Resonance

[Slightly sweet on the outside, sly underneath heroine x sharp-tongued, arrogant tsundere heartthrob]

[Top students x top students]

After graduating from high school, Cheng Yang accompanied a friend to the home of the famously immaculate campus heartthrob to help her confess her feelings.

But after her friend shouted “I like you!” from downstairs, she turned and ran, leaving Cheng Yang alone with the love letter in her hand.

A moment later, the heartthrob still hadn't come out, but his cousin pushed open a second-floor window and watched the scene with amusement.

“Hey, you there. My brother's out, he's not home. I got your confession for him. What's your name? I'll tell him later.”

Cheng Yang couldn't even remember how to speak. She bolted in an instant.

After all, anyone who knew anything about the campus heartthrob knew that his younger brother, Pei Yizhou, was the complete opposite of him.

This young master had excellent grades and striking looks, but he was also unbearably arrogant, utterly cold toward anyone or anything he wasn't interested in.

Trying to talk to him about romance would be like banging your head against a wall.

-

Years later, the two crossed paths again. Cheng Yang thought he had long forgotten what happened back then, but Pei Yizhou remembered it clearly.

Cheng Yang met the campus heartthrob at a friend's request.

Cheng Yang: I get paid for running errands. Nice!

Pei Yizhou: Hmph. You've had a crush on him since high school. That's five or six years at least, almost ten, right?

She ran into the heartthrob's dog and asked its name out of curiosity.

Cheng Yang: Everyone loves Samoyeds!

Pei Yizhou: Great. So you only want to talk because you know it's my brother's dog.

The campus heartthrob invited her on a trip, and Cheng Yang agreed without a second thought.

Cheng Yang: It's a trip either way, and someone else is paying. Why not go?

Pei Yizhou: You like him that much? You'll follow him anywhere?

Later, when he found out his brother already liked someone else, Cheng Yang's budding feelings came to nothing, while Pei Yizhou tossed and turned all night.

After that, Cheng Yang began to feel that he had suddenly become a different person.

For example, he had never had much patience for things he wasn't interested in, but Pei Yizhou was willing to video-call her every night and show her cats and dogs.

For example, when the campus heartthrob invited her to the library, Pei Yizhou, who disliked crowded places, sat beside her and even took her for a stroll nearby.

When the campus heartthrob invited Cheng Yang to work as his interpreter again, Pei Yizhou bought a plane ticket and flew over overnight to find her.

Things went on in this ambiguous fashion for a while, until one night Cheng Yang was tipsy. As Pei Yizhou carried her back to her room, she heard him ask with a self-mocking laugh, “Is he really that great in your eyes?”

Cheng Yang didn't understand and gave a vague reply.

But early the next morning, when she opened the door, she saw him leaning against the corridor wall, his back looking desolate and his eyes red. When he saw her looking at him, he spoke with extreme restraint:

“Actually, my brother and I look pretty alike. If you want, I can give it a try too.”

The campus heartthrob, who happened to be passing by: “?”

Cheng Yang, who had no idea what he was talking about: “???”

PS:

1. Everyday-life story, mutual healing

2. The male lead is an arrogant straight guy at first, then becomes hopelessly love-struck

3. The male lead mistakenly thinks the female lead likes his older brother and treats his own brother as a rival

4. Both leads have only been with each other, and this is both of their first loves

5. The character descriptions in the blurb have changed since the story was first listed

I'm currently writing A Shoulder to Lean On. If you're interested, please add it to your collection!

Blurb:

[Cheerful little sunshine x handsome, self-aware top dog]

In Jian Nian's opinion, a decent ex should never show up again. And if they do, they should act like strangers for the rest of their lives.

So on the day she ran into her ex, Zhou Jinyuan, she grabbed her childhood friend and pretended to introduce him as her boyfriend, so Zhou Jinyuan wouldn't think she had stayed single all these years because she was still devoted to him.

“Long time no see, Zhou. This is my boyfriend.”

Zhou Jinyuan smiled and greeted them. A few days later, he moved into the apartment next door.

In the first month, Zhou Jinyuan asked her all kinds of questions about renting, supposedly to build good relations with his neighbor.

In the second month, Zhou Jinyuan started joining her for street food and badminton, and occasionally dropped by her place in a V-neck pajama shirt.

In the third month, Jian Nian got caught in a downpour after work and couldn't find a taxi. Zhou Jinyuan picked her up in his sports car, with a cake she loved waiting in the passenger seat.

She had wanted to keep her distance, but somehow they kept growing closer.

One time, Jian Nian made a video call, and Zhou Jinyuan happened to answer while changing his clothes.

His pale, leanly muscled body kept flashing before her eyes. Unable to take it anymore, Jian Nian tactfully said, “Maybe you should put something on?”

His eagerness to show off was so obvious that Jian Nian felt too embarrassed to call him out.

After thinking for a long time, Zhou Jinyuan suggested with complete sincerity, “Actually, if you're going to watch those videos of guys, you might as well watch me. I make time to work out every week, and I keep myself in pretty good shape.”

Jian Nian: “...”

She wasn't interested in muscular men. She had just happened to come across those videos.

-

Not long afterward, Jian Nian exchanged a few words with a guy who had a crush on her.

When she saw someone remain silent, she tentatively asked, “Are you jealous?”

Zhou Jinyuan replied, sounding perfectly reasonable, “I'm not that petty.”

Jian Nian believed him.

But before she went home, she asked him for a goodnight kiss. As he kissed her, Zhou Jinyuan brought up every guy she'd known from high school to the present, spanning seven or eight years, and pointed them out one by one.

Jian Nian hadn't even realized she knew so many men.

It took her several days to smooth things over.

-

Only later did Jian Nian learn that the year they broke up, something happened to Zhou Jinyuan's family. Overnight, he went from a pampered young master surrounded by admirers to having nothing to his name.

During the years they were apart, she was the only thing that kept him going.

Zhou Jinyuan had fought with all his might to make it back to her.

On the day they reunited, Zhou Jinyuan took countless deep breaths behind the door before finally pushing it open as if by chance and facing her.

PS:

1. Both leads have only been with each other, and this is both of their first loves

2. The female lead initiated the breakup

3. The male lead is already wealthy when they reunite

4. The male lead knew from the start that the childhood friend was a fake boyfriend

Theme: A passionate, youthful love