Boss Wen, You're So Lovable

Free story, update schedule uncertain, not contracted.

Le Zhenyi × Wen Yang

High school history teacher × bookstore owner

Warm, cheerful puppy × ultimate laid-back INFP

The story takes place in 2023. All place and shop names mentioned are fictional and do not correspond to real ones.

# A one-sided crush finally comes true.

# Who says introverts are extroverts' playthings? Wen Yang can be a fishing rod, too, especially when she's angling for Le Zhenyi.

# So how did you, a 90% introvert, manage to keep this shop running?

*

Le Zhenyi never arrived late or left early. But to catch a glimpse of the beautiful bookstore owner her students kept talking about, she slipped out ahead of time. Half a month after the bookstore opened, she finally met the woman with the bizarre schedule.

The woman had long, black curls falling over her shoulders, and her loose shirt was tucked into casual pants. Even as she locked the door while listening to Le Zhenyi, she spoke in a lazy voice: "Sorry, this shop has gone out of business for today. If you need anything, please come back tomorrow."

Le Zhenyi said, "I'm not here to buy books. I want to make friends with the owner~"

The woman lazily lifted her eyelids and glanced at her. "What's my surname?" As if she'd expected Le Zhenyi to freeze, she smiled carelessly. "Sorry, I'm an INFP. I don't add strangers."

*

At a high school reunion, beneath the colorful lights, Le Zhenyi drank, sang, and played drinking games, becoming the life of the party. Then she spotted someone sitting quietly in a corner, so still she might as well not have been there. The familiar white shirt and casual pants, long curls over her shoulders, and a glass of juice in front of her.

Le Zhenyi approached with her glass raised and grinned. "So, Boss Wen and I were in the same year! Don't you recognize me? Add me as a friend, okay?"

Boss Wen calmly edged away from her, then said in a cool voice, "I'm too much of an introvert. I don't like making friends. Sorry."

Le Zhenyi followed after her, draping an arm over her shoulder. "Come on, add me, okay? Just add me..."

In the shifting colored lights, Boss Wen asked, her meaning hard to read, "Teacher Le, do you know my name?" Before Le Zhenyi could answer, she continued, "I'm just as introverted online as I am in person. Even if we add each other, I'll just lie in your contacts. Sorry."

*

Rain poured down. Le Zhenyi rushed to school to look after a student who had suddenly come down with a fever. By the time she left, it was already late at night. Luckily, someone was waiting for her at the school gate with an umbrella.

Le Zhenyi leaned against the window in a room on the bookstore's second floor, watching the downpour outside. Then she looked at the woman across a veil of smoke, touched by a red glow. The woman's figure was hazy, her half-dry hair resting on her shoulders.

She walked over and brushed the woman's hair aside. "Wen Yang, if you don't like me, why did you come help me?"

Wen Yang's eyes reddened, and her voice was hoarse. "Le Zhenyi, I've never said I don't like you."

That night, Le Zhenyi finally got her wish and "added" Boss Wen on WeChat. More precisely, Wen Yang sent her a message, bringing the person who had been lying in her contacts for six years, with only one message exchanged between them, to the top of her chat list.

*

When Wen Yang turned down Le Zhenyi's friend request in front of the bookstore, she told herself, This is the third and a half time.

When she watched Le Zhenyi beneath the colorful lights and realized she still hadn't remembered that they'd already added each other on WeChat, Wen Yang told herself, This is the third and six-tenths time.

If there was a fourth time, she would give up for good.

Give up for good on the person she'd loved for ten years.

No one knew that Wen Yang had once worked up the courage to stand in front of Le Zhenyi three times, only to hear "We're not close" each time. Wen Yang didn't want to hear "We're not close" a fourth time, so she said first, "Sorry, I'm not close with your Teacher Le."

But this time, Le Zhenyi held her face and said they were close, kissed her and said they were very close. After a night together, she played with Wen Yang's hair in the morning light spilling through the second-floor window, her voice languid. "Boss Wen, I said we weren't close three times, and you said it twice. I've made up for it. What about you?"

Wen Yang, just awake, turned her head and went back to sleep.

*

One-on-one romance, sweet story, happy ending.

My writing is poor. No writing advice, please, and there's no need to tell me if you drop the story.

Theme: Loving each other.