1 & The second year of her career, Xu Youzhu suffered one setback in love and another at work, leaving her so overwhelmed she could barely breathe.
Still, she was used to accepting whatever fate handed her. After her breakup, she quietly submitted her resignation and prepared to start over in another city.
On the night she was made a full-time employee at her new company, Xu Youzhu ran into an exceptionally striking man at a bar. Looking closely, he resembled Yan Yu, the boy she'd had a crush on in high school.
There was no way it could be him. A little tipsy, she decided to treat her younger self to a little indulgence.
After the gathering, in a deserted spot, she cornered the man against a wall. He watched her with half-lidded eyes, relaxed and unhurried. Just as she rose on tiptoe to kiss him, he softly called her name.
Xu Youzhu froze for a moment, then leaned closer to study him. A smile played on her lips as she kissed him again.
Thank goodness. He didn't just look like Yan Yu. He was Yan Yu.
2 & After that night, they tacitly continued their "not-quite-strangers" relationship.
The feeling of being "strangers in public" reminded Xu Youzhu of high school. No one would have guessed that she and Yan Yu, two people who seemed to have nothing in common, would privately talk about attending the same university.
Unlike high school, this time, aside from kissing in private until they were breathless and sending each other their room numbers, they were almost complete strangers: reserved, distant, and careful not to disturb each other's lives.
Sometimes friends asked about how they were always seeing the two of them together lately, and Xu Youzhu would simply brush it off.
"We're just ordinary friends."
When those words reached Yan Yu, the man leaned over her late at night, staring at her unfocused eyes as he lightly held her chin between his fingers.
"Am I just an ordinary friend to you?"
3 & Before long, her ex-boyfriend got in touch with her under the pretext of a business collaboration between their companies.
Already stretched thin by work and her ex-boyfriend's harassment, she then noticed Yan Yu appearing more and more often, "not sticking to the agreed schedule for meeting up."
"I'm coming over to pick something up today."
"I used the body wash you bought before and thought of you."
"I'm going on a business trip. Your light's on. Do you have time to come down and see me?"
These constant acts of "crossing the line" came to an end when her ex-boyfriend came to her home under the pretext of picking up some documents.
With only a wall between them, Yan Yu grabbed her wrist and wouldn't let her leave. His voice was low and pleading.
"Choose me..."
*Reader's guide
1. Both leads are inexperienced and devoted to each other. The heroine's relationship with her ex went no further than holding hands.
2. A sensitive, conflicted heroine paired with a straightforward man who knows how to guide her.
Theme: Live life positively
