Before getting on the road, Su Man pulled out her phone to check it.

There were two messages from Li Li asking when she’d arrive.

And her chat window with Lu Yuwen was still sitting on the “Good morning” exchange they’d had earlier that day.

Su Man stared at the rather sparse chat screen, thought for a moment, and began typing a message to Lu Yuwen:

*”I’m heading out to the cinema now…”*

She typed those words into the text field, then stopped.

Suddenly telling him her whereabouts — and that she was going to see a movie with another man — was that… appropriate?

She was seeing a movie; why did she feel the need to tell him specifically? What was the point?

She pressed her lips together and deleted the words one by one.

Then typed again:

*”What are you up to…”*

She hadn’t even finished, but the tone felt a little blunt, so she deleted that too and changed it to:

*”Are you busy today?”*

Su Man lightly bit her lower lip, and deleted that as well.

No matter what she wrote, it felt unnatural.

They usually only messaged each other in the morning and evening. Maybe it would be better to wait until he sent his “goodnight” later, and then find a less abrupt way to start a conversation from there…

With that thought, Su Man finally put her phone down and started the car.

……

By the time she reached the cinema, the movie was about to start.

The moment Li Li saw her, he complained, “What took you so long? I’ve been waiting forever.”

Su Man looked at him strangely. “Didn’t you tell me to come at three?”

“You could have come a little early,” Li Li said, already striding toward the ticketing machine, urging her along. “I booked the tickets online — they need to be exchanged for digital tickets in advance. Check your phone, you should have gotten a verification code for a VIP voucher — it lets you reserve VIP seats next time.”

Su Man didn’t understand any of this. She frowned and dug through her phone, but couldn’t find the message — the verification code had probably been flagged as spam and shunted off to the junk folder.

When she’d gone to the cinema with Lu Yuwen before, it hadn’t been this complicated.

She patiently tracked down the code and sent it to Li Li, then followed him to the screening hall.

He was just about to go through the ticket gate when Su Man grabbed his arm and asked, “We’re just going straight in?”

Li Li gave her a thoroughly baffled look. “…Do you need to use the bathroom? Go quickly then, I’ll wait here.”

Su Man pointed at the large cups of cola in the hands of a young couple nearby. “We’re not getting drinks?”

“I’m not thirsty.” Li Li shook his head. “If you want something, go ahead — no need to get one for me. I don’t drink stuff like that.”

Su Man: “……”

Li Li: “If you’re going, hurry up — the movie’s about to start.”

Su Man pressed her lips to one side and turned to buy a drink.

She wasn’t really thirsty either, but it was a two-hour movie — what if she got thirsty in the middle?

She got a cup of iced tea, and then remembered Lu Yuwen saying that girls shouldn’t have cold drinks — at the cinema, he’d exchanged her order for a hot drink.

Should she swap it?

She was still debating when she heard Li Li calling from the ticket gate: “Are you done? How long does it take to buy a drink?”

Su Man: “……”

Fine.

She didn’t want to fight today.

Su Man picked up her iced tea, walked quickly back to the gate, and went in together with Li Li.

The movie had already started, but it was all advertisements at the front, so they hadn’t actually missed anything. They found their seats and settled in, then quietly watched the film.

Once she sat down, Su Man realized it was a romance.

With a slight sci-fi element — it was about a man and a woman from different parallel worlds falling in love, a little comedic and a little melancholy. The moment the female lead appeared on screen, Su Man immediately understood why Li Li had chosen this film.

Because it starred his idol, Zhu Shu.

But the problem was —

Zhu Shu was *his* idol, not hers. If you’re inviting someone to the movies, shouldn’t you at least pick something *they’d* want to see?

—