So Much in Love

For another unrequited-love story like this, check out Secretly Looking at Him. Please add it to your reading list.

In Cong Zhi's mind, Qi Xiao and she belong to different worlds.

He's bold and uninhibited; she's reserved and introverted.

Like the North and South Poles, or summer and winter.

For example, after the monthly exams, when they change seats, she holds back her racing heartbeat and carries her books over to the seat beside Qi Xiao's. The boy leans lazily against the wall, his eyelids drooping. Sunlight pours through the window and falls on him.

Bright and dazzling.

Cong Zhi gathers her courage. She doesn't even know what she's hoping for when she asks him, "Why did you want to sit with me?"

The sun is shining, and cicadas have been singing in the branches all summer.

The boy lifts his eyelids. His dark eyes gaze quietly at her. He mumbles his answer in a careless tone: "What reason would I have? I just sat wherever."

Cong Zhi's hopes fall flat.

It seems like there's a long way between them.

It was his birthday. A girl gave him a jar of paper cranes and boldly confessed her feelings.

They were surrounded by people, looking perfectly suited to each other. Cong Zhi, eyes red, quietly left with the jar of paper cranes she'd prepared for Qi Xiao.

She'd stayed up four or five nights folding them, just because a friend had told her that folding paper cranes for someone you liked would bring them happiness. She'd written something she wanted to tell him on each crane, including the words she could never bring herself to say: I like you.

But he knew nothing about any of it.

Her eyes clouded with a thin film of tears. Cong Zhi remembered the bitter aches of her old unrequited love and looked down at the glass jar in her arms, filled with her affection.

Only then did she realize that perhaps there really was nothing connecting them.

Years later, he had become a champion kickboxer, defending his RNG championship belt again and again. That brilliant light from his youth still shone on him.

Cong Zhi realized that she was still hopelessly in love with him.

By a happy accident, she went on a trip with him, and they happened to see a fireworks display. The brilliant fireworks disappeared in an instant, just like those beautiful moments when she'd secretly loved Qi Xiao.

Cong Zhi had always been good at hiding her feelings.

But while sorting through her old high school things, she found a paper crane, crumpled and familiar.

It was the one she'd written her confession to Qi Xiao on.

Those bittersweet memories came rushing back. Nervous and with her heart pounding, she unfolded it. Two sentences greeted her: the one where she'd confessed her feelings, and another, written in a messy hand.

[You idiot, I like you too.]

It was Qi Xiao's handwriting.

It turned out that he had been part of every moment of her youth.

*Roguish, cool, and cocky x shy and sweet | kickboxer x young reporter

*Both leads are each other's first and only, 1v1

*Blurb written on 2023.03.08

*No intimate scenes while the characters are underage

Blurb for Secretly Looking at Him:

Liking Cheng Yuci is probably the sweetest secret of Xu Jinxia's life.

The boy was full of youthful spirit, shining brightly all summer long.

He was the good student who gave teachers a headache, and the person his classmates admired most. Plenty of girls at school had a crush on him.

He had a beautiful pair of eyes, deep and clear, and when he smiled, they seemed to be filled with stars. Xu Jinxia never dared to look him in the eye openly. Her gaze was always cautious when she looked his way.

She'd made a habit of sneaking glances, but one day he caught her. Outside the window, cicadas chirped nonstop in the summer heat. He sat slightly turned, one hand propping up his temple, looking relaxed and languid. He looked at her with those deep, clear eyes, the corners lifted, a faint smile on his lips. Amused but perfectly at ease, he teased her, "Deskmate, why do you keep sneaking looks at me? Tell me, what are you after?"

His smile was always so bright and dazzling. It fell into her eyes and scattered into her heart, letting her glimpse a ray of light for the first time.

Her heartbeat grew loud in her ears, and for a moment she forgot to answer.

At a class reunion years later, the other students sat together reminiscing about high school. Cheng Yuci was curled up on the sofa, not joining in the conversation, but his gaze kept darting to the side.

When his friend caught him and figured out who he was sneaking glances at, they started teasing him curiously. "Why do you keep sneaking looks at Xu Jinxia?"

Cheng Yuci turned his gaze away from Xu Jinxia. The corner of his mouth lifted in a faint smile, and he explained unhurriedly, "Because my wife told me to keep a low profile."

Xu Jinxia got together with Cheng Yuci during her third year of university.

It was midsummer, after the rain, and the air was warm and humid. The young woman's cheeks were bright red. She hid half her face behind a book and softly pleaded with Cheng Yuci, sitting across from her, "Could you stop looking at me?"

A line from a summer long ago suddenly came to mind, and she gave his words back to him: "Are you after something?"

"I am." He smiled lazily and leaned closer. Those beautiful eyes, still just as lovely when he smiled, fixed on her. His voice dropped to a murmur by her ear. "I want to kiss you."

"That's what I'm after."

Rebellious and unconventional vs. gentle and well-behaved

Theme: Someone will brave wind and rain to love you