Who Stole My Top Student?

[A youth romance] Rules are made to be broken, especially the unspoken “rules” in the top class.

When Lu Chenxuan, the top student in the grade, openly took the hand of Su Yuqing, the belle of the ordinary class, the whole of Fengchuan No. 1 High School erupted. The unlikely pairing of an honor student and a “pretty face” challenged everyone’s assumptions. Only I knew that in Su Yuqing’s desk lay a complete set of rare, out-of-print cards I had collected for her by saving my breakfast money.

I used to be the one everyone assumed she would end up with, until one look from Lu Chenxuan turned all my quiet devotion into a joke. He easily took what I treasured most, simply because he was Lu Chenxuan.

Pain and humiliation make the best fuel. I tore up my love letters, threw away my comics, and turned myself into an island, with nothing in my eyes but grades and rankings. When I stormed back into the top ranks as a dark horse and reclaimed the spotlight, Su Yuqing asked me through tears, “Chen Mo, can we go back to how things were?”

And Lu Chenxuan, who had once trampled my dignity, looked at me properly for the first time, his eyes filled with a complexity I couldn’t understand. “You won. But do you really think this is over?”

We’d all forgotten that when I finally became worthy of standing beside them, the one who had always warmed me was Tang Kexin, a girl like a little sun. In this cruel struggle fought in the name of youth, who is a pawn, and who is the true winner?

I’ll make everyone see that I can win back the light that was taken from me, with interest.