As for Da Tianxin’s nail art, it was more flashy, with sparkling star-like patterns and shine.
Da Tianxin said she specially chose that style for the Eternal Stars Club gathering in a couple of days.
Ye Xinglan seemed very satisfied with the nail art patterns.
She was excited when holding Xiaoxi’s hand for photos, muttering something like “Xiaoxi’s first time is mine~” and other bold words… Then she got a knock on the head from Xiaoxi and behaved.
After taking photos, Xiaoxi took a deep breath and decided to put the nail art out of her mind.
Since no acquaintances would find out, she’d pretend it didn’t exist for now… and acknowledge it again when she went to bed tonight.
It turned out that aside from the initial embarrassment, the nail art didn’t have much impact.
After the three of them window-shopped for half a day, Xiaoxi had almost forgotten about it, until dinner time when they found a highly-rated trendy restaurant and sat down.
Then Xiaoxi’s phone rang with a message notification.
To avoid missing any messages from the Astrologer, Xiaoxi had been keeping her phone off silent mode lately.
This time she casually picked it up to check and was surprised to find that Miss L, who she hadn’t contacted for a while, had sent her a message.
“Nice nail art [Like] [Like] [Like]”
“???”
Before she could even figure out what was happening, Muxingge also sent her a message.
“Your new nail art looks pretty good, A Xing~”
“[Cat waving.jpg]”
“I told you before that if you dressed up more, you’d certainly be cuter, but you refused back then. Now you have a girlfriend and you’re willing to dress up, huh? Sigh… It seems years of team camaraderie can’t compare to a little girlfriend~”
“But it really is quite cute. I kind of want to send it to Ling’er and the others to see.”
“Sis!!! Please don’t!!!”
Stress response took over before rational thought. After replying to confirm that Muxingge wouldn’t cause trouble, Xiaoxi’s brain finally caught up to what had happened.
“Mm, if you don’t want me to send it, then how about you take a couple more photos and send them to me? I want to help you analyze whether the nail art was done well. You know, A Xing, I’m quite knowledgeable about these things~”
Xiaoxi could already imagine Muxingge’s expression while typing that—she was definitely holding back laughter as she typed!
Looking at the half-teasing, half-praising messages from the two on her phone, Xiaoxi was like a boiling kettle, turning red and making a steaming sound, with a little mushroom cloud popping above her head.
“Hey, why is your face suddenly so red? Are you okay, Xiaoxi?”
“I’m fine…”
‘Fine… Fine my ass! It’s the most embarrassing thing for former teammates to discover this! It hasn’t even been half a day—how did these two troublemakers who just love watching the world burn find out about my private little secret!’
Xiaoxi now only wanted to know one thing—how on earth did news of this reach those two’s ears!