Actually, She's Just an Idiot - Chapter 1

Since Tuesday was a campus-wide rest day, the sports field was incredibly lively in the evening.

Less than two weeks had passed since orientation ended, and the enthusiastic freshmen had already taken over every corner of the university. Even the grueling military training during the day did nothing to dampen their high spirits.

The relatively small area was practically bursting with people. While the freshmen strolled around aimlessly with nothing better to do, it was quite a headache for the classes that actually had to hold their regular lessons on the field.

This semester, the university had introduced a lot of new elective courses. Wen Yue only needed one more credit to fully complete her requirements. She didn’t want to spend another semester sitting in a classroom listening to useless, boring theory lectures like she had in previous years, so she resolutely chose a Taekwondo elective.

Of course, they weren’t the only ones using the field. The students who chose track and field were practically entangled with the crowd of people taking leisurely walks on the running track.

Somewhere in the distance, a “traffic accident” occurred, and the faint, fluctuating sounds of an argument drifted over. At first, no one paid any attention, but the situation rapidly escalated.

The activity at hand came to an abrupt halt.

Wen Yue stared blankly for two seconds. Quickly snapping out of it, her gaze shifted and locked onto the fellow spectator standing right next to her. Holding a kick pad in her hand, she lightly tapped the other person with it as a reminder.

Wang Qianqian was startled by her sudden movement. Rubbing the goosebumps that had popped up on her arms, she forcefully tapped her back in retaliation.

The two kick pads collided, letting out a loud smack.

The noise wasn’t overly loud, but it was enough to make the surrounding students, who were scattered around lazily taking a break, turn their heads to look.

Seeing that they had drawn the crowd’s attention, Wang Qianqian rubbed the tip of her nose sheepishly. Standing at over 170 centimeters tall, she self-consciously hid behind Wen Yue, who was half a head shorter than her.

Wen Yue tilted her head back, noting that she wasn’t doing a very good job of blocking her friend at all. She gave the girl a tug and asked, “Shall we continue?”

Wang Qianqian made a dramatic time-out gesture, clasping her hands together in a plea for mercy. “Coach Wen, let’s take a break.”

If she had known this girl would be so dedicated and professional, she never would have asked her for private tutoring. She could only blame herself for oversleeping during course registration the previous week, leaving her with nothing but the leftover scraps that everyone else rejected. Otherwise, someone like her, who could trip over her own feet just by walking, would never have gritted her teeth and chosen such a technically demanding elective!

“Who was the one that posted a passionate declaration on their Friends circle right after getting the class, saying they would definitely work hard?” Wen Yue shook her head disapprovingly.

Wang Qianqian couldn’t care less. Making a funny face, she pulled out her phone right in front of Wen Yue and changed her Friends circle privacy setting to “visible for three days only.” She threw a shameless, illogical tantrum, saying, “It expired, so it doesn’t count.”

“But…” Wen Yue wanted to keep persuading her, but her friend forcefully shut down the conversation.

“No!”

Seeing her friend looking completely burned out, Wen Yue had no choice but to drop it. Sighing helplessly, she bent down to tie her shoelaces. By the time she looked up again, the person who had just been standing beside her was already long gone.

She certainly doesn’t seem tired when it comes to running away, Wen Yue thought.

After returning the kick pads, Wen Yue scanned the area and finally spotted Wang Qianqian in a remote, far corner of the field. She was passionately chatting with their other close friend. With animated facial expressions and high spirits, there was no trace left of her previous exhaustion.

Seeing Wen Yue walk over, the two didn’t stop talking, but simply waved her over as if they hadn’t quite finished their conversation yet. Sun Hui shifted inward and patted the spot next to her, gesturing for Wen Yue to sit down.

Since Wen Yue was wearing light-colored pants today and didn’t want to get them dirty, she simply hugged her knees and squatted down in a little ball.

It seemed this topic was incredibly juicy, as the two went right back to their conversation after a brief greeting. They babbled a whole stream of words, and Wen Yue couldn’t understand a single thing, so she could only look in the direction their topic was centered on.

Standing over there was a young man and a beautiful, striking older girl. The young man was holding a kick pad and teaching the beautiful girl how to kick. They were chatting while practicing, just like how Wen Yue had been teaching Wang Qianqian moments ago.

Not knowing what part of the conversation the two had reached, Wang Qianqian suddenly asked her with great excitement, “Do you know who that girl is?”

Wen Yue swallowed hard and replied, “No, I don’t know.”

“Then what were you looking at just now? You were staring so intently.” Sun Hui pinched her cheek playfully, unable to resist teasing her. “Your eyes were practically about to fly over there.”

“That boy’s kicks aren’t good, he isn’t professional,” Wen Yue explained earnestly in response to the comment. Seeing both of them staring at her, she seriously touched her eyes and added, “They are still here, they didn’t fly over.”

Unsure which of her words had triggered their funny bones, the two of them suddenly rushed over and playfully squeezed Wen Yue all over. “Ah Yue, you are way too cute.”

Who on earth had created such an adorable little creature? She was truly delightful.

After that little interruption, the two were finally willing to include her in the gossip.

“Her name is Lan Xi,” Wang Qianqian shared her knowledge. “She’s incredibly famous at our school, she’s the captain of the modeling team. You can see her whenever the school hosts cultural and art events.”

Noticing that Wen Yue still had a blank expression, she added, “Remember that video posted by our school’s official account that went viral a while ago? She was the main focus of it.”

“Her legs are insanely long, her figure is incredible, and most importantly, she’s gorgeous,” Sun Hui gushed, making exaggerated swooning noises. “How can someone be so perfect?”

The two of them spent another ten minutes showering her with compliments. Wen Yue listened very attentively, her eyes darting back and forth between her two friends.

As they neared the end of their speech, their throats grew a bit dry. Wang Qianqian patted Wen Yue’s head and strongly suggested, “Isn’t the school about to host the orientation gala soon? Do you want to come with us?”

As the class entertainment coordinator, Wang Qianqian was always privy to a lot of information regarding school events. Unfortunately, Wen Yue knew absolutely nothing about these things and wasn’t particularly interested.

Seeing how enthusiastic her friends were, she didn’t want to ruin the mood, so she simply played along with the conversation. “What kind of performances will there be?”

“I heard there will be some really handsome upperclassmen singing,” Sun Hui said, not wanting to miss out on the excitement. “It doesn’t hurt to go watch.”

Hearing this, the last remaining shred of interest Wen Yue had completely vanished. She didn’t want to go through all that trouble just to listen to people sing.

Just as she was trying to come up with an excuse to decline, Wang Qianqian nudged her chin forward and let out a whistle, continuing to build her pitch. “Apparently, there’s also a runway show by the modeling team, which is bound to be amazing.”

The words that had reached the tip of Wen Yue’s tongue suddenly stopped. She instantly perked up her ears, waiting for her friend to elaborate.

However, it was quite obvious that the lady who started the topic had no intention of going into detail. Wang Qianqian slapped her own forehead, an apologetic look on her face. “Look at me, I completely forgot that the orientation gala requires tickets. I already gave out the ones I had a few days ago.”

She continued, “Ah Yue, that’s such a shame. Next time there’s an event like this, I’ll definitely make sure to ask you first.”

“Okay,” Wen Yue replied. Although the final outcome was exactly what she wanted, a strange, indefinable sense of regret inexplicably welled up in her heart.

“What?!”

A sudden, abrupt exclamation cut their idle chatter short.

The three of them instinctively looked toward the source of the sound. They saw a clean-cut guy trying to fix his mistake by covering his mouth. After a tense, awkward two-second eye contact with them, he raised a hand to wave, then quickly bolted away.

They looked at one another, each of them rapidly trying to recall if they had just said anything inappropriate.

The atmosphere grew quiet. However, after thinking it over and realizing they hadn’t said anything bad, they relaxed completely and turned their gazes back to the two subjects of their gossip, who were still practicing.

While her friends watched, Wen Yue followed suit. In truth, it wasn’t just them, anyone passing by the field couldn’t help but steal a few extra glances.

After an unknown amount of time, Wen Yue recalled their earlier conversation and asked curiously, “By the way, what were you two talking about before I came over?”

Since they already knew so much about Lan Xi, what new gossip could they possibly have come up with?

At the mention of this, the two covered their mouths, scanning the area left, right, front, and back to ensure no one was around before letting out squeals that sounded like a boiling kettle.

They whispered excitedly to Wen Yue, “Don’t you think those two look amazing together? They have so much chemistry!”

Hearing this, Wen Yue knit her brows and began to study them seriously.

The guy was quite tall with clear signs of athletic training. He had a wolf cut with straight bangs, broad shoulders, and a small head. Wang Qianqian and Sun Hui joked that he looked like a Korean international student.

Perhaps because the sky was heavily overcast tonight, the large lights at the corner of the field were exceptionally bright. Lan Xi was bathed in the light, her already fair skin looking almost translucent. Her loosely pinned-up hair made her delicate face look even more exquisite.

The two of them didn’t even look like they belonged in the same universe, so where exactly was this chemistry coming from?

However, Wen Yue didn’t dare say it out loud. She simply shook her head honestly. “I don’t see it.”

Hearing her response, the two didn’t feel disappointed at all. If a day ever came where Ah Yue actually noticed romantic chemistry, the couple in question would probably already have kids old enough to run errands.

“You don’t get it, it’s about the vibe…”

“Lately, Lan Xi has been wearing makeup to class, a full face of it! Who puts on such a detailed, full face of makeup for an evening class? There’s definitely something going on!”

“And her eyes, they’re different, totally different from how she looks at others…”

Different how?

They tossed comments back and forth, each one leaving Wen Yue more confused than the last. Confident that Lan Xi wouldn’t notice, Wen Yue stared incredibly intently, as if the harder she looked, the sooner an answer would appear on the girl’s face.

But…

She knew they shouldn’t randomly ship people!

Lan Xi had looked over!

Suddenly locking eyes with her, Wen Yue’s gaze instantly cleared up out of sheer panic. Her heart began to thud wildly, and she was so flustered that she didn’t even know where to put her hands. Her legs went weak, and she plopped right down onto the ground.

If the girl had just glanced over casually, Wen Yue wouldn’t have felt so guilty. But the message conveyed in Lan Xi’s gaze seemed to say, I caught you staring, Wen Yue, you little creep.

Then again, maybe she didn’t mean that at all. A beautiful girl could look at whoever she wanted. Her eyes were so big that perhaps Wen Yue had just accidentally tumbled into her field of vision.

Before Wen Yue could successfully brainwash herself into calmness, the PE teacher appeared out of nowhere and waved at her. He was standing right next to the Korean-lookalike guy. Wen Yue’s scalp went numb, but she had no choice but to walk over.

Patting away the invisible dust on her pants, Wen Yue acted completely obedient. She stared intently at the PE teacher’s face, not daring to let her gaze wander even a little bit. “What is it, teacher?”

Evidently, the teacher didn’t sense her awkwardness at all. He casually patted the guy’s shoulder and said, “He wants to partner up with another guy. Aren’t you guys in a group of three over there? You can just come over and partner up with this girl instead.”

Evidently, the teacher had no intention of negotiating with her either. After delivering the message lightly, he ran off to play basketball with the other PE teachers.

She was left behind, standing in silence with the two subjects of the recent gossip for half a minute.

The guy didn’t stay long. He gave Lan Xi a meaningful look, said “Good luck,” and quickly jogged away.

Wen Yue didn’t know what to say, so she simply picked up the kick pad from the ground. Lowering her head, she said dutifully, “Shall we practice?”

The beautiful girl didn’t say anything, but Wen Yue could feel her gaze. After about a minute, Wen Yue heard a soft chuckle.

“The teacher said you kick really well.”

“I do alright.”

“He also said you’ve won awards.”

“Just a few trophies, nothing major.”

“Is that so?” The girl’s tone carried a lingering meaning.

Wen Yue didn’t dare to breathe out loud. It wasn’t until the girl spoke again that she relaxed slightly.

“But my kicks aren’t very good.”

Only then did Wen Yue dare to look up, letting out a breath. Her hand tightened around the kick pad as if she had come to a firm decision. “I will teach you well.”

Lan Xi nodded, allowing Wen Yue to relax a bit more.

Just as Wen Yue thought this interaction was over, the other girl casually took a few steps forward, closing the distance between them. She narrowed her eyes slightly to meet Wen Yue’s gaze, asking mischievously, “Do I look good?”