Chapter 8

Jian Yu touched my back.

“Haven’t you been looking forward to this for a long time? Aren’t you going?”

Whether it was my imagination or not, I felt his words had a passive-aggressive undertone.

I stood up, my limbs stiff, and walked to Song Qiao’s side. All the lines I had rehearsed went out the window, and I stammered:

“Xiao, Xiao Qiao, actually I’ve always thought of you as a little sister.”

In my mind, she was still that girl who cried at the drop of a hat, so I was very afraid of her crying.

“I know,” Song Qiao didn’t cry. Instead, she asked, “Lin Dong, let me ask you, if I’m bullied abroad…”

Before she could finish, my face changed, “Then I’d definitely fly over to teach him a lesson!”

She smiled, stepped forward, and hugged me tightly.

“That’s enough, thank you.”

I didn’t know where to put my hands and awkwardly replied, “I haven’t even taught him a lesson yet.”

“Thank you, always,” she said. “In the past, now, and in the future.”

She was no longer the girl I remembered; she had already grown up.

After the party, I felt I should explain things to Jian Yu.

But how should I put it? “Sorry, buddy, the girl you like likes me. Can we still be brothers?”

My heart hesitated, but what I showed was: I silently followed behind Jian Yu.

He finally couldn’t stand my silent trailing and turned around:

“What are you doing?”

I froze, not having thought of the right words, so I just blurted out what was on my mind:

“Apologizing.”

Jian Yu raised an eyebrow, “Should I be apologizing to you?”

Me: “?”

“No, I mean, I should apologize to you.

“It’s just, about Song Qiao, I didn’t know, I thought she liked you…”

Wouldn’t saying that sting even more? What an idiot I was.

As I was feeling frustrated, Jian Yu suddenly stepped closer.

I instinctively wanted to step back, but then I thought, letting my brother punch me a couple of times to let off steam wouldn’t be so bad. So I forcibly held back and stood my ground.

Jian Yu was half a head shorter than me. I only saw him extend his hand from my chest to my neck. If I just leaned down slightly, my mouth could touch the top of his head.

“Jian… Yu?”

I heard him chuckle softly, then he stepped back.

Letting out a sigh of relief, I realized I hadn’t been breathing.

“Honestly, what a twisted sense of humor,” he said.

“What?”

“Pheromones,” he said lightly. “Song Qiao left pheromones on you.”