A memory sealed by time, tinted with the warm hues and haziness of twilight, quietly surfaced in Su Yuqing’s mind.
It was the eve of the Secondary School Entrance Exam, a dusk where the air itself seemed to float with the scent of restlessness and parting.
On the empty and lonely rooftop of the school teaching building, a secret was unfolding.
The girl the whole school secretly called the “Elf” was currently standing before Su Yuqing.
She possessed a head of lively blue hair that flowed like ripples, tied into a sharp single ponytail.
Her rose-colored lips curved upward slightly, tracing an enchanting and somewhat unpredictable arc.
She held a slightly wrinkled envelope between her fingers like an experienced hunter who had finally captured the “Little Mouse” that dared to leave a trail in her territory.
“This letter.”
The blue-haired girl spoke, her voice crisp like wind chimes striking the twilight.
She waved the envelope in her hand, her gaze fixed directly on Su Yuqing, who stood before her with a lowered head and ears flushed deep red.
“You’re the one… who stuffed this into my drawer, right?”
It was not a question, but a statement of absolute certainty.
Su Yuqing felt as if all the blood in her body had rushed to her head.
She could hear her heart drumming frantically in her chest, loud enough to shatter her eardrums.
She did not dare to look up, staring instead at the tips of her faded white canvas shoes.
Using every ounce of her strength, she managed to squeeze a syllable out of her throat that was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz:
“…Yes. I… I’m the one who put it there.”
“Why?”
The girl took one small step forward with a curious posture.
A faint fragrance, similar to gardenias, drifted over from her, making Su Yuqing feel even more out of place.
“Wha—what… why?”
Su Yuqing looked up blankly, meeting those eyes that seemed to perceive everything, before quickly looking down again.
The girl tilted her head slightly, as if observing an interesting specimen.
“We’re both girls. Yet you secretly stuffed a confession letter into my desk. May I ask… why you did that?”
There was no mockery or disgust in her tone, only a pure lack of understanding and… a trace of undetectable interest.
Perhaps it was this relatively calm attitude that gave Su Yuqing a glimmer of courage, or perhaps her long-suppressed emotions had finally found a gap to vent through.
She took a deep breath, her voice still trembling but carrying a desperate impulse.
“Because… because I saw so many different boys in our grade… successful ones, handsome ones, those from good families… they all confessed to you. And you… no matter what type of boy they were, you were always… indifferent.”
She paused, her voice growing lower but clearer.
“So I… I just…”
“So you—”
The blue-haired girl took over, her rose-colored lips curving into a knowing smile, her bright eyes shimmering with a strange light.
“Thought the person I like is actually… a girl, right?”
Su Yuqing snapped her head up and collided with the other girl’s smiling eyes.
Feeling as if all her thoughts had been seen through, her cheeks burned hot, yet she still nodded forcefully.
“…Yes. That’s… that’s what I thought.”
Silence spread across the rooftop, broken only by the faint sounds of a ball game from the distant playground and the whistling of the wind through the old railings.
Then, Su Yuqing heard the verdict that she would never forget for the rest of her life, sounding like heavenly music.
The smile on the blue-haired girl’s face deepened, blooming like a sudden rose—gorgeous yet thorny.
She said softly:
“Then, congratulations—”
“You guessed right.”
*Boom!*
It was as if fireworks had exploded in her mind.
Su Yuqing could no longer clearly remember her exact feelings at that moment.
Was it ecstasy?
Incredulity?
Or the dizziness brought by overwhelming happiness?
She only remembered that thrill and sweetness, which felt as if her very soul were shivering.
Like a surging tide, it had continuously washed over her body and mind since that twilight, lasting until… the final moment when their secret and special relationship eventually came to an end.
The fragments of memory jumped.
The next scene was in her own room, on her bed filled with a youthful atmosphere and covered in light blue sheets.
The air was thick with the scent of pencil shavings and paint.
Su Yuqing sat uneasily on the edge of the bed.
According to the agreement she had made with the girl, she had become her “Exclusive Model.”
She wore only her most intimate underwear, leaving a large area of fair skin exposed to the cool air and the other girl’s unshielded gaze, which was filled with scrutiny and appreciation.
“Xiaozhi… don’t… don’t look at me like that…”
Her voice carried a bashful sob.
Her hands instinctively wrapped around herself in an attempt to cover up, only to slowly lower them again under the girl’s gentle but firm gaze.
Past the edge of the drawing board standing in the room, one could see the girl holding the brush, focused on sketching lines.
Behind the board, Su Yuqing was already flushed a faint pink from head to toe out of shame, looking like a cooked shrimp.
She kept her eyes tightly shut, her long eyelashes trembling violently like butterfly wings.
Under these circumstances, she could not even manage to make eye contact with the orange and white cat that had slipped through the crack in the door at some point and jumped onto the desk to watch curiously.
“Is that your cat?”
The girl’s calm inquiry came from behind the drawing board, accompanied by the rustling sound of the pencil tip rubbing against the paper.
As if granted a reprieve, Su Yuqing immediately cast her gaze toward the cat sitting quietly on the table, as if she had found a savior.
“Yes… it’s my cat. Her name is Xiaozhi.”
She answered urgently, trying to shift her attention away from her nearly naked body.
After confirming that this uninvited “spectator” was indeed Su Yuqing’s pet, the girl did not show any displeasure, nor did she have any intention of chasing the little cat out.
She simply continued her work, her gaze occasionally shifting from Su Yuqing to the cat.
A trace of unfathomable depth flashed within the cat’s glass-like eyes.
“Do you know, Yuqing?”
After finishing the final stroke of the drawing and gently putting down the charcoal pencil, the girl suddenly spoke.
Her voice carried an ancient insight that did not match her physical age.
“Cats… are actually creatures with extremely strong possessiveness and jealousy.”
“Um… are they?”
Su Yuqing instinctively refuted this, looking tenderly at the Xiaozhi on the table, who appeared well-behaved and harmless.
“At least, I’ve never noticed it. Xiaozhi has always been very good and very clingy to me.”
The girl walked around the drawing board to stand before Su Yuqing.
She leaned down, her fingertips brushing against the girl’s burning cheek, leaving a chilly sensation.
Looking into Su Yuqing’s eyes, which were misty with shyness, she revealed a meaningful, almost prophetic smile.
“Don’t worry. One day—”
“You will feel it with absolute clarity.”
As soon as she finished speaking, before Su Yuqing could process the meaning of those words, the girl lowered her head.
She pressed a warm, soft kiss scented with roses against Su Yuqing’s burning cheek, gentle yet firm, like a seal.
“Eh…?”
Su Yuqing was completely stunned, her mind going blank.
However, that was only the beginning.
Soon, a deeper manifestation of “love” followed, flowing and occupying her slightly parted lips without a word.
It was a kiss that started tentatively before becoming dominant and lingering, robbing her of her breath and scrambling all her thoughts.
After experiencing a weak and powerless resistance born from instinctive shame at the very start, Su Yuqing quickly gave up all thought and struggle under the other’s skillful and seductive guidance.
Like a fish drowning in a warm current, she entered a state of unfamiliar, trembling enjoyment with awkward obedience.
What she failed to notice was that the cat named Xiaozhi had been sitting quietly on the desk the entire time, watching everything with its clear, glass-like eyes.
It watched the two figures entangled on the bed, watching them go from awkward exploration to passionate intimacy, until finally, as if they had exhausted all their strength, they fell into a deep sleep in each other’s arms.
It etched every detail, every breath, and every inch of skin-to-skin warmth deep into the memories that belonged only to a cat…