Sour Tangerine [Reunion After Years Apart]

* The invisible girl beside the winners' podium x the forbidden name on the honor roll

The first time Li Su saw Xu Shen was one evening in the glow of the setting sun.

A crowd surrounded him, gossiping about him, their laughter sharp and every word a scandal.

Li Su didn't dare go near. Only after everyone had left did she sneak into the piano room and slip a bottle of orange juice into his bag.

The note of comfort attached to the bottle fell to the floor. She ran off too quickly to find out.

Later, they became classmates. She saw him again, leaving the shadows behind to become a spirited young man beneath the red flag, the top student on the honor roll.

Li Su remained beside the winners' podium, almost invisible,

parallel to him like lines that could never meet.

Until those people came after him again, surrounding and humiliating him, dragging out his illegitimate birth and chewing over it word by word.

Li Su stepped forward, picked up a basketball from the ground, and hurled it at the crowd with all her might, though her fingertips trembled.

From that moment on, her brave figure was etched into his heart.

·

When they met again,

the boy who had once been above the clouds had become an untouchable center of attention at a banquet,

while the drab Li Su still sat at the very end of the table.

She didn't dare look at him,

the tall, cool, sharp-featured man, like a sacred mountain that must not be defiled.

Xu Shen's clear, icy gaze was like the north wind, like strong liquor, like the place where dreams return.

She called him "Mr. Xu,"

hiding the past deep in her heart. She didn't look as the light gently cast his shadow over her.

He clinked glasses with her.

His taut arm, the pine scent lingering at the tip of her nose, held her gaze captive, all tenderness.

Later, he gripped both her hands and pulled her into the car, holding her by the waist and pinning her on his lap. Moans and demands filled the night as they tossed and turned.

Only when they reached the summit together and she saw Xu Shen applauding for her did she understand:

The moment she fell for him had never been forgotten, even after 1,825 days and nights.

And the secret crush she'd had as a girl was like a sour tangerine slowly peeled open, its bitter, medicinal taste impossible to describe, yet it had healed so many of her "ailments."

Reading Guide:

Half urban romance, half school life.

Mutual pining, both chasing after each other.

Theme: Become a new version of myself, and love a better version of you