I Ran Away, But I Didn't Flirt

My next book will be the full-length novel A Dream, Then the Summer Wind. Please add it to your want-to-read list!

Reunion after years apart | Mutual pining | Free short story

On her way to the airport to leave the country, Qiao Yuan confessed to Yu An, her high school classmate and secret crush.

Then, like a true hero who never looks back at an explosion, she coolly turned off her phone.

She was going to be rejected anyway. No point looking.

Having a crush was exhausting. She was done with it.

After receiving her message, Yu An held his phone and grinned foolishly for ten minutes.

But the joy of realizing they felt the same was quickly shattered by "The number you have dialed is switched off" and the reply that never came, no matter how long he waited.

Maybe it had just been a clumsy joke.

Years later, Qiao Yuan and Yu An met again.

Yu An was utterly cold toward her.

Qiao Yuan couldn't understand what she'd done to upset him.

It couldn't possibly be... could it?

Coming soon: A Dream, Then the Summer Wind

Thirteen years of friendship turning to love | Bickering frenemies | Push and pull to the limit

A clingy golden retriever who always wants his wife's attention x a tsundere cat who thinks the golden retriever is an idiot

During military training at the start of their first year of high school, Jiang Yu was invited by a classmate to go see the school heartthrob.

But the avenue was so crowded that she wandered around for ages without getting a glimpse of his face.

Only later did she learn that the heartthrob she had craned her neck to see was the idiot sitting beside her, Xu Muyuan.

Xu Muyuan was her closest friend in high school.

He was also the secret longing she couldn't bring herself to confess.

Her thermos was always filled with hot water in winter. She never had to take out the overflowing trash during cleaning duty. Fruit and yogurt were always there whenever she reached for them, and she had enough cans of Wangzai Milk to build a whole wall...

Even though Xu Muyuan always said, "You're my best friend. It's only natural."

Jiang Yu, who was showered with all that special treatment, thought Xu Muyuan liked her too.

After the college entrance exams, she summoned all the courage she had as a teenager and wrote him a letter to confess her feelings. But then she heard Xu Muyuan call another girl after drinking himself into a stupor.

After that, Jiang Yu decided to hide all her feelings, dig a hole, bury her secret, fill it in, and pour reinforced concrete over it so it could never see the light of day.

*

Years later, Jiang Yu returned from an overseas posting and crossed paths with Xu Muyuan again.

Xu Muyuan was still an idiot, and she still played the role of "best friend" flawlessly.

Even the special treatment he'd always given her had never changed.

Xu Muyuan replied to her messages instantly and came running whenever she called.

He took her to try every delicacy under the sun, went out to buy barbecue for her in a suit, picked her up from work in the middle of the night, pestered her to meet several times a week, and did everything he could to make her happy...

He even took her hand in an escape room.

But Jiang Yu, who already knew the right answer, would no longer believe it.

A mistaken impression was still just a mistaken impression.

Being "best friends" wasn't so bad.

But this time, Xu Muyuan disagreed.

"I've fallen for a very, very good friend."

In their thirteenth year of knowing each other, they crossed the Milky Way called "friendship," and a thousand unspoken words became one: "Merry Christmas."

*

"If we're still not married by thirty, let's just settle down together."

A lot of people have probably made this kind of promise to someone during their school years, with half sincerity and half in jest.

This isn't surrender, and it isn't settling. It's a summer that came long overdue.

Theme: Where there's a will, there's a way