She Doesn't Even Know You Have a Crush on Her

= She was like someone who had been trapped for years and years in a beautiful, comfortable glasshouse, until one day she saw a butterfly passing by.

Xu Zhiyi is 28 this year and teaches at a prestigious middle school. She has a fiancee from a well-to-do family. They met when they were young, have been together for ten years, and share a stable relationship.

One day, she and her fiancee attend a banquet together. During the meal, her fiancee puts an arm around someone's shoulder and introduces her: "Shen Qingru, an old friend of mine."

The other woman gives her a slight nod, and Xu Zhiyi returns a polite smile.

Her fiancee quietly explains, "Shen Qingru is a bit aloof. She doesn't like socializing."

After the meal, Xu Zhiyi goes to the restroom to touch up her makeup. Shen Qingru happens to be there too.

She touches up her makeup carefully, until the busy washbasins grow quiet, so quiet that she can hear her own heartbeat.

The woman beside her leans closer, her warm breath lingering by Xu Zhiyi's ear. "Didn't you say your stomach hurt this morning? Why are you still drinking something cold?"

.

When Shen Qingru was in eleventh grade, she met a girl and couldn't sleep for three days after going home. She poured every ounce of her literary talent into writing a love letter.

Before she could send it, at the opening ceremony, her friend put an arm around her shoulder and nodded toward the new student representative onstage. "That's my wife. Pretty, right?"

"What makes you so sure she's yours?"

It took her thirteen years to understand that.

√ Alternate modern setting, happy ending, gentle and resilient x devoted and calculating

√ Older seme, younger uke (one year apart)

Theme: Love