Today, You Don't Have to Smile

Everyone at school knew that Lin Wan of Class 1, Grade 11, was perfection personified. She was always top of the class, always graceful, and even the curve of her smile seemed measured with a ruler.

Until a gust of wind at the opening ceremony blew her speech out of her hands, along with a sheet of scrap paper tucked inside.

The entire school fell silent.

Because written on the paper was: [I wish I could be a cat. No exams, no smiling, no need to stay graceful in every situation.]

Just when Lin Wan thought her perfect image had completely crumbled, Jiang Ye, the famously odd underachiever, caught the paper with perfect timing.

He didn't laugh at her. Instead, in front of the whole school, he said in a tone only the two of them could understand, “Cats are great. They don't have to stay graceful.”

Later, Lin Wan discovered that her seemingly goofy desk mate wasn't just able to see through every one of her disguises. Whenever she was close to suffocating, he would quietly open a window for her with a sheet of scrap paper.

[Goofy-looking underachiever with a devoted heart who saves her × seemingly perfect top student who is actually repressed and on the verge of losing it]

[Secret messages on scrap paper / mutual healing / sweet school romance]