The Cool Senior Keeps Flirting with Me

Proud, stubborn junior & aloof, scheming senior

The summer Bai Zhi met Jin Chu was the hottest summer Beicheng had ever seen.

That year, Bai Zhi’s worries were as heavy as the 30-kilogram suitcase she brought on her first day of school.

Bai Zhi climbed the last flight of stairs to the fifth-floor dormitory, nearly dropping to her knees. The next moment, a cool, gentle hand easily caught her arm. She looked up into a pair of pure, unblemished dark eyes, their corners shaped like peach blossoms.

“Acting department. Jin Chu.”

“Fashion design. Bai Zhi.”

A boundary both clear and blurred.

“I paid for you to attend the best university and gave you the best opportunities, and this is how you repay your mother?” That slap landed squarely on Jin Chu’s face.

“My daughter has excellent opportunities. She’s going to be an actress, and I won’t allow a single stain on her reputation, especially not a friendship with an ill-bred child like you.” That slap landed on Bai Zhi.

The rain fell hard that day. Bai Zhi crouched by the roadside, unable to tell her tears from the rain. Her phone screen lit up, then went dark again.

[Dad, I’ll go with you.]

In the apartment they rented near school, nothing seemed out of place. They cut themselves off from the outside world. The apartment was spacious, but only the two of them were left in it.

Cool lips pressed against her, kissing the tiny mole beneath her eye.

Tears slid from the corners of her eyes and into her mouth, spreading bitterness.

That was the taste Bai Zhi left her with for the last time.

Six years later, in the United States

Her friend Zuo Wei sent her a picture.

The names on the wedding invitation in the picture made the air go still.

[She’s getting married.]

Bai Zhi didn’t reply. She sat in her chair from dusk until dawn, then until dusk again.

She pinched out her cigarette.

[I’m coming home tomorrow.]