Difficult to Handle

[Posting after the full manuscript is complete. Current progress: A 10,000-word outline is ready; the blurb needs revision.]

The day they reunited, Lin Tan was sitting behind a drum kit.

Under dim, flickering lights, her drumming was crisp and precise. The fiery BGM that could set the whole crowd ablaze clashed sharply with her cool, world-weary expression.

Their mutual friend said Tan had changed a lot over the past few years. She was still as warm as ever around other people, but when she was alone, she always seemed detached, as if she didn't belong in this world.

After Lin Tan left the stage, Zhou Jinyan cornered her in the stairwell.

He teased, "Why do you seem unable to move on? You were the one who asked to break up."

Lin Tan gently smoothed down his upturned collar. "It's just a little regretful. I hadn't had enough fun with you yet."

They had grown up together. Zhou Jinyan had seen her bright, passionate youth, and he had seen what she was like when she loved someone.

She hated the cold, but on freezing nights, she would cross half the city just to give him a hug;

She hated exercise, but she was willing to walk lap after lap around the campus track with him;

She had plenty of admirers, yet on the day of the college entrance exam, she took a microphone and confessed her feelings to him in front of everyone;

But now she said she had only been fooling around with him.

Zhou Jinyan's smile vanished at once, his jaw tense. "Then why didn't you keep going?"

"I got bored."

Standing on the stairs, Lin Tan tilted her head and gave him a half-smile. "Don't you think so, Zhou Jinyan? I realized you're actually pretty easy to fool. The tiniest thing can move you to tears."

-

"If you decide to shine, no mountain can block you and no sea can stop you. Be magnificent, be dazzling, be unforgettable."

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[The blurb may still change]

*This is a childhood-friends-to-lovers, long-awaited reunion story. The adult leads are ordinary working people, and this is a sweet, everyday romance about an unremarkable life.

*A slow-burn ensemble story with imperfect characters.

*To every one of you, ordinary yet extraordinary.

Theme: A tribute to the ordinary and the extraordinary.