[School Romance | Good Girl × Cool, Top-of-the-Class Academic] School life + reserved heroine + aloof hero + old acquaintances reunited + bittersweet secret crush + coming-of-age and healing + nuanced inner lives + richly drawn ensemble
Xi Yan thought there was nothing good about her. Her grades were average, her looks were average, and she and her father squeezed into a cramped apartment in an urban village.
The boy in her class, Wen Yanqi, was good at everything, so good he frightened her. He helped her, waited for her, and treated her well, but she could only think he pitied her. Something happened in eighth grade, and after that she no longer dared to get close to him.
Later, her father died, and bullies locked her in the bathroom, causing her to miss the class-placement exam. She started imitating him: the way he spoke, the way he answered back, the way he always seemed so composed. She turned herself into his shadow. Only then did she understand: she wasn’t afraid of him. She liked him.
So, even though she was better at humanities, she chose the science track and worked herself to the bone to get into the advanced class, all because she wanted to be closer to him. But he stopped paying attention to her. He wouldn’t look at her or speak to her. She thought, Of course. He only ever pitied me.
Wen Yanqi had never thought that way. Everything he did was to get her to look at him once. But she never saw him. She would rather thank her bullies than believe he was genuinely kind to her.
After what happened in eighth grade, she stopped speaking to him. He thought she hated him and liked someone else. He told himself to let it go; his future mattered more. But she still chose the science track, got into the advanced class, and started standing up to the people who bullied her. She had changed. He began to wonder: Could she actually care about me too?
She still had that fountain pen. She had kept it all along.
The day the pen broke, she cried. He watched her
