“They’re confessing! Huang Yao and Tang Xiaolu are confessing to each other!”
“Kiss! Kiss!”
“What’s going on? Huang Yao confessing to Tang Xiaolu? But they’re both girls!”
“Yes, yuri! Yes, yuri! Hurry up and record this! If they break up on graduation day, I’ll play this video at the ceremony!”
The phrase “a girl confessing to another girl” was probably shocking enough, because the clamor from the two girls in the back row immediately drew the attention of a large group of classmates around them.
Everyone turned curious gazes toward me and Tang Xiaolu, murmuring among themselves.
“A confession? Huang Yao and Tang Xiaolu? Our new Psychological Committee Member is already making headlines?”
“Classmate Huang Yao has always been very low-key in my memory. If she weren’t so cute, I probably wouldn’t have noticed her… Who’d have thought such an adorable girl was a lesbian?”
“Tang Xiaolu is also very pretty, okay? On the school forum’s school beauty ranking, Tang Xiaolu got a lot of votes too.”
“Is that surprising? They show off their relationship every day—come to class together, leave together, eat together. I’ve never seen them apart. Maybe they’ve already done the double-slit experiment…”
In the noisy classroom, Tang Xiaolu was clearly flustered by the phone cameras of the surrounding classmates.
She looked left and right, then lowered her head and whispered, “Id… idiot, even if you want to confess, don’t say it here.”
“Then we’ll go downstairs.”
I took the initiative to stand up and grabbed Tang Xiaolu’s hand.
I calmly swept my gaze over the new classmate Huang Quan, who was bent over her desk in the back row organizing her books.
“Let’s go.”
“Huh? Wait, I… my books aren’t put away yet…”
“We have PE this afternoon. It’s fine if you don’t pack them. Let’s go.”
With a slight tug, I pulled Tang Xiaolu out of the classroom.
“Wow! You two, going somewhere private for your confession?”
“Don’t leave! I just started recording!”
“Which one of you is the T and which is the P? Can you give us a hint?”
Ignoring the protests of our classmates, I directly led Tang Xiaolu into a run along the corridor outside the classroom.
clatter clatter clatter
The uniform shoes that matched the girls’ school uniforms made crisp sounds on the hard floor.
The soft skirts danced lightly in the midday sun as Tang Xiaolu and I ran.
The warm summer breeze occasionally swept over our uniform tops, stirring the bows in the middle of the clothes, passing through the gap between the blouse and the pleated skirt, causing a ticklish, tingling sensation on the skin around my lower stomach.
At first, Tang Xiaolu was a bit resistant to being pulled along by me, but then she seemed to understand something and began to actively match my pace as we ran.
“Does that confession count?”
Perhaps because she realized my goal was to shake off Huang Quan, when we walked down the stairs together, Tang Xiaolu’s expression returned to normal.
“I mean the part about choosing who to be your girlfriend.”
“Of course.”
I nodded.
“Did Lulu agree?”
“Ehehe…”
Tang Xiaolu glanced at the bright sun outside.
“That’s the first time someone’s confessed to me.”
I was a little surprised.
“Really?”
“Really. Maybe it’s because I’ve never liked talking to people. Since I was little, I’ve had very few friends. Or maybe my classmates thought I was too serious and assumed I was hard to get along with.”
When it came to her own affairs, Tang Xiaolu seemed a bit sad.
“In middle school, a boy once asked me to see a movie, but that night I had promised to go with Jia Jia and the others to hunt a witch in the city center, so I turned him down.”
“Then…”
I felt a little embarrassed.
“I’m a girl now. Does it bother you that a girl confessed to you?”
“How could it? I love soft, fragrant girls, especially someone as cute as Xiao Yao!”
Tang Xiaolu grabbed both my hands and pressed them to her chest, her face full of happiness.
“Then it’s settled! From now on, Xiao Yao, you’re my girlfriend. No backing out!”
“Mm!”
I felt my face heat up a little.
“So does that mean the confession was successful?”
‘To be honest, I don’t really know what a “confession” is, or what it means to be a “girlfriend.”’
‘I only know that Tang Xiaolu is the first friend I made since starting high school. She was injured not long ago, and she’s been targeted by a rogue magical girl suspected to be from the Erosion Shadow. I have to find a way to save her.’
‘At the same time, Tang Xiaolu’s mental health is pretty bad. Someone needs to pull her out of the abyss, out of the shadows.’
‘The only way I could think of was to confess to her.’
‘If I become Tang Xiaolu’s girlfriend, I’ll have a reason to stay by her side every day and take care of her. I can also prevent the people from Erosion Shadow from doing anything bad.’
‘And as my “senior magical girl,” Tang Xiaolu can teach me various combat techniques during our “relationship.”’
‘From what I understand, that’s how “couples” work.’
‘Support each other through thick and thin, share joys and sorrows, hold hands and grow old together.’
“Of course!”
Under my expectant gaze, Tang Xiaolu toyed with my fingers as she spoke.
“Actually, even if Xiao Yao hadn’t said anything, I could guess—something’s wrong with that Huang Quan classmate, right?”
“Huh?”
I was surprised.
“Lulu knows?”
“And I can guess that the class monitor and Xi Xi are probably magical girls too, right?”
Tang Xiaolu reached out and tapped my nose.
“They talked with you for a long time during morning exercises today.”
“Mm…”
I hesitated.
“The class monitor said… Huang Quan might be from the Erosion Shadow.”
“That organization that plots to let their familiars eat more people just to get a few extra Grief Seeds?”
Tang Xiaolu put on an “I knew it” expression.
“I’ve heard Jia Jia mention that group a few times. I didn’t expect them to have already extended their reach to our school.”
“So Lulu already knew?”
“Of course. After all, I’ve been a magical girl for several years now.”
Tang Xiaolu gently pinched my cheek.
“Xiao Yao, do you know what I like most about you?”
“Huh?”
“You’re as clean as a glass of water. Everything is written on your face, no cunning at all. That’s the kind of you I like best. Even back when you were a boy, I wanted to be friends with you, but because of gender differences, I was too shy to take the initiative. Now that you’ve turned into a girl, I’m really, really happy.”
Tang Xiaolu turned around and started walking toward the school gate.
“But a kid like you, if no one protects you usually, you’d probably get bullied a lot, right?”
“I…”
I plucked up my courage and caught up.
“I’m strong. I won’t get bullied.”
“Even if you get bullied, you won’t cry. You’ll pretend to be tough, right?”
Tang Xiaolu, still walking ahead, raised a finger behind her back.
“You’re a lot like Xiao Xin. The difference is you’re even worse at hiding it than she is. But speaking of which, now that you’re my girlfriend, is there any gift you want?”
“I…”
I thought for a moment.
“Can we go to the stationery store?”