Ignoring Zhou Ming’s stunned expression, Tan Yin went on, “As long as you have a girlfriend, doesn’t that instantly slap Duan Yingfei and that rumor-mongering poster in the face? That post kept claiming you were hopelessly in love with Duan Yingfei and brazenly declared you’d keep pestering her — so why don’t we do the opposite and give them a feast of slaps?”
Zhou Ming clearly couldn’t keep up with Tan Yin’s train of thought. “Huh? What?”
“Just deleting the post won’t work — people will only think you’re trying to cover something up. The only way is for you to quickly announce you’re with me, and clarify that the only person you’ve ever liked is me. This whole business of liking Duan Yingfei simply never happened, and the ‘pestering’ is nothing but their own self-important delusion.”
Tan Yin said firmly, “You have to completely deny it — that you never liked her at all, that you like me — and throw this black pot they’ve pinned on you right back at them. That’s the most forceful rebuttal and clarification there is! Deny the rumor at its source, and we can even steer public opinion so everyone thinks it’s entirely Duan Yingfei flattering herself into believing you liked her — that she’s the one being delusional and paranoid, imagining you’re pestering her because you couldn’t win her over. Meanwhile you’re actually innocent and devoted to me, and she’s the one who came out of nowhere trying to insert herself into a drama that isn’t hers!”
Zhou Ming listened, thoroughly dazed, but he still quickly zeroed in on the key issue: “This would definitely clear my name — but what about you? You’d end up, out of nowhere, having dated me…”
“So what? It’s just one extra ex-boyfriend for me, but it clears your name completely — what’s not to like? Afterward we can say we’re better off as friends, break up amicably, and go back to being friends. Simple.”
Zhou Ming still felt this wasn’t right. “But going about it with such a big show — once you graduate, pretty much everyone from our school will know you had me as an ex. I know it’s a modern world and having a few exes is normal, but people still tend to judge guys and girls with exes differently — there’s still a double standard. You’ve never even dated anyone, and now out of nowhere I’d be taking your first-relationship spot. I don’t think that’s good for you.”
“You worry too much about other people.” Tan Yin looked entirely unconcerned. “I don’t have anyone right now, so why does it matter? A friend in trouble — I’ve got your back!”
“Didn’t you used to chase after Chu Hang?” Zhou Ming still wasn’t convinced. He tried to reason with her. “If we suddenly get together like this and Chu Hang finds out, won’t that ruin any chance you had with him? If you really like him, you absolutely shouldn’t joke around with something like this. I’ll handle my own problem — I don’t want to drag you down.”
“Chu Hang’s already off the market, damn it! Just not with me!” Bringing this up made something sour twist in Tan Yin’s chest, but she pretended not to care. “Anyway, I was never all that serious about chasing him in the first place — didn’t like him that much. If he’s found someone, fine, he’s found someone. Besides, who knows — if he hears I’ve announced I’m dating you, maybe he’ll secretly breathe a sigh of relief, thinking I’ve got a boyfriend now too and won’t keep pestering him!”
No matter how much Zhou Ming disagreed, once Tan Yin decided to do something, she moved like an unstoppable force — nobody could stop her. She didn’t even bother trying to convince him further. Zhou Ming was soft-hearted by nature, so Tan Yin simply forced the matter into a done deal.
She grabbed Zhou Ming without giving him a chance to object, forced him to take a photo with her, and in no time at all had it posted to her WeChat Moments —
“Ten years of friendship, finally turned to love. The one who was with me the first time I saw a shooting star was you. The one who was with me the first time I ate ice cream was you. The one who was with me the first time I flew a kite was you. The one who was with me the first time I went to a con was you. And the one who was with me for my first relationship — is also you. My youth started with you. It turns out the best kind of love was here beside me all along.”
After typing up this sentimental little passage, Tan Yin immediately attached the photo the two of them had just taken, then hit send.
Once it was posted, she thought it over, quickly took a screenshot, and sent it to Jiang Yilu.
Jiang Yilu was clearly stunned and quickly fired back a string of question marks: “??? Did you lose a bet and this is a dare???”
“Not a dare. Anyway, help me spread this around in your gossip network.”
Jiang Yilu was obviously full of questions. As soon as Tan Yin got back to the dorm, she came right up to ask, “Didn’t you just tell me not long ago that you still had feelings for Chu Hang? What’s this whole thing about now?”
Tan Yin gave her the whole story in brief, and Jiang Yilu finally began to understand. “Fine, it’s fine, but have you really thought this through?”
Tan Yin waved a hand. “Thought it through. It’s just an extra ex-boyfriend for me — meanwhile Zhou Ming gets to clear his name of all that slander. What’s the downside?”
“But what if Chu Hang sees it?”
“Chu Hang doesn’t even like me. What would he think, even if he did see it?”
Jiang Yilu considered this and figured it made sense — Tan Yin’s logic really did hold up. Seeing that Tan Yin seemed perfectly natural about it, she relaxed and gave Tan Yin’s shoulder a pat. “Honestly, it’s not wrong of you to give up on Chu Hang. A guy like that, so coldly detached — bad choice for dating. Never responds to anything, worse than owning a virtual pet. Looking at him, his architectural blueprints are probably more important to him than any girlfriend. Date a guy like that and you’d have nothing but awkward silences, not even a topic to talk about — you’d never get to feel doted on at all! And I’ve had a realization lately — you shouldn’t date architecture majors in general. Right before every design assignment is due they vanish off the face of the earth. Much better to find a liberal arts guy…”
As Jiang Yilu talked, the topic drifted, shifting from comforting Tan Yin into an impromptu Xu Yu Appreciation Session: “Like law students, for instance — sure, it’s liberal arts, but they’re not sour like Chinese majors. At least they’re down to earth, because of their field they pay attention to major social issues and current events, they’re not detached from society. If you ask me, you should find yourself a warm, sunny guy like Xu Yu — lively, someone who can keep up with whatever joke or reference you throw out…”
“Okay, okay.” Tan Yin was thoroughly sick of the wave of adoration radiating off Jiang Yilu. “So how’s it going with your sunny boy Xu Yu?”
Jiang Yilu shot her a look. “Slow and steady — everything’s progressing nicely. Just you wait — once I land Xu Yu, I’ll have him introduce you to someone just like him. Then the four of us can go on double dates…”
…
That was getting a little too far ahead of things.
Tan Yin quickly cut Jiang Yilu off before her imagination could wander any further — next thing she knew, Jiang Yilu would be planning an arranged marriage between their future children.
Having posted the photo to her Moments and had Jiang Yilu “promote” it, Tan Yin finally sat down, opened her textbook with a peaceful mind, and quietly waited for the gossip to ferment.
After about an hour, judging the timing to be about right, Tan Yin called Zhou Ming and arranged to meet up.
Once public opinion had had time to brew, it was time for some hard evidence.
It happened to be mealtime, so Tan Yin, without a second thought, arranged to meet Zhou Ming in the dining hall — crowded, high foot traffic, constant turnover — the perfect environment for gossip to ferment and spread.
Zhou Ming clearly had no idea what was going on, but before he could even process it, Tan Yin had already dragged him along. She ordered two meals without asking, found the most conspicuous seat available, sat down, and began her performance.
She’d put on makeup specially for the occasion, and now her face was full of sweet smiles. Carefully, she speared a piece of sweet-and-sour pork with her fork and held it gently to Zhou Ming’s mouth, her voice syrupy sweet: “Here, honey, let me feed you.”
Zhou Ming jumped, startled. He’d just opened his mouth to ask what on earth was going on when Tan Yin kicked him warningly under the table and shot him a fierce look loaded with meaning. He finally didn’t dare act rashly and could only sit there stiffly.
Tan Yin lowered her voice with a pointed hint: “Cooperate! Open your mouth!”
Awkward and embarrassed as he was, Zhou Ming was a docile person by nature, and under Tan Yin’s pressure he was finally forced to open his mouth. Tan Yin, in turn, resumed her tender little-girlfriend smile and gently fed him the piece of pork.
“Have a piece of potato too, honey — I remember it’s your favorite.”
Zhou Ming was furious but didn’t dare say so, only muttering under his breath, “Since when do I like potatoes…”
Still, faced with Tan Yin’s deadly smile, he had no choice but to open his mouth and unwillingly swallow the piece of curry potato.
After the potato, Tan Yin pressed on relentlessly, spearing green pepper, chicken, loofah, kelp…
This exaggerated couple’s feeding routine of Tan Yin’s immediately drew the attention of the people around them. Zhou Ming, forced to eat under the burning scrutiny of dozens of eyes, was subjected to Tan Yin’s frantic hinting glances — she’d look at him, then look at the food in front of him, back and forth.
Zhou Ming sighed, knowing there was no escaping this. Resigned to his fate, he picked up his own fork, imitated Tan Yin’s manner, forced a smile, speared a piece of chicken, and held it out to her. “Tan Yin, y-you eat too…”
Tan Yin, without missing a beat, shot Zhou Ming a flirtatious glance and calmly ate the piece of chicken.
…
It was the peak mealtime rush, the dining hall packed with people coming and going. Tan Yin had deliberately chosen a conspicuous spot, and this brazen display of “public affection” had people passing by constantly sneaking glances out of the corners of their eyes. To Tan Yin’s great satisfaction, some of them had already begun whispering among themselves.
Her arm was tired from holding up the fork so much, but this advertising campaign was well worth it!
Though this whispering satisfied Tan Yin, to certain other ears it wasn’t so pleasant.
Chu Hang had just handed Anna off to Zhang Chen and was heading to the dining hall for a meal when he ran straight into this scene — Tan Yin sitting there without a shred of self-consciousness, raising her fork to feed Zhou Ming across from her bite after bite, her face lit up with a sweet, intoxicated smile, her gaze soft and focused entirely on Zhou Ming’s eyes, her whole face practically glowing, lips red and teeth white, eyes brimming with tender warmth — though no matter how Chu Hang looked at that warmth, something about it rubbed him the wrong way.
He got his food and sat down at a table diagonally across from Tan Yin, pressing his lips together, and that’s when he heard the chatter from the surrounding tables.
“Hey, hey, that’s Zhou Ming from the law school! The one who’s been pestering Duan Yingfei…”
“No way, I heard he likes Tan Yin — his childhood friend. Look, isn’t she sitting right across from him? They were just being all sweet, feeding each other — it’s blinding. As a single person I don’t even feel worthy of eating in the dining hall right now.”
“Tan Yin? Why does that name sound so familiar!”
“She’s the one from the architecture department who hung the banner! The one who jumped off a building for Chu Hang! I heard Zhou Ming’s been by her side this whole time, and now it looks like the clouds have finally cleared and the moon’s come out. Tan Yin chased Chu Hang for ages, never seemed to give up, but Chu Hang was so cold she couldn’t get anywhere with him, so she must’ve finally accepted reality and come to her senses. How does that poem go? Something about cherishing the one right in front of you — so she quickly got together with Zhou Ming.”
“But didn’t people say Zhou Ming was harassing Duan Yingfei?”
“No way, that’s got to have been a rumor. Look how sweet Zhou Ming and Tan Yin are together, and I heard they grew up together as childhood sweethearts — more than ten years of history. Going from friends to lovers, that’s actually kind of nice.”
“…Looks like Tan Yin’s true love was Zhou Ming after all, not Chu Hang…”
“Shh, keep it down, Chu Hang’s…”
A few girls were chattering away over the gossip, and one of them seemed to finally spot Chu Hang sitting not far off. She quickly signaled the others to hush, and their voices finally dropped.
They quieted down — but Chu Hang’s mind did not.
There’d been a lot packed into that conversation, but Chu Hang only registered one fact: Tan Yin and Zhou Ming were together.
If he hadn’t witnessed Tan Yin and Zhou Ming putting on this live show of affection in the dining hall right now, Chu Hang would have brushed off talk like this without a second thought, assuming it was nothing but rumor. But…
But right now, Tan Yin and Zhou Ming really were, without the slightest concern for anyone watching, laying it on thick.
“Didn’t you say you’d wait to eat with me? Why’d you just bury your head and start eating on your own?”
Just as Chu Hang was lost in thought, Xu Yu’s voice came from behind him. He clapped Chu Hang on the shoulder and sat down with his own tray.
He grinned. “Should I be congratulating you?”
Chu Hang was somewhat distracted. “For what?”
Xu Yu glanced toward Tan Yin and Zhou Ming and tilted his chin in their direction. “Your obsessive admirer, Tan Yin. Looks like she’s off the market now. No more worrying about her harassing you, and no more worrying about ending up in one of those spiteful comics.”
Xu Yu meant it sincerely as a congratulations, but he noticed Chu Hang didn’t seem to show any happiness about it at all. Figuring Chu Hang genuinely just didn’t care one way or the other, Xu Yu didn’t dwell on it and quickly switched topics, launching into a rundown of a few recent soccer matches he’d watched.
“That match was played terribly. Was Ronaldo sleepwalking through the whole game? And also…”
Xu Yu was just hitting his stride when Chu Hang suddenly cut in —
“Is Zhou Ming from your law school?”
Xu Yu blinked, taking a moment to catch up with the sudden leap in topic. “Yeah, why?”
Chu Hang took a small, deliberately casual sip of his soup, feigning total ignorance. “Oh, I heard he was after Duan Yingfei — just wondering what kind of person he is.”
Xu Yu suddenly understood. He explained, “There were rumors before that he was chasing Duan Yingfei, some detailed story about him harassing and pestering her, but it’s not true at all — look, isn’t he sitting right there across from Tan Yin?” He pointed toward Zhou Ming not far off. “That’s Zhou Ming, same year as me. Bit introverted, but a decent guy, pretty solid, reliable, and his grades are good too. I’ve actually been wondering how that weird rumor even got started. But now that he’s with Tan Yin, I guess that’s proof enough it wasn’t true…”
“Reliable?” Chu Hang gave a cold little laugh. “Feeding each other like that so shamelessly in a public place like the dining hall, with no regard for anyone around — I don’t see what’s reliable about that.” He finished, cast a cold glance at Zhou Ming and Tan Yin, and added, “Sickeningly sweet, though, I’ll give him that.”
“…”
Xu Yu glanced silently at Tan Yin and Zhou Ming and reflexively defended them: “They’re a couple, aren’t they? Isn’t that normal? Besides, they only just got together — still in the honeymoon phase. Isn’t it natural for them to be all lovey-dovey?” Then, as if remembering something, he added, “Didn’t I hear you’ve got someone too?”
At that, Chu Hang did show a flicker of unease, and he reflexively denied it: “What are you talking about.”
Xu Yu looked puzzled. “Isn’t it true? Duan Yingfei’s been pestering me all morning, crying about how you have no heart, ignoring your childhood friend to go be with some American girl instead. What was her name, Anna? Where is she? Duan Yingfei also said you personally sent her a love letter confessing your feelings. I’m honestly curious what kind of person could have that much charm to make you take the initiative like that — when are you bringing her around so I can meet her?”
Chu Hang’s expression had been tense a moment ago, but hearing this, he relaxed and returned to his usual unruffled composure. Without even looking up, he said, “Anna is a Chinese-American classmate from my exchange program in the US. She’s here on a research project about Chinese architecture, and I did my part as a host. As for the love letter you’re talking about, that wasn’t written by me.”
Xu Yu’s curiosity was piqued. “Then who wrote it?”
“My roommate, Zhang Chen,” Chu Hang said calmly. “I had something to do one day and asked him to accompany Anna to the art museum to look at the architecture. Turns out it was love at first sight for him, but he’s too timid, so he begged me to help pass along the letter. Now he’s finally worked up the courage and asked her out — they should be eating at some restaurant off campus right now. Not sure if it’ll work out.”
Xu Yu finally understood. No wonder Chu Hang had been so venomous watching Tan Yin and Zhou Ming’s display — he’d been triggered. Everyone around him was pairing off while he remained single — of course his psychological balance was thrown off. Xu Yu thought it over and swallowed whatever else he’d meant to say to Chu Hang.
Throughout the meal, Chu Hang ate absentmindedly, and Xu Yu was equally distracted, checking his phone every so often. Before long, he made an excuse and left early.
That left Chu Hang alone, watching Tan Yin and Zhou Ming while eating slowly, one deliberate bite at a time. His table manners remained impeccably elegant, and yet there was something sharp in his eyes — if anything, he looked as though he were preparing to make a meal out of Zhou Ming himself.
Tan Yin, meanwhile, was completely unaware of Chu Hang’s gaze. Riding high on her public display of affection, she was like a giant beacon in the dining hall, drawing so much attention she had no time to spare wondering exactly whose eyes were on her.
“Showing off affection is exhausting.” She lifted her forearm with a sigh, feeling her muscles beginning to ache, and murmured in a voice only Zhou Ming could hear, “How do actual couples do this feeding-each-other thing all the time? Doesn’t your arm get tired? At this rate you’d wear your hand out before you got full.”
Zhou Ming looked helpless. “This is exactly why you shouldn’t have started this whole production. Look how many people are staring at us — it’s so embarrassing.”
“You don’t get it. That’s the whole point. Trust me, if we put on a couple more shows like this together, all those rumors about you will collapse on their own.”
Zhou Ming still didn’t approve, but all he could do was shake his head.
“Oh, get me another piece of the pork cutlet — all this fork-work is burning a lot of energy, I’m starving!” Tan Yin winked at Zhou Ming. “Go get it for me — it’ll help back up how in love we are, from another angle.”
Zhou Ming looked at Tan Yin, already tucking into her food with gusto, and resigned himself, getting up to line up at the counter for another pork cutlet.
But Tan Yin hadn’t expected that not long after Zhou Ming left, Chu Hang would show up at the dining hall too, and walk over to sit down across from her.
Tan Yin blinked, then greeted him with feigned composure. “What a coincidence, Chu Hang.”
“Not a coincidence. I was looking for you.”
“Huh?”
Chu Hang paused, looking away. “It’s about this — the paired-mentorship study group the department set up before. We need to submit the progress summary…”
Of course — when Chu Hang came looking for her on his own, it was almost always about some unavoidable official business.
Tan Yin nodded in understanding. “I already wrote that summary and handed it to the counselor. Don’t worry, it’s all sorted — I gave you the highest score too.”
Maybe it wasn’t what he expected, because Chu Hang seemed to choke a little. He paused before continuing, “Then — is there anything you’ve had trouble with lately in structural mechanics class? You can ask me.”
He must be feeling some guilt over not tutoring her recently…
Tan Yin quickly waved her hands. “I’m completely caught up with the course now, nothing I don’t understand, no problems at all. You go on with your own stuff, I’ll handle mine…”
“…”
At this point in the conversation, it was really time to wrap things up. Tan Yin lowered her head, shoveling rice into her mouth to cover her own awkwardness and the urge to look up, but as if determined to work against her, Chu Hang — who usually avoided her like the plague — remained solidly seated across from her.
He cleared his throat, his voice carrying an unnatural note as if forcing himself to find something to say: “Your appetite’s that good?”
Probably having come to talk business, and having now learned that Tan Yin had given him an “excellent” in her summary, he felt the need to make a bit of small talk afterward, the way people do when they don’t want to seem too purpose-driven. So Chu Hang chose to sit there a while longer, asking a few idle, meaningless questions.
Tan Yin kept her head down, refusing even to look at Chu Hang. Her heart felt sour — he’d already gotten together with someone else, and if she looked at him too long, she was afraid the old urge to chase him might flare up again, and that would be bad.
With that in mind, her answer came out full of nonsense: “You know, when things are going well, you’re always in a good mood. I just got off the market, so of course I’m happy — and when you’re happy, you eat more.”
Tan Yin had it all planned out. With that line, Chu Hang could smoothly go along and congratulate her on her new relationship, wish her happiness, and thus complete this whole little social exchange neatly, then happily go on his way, mission accomplished, everyone satisfied.
But she hadn’t expected that Chu Hang never played by the rules. He was silent for a moment, and instead of offering congratulations, he swerved the topic a hundred and eighty degrees: “You used to… do a lot for me. Have you really turned the page now?”
Tan Yin understood — so this was him coming to confirm whether she still harbored feelings. She lifted her head at once and said earnestly, “Chu Hang, when I was chasing you back then, I really did cause you a lot of trouble. I was young and foolish, and I didn’t understand yet that the best kind of love is often the kind you keep overlooking right beside you. I always had my head in the clouds, chasing after something that was never mine to begin with. But now I’ve come to understand — in life, you have to learn to let go before you can grasp the happiness right in front of you.”
Tan Yin didn’t even bother explaining away the misunderstanding about the jump, instead pressing forward along the line of reasoning Chu Hang had always assumed, afraid he wouldn’t believe her otherwise: “See, the fact that I jumped off that building for you back then just proves it was an immature, impulsive kind of feeling — completely one-sided on my part. We were never on equal footing to begin with. But with Zhou Ming, it’s exactly right, naturally arrived at — we love each other equally. Nobody has to jump off a building for the other; there’s only warmth and steadiness between us.”
Whether or not her explanation had landed properly, Chu Hang’s expression, instead of showing any relief, only grew darker.
He looked off toward another table with feigned indifference. “Oh, do all you girls swing between such extremes with your feelings?”
Tan Yin didn’t quite follow. “Hm?”
Chu Hang cleared his throat, and this time he finally shifted his gaze from the other table back to her — though after a brief glance, he quickly looked away again. “I mean, not long ago you were ready to die for one person, and then after one night’s sleep, suddenly you like someone else entirely.”
Chu Hang actually cared enough to ask this kind of thing? Tan Yin, taken aback, could only chalk it up to Chu Hang being in the anxious, insecure phase of a fresh relationship — especially since he and Anna were now in a long-distance, cross-country relationship, having only just gotten together before she had to fly back to the US. Worrying she might suddenly fall for someone else during the long separation wasn’t hard to understand.
“Don’t worry, unless a girl’s been through something traumatic, that kind of thing usually doesn’t happen. Most people’s feelings are pretty steadfast.”
Chu Hang looked directly at Tan Yin this time. “So what happened to you, then?”
Tan Yin blinked, momentarily flustered under his gaze. “Me? I just — I just had an epiphany, you know? Jumping off a building once and getting struck by lightning once — that’s basically dying a couple of times over. When you’ve been on the edge of life and death, it’s easier to see things clearly…” Tan Yin smoothed her hair and lowered her eyes. “Besides, weren’t you sick of me anyway?”
“No.”
“Huh?”
Chu Hang pressed his lips together. “I wasn’t sick of you.”
That upbringing and refinement of his really was something else — hearing him say something that polite, Tan Yin almost started to believe it.
“You—”
But before Chu Hang could say more, Zhou Ming’s voice interrupted, cutting him off: “Tan Yin, you didn’t look full, so I went ahead and got you two pieces of pork cutlet — these were the last two at the counter. The guy behind me in line looked ready to glare his eyeballs right out of his head…”
Zhou Ming trailed off mid-sentence when he noticed Chu Hang sitting across from her. Shyness winning out in the presence of a stranger, he pressed his lips together, smiled a little at Chu Hang, and said nothing more.
“Quick, quick, give me the cutlet, I’m starving to death.” The pork cutlet at A University’s dining hall had always ranked among the top dishes, and the moment Tan Yin caught its scent, her eyes lit up and she lost all restraint, taking it from him and digging in without a shred of self-consciousness. Zhou Ming could only offer Chu Hang an apologetic smile, saying awkwardly, since he couldn’t think of anything else, “She just really likes meat.”
This was the usual dynamic between Tan Yin and Zhou Ming — the two of them had grown up together, had witnessed nearly every joy and sorrow the other had gone through, had grown up together through adolescence. Though they weren’t related by blood, they each felt the other was like family. But watching this scene, to Chu Hang’s eyes, it didn’t look like family affection at all — it looked like something else entirely.
Such shameless intimacy — outrageous!
Even if they were childhood friends, even after being friends for all those years, to switch identities to a couple just like that and slip into the role so quickly? When she’d first chased after him, she’d claimed it was love at first sight, deepening with every glance, an obsession for life — and yet he hadn’t even shown the slightest response, and in a flash she’d run off to be with someone else! Utterly incomprehensible!
Chu Hang thought bitterly to himself that Duan Yingfei had actually been right about one thing — people who jumped off buildings for love weren’t really in love to that extreme; it was performative, self-moved by their own drama. When it came to being ruthless, they could turn on a dime faster than anyone. Their love was like a tornado — arriving fast, and gone just as fast.
Chu Hang thought he never should have kept those love letters Tan Yin had sent him, and he definitely shouldn’t have had nothing better to do than sort them all in chronological order. The only saving grace was that he’d held onto his self-restraint and never opened them to read.
This woman hadn’t spoken a single true word. She’d sworn up and down she loved him hopelessly, and then turned right around and became a “ten-year friendship turned true love” story with Zhou Ming?
Ha.
Since ancient times, friends and lovers had always occupied clearly separate territory. What good could come of switching a friend straight into a lover’s role? Wouldn’t it just end in a breakup, unable even to go back to being friends?
Chu Hang thought, let’s just see how long it takes for you two to break up.