Your Face, My Lipstick Mark

[Publication title: Afterglow]

[Slow-burn coming-of-age, mutual secret crush]

At three years old, Na Yi was sweet and well-behaved, adored by everyone in the courtyard. Anyone with a piece of candy would secretly slip it into her pocket.

But Na Yi was unlucky. Her father died in a car accident.

The little rice-ball lost her father but didn't cry. People said she was cold and unfeeling, and stopped slipping her candy.

Nie Yu never put candy in her pocket. He liked stealing hers instead.

When Na Yi's father died, he took his little piggy bank and knocked on her door.

The little boy looked embarrassed. He shoved his savings into her arms and ran off.

"Here. Use it to buy candy. Don't cry in secret anymore."

Nie Yu's family went bankrupt, leaving them with enormous debts, and their life fell from the clouds in an instant.

His mother ran off with someone else, and his father wasn't even his biological father. Nie Yu lost everything overnight.

His rotten friends avoided him, but Na Yi was the only one who stayed by his side.

On his seventeenth birthday, he secretly pressed a kiss to the cheek of the sleeping girl, cautiously and with reverence.

"I like you, but I can't let you find out."

Nie Yu didn't show up for the college entrance exam and vanished without a trace.

Na Yi snapped her pencil in half and never mentioned him again.

-

The night before leaving university, Na Yi's friend dragged her to a bar.

As they drank and had a good time, her friend pointed at the man in the booth across from them, surrounded by a crowd. He wore a designer suit, his shirt unbuttoned low enough to reveal a glimpse of his beautiful collarbone, and looked irresistibly sexy.

"Nana, that guy's sneaking looks at you, and he's even undone the last button of his shirt."

Na Yi's expression was calm. "You must be seeing things."

You disappeared for years and think you can win forgiveness with your looks? You must still be dreaming.

-

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