The Second-Place Student Eloped with the Top Student Again

School Days:

Gu Ci is the celebrated untouchable flower of No. 2 High School: from a good family, good-looking, and good at school. He has won so many awards that he can barely keep track.

For someone who seems perfect in every way, he has one fatal flaw: he has no friends.

Teachers adore him, but to his classmates, he is like a snow lotus on the moon: lovely to look at, impossible to approach. No one wants to be friends with Gu Ci, and no one thinks Gu Ci wants to be friends with them.

Cheng Xing initially thought so too. No one knew what had gotten into their homeroom teacher, Mr. Nie, when he paired Cheng Xing with the top student in their grade. The official excuse was that they could push each other to improve, and bring down the neighboring school's reputation for producing the top exam scorer year after year.

Fair enough. Cheng Xing spun a basketball on his fingertip. He wanted to learn a thing or two from the top student too.

So Cheng Xing tried the most cringe-worthy pickup line on this untouchable flower.

He held out a slice of orange to Gu Ci. A bright, youthful voice sounded beside him. "Want an orange?"

Later, the first- and second-ranked students in the grade became so close they might as well have shared a pair of pants.

Later still, No. 2 High School lost both its top student and its second-ranked student.

Adult Life:

Gu Ci never imagined he would see Cheng Xing again when he returned to the country with a plane ticket in hand.

The sea was beautiful. The breeze blowing onto shore carried the salty tang of the ocean. His hand holding a paintbrush paused. There was so much he wanted to say, but after a long moment, he asked only, "Would you be my assistant?"

Cheng Xing had thought that when he saw Gu Ci again, Gu Ci might not look at him with disgust, but he certainly wouldn't be so forward.

Like a rat in a gutter, Cheng Xing had been secretly following the rise of this new star in the art world.

Reason told him that getting any closer would only ruin Gu Ci. But the small glimmer of longing and wishful thinking in his heart overwhelmed his reason.

"Okay."

And so this rising star, said to have a bad temper and dislike having anyone around, gained an assistant who was never far from his side.

PS:

1. The protagonists do not engage in any romantic behavior before they are adults.

2. The school and adult-life storylines are split about evenly, and the romance develops slowly.

Theme: Learn to love yourself before loving someone else.