Keep Talking Tough [Secret Crush]

"That's how men are. The less attention you pay them, the more they become interested in you." From The Handbook for Pursuing Men Qin Yixi liked Su Donglin. She had liked him throughout high school. To pursue Su Donglin, she spent what little pocket money she had left on this book from a street vendor. She believed every word and put its advice into practice. While all the girls in her class were either secretly or openly crushing on Su Donglin, someone asked her, "What kind of guy do you like?" Remembering the book's advice, Qin Yixi stubbornly replied, "Definitely not someone like Su Donglin." She didn't know that Su Donglin had just come in from playing ball and heard her. He quietly curled his fingers around the tickets to an exhibition he'd been planning to invite her to. Su Donglin also didn't know that what he said before graduation would keep Qin Yixi tossing and turning for years. "You belong with me." On the last day of graduation, Su Donglin sent her this voice message. Qin Yixi: "?" Su Donglin: "Here's a song I recommend: Taylor Swift's 'You Belong with Me.'" Qin Yixi stubbornly replied, "It's not that good." It was actually great. But it would have been even better if it had been your confession. When you like someone, you can't help taking apart every word they've ever said and trying to figure out what it means. They met again years later at a movie theater. The film playing was adapted from Qin Yixi's unrequited-love novel. "You ate all my popcorn." As the movie ended, a voice Qin Yixi would never forget came from the seat beside her. It was Su Donglin. The man looked at her with easy confidence, undisguised possessiveness in his eyes. "So you liked me back in high school. Why were you so stubborn about it then?" [Blurb written in 2017. Some events are based on the author's personal experience.] Theme: If only we had both been a little braver