The Pomelos Are Ripe

The rest of the story will be uploaded all at once when it's finished, with the final update marked "The End"!

Comments on individual paragraphs are now open~

[Guiding romance | Childhood friends | Bittersweet romance | Flirtation and emotional push-pull]

*The male lead's years-long secret crush finally pays off // Happy ending // Slow burn // A little ensemble cast

The first installment in the Yujin series

[Weibo: @Yunyan Yu Qingqingqingqingqing]

·Sharp-minded, slightly scheming elite lawyer x clueless but flirtatious online comic artist

[Guiding lover x emotionally conflicted personality]

(A love story between a grump and a scatterbrain~)

Zhu Xingyou is an online comic artist. She suddenly shot to fame, only to be accused of tracing her art.

Just as she was swamped with the effort to defend her rights, she unexpectedly reunited with Li Shuzhi, her childhood friend, after years of estrangement.

In the early spring of the year Li Shuzhi returned to the country, their families began pressuring them to get married. Already under a great deal of stress, Zhu Xingyou was caught off guard. To get their families off their backs, the two had no choice but to agree to a dating contract.

What she didn't know was that Li Shuzhi had been planning all of this for a long time.

From then on, they acted like a couple in public and played a game of emotional push-and-pull in private.

In this grand game of flirtation, Zhu Xingyou was the first to surrender.

But she didn't know that Li Shuzhi had already lost before the game even began.

He had lost to her, the one who knew nothing of it.

That autumn, as plane-tree leaves fluttered down, she heard Li Shuzhi's voice mingle with their rustling, choked with emotion: "Zhu Xingyou, do you know? I've waited so, so many years for this day. There were even a few times when I thought... I might never get to see it..."

-

The male lead's perspective:

Li Shuzhi had been Zhu Xingyou's childhood friend for as long as they could remember. One day, he accidentally overheard a conversation between her and a friend.

From then on, year after year, he was forced to hide his secret love for her. He could only watch as she fell for someone else again and again, as she smiled for others and cried over them...

All he could do was stay by her side in silence, year after year.

Whenever Zhu Xingyou cried and suffered over someone else, Li Shuzhi would scream in his heart, "Zhu Xingyou, can't you turn around and look at me just once?"

Eventually, he couldn't bear it any longer and chose to study abroad.

But the day before he left, he had a huge argument with Zhu Xingyou.

To be precise, Zhu Xingyou was the only one doing the insulting.

After she left, Li Shuzhi stood in the rainy night and watched the girl's carefree figure recede into the distance.

Throughout his years abroad, whenever he thought of Zhu Xingyou, a pang of sadness would rise in his heart.

He knew she loved grapefruit-scented perfume and knew her favorite brand, so he often bought it and secretly kept it. He would also send her some anonymously.

After Li Shuzhi returned to the country, he reunited with her and heard their elders pressuring them to marry. He knew his chance had come.

The day they confirmed their feelings for each other, plane-tree leaves fell onto his shoulders.

At last, his secret love received an answer.

"In love, whoever falls first is the loser."

Theme: Love helps us become better people.