Waiting for the Rainy Season

Childhood friends / He has a secret crush / Rekindled romance

The Older Brother route in The Summer That Ended Abruptly

It started with a bet. Everyone was guessing how many months it would take to win Liang Xijue over.

Chi Yu swallowed hard and boldly blurted out, with plenty of conviction, "Three months."

"I only need three months to win Liang Xijue over!"

She did not notice Liang Xijue standing behind her when she said it.

Everyone there started cheering her on, and her friend leaned closer with a grin and asked, "Seriously?"

"Aren't you and Liang Xijue childhood friends?"

Chi Yu answered stubbornly, "Childhood friends have the home-field advantage, okay?"

*

Liang Xijue was a famous heartthrob at Jiangzhou No. 2 High School. He was carefree and easygoing, always looking at people with a smile. His temper was so good no one could find fault with him, but he kept every girl at a distance and let no one get close.

The only exception was Chi Yu. Their parents were close friends, so they had grown up together, inseparable.

Liang Xijue waited out the three-month deadline.

He circled the date in red on his calendar and counted down the days, planning to accept her confession the moment midnight arrived.

But when the clock struck twelve, he called her, only to hear that she had run away.

He did not understand. He could not make sense of it. He could not believe it.

He rushed to her building to demand an explanation, only to receive a letter announcing their parting.

He did not even have the right to call it a breakup letter.

After all, Chi Yu had never planned to date him in the first place. Only then did every last bit of hope in Liang Xijue's heart finally go out.

He suddenly understood that what people called youth had, from beginning to end, been nothing more than a one-sided love affair on his part.

*

A new boss had been parachuted into the Marketing Department. Micy, who had gone to scout things out, came back excitedly to share the latest news.

"Handsome. Incredibly handsome. So handsome it's downright inhuman."

Chi Yu looked at her, utterly speechless. "I sent you to find out how he works. Why are you so focused on whether he's handsome?"

"Does being handsome get us two extra days off?"

Even so, during her lunch break, she went downstairs to buy coffee and took a look.

A familiar figure from behind, with a slender, upright build. He narrowed his long, cool eyes in the sunlight, a cigarette between his teeth, his posture both detached and casual.

His face had barely changed from her memories. Liang Xijue still had the kind of looks that had made girls fall for him back in school.

Chi Yu stopped in her tracks.

She vaguely remembered that they had not seen each other in seven years. Seven years had stretched across a whole galaxy of time, and her memories had begun to blur. She knew they could never go back to the way things were.

A thousand ways of greeting him ran through her mind. When his eyes suddenly lifted to meet hers, Chi Yu found the words caught in her throat, impossible to say.

She never expected Liang Xijue to speak first. He lifted his chin and glanced at her. There was no resentment or bitterness. Meeting again after all these years, he greeted her like an old friend, still speaking in that casual, unhurried tone.

"Have you been doing well all these years?"

*"Even after we met again, you still had the strange magic to make me cry in a second."

[Reading Guide]: 1. Both leads are each other's first and only love, with no exes or former crushes.

2. The male lead has a secret crush and is the lovesick type.

Theme: Cherish the present