The One I Can't Catch

Updates almost daily. If there's no update, then there isn't one.

Qi Mai transferred schools during her senior year of high school. For the first time, someone beat her out for first place. A friend pointed out the top student in their grade: a very handsome boy.

They met again on a university track. He had just finished running with someone, his face flushed and his presence almost scorching. Qi Mai's heart skipped a beat. She asked him, "Would you go out with me?"

He stared at her in surprise, then politely refused. He glanced at the lively, uninhibited girl chatting with someone after her run and said, "Sorry, there's someone I like."

Qi Mai smiled, went home, and asked her father's secretary to call the family of the employee who had been in a car accident.

That's how the story began, and that's how it ended.

The Qi family went bankrupt. Fu Fengxie made the list of Outstanding Young Entrepreneurs. At a business partners' annual banquet, they met again. Someone spilled red wine on Qi Mai, leaving her a mess. He watched from the side with interest, then remembered to tell his female companion to lend her a coat.

Qi Mai thanked the woman, but said the suit smelled like rotten tomatoes and made her want to throw up.

The latest news had just dug up the fact that Fu Fengxie used to help his family sell vegetables at the market. The accompanying photo showed a pile of tomatoes.

The woman was taken aback by Qi Mai's remark. The two who knew the truth met eyes amid the crowd, lowered them, and couldn't help but sneer.

-

When they met again five years later, he noticed that in front of other people, she seemed much gentler and more easygoing than she had been back when they were dating. Her gaze toward him, however, was no longer what it used to be. It was so cold that he felt like a stranger.

Back then, he had lowered his head and been with her. His pride had been wounded, and his heart had been full of resentment, but in their sweet moments, his heart still raced and he had been utterly tender. He had wanted to lift her above the sea so she could see the first light of dawn, and wanted her to walk barefoot across the grass, clean and unafraid.

Later, he learned that she had once been unable to see, and that the soles of her feet had been injured.

After getting drunk, his friend was astonished to see a glint in the eyes of the usually aloof and unruly man. His words were hard to make out. "Should I have realized sooner that I loved her?"

[Beautiful Fallen Heiress x Wild, Unruly Poor Boy Who Makes Good]

[From the moon, it's hard to tell whether the people on Earth are in love or loving the wrong person]

[Both are virgins / One-year age gap]

Notes:

1. The woman is a few hours older than the man: an older-woman-younger-man romance.

2. Both are virgins. The flashbacks take place during their university years, when they are both adults.

Theme: Love must be proven through time and effort.