The teacher walked over quickly,
frowning. "What's going on here? How can a single mushroom cause such a commotion?"
She took a cloth and helped wipe the mushroom stain off the girl's uniform.
The girl pouted pitifully and complained, "Li Min threw the mushroom on me on purpose!
She even told me if I can't cook, I should just stay out of the way!"
Li Min looked completely stunned,
hurt and flustered,
stammering as she tried to explain.
I pulled her aside and told the teacher the truth about what happened
But instead of scolding the girl for making a fuss,
the teacher blamed us for being so careless.
The girl from the other class was the daughter of a school board member.
Naturally, the teachers were always extra tolerant and caring toward her.
My good mood had already been crushed.
After a lot of effort, we finally finished our dish. We had to present our food at the front table for grading.
Li Min carried over our group's dish: crispy fried chicken legs with curry.
But just as she picked up the tray and began walking forward,
the girl from the other class stuck out her foot and tripped her.
The curry-fried chicken went flying over four meters, splattering everywhere, and Li Min fell flat on the ground in a starfish shape.
I rushed over to help her up. Her face was flushed bright red—partly from pain, partly from humiliation. She looked like she was about to burst into tears.
The teacher hurried over again. "Li Min! How can you be so careless?! Both you and Ying Chuanling lose 50 points for this lesson!"
Behind us, the girl from the other class laughed smugly, turning to her classmates and taunting, "See?
That's what a pick-me girl looks like. So fake! Just keep pretending!"
Her classmates burst out laughing.
Just then, Sen Lei'an stormed into the classroom, his expression thunderous. He helped me pick Li Min up and started cleaning up the broken plates, forks, tray, and the curry-soaked mess on the floor.
When the girl from the other class saw Sen Lei'an approach,
she quickly bent down to help and said sweetly, "Sen Lei'an, let me help you. This is a bit hot."
Sen Lei'an glared at her viciously and snapped, "Get lost! What the hell are you doing?"
The girl dropped what she was holding and backed away, looking wounded. She slinked back to her station while watching Sen Lei'an finish cleaning up and help Li Min to the infirmary.
When Li Min fell, a fork had scratched her arm, and both her knees were badly bruised. At the infirmary, I helped her onto the bed.
Li Min snatched the disinfectant and cotton swabs I handed her, clearly irritated.
In her flustered state, she accidentally knocked the bottle from my hand, spilling disinfectant all over the floor.
Suddenly, a voice came from behind us.
"Why are you covered in curry?"
Li Min immediately softened her voice and replied sweetly, "Hao An, it's nothing.
I was in cooking class with Ying Chuanling and accidentally tripped.
I was just trying to bring the curry dish to the teacher. It's all my clumsiness."
Chen Hao'an frowned, "Then disinfect properly. Why is the medicine all over the floor?"
Li Min giggled, "It's probably because Ying Chuanling got startled and dropped it. It's okay, really. I'll take care of it myself. Ying Chuanling, you can go now."
I didn't know how to react.
It was clear Li Min was trying to act weak in front of Chen Hao'an to get his attention.
I didn't mind being the scapegoat if it meant she could get closer to him.
I quietly stepped back and watched the atmosphere between them shift into something ambiguous.
"This is all Ying Chuanling's fault," Li Min thought bitterly. "If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be the target of that girl. She's such a jinx! She made me look terrible—and in front of a guy too! Still trying to act innocent? What a joke."
"Oh no! Don't tell me something's soaked through! Was I wearing the white skirt today? Or was it the uniform shirt not fully covered by my jacket? Wait—was my pink underwear showing? Oh my god! If I knew it would rain, I would've worn white ones today! Ahhh—what am I even thinking?" I panicked in my head, spiraling into full internal chaos.
Another blurry day passed at school. As I was packing up to leave, ready for dismissal, Sen Lei'an suddenly patted my shoulder and snatched the books from my hands.
"Let's go get shaved ice after this, yeah?" he grinned.
After starving all day—starting with a tasteless slice of toast for breakfast, a single fried sausage bun during break, and having our fried curry chicken spilled all over the floor during cooking class—I was so hungry my stomach was practically caving in. So of course, I said yes.
As we walked down the school steps, I spotted Li Min about to get into a car. I immediately shouted, "Li Min! Li Min! Are you feeling any better?"
Li Min turned around slightly by the car but didn't respond.
Without a word, she got in and the car pulled away, not even sparing me a glance. My heart sank a little.
Sen Lei'an sighed beside me. "The reason I said I needed to talk to you today... it's actually about Li Min."
He continued, "Two days ago, I skipped class and went to the arcade. While I was there, I overheard some guys from the neighboring school chatting on speakerphone with a girl. That girl… she mentioned you. Wanna guess who it was?"
I hesitated. "Was it… Li Min?"
"Not bad, you're not as clueless as you look, Ling," he teased. "Yeah, it was her. She said you always act quiet on purpose so that guys would approach you first, that your 'cool and mysterious' vibe makes you seem hard to get. And that you're secretly trying to get close to Chen Hao'an behind her back—trying to steal her man. So… is it true? Do you actually know Chen Hao'an?"
"Not really," I replied. "He just helped me out a little once."
One week ago...
Li Min and I usually took the same bus home after school. But that day, I had stayed behind to finish up some homework.
By the time I headed to the school gate, it was getting dark, and a light rain had started to fall.
From a distance, I saw Li Min already seated on the bus, which was slowly pulling away. I shouted her name and broke into a full-on sprint toward the bus.
She turned her head, saw me through the window… but the bus didn't stop.
It drove off right in front of me as I stood there, soaked at the school gate, yelling "Stop!"
I tried to reassure myself—maybe she's nearsighted and the rain made it hard to see me clearly.
Just then, someone jogged up from behind. It was the hall monitor, Chen Hao'an.
We lived in the same neighborhood. Although we didn't really know each other, we passed each other all the time going to and from school.
"You missed your bus?" he asked.
"Yeah," I sighed. "It was the last one too."
"What now? Do you have someone to pick you up?"
"I'll be fine. I'll just walk home slowly."
Without another word, he took the books from my hands and stuffed them into his backpack.
"Your books are getting soaked," he said. "Come on, I'll walk you home. I just saw that bus leave with my own eyes—I can't ignore that."