Chapter 9 — Turns Out You Actually Like Me

He waved the thick stack of papers in his hand, a casual confidence to his posture. "It will only take a few minutes, I promise I will not waste your holiday time." Inside, my soul was weeping and screaming in agony: Save me, please, I just want to start my break, I want to go home! Yet on the surface, keeping up a polite facade, I replied, "Oh, it is fine, do not worry about it." Thinking it would genuinely be over in a flash, I followed him over to a small, secluded wooden pavilion situated right beneath the lecture hall. Deep Woods, the senior student, immediately spread the documents out across the table and began putting on airs, spouting grand rhetoric about some project proposals. I nodded along mechanically while my eyes, from the corner of my vision, remained utterly glued to my phone screen. A message had popped up from my older brother: [Are you done packing your things yet? Let me know how many minutes until you walk out the front door.] I hurriedly typed back: [Hurry your legs up, I am currently being trapped by a senior who is rambling on and on about some project.] My brother replied: [Which senior? Male or female?] I typed: [… Male. Stop wasting time and get over here already.]

Just as I lifted my gaze, Deep Woods abruptly folded the papers shut, turned his head, and locked his eyes onto mine.

"Little sister," he laughed with a lazy, presumptuous familiarity, "truth be told, the project was never the main point. I just wanted an excuse to talk to you."

"?"

"Look, it is almost getting dark now," he said, shifting his body closer to mine on the bench. "How about we grab dinner together? I know a newly opened restaurant around here with a wonderful atmosphere, perfect for the two of us to sit down and chat at our leisure."

Before I even registered the movement, his hand casually draped over the back of my chair, hovering right behind my shoulders. I instinctively scooted my hips further down the bench, maintaining a strained, polite smile on my face. "I am terribly sorry, but my brother is already waiting for me at the campus gates. Maybe some other time."

He acted as though he had heard nothing at all, inching even closer into my personal space. "Actually, I think you are quite something. You have a great personality, a lovely figure, and you are undeniably pretty. Why don't we just go out and have some fun together? Places like that trendy spot, I am sure you have never even been to them before."

I sat there utterly bewildered: Are you serious? My brother warned me that this guy was a notorious playboy, and it turns out every single word of it was entirely true! Without warning, his hand began to slide down toward my wrist. I violently jerked my arm away. At that exact moment, an urgent, familiar voice rang out from outside the wooden pavilion.

"Dao Dao."

I snapped my head up. Clear River was standing right there in the fading twilight glow, wearing a black hoodie, his hair slightly tousled by the chilly evening breeze.

"Brother?" I gasped, springing up from the bench in pure astonishment as I hurried over to him. "Why are you..."

"I came to take you home. Let's go."

He strode forward, naturally lifting the suitcase right out of my hand, and cast a cold, sharp glance over at Deep Woods. "Classmate, is there a problem here?"

Deep Woods was momentarily taken aback, entirely overwhelmed by the sudden influx of oppressive presence. He forced out two awkward laughs. "No, no problem at all. We were just discussing some project matters with a junior student. You are..."

"I am her brother. Do you still have anything else you need to discuss with her?"

I looked at Clear River in quiet perplexity. Deep Woods, sensing he had lost all ground, wisely kept his mouth shut. He pulled out his phone, muttered a vague "We can talk about the project another time," and promptly turned on his heel, striding away in defeat. I trailed quietly behind Clear River toward the parking lot. He pulled my suitcase the entire way, leaving my hands completely empty as I walked in his wake. Even after I climbed into the passenger seat, clicked my seatbelt into place, and the car had driven a considerable distance away from the campus, I still remained entirely silent.

"Are you scared?" Clear River spoke first, his voice remarkably soft and gentle.

I shook my head. "It is not that deep. I was just caught off guard. Why did you actually come? Did my brother pull another one of his crazy stunts?"

One hand resting casually on the steering wheel, his eyes fixed steadily on the road ahead, he replied, "He did not pull any stunts. It's just that right in the middle of being buried under a mountain of work, he suddenly jumped up like a madman and insisted someone had to come pick you up. I happened to have some free time, so I came in his place."

"Oh... I see."

He said nothing more. As the car navigated through several intersections, he suddenly flicked on the turn signal, smoothly pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road, and came to a complete halt. Turning his head, Clear River looked at me with a serious, searching gaze and asked, "That guy from today... was he hitting on you?"

I blinked in surprise, furrowing my brows as I hastily corrected him. "Harassment is a much more accurate word. I honestly had no idea he was the type of person to pull something like that."

He pressed his lips into a thin line. "Alright, my phrasing was wrong. Let me rephrase: are there a lot of people pursuing you on campus?"

I never anticipated that he would suddenly bring up a topic like this. "About average, I suppose," I answered truthfully.