Yan Jiao grew up adored by everyone and had never let anyone get the better of him.
Until music class in elementary school, when Lila looked down at him from the applause, tilted her head, and tossed out a dismissive "Tch."
Tch... Tch? Tch!
It struck him like lightning, prickled like needles, lodged in his throat. It was completely incomprehensible!
After school, Yan Jiao chased Lila, tch-ing after her from the classroom all the way to the school gate. But she ran home with her head down as if she couldn't see him. Yan Jiao shouted her name and tumbled into the crowd.
Lying on the ground, he clenched his fists. From that afternoon, when he was ten, his battle plan to make Lila his defeated opponent began a long journey with no end in sight.
//
Yan Jiao always thought he hated Lila. He hated that she looked down on him, that she treated him like air, her thick glasses and freckles, and everything about her.
Later, he realized he only hated that Lila was an idiot.
Bonus scene:
At a college mixer, Lila is asked about her love life. Everyone has long been curious about her mysterious boyfriend.
A male student who has a crush on Lila asks her directly.
"Lila, do you have a boyfriend?"
"I do."
"He's never come to visit you. What kind of person is he?"
Lila thinks for a moment. "They say a lover is like a flower you raise..."
"Does he make you beautiful?"
Lila shakes her head.
"He's the most precious, most annoying, pickiest, most full-of-himself, most troublesome, hardest-to-placate flower of all."
Everyone: ...
Yan Jiao, who had timed his arrival to take his girlfriend home and planned to make a dazzling entrance with a huge bouquet of roses, freezes on the spot.
He is about to go over and show Lila what it means to be the most precious, most annoying, pickiest, most full-of-himself, most troublesome, hardest-to-placate, when Lila continues:
"But he's also the cutest flower of all."
//
Just saving an idea. A lighthearted, funny slice-of-life story about passionate high schoolers starting a band (tentatively).
Something like:
Ironically straight woman, king of online snark, master of deadpan humor Lila x outwardly flirtatious but secretly pure, goofy chuunibyou, lead singer Yan Jiaojiao
Theme: Youth is unique. You only get one chance, and it never comes again.
