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In their second year of high school, there was a basketball game at their school.
Class 1 made it to the finals and was going to play against Class 9 during the last activity period.
Led by the class’s entertainment committee member, a cheerleading squad was formed. Qiu Ruru was one of the members. After class, a group of girls went to the bathroom together to change.
Gu Minghui was the team captain. The boys put on their jerseys, wrist guards, and knee pads right in the classroom.
He walked out of the classroom just as Qiu Ruru was coming out, pulling at her clothes.
The cheerleading uniform was quite short, a crop top. She felt awkward in it, so she wore her school uniform jacket over it, only showing her legs, and planned to take it off when the game started.
Gu Minghui stopped in his tracks, looked her up and down for a moment, and whistled.
Qiu Ruru looked up.
Gu Minghui gave her a thumbs-up. “Not bad.”
She rolled her eyes. “Get lost.”
“Let’s go,” Gu Minghui said, taking two big steps forward. He hooked his arm around Qiu Ruru’s shoulder, putting most of his weight on her.
Qiu Ruru struggled a bit. “Where are we going? You’re so heavy!”
“To the gym, of course. Aren’t you here to cheer me on? I have to save my energy for the court. What’s wrong with you helping me for a bit?” Gu Minghui said shamelessly.
“I’m cheering for my class, not for you.”
Gu Minghui “tsk-ed.” “It’s pretty much the same thing.”
The gym was already crowded. Gu Minghui let go of Qiu Ruru and went onto the basketball court. Soon after, the other members of the cheerleading squad arrived.
Everyone at school usually wore their school uniforms. It was rare to see the cheerleading uniforms, so before the game even started, everyone’s attention was already drawn to them.
The sports committee member from Class 9 had given Qiu Ruru a love letter not long ago. He was now staring at her, looking a little dazed.
Qiu Ruru noticed his gaze but quickly looked away after only a glance.
The girl next to her noticed and nudged Qiu Ruru’s arm with her elbow. “Ruru, look at the captain of Class 9. He’s been staring at you.”
Qiu Ruru awkwardly adjusted her hair and subconsciously looked at Gu Minghui.
He was standing with his team, discussing their strategy for the game.
With a whistle, the game began.
The screams of the girls in the audience could almost break through the roof of the gym, wave after wave. Qiu Ruru’s eyes were fixed on the number “9” on the back of his jersey. She couldn’t look away.
She watched Gu Minghui break through the defense again and again, jumping in the air, a gentle flick of his wrist, and a score.
This triggered an even louder round of cheers.
“Go Class 1! Class 1 is the best!” The students around her shouted, their voices almost hoarse.
Gu Minghui scored another three-pointer!
The score gap widened again.
He held the shooting pose, then suddenly turned his head and looked at Qiu Ruru, past the crowd in the stands. He raised his chin and winked at her.
He was arrogant and proud.
Qiu Ruru smiled and waved the pom-poms in her hand at him.
During halftime, it was the cheerleading squad’s turn to perform. A group of girls pushed Qiu Ruru toward the court. Everyone was excited to perform in front of so many students.
Qiu Ruru stood at the very end, dancing along with everyone else. It was a simple routine they had practiced for three days.
She heard the constant sound of cameras clicking from the side.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Gu Minghui’s bright smile. He was covered in sweat, lying on the ground, holding a camera he had presumably snatched from someone, and was taking a ton of pictures of her.
Qiu Ruru quickly turned her head and glared at him, mouthing the words, “Idiot! Stop taking pictures!”
Gu Minghui’s smile grew even wider. He slowly mouthed back, “I won’t.”
When the dance was over, Qiu Ruru handed her pom-poms to a classmate and walked straight toward Gu Minghui. He was sitting, and she was standing.
She was looking down at him.
“Give it to me,” she said, holding out her hand.
“Huh?”
“The camera.”
“Why? They’re really good pictures,” Gu Minghui said with a smile, drawing out the end of his words in a lazy, playful way that made her heart flutter.
“I don’t care. It’s so silly. You have to delete them now.”
Qiu Ruru crouched down to try and grab the camera from his hand. Gu Minghui leaned back even further, stretching his arm out straight, just out of her reach.
“Gu Minghui!”
She had just shouted his name when another male voice came from behind her. “Qiu Ruru.”
She froze and turned her head to see the sports committee member from Class 9. He had just finished playing half the game, and his hair was wet. The tall, well-built guy stood in front of her.
“Oh,” she replied and turned around, still crouching.
She didn’t notice that her body was leaning forward slightly, and the cheerleading uniform had a low neckline, so it was easy for her to expose herself from that angle.
Qiu Ruru still didn’t realize it. Gu Minghui grabbed the back of her shirt collar. He was still in the same position, legs splayed out, sitting.
He was just holding the back of her collar, pulling the whole shirt backward.
“What are you doing?” Gu Minghui asked, raising his chin at the sports committee member from Class 9. “Her big brother is right here. Show some respect.”
Qiu Ruru finally realized what was happening. She quickly covered her chest with her hand. Gu Minghui let go of her, and she stood up quickly.
The sports committee member scratched his head awkwardly. “No, no. I just wanted to ask you if you had time to grab dinner with me after class.”
Qiu Ruru was stunned. “Huh?”
“I... I really like you and wanted to get to know you.”
Qiu Ruru wasn’t used to this kind of situation. The sports committee member from Class 9 was actually pretty handsome, the sunny boy type. But Qiu Ruru already had a crush on someone and didn’t know how to reject him.
She had to turn to Gu Minghui for help.
Gu Minghui stretched, a towel hanging around his neck. He turned his head to wipe the sweat from his forehead and said with a smile, “We’re in the middle of a game. What’s with you trying to pick up a girl from our class? She was just cheering for me, you know.”
The sports committee member looked at him. They had played basketball together before and were on good terms, so he also laughed. “It’s friendship first, competition second.”
“Bullshit! You can touch your heart and tell me if you’re thinking about ‘friendship’ right now,” Gu Minghui said, pointing to his chest.
The sports committee member “tsk-ed.”
Qiu Ruru secretly pinched Gu Minghui.
Gu Minghui said, “But it really won’t work today. She has plans. You’ll just have to wait in line.”
The second half of the game began.
The game ended with Class 1 winning by an 8-point margin.
Everyone cheered and hugged each other.
Qiu Ruru took out the bottled water she had bought from her bag. As she was about to walk down the stands, she saw a girl run up to Gu Minghui and hand him a bottle of water with a smile.
It was loud and chaotic all around them, and everyone was laughing.
She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she could tell they were having a pleasant conversation.
But Gu Minghui was an expert at handling beautiful girls who liked him. He would say one witty thing after another, a string of sweet-talk.
Qiu Ruru was used to it.
But for some reason, she felt a little sad today.
She stood there and watched for a while. Someone next to her shouted, “Ruru! Let’s go get dinner together later!”
She snapped out of it, calmly put the water bottle back in her bag, and zipped it up.
“I’m not going. I’m going home now.”
________________________________________
Three days later, Gu Minghui had another new girlfriend.
Qiu Ruru was at the noodle shop across from the school when the two of them walked in.
The new girlfriend stood behind him and obediently greeted Qiu Ruru. “Hello, senior.”
“Hello, hello. Just call me Ruru,” Qiu Ruru said with a smile. As soon as the girl wasn’t looking, she leaned in and whispered to Gu Minghui, “You player, you’re ruining another person.”
Gu Minghui shrugged, looking completely unbothered.
In the middle of their meal, Gu Minghui went to pay, leaving just Qiu Ruru and the new girlfriend at the table.
The new girlfriend leaned in and asked quietly, “I heard from a classmate that senior used to have a lot of girlfriends. Is that true?”
She was a first-year, so she didn’t know anything about Gu Minghui’s past.
“...”
Qiu Ruru felt a little conflicted. She couldn’t betray her friend, but she also couldn’t lie to this young girl and tell her that Gu Minghui was a good guy.
Qiu Ruru felt like she was a regular Virgin Mary, worrying about her crush and his girlfriend.
“Well, him...” Qiu Ruru pressed her hand to her forehead. “He has had a lot of girlfriends. But I think he really likes you. Maybe you’ll be the last one.”
The young girl was very happy to hear that.
But that didn’t change the fact that Gu Minghui was a player. Less than a month later, the young master was single again.
During the summer break after their second year of high school, Gu Minghui had a big fight with his family.
Gu Minghui’s father decided to send him abroad to get a degree after he graduated. After all, with his attitude, he wouldn’t do well on the college entrance exam, and there was no hope for him to get into a university in China.
Gu Minghui didn’t want to go and refused.
In a fit of rage, his father cut off his bank cards. Gu Minghui was a big spender, and the money he had left was quickly gone. The young master was left with nothing.
“I’m going to have to sell my body,” Gu Minghui said to Qiu Ruru when they were at a bubble tea shop over the weekend.
“Oh, your looks. You’ll make people sick to their stomachs,” Qiu Ruru said, rolling her eyes with genuine sincerity as she did her summer homework.
“You’re full of crap. Is my face not attractive?” Gu Minghui asked, pointing at himself.
Qiu Ruru held out her hand to him.
Gu Minghui leaned in.
Qiu Ruru patted his face twice and, with her thumb and forefinger against his chin like a hooligan, tilted his face to the side. “Your attractiveness... is average.”
“Get lost.”
“But did your dad really cut off your cards? Maybe you should just apologize and go home. You can’t last very long like this,” Qiu Ruru said.
“It doesn’t matter to me whether I go abroad or not. I’m just living my life. I just don’t like it when they make decisions for me without telling me anything. It’s so fucking authoritarian.”
Qiu Ruru put her homework back in her backpack, wrapped her arm around Gu Minghui’s shoulder, and stood up. “Standing right there, you’re a living statue of the god of freedom.”
Gu Minghui, of his own accord, took her backpack and slung it over one shoulder.
“Are you sleeping in a hotel again tonight?”
“What else?”
“Do you have enough money?” Qiu Ruru asked. “Should I go get you a room?”
“I have enough money for that,” Gu Minghui said with a smile. “You think I spent all my money that quickly? I booked a room for half a month.”
“Yeah, you’re so good with money,” Qiu Ruru said, giving him a sideways glance. “That money is enough for rent for over a month.”
Gu Minghui “tsk-ed” again.
That summer, because he was broke, Gu Minghui didn’t go to as many expensive activities as he used to. He also didn’t date anyone. Qiu Ruru would even go to his hotel to hang out with him when she was bored.
That wasteful boy was staying in a presidential suite.
Qiu Ruru was truly speechless.
When Gu Minghui had a girlfriend, she rarely hung out with him. Even if she did, she was very careful to maintain the boundary of being just friends. But she still felt guilty, after all, she was the one with the bad intentions in her heart.
That summer was probably the one where she and Gu Minghui were the closest.
They would lie on a couch together and watch movies. Qiu Ruru would cry her eyes out watching romance movies. Gu Minghui was completely speechless, unable to understand what was so sad about them. He could only mechanically hand her one tissue after another.
She would also get scared half to death watching horror movies. Her fear would turn into anger, and Gu Minghui would be the one to suffer.
But he still loved to tease her. Qiu Ruru getting angry was so much fun.
Gu Minghui would get hit by her and still couldn’t stop laughing.
One time, they were watching a very popular Thai movie from their school days, “A Little Thing Called Love.”
The boy was the most popular and handsome in school, and countless girls liked him. The female lead was a very ordinary girl who, through hard work, grew and got closer to the boy.
It was completely different from her and Gu Minghui’s situation. Qiu Ruru wasn’t so humble, nor did she work so hard to get closer to her crush like the female lead.
She didn’t have the courage, but she was luckier. She didn’t have to work hard to become an inseparable friend of Gu Minghui.
But she still cried her eyes out.
Gu Minghui had never seen her cry like that. She started crying almost halfway through the movie and didn’t stop until it ended.
“Oh, are your eyes a faucet?” He pulled out a large wad of tissues and handed them to her. “Are you... touched? Because of your secret crush?”
Qiu Ruru, her voice thick with tears, threw the tissues at him. “Get lost.”
“No, don’t,” Gu Minghui said, shamelessly squeezing in next to her. “Tell me who this loser is that made you cry so much. I’ll beat him up!”
Qiu Ruru raised her hand and lightly slapped his face.
“What the hell, why did you hit me?” Gu Minghui sighed again. “But really, what’s the point? He’s just a guy. So what? There are guys everywhere. Why does it have to be him?”
Yeah, why does it have to be this idiot?
Qiu Ruru thought to herself, looking at him.
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