Mint and Pleated Skirts [School Life]

Staying-under-one-roof trope / sweet romance, happy ending. A volatile boy x an insecure girl

Fu Sheng is incredibly handsome, but there's a rumor he once spent time in juvenile detention. His narrow, phoenix-shaped eyes are cool and distant, and there's not a trace of feeling in his gaze. A friend kindly warns Yu Xiaxia, "Stay far away from that little wolf."

Yu Xiaxia bites her lip and nods, thinking, I can't stay away.

They still have to go home from school and eat together.

-

The first time they meet.

The boy sits on the sofa, his hair still wet, his physique exceptional.

"Had enough of looking?" His voice is soft and lazy.

As Yu Xiaxia brushes past him, she can clearly feel the boy's hostility surge.

He hates her.

-

Sure enough, from then on, he is always sarcastic and mean to her.

He calls her a little shortie and forces her to eat lunch with him.

Yu Xiaxia tries to escape, but the boy curls a finger and pulls her right back.

"Sit."

A dozen or so people crowd around the table.

All of them are men.

"Greetings, Brother Sheng! Congratulations on getting out!"

"We'll follow your lead, Brother Sheng!"

The celery on Yu Xiaxia's chopsticks finally falls off in fright.

-

Yu Xiaxia swears Fu Sheng is the sharpest-tongued person she's ever met, and that she has to stay away from him.

Yet somehow, she ends up on the forum's front page.

#Fu Sheng had Yu Xiaxia hold his clothes while he played basketball.#

#Fu Sheng even sat next to Yu Xiaxia and drank water with her.#

#The day Yu Xiaxia took leave to go home, Fu Sheng was absent from school too.#

Yu Xiaxia can only screw up her courage and approach Fu Sheng. "Um, can we talk?"

Fu Sheng's lips curl, and that mischievous streak of his returns.

Drawling, he says, "Sure. How do you want to do it, publicly or in secret?"

"..."

-

Later, the girl devotes herself to helping the boy study and tells him again and again, "Don't be nervous. You can do it! Believe in yourself."

She tells him she wants to tutor him seriously.

She wants to see how much progress he makes by the final exams.

Fu Sheng thinks her brain has sprung a leak.

Even more unbelievable, he actually agrees to go with her to Xinhua Bookstore to pick out study guides.

As they study, Fu Sheng can only smell vanilla milk in the room, and he keeps dreaming at night.

"Does it hurt?"

He actually murmurs the question to himself.

He's so worked up he can't stand it.

The next day, Yu Xiaxia knocks on Fu Sheng's door. "I'm going to school. What's your excuse for being absent?"

After a moment of silence, a muffled voice comes from inside. "I don't want to go to school."

"..."

Later still, Fu Sheng spends an entire study period hunched over his phone.

Yu Xiaxia can't help asking, "These are the assignments all the teachers gave us today."

"Do them for me," he says without looking up.

Before she can refuse, Fu Sheng adds, "I came to school sick today. I can't write. I hurt my hand."

"What's wrong with your hand?" Yu Xiaxia hurriedly looks at it.

"I helped an old lady get to the hospital and my hand went numb. I can't hold chalk."

"..."

Fu Sheng, if I feel sorry for you again, I'm a pig.

-

Later, in the studio the boy started up.

He leans in close, his warm breath brushing the side of Yu Xiaxia's neck as he says, "You'd better not struggle. From what I can see, all your resistance will look like..."

"Flirting."

Reading Guide:

1. I was once unbreakable, but you brought me to my knees.

2. Extra sweet, no angst, a fairy tale for the young at heart.

I was once a boy, with eyes as deep as an abyss, forever gazing at you.

Theme: The beauty of youth