The Princess and the Pea

In her senior year of high school, the little attic that had sat unused for years was rented out by her mother.

The girl who moved in was like a princess in a pea pod, sealed away from the world. She had no common sense and was impossibly fussy.

Afraid of the dark, the cold, thunder, and a lumpy mattress... Every night, she would come knocking with her pillow, asking Zhou Fang to hold her while they slept.

That winter seemed especially long.

They slept in each other's arms through countless nights. Their tiny room held more heart-fluttering secrets than they could count.

Before Zhou Fang could understand what those repeated, restrained yet uncontrollable touches meant,

on the eve of the college entrance exams,

Chen Xi suddenly disappeared.

From then on, whenever a woman came near her, Zhou Fang's stomach twisted.

.

Years later, they met again by chance.

One was an obscure stunt double, the other a hugely popular star adored by everyone.

At an outdoor cast dinner, Zhou Fang sat alone in a corner, biting a straw in her soda. She barely touched the food and hardly spoke.

A colleague, clearly more interested in her than in the food, offered her a skewer, deliberately brushing a finger over her forearm.

Zhou Fang's expression changed. She quickly pulled away, moving so abruptly she nearly fell.

A friend caught her from behind and laughed to smooth things over. "Xiao Ke, quit messing around. Fang-jie is afraid of homosexuality."

That night, deep into the quiet hours,

in a suite on the top floor of the hotel, Chen Xi held Zhou Fang's finger in her mouth, carefully licking it clean, one finger at a time.

She glanced up by chance.

The woman's eyes were damp and faintly red, like they held a pool of spring water. "Sis, are you over your fear of homosexuality yet?"

Blurb written on 2025/11/15.

Theme: Be an honest, good kid.