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Li Kuiyi had once discussed with Fang Zhixiao why He Youyuan called her “Sour-faced Pineapple.”

The “sour-faced” part was easy to understand — it was simply an objective description. But what did “pineapple” mean?

Li Kuiyi thought it over carefully and said: “The first time he saw me, I was wearing that yellow-and-white striped sleeveless top. I suppose I probably looked a lot like a pineapple.”

Fang Zhixiao disagreed. Impossible, she said — that’s far too literal. She furrowed her brows in thought for a moment, then had a sudden revelation: “I’ve got it! Think about a pineapple — it wears a crown on its head and armor on its body, which makes it appear incredibly powerful. But inside, the flesh is crisp and sweet and juicy, which means its heart is delicate and soft. It’s a metaphor! It speaks to the image he sees in you — like that expression, what was it again — oh right, ‘a tiger in the heart, gently sniffing the rose.'”

Li Kuiyi: “……”

What a shame you don’t get full marks in reading comprehension.

He Youyuan was clearly someone of simple disposition — the idea that he could have thought of something as layered as “a tiger in the heart, gently sniffing the rose” was laughable.

But Fang Zhixiao was convinced that “pineapple” was a very high compliment. After analyzing it thoroughly, she spread her hands and arrived once again at that ultimate conclusion: “See? He likes you.”

Li Kuiyi didn’t refute it in the moment, but quietly thought: next time something like this comes up, it might be better not to tell Fang Zhixiao. Her capacity for creative embellishment could rival even Nüwa who patched the heavens.

It was precisely because Fang Zhixiao believed in this romance more firmly than Li Kuiyi herself did that, upon seeing He Youyuan’s school jacket draped across Xia Leyi’s shoulders, she couldn’t help feeling a flare of indignant jealousy on her dear friend’s behalf.

Hmph! What a two-timing cad.

Xia Leyi and Zhou Fanghua had no idea that Fang Zhixiao’s “pineapple” meant anything at all, and given her calm tone, they didn’t think much of it. Xia Leyi instead asked curiously: “Pineapple? Why would you think he liked pineapple?”

Fang Zhixiao bore no ill will toward Xia Leyi — in fact, she wanted to warn her: Sweetie, with looks like yours, you could have any guy you wanted. Don’t get taken in by one measly school jacket from some rascal.

“One time in our class during chemistry, he drew a pineapple on his exam paper and got caught by the chemistry teacher. So I just assumed he liked pineapples — I mean, why else would he draw one, right?”

Li Kuiyi: “……”

He Youyuan: “……”

Xia Leyi understood now. She pressed her lips into a smile: “I see.” Then she looked at He Youyuan. “So your bad habit of doodling in class still hasn’t improved.”

He Youyuan’s mouth twitched awkwardly. “Can’t help it,” he said.

He could tell that Fang Zhixiao’s little speech had been barbed and directed at him — and he knew exactly why.

She was standing up for Pineapple.

She — was jealous again, was she?

But strangely, the last time Li Kuiyi had been jealous over him, he’d been delighted beyond measure — if he’d had a tail, he would have wagged it straight up to the sky. This time, however, he felt only a dull heaviness, and even a faint sting of grievance.

Li Kuiyi, do you really have to be jealous over something so petty?

He had lent Xia Leyi his jacket because she was genuinely cold. It was nothing more than a simple, friendly gesture between classmates. He swore there wasn’t a single ambiguous thought mixed into it.

He and Xia Leyi had known each other for three years. They were in the same class, seated one row apart. If there had ever been anything between them, they’d have gotten together long ago — there was no need to be sneaking around with little gestures now.

Zhang Chuang had once asked him: a girl that good-looking is right there in front of you, and it’s obvious she has a thing for you — why aren’t you pursuing it?

Honestly, He Youyuan didn’t know why either. He did think Xia Leyi was quite pretty, but he just couldn’t summon the motivation. Maybe it was because he’d never had much interest in romance to begin with. Since primary school, he’d watched Zhang Chuang in relationship after relationship — two people glued to each other doing homework, eating meals, watching movies, then phone calls that stretched three or four hours when they were apart. How incredibly dull.

And on top of that, when a girlfriend got upset, you had to coax her. He had no idea how to do that.

So he was perfectly happy being on his own, or hanging out with his friends.

He Youyuan cast a sullen glance at Li Kuiyi. Her expression was as composed as ever, but he noticed that her hand had quietly reached over and grabbed Fang Zhixiao’s, seemingly warning her not to say anything more.

He lowered his head again and smiled.

I already knew, you silly pineapple.

The McDonald’s was not very crowded. While they lined up to order, He Youyuan stood behind Li Kuiyi and stared at her hair whorl for a long while. Then he reached out and gave her ponytail a gentle tug.

Li Kuiyi turned around.

The boy said nothing — he just tilted his chin upward, a faint smile resting at the corner of his mouth, and looked down at her with a casual, self-satisfied air.

What was he playing at? Trying to look cool?

Ugh — he didn’t think she liked him, did he?

Li Kuiyi was suddenly overtaken by the urge to strangle Fang Zhixiao. All that jealous insinuating she’d been doing — if it caused a misunderstanding, it would be a real problem. In reality, Li Kuiyi did not care in the slightest whose shoulders He Youyuan’s jacket ended up on. Even if it were Chen Guoming wearing it, she’d have no objection.

To make it absolutely clear that she did not like him, Li Kuiyi glared at him ferociously.

See? She’s still jealous, He Youyuan thought.

And so, when collecting their food, he casually took the large cup of cola from Li Kuiyi’s tray and tilted his head, dropping a single line: “You owe me.”

This person really holds a grudge, Li Kuiyi thought. She remembered that the last time she had given his cola away to Zhou Ce, she had already apologized to him.

Fine, if he wanted to take it, let him. She suddenly recalled that she’d told Zhou Fanghua and Xia Leyi that she didn’t like cola — if she walked over with the cup, she’d be contradicting herself.

But then He Youyuan abruptly turned back around and placed his McFlurry on her tray.

Li Kuiyi: “……”

Could someone please come and tell her what on earth he was doing?

One He Youyuan was already draining her mental energy, and now Fang Zhixiao — chewing on a piece of Chicken McNugget — had started idly complaining that they still had to go back to school for evening study that night, which was absolutely brutal, and how she missed the carefree days of middle school.

Zhou Fanghua casually asked: “Which middle school did you go to?”

Li Kuiyi’s hand, dipping a french fry, began to tremble almost imperceptibly. Fang Zhixiao threw He Youyuan a sidelong glance and said: “No. 158 Middle School.”

Sure enough, He Youyuan paused mid-sip of his cola and looked up. “You went to No. 158?”

“Yeah, why?” Fang Zhixiao blinked with feigned innocence.

“Nothing.” He Youyuan said.

After all, he had only spent less than a day at No. 158 — he had no real impression of the place. The only memory he had was of some kid with dyed yellow hair harassing a girl, and him stepping in to help. The girl had been fierce, too — once she had retied the straps of her small top, she’d grabbed a book and swung it straight at the yellow-haired boy’s head. The crack of it rang out, cutting through all the noise in the classroom.

He’d been startled himself.

When he’d recovered, he’d broken into a smile. Nice work.

He had then decided that if the yellow-haired kid dared to retaliate, he’d jump into the fight for her.

But the yellow-haired kid had apparently felt too embarrassed to do anything, and stomped off to the bathroom cursing under his breath.

Seeing that He Youyuan didn’t appear to have recalled anything, Fang Zhixiao dropped another deliberate hint: “You know, our middle school was pretty free-spirited, but the student quality was really all over the place. There were a lot of troublemakers. I remember that on our Li Kuiyi’s very first day, she ran into this kid with dyed yellow hair……”

“……”

Li Kuiyi nearly choked on a french fry.

He Youyuan nearly choked on his cola.

Both of them broke into violent coughing.

Fang Zhixiao left it at that and said no more. She scrambled to pull out several napkins, passed them to Li Kuiyi, patted her on the back to help her catch her breath, and asked with an expression of perfect innocence: “What happened? Are you okay?”

He Youyuan had been coughing hard enough that the corners of his eyes were wet, but he couldn’t stop himself from staring straight at Li Kuiyi. No way — that fierce girl was Sour-faced Pineapple?

He no longer remembered what that girl had looked like. Her head had been bowed the whole time at first, and when she’d finally stood up and fought back, she’d only left him a view of her profile, half-hidden behind her hair.

But that fierce manner of hers did remind him a little of Sour-faced Pineapple.

He Youyuan suddenly felt it was beyond belief.

It turned out that, even before he was aware of it, fate had already guided the two of them through an encounter, a crossing, and then a reunion.

How extraordinary.

The reason he had turned up at No. 158 on the first day of school was that he had known, if he enrolled at No. 1 Middle School, he’d be subjected to three years of strict supervision by his aunt, He Qiuming. So he had secretly changed his middle school lottery application. Of course, within half a day, his aunt had hauled him back to No. 1 and forced him to transfer.

If not for that mischievous impulse, he would never have met her.

Just as on the day before high school began, if he hadn’t wandered into an optician’s on a whim, he would never have run into her again.

Oh — but actually, he would have. Even without the optician’s, he and she would have crossed paths through Zhou Fanghua in the cafeteria, through Fang Zhixiao at the window of Class 12, through Qi Yu on the No. 6 bus……

You see, Li Kuiyi — you were always destined to meet me.

But had you recognized me?

After both of them had gradually calmed down, Zhou Fanghua looked on with concern, furrowing her brows: “Wait — what happened? Was everything okay?”

“Of course — is our Li Kuiyi the type to let herself be pushed around?” Fang Zhixiao deliberately glossed over the “hero saves the day” part and said with a certain smugness.

“That’s good.” Xia Leyi said. “But middle school really is such a chaotic period. People are still emotionally immature and rebellious, and because of compulsory education, there’s no way to filter out a certain type of person.”

“The truth is, academic level can’t filter out that type of person either……” Fang Zhixiao picked up the thread and launched into a lengthy discourse.

Only Li Kuiyi and He Youyuan sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts, biting into their burgers mechanically. The burgers had become utterly tasteless; only two overly active hearts needed the mechanical motion to soothe whatever restless, unnameable tension simmered between them.

After finishing lunch at McDonald’s, everyone said their goodbyes. Fang Zhixiao had woken up early and was now yawning continuously; she said she needed to go home and catch up on sleep. Xia Leyi also needed to go home to change. Zhou Fanghua planned to return to school to write her weekly journal. Only Li Kuiyi had no plans to go home — she intended to spend the afternoon at the city library.

Li Kuiyi, He Youyuan, and Zhou Fanghua were heading in the same direction.

At the school gates, Zhou Fanghua said her goodbyes too, saying she’d see them that evening. Li Kuiyi watched Zhou Fanghua’s figure disappear through the school entrance, drew a quiet breath, and turned quickly to He Youyuan. “Thank you for treating us today. I’m heading to the library now — goodbye.”

She didn’t wait for He Youyuan to respond before turning to leave.

“Wait——” he called after her.

Li Kuiyi turned back. She composed herself and looked up at him steadily. “Is there something else?”

He Youyuan walked up to her, his tall figure immediately creating a sense of presence. He looked down to meet her gaze, his expression somewhere between a smile and something else. “Nothing, really. I just wanted to know — how did the undefeated Miss Li Kuiyi deal with that yellow-haired kid?”

Li Kuiyi swallowed and glanced away slightly. “A boy helped me.”

“Who?” His gaze was intent, almost pressing.

“Why are you asking? You wouldn’t know him.”

He didn’t budge. His tone was lazy but had a sharpness to it. “How do you know I wouldn’t? What if I do?”

Li Kuiyi’s pupils shifted twice in their sockets. She considered for a moment, then said slowly: “He wasn’t especially good-looking.”

He Youyuan: “……”

Impossible. He’d been good-looking his whole life.

“His skin was a bit dark.”

He Youyuan: “……”

That was because his aunt had thrown him into a military summer camp during the holidays and he’d been burnt to a crisp — whose fault was that?

“His hair was cut very short too.”

He Youyuan: “……”

That was because he’d lost a bet with Zhang Chuang and had to go get a buzz cut!

“He wasn’t very tall either.”

He Youyuan: “……”

That was because he hadn’t started his growth spurt yet — but he hadn’t been short either!

Li Kuiyi smiled faintly. “But he was nowhere near as good-looking as you.”

He Youyuan cursed inwardly with great feeling. Was he supposed to be pleased about that or not?

“So do you know his name?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“No.” Li Kuiyi shook her head. “Do you know?”

He Youyuan shot her a look. “I don’t either!”

“Oh.”

Li Kuiyi had no intention of admitting she had recognized him long ago. He was already beginning to suspect she liked him because of Fang Zhixiao’s words. If she admitted it, given how self-absorbed he was, he’d be convinced she’d been secretly in love with him for three years.

He Youyuan stood there and watched her dig in stubbornly.

Coward — secretly in love with him for three years, and still won’t admit it.