I've Liked You for a Long Time

The new danmei novel next door, Living with My Secret Crush, features mutual pining and mutual healing. Please add it to your reading list! Its blurb is at the very bottom.

Blurb for this story:

1

As soon as Shen Yu returned from abroad, someone dragged him into playing a game. He chose the class called Spirit Seer, a support role.

During his first raid, he got stuck in the instance for a full four hours. Just as it looked like the group was about to wipe again and everyone was exhausted, the raid leader suddenly changed.

The new leader spoke in a calm, steady voice. "Don't panic. We won't wipe."

Only after they defeated the boss did Shen Yu learn that the leader who had turned the tide was Mu Cheng, a top player on their server who had been mostly inactive for a long time.

They said he was incredible at playing the Shadowless class, but taciturn and extremely intolerant of stupidity.

Sure enough, during the next boss fight, Shen Yu's team made a mistake, and he witnessed the terrifying pressure the top player could bring to bear. It was enough to make his heart seize up.

After logging off, Shen Yu rubbed his aching lower back and decided to steer clear of PvE and join PvP instead.

Later, Shen Yu got pinned down during a guild battle. Just as he was about to give out, the top player rushed in to save him.

After they had cleared out all the enemies, the top player jumped into his YY voice chat room and opened with:

"You're in trouble. Why didn't you ask your boyfriend for help?"

The other guild members in the room: "What?! Boyfriend?! Who?"

2++After one 5v5 arena match, the opposing team's healer, who had played really well, asked Mu Wei, "Could I add you as a friend, boss? Then we can team up for ranked matches in the future."

Mu Wei: "Sorry, I don't have any room."

After the random player left the group, Mu Wei went over to Shen Yu, who had been quietly standing off to the side, and asked, "Want to add me as a friend?"

Shen Yu raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you say you had no room?"

Mu Wei: "I do. But I can delete someone."

3++One day, afterward, Shen Yu suddenly remembered some gossip he had heard a long time ago.

Apparently, the top player had once been in love with a woman, and it had ended in heartbreak.

After holding back for a long time, Shen Yu finally asked:

"I heard you have a dream girl who's been living abroad all this time?"+++++

"Yeah."

Shen Yu pressed his lips together, then asked, "Why did you break up back then?"+++++

"I couldn't win him over."

Oh. Shen Yu clenched his back teeth. So it was unrequited love, and he was still hung up on it.

"Was she pretty?"

"Yeah, pretty."

Shen Yu was even more annoyed, but he still refused to give up.

"You couldn't win her over back then, but what about later?"

"His legs aren't good, so he walks slowly. After he came back to the country, I caught up with him."

Shen Yu: ???

Reader's guide:

Abstinent, dependable lawyer gong x warm, optimistic wheelchair-bound shou

Important! Important! Important! The shou uses a wheelchair after an accident! He improves later, but won't make a full recovery. Please take note if this bothers you! The shou's leg condition was originally why I chose a full-dive game setting, but after discussing it with my editor, I adjusted the setup. I'm very sorry!

A sweet little romance! The game and real-life portions are split 50-50! Even readers who don't play games can follow along. It's a sweet romance wrapped in a gaming story!

The game world borrows elements from a few games, including Jian Wang 3, Moonlight Blade, Fantasy Westward Journey, and various others.

Blurb for the novel next door:

A few months before his thirtieth birthday, Ji Qingbai started going on a lot of blind dates.

One of his dates was a refined-looking man in a suit and narrow-framed glasses. As soon as they met, the man asked, "Dr. Ji, how many exes have you had?"

"One."

"How long did you date?"

"...Three days."

The man pushed up his glasses, displeased. "It seems Dr. Ji isn't the faithful type."

"I'm terribly sorry."

Thinking this blind date would end in failure like all the others, Ji Qingbai was about to get up and leave when someone suddenly pressed down on his shoulder.

A handsome man in motorcycle gear sat down across from him as if he owned the place.

The man crossed his legs, took off his sunglasses, and looked at him with open mockery.

"It's been years. Since when did you change your taste, Dr. Ji? You actually like the refined type now?"

Ji Qingbai had a crush on his high school deskmate, Fu Jian Ci. He had never told anyone, always pretending they were just good friends.

Later, Fu Jian Ci went abroad to study, and they parted ways, without contacting each other for years.

Then, after a chance reunion, they became the close friends they had once been again.

But just before Ji Qingbai was supposed to get engaged to someone else, the man who had always been arrogant and obnoxious suddenly seemed like a different person.

Not only did he make Ji Qingbai miss his engagement party, he also tricked him into going somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Later, on a drunken night, Fu Jian Ci cornered him. Kisses fell like a storm. After nuzzling against Ji Qingbai's neck for a long time, Fu Jian Ci finally raised his head, eyes red.

"Ji Qingbai, don't even think about marrying someone else."

You can only be mine. Mine alone.

On the day Ji Qingbai received his first internship paycheck, he finally worked up the courage to confess to Fu Jian Ci. But the night before he planned to do it, he borrowed Fu Jian Ci's cloud drive and found several gigabytes of short videos about men and women in a folder labeled "Study Materials."

In the end, he threw the carefully prepared gift in the trash. He couldn't turn a straight man gay.

#I thought you only saw me as a friend

Reader's guide:

1) The romantic videos aren't the gong's. The gong is a CEO.

2) The shou is a neurosurgeon. Some parts may not be entirely realistic because of the plot, so please point out anything that's really unreasonable kindly.

3) Mutual pining + reunion after a long separation + mutual healing, both are virgins, happy ending, bittersweet romance.

Theme: Live with determination and keep looking on the bright side