After Rebirth, My Archrival Omega Looks at Me Differently - Chapter 48

The hallway during the long afternoon break was full of students playing and laughing.

Chi Yan didn’t say a word as she held onto Yan Youqing’s wrist, leading her through the crowded corridor.

The sunlight filtered through the windows one by one, casting light and shadow across Chi Yan’s face. Her expression was stubborn, and her eyes showed a rare sense of certainty.

She had nothing to say. She just didn’t want Yan Youqing to have contact with Wu Zhuiyang. She just wanted to pull her away, even if it meant being forceful or unreasonable.

Chi Yan had always told herself that her goal was to defeat her old rival, Yan Youqing. She had hidden behind that excuse for so long, but today, the label she had stuck on her own heart finally fell off. What lay underneath was something else entirely.

The person she was dependent on.

The person she liked.

Compared to the blind hostility of their past life, Chi Yan had truly gotten to know Yan Youqing in this one. She now understood more about her than she ever had.

She knew that Yan Youqing wasn’t as cold and distant as she looked. She knew why she could always seem so calm, no matter what happened.

She knew that it bothered her when others treated Yan Youqing unfairly, because she had once been the kind of child her own mother had tried to erase. She knew she felt unsettled when Yan Youqing looked down, and she knew that when she saw her with another Alpha, it made her angry.

She just didn’t want any other Alpha near Yan Youqing.

She just didn’t want Yan Youqing to fall for someone else.

Chi Yan had never liked anyone before.

She had lived for twenty-eight and a half years without ever knowing what it meant to like someone.

She was a Beta, someone who was unlikely to attract many Omegas or draw interest from Alphas. Because of a genetic issue affecting her gland development, she had never even considered building a future with anyone. Her plan had always been to take over her father’s research and work on solving the rare gland mutation problem among Betas.

But then the explosion happened, and when she woke up again at eighteen, she had become an Alpha.

And someone she never expected had walked right into her life.

Emotions are the hardest thing in the world to control, but somehow, that person held the string that tied directly to hers.

Even though Alphas were supposed to hold the power in any relationship, it was Yan Youqing who had Chi Yan wrapped around her finger.

A word. A glance. Even a breeze carrying that familiar scent of sea salt and morning dew could make her feel completely helpless.

Every emotion, whether joy or frustration, excitement or irritation, came from her.

Yes.

This unfamiliar, irrational, stubborn feeling—this was what it meant to like someone.

Chi Yan couldn’t deny it anymore.

She had fallen for the very person she once thought she wanted to defeat.

Yan Youqing.

Chi Yan didn’t even know when it had started.

She wasn’t sure she had ever felt the kind of “spark” Wang Chuning was always talking about.

Or maybe she had.

Maybe it was the moment she saw Yan Youqing standing up for her through the mouth of that stuffed animal on New Year’s Eve. Maybe it was when she saw her gently press a cold water bottle against her forehead in the nurse’s office during the sports meet. Or maybe it was when she stood on that bridge at sunset and saw the outline of Yan Youqing’s face framed in her palm by the fading light.

Maybe her heart had already been moved back then.

Spring was beginning to stir. The sunlight outside the school building was starting to feel warm.

Like a headless fly, Chi Yan led Yan Youqing out of the teaching building. She didn’t stop until they reached a quiet grove, far from where anyone usually went.

It was a small hill that the school seemed to have forgotten. New grass had already begun to spread over the ground that had slept through the winter.

The thin cypress trees around them couldn’t block the sun, but they shaped the sunlight into golden streaks that fell gently on the space the two of them now occupied.

Chi Yan, with the stamina of an Alpha, had walked quickly the whole way. She forgot that the person behind her was an Omega, the kind who would start coughing if chilled for too long. Only when she heard the slightly breathless voice behind her did she realize.

“Chi Yan, slow down,” Yan Youqing said, her voice laced with uneven breaths.

“Are you okay?” Chi Yan immediately stopped and turned around to look at her.

She realized she had indeed been walking too fast. A breeze brushed across the ground and added a soft pink hue to Yan Youqing’s cheeks.

Regret flickered in Chi Yan’s eyes. She had been too careless. How could she forget that Yan Youqing didn’t have strong stamina?

Yan Youqing shook her head slightly.

But just as Chi Yan was starting to relax, she suddenly felt a weight on her shoulder.

Yan Youqing leaned her head against her. Her whole body rested gently on Chi Yan’s shoulder.

Chi Yan froze.

That familiar scent of sea salt and morning dew became stronger with her close presence. It made Chi Yan’s already unsettled heartbeat race even faster and break its steady rhythm.

The grove was completely silent. There were no couples meeting up at this time of day. It was so quiet, she could hear her own footsteps from earlier still echoing faintly in her memory.

She could hear Yan Youqing’s breathing, deep and steady. Then she heard her speak, as if her lips were close to her ear.

“Chi Yan, why did you bring me here?”

The question caught Chi Yan off guard.

This really wasn’t a good moment to confess. She regretted being so impulsive. She glanced at Yan Youqing leaning beside her and stammered, “I… I just wanted to talk to you.”

“About what?” Yan Youqing asked.

“Well…” Chi Yan licked her lips and said, without revealing her real reason, “Today… after school, let’s walk home together.”

“Why?”

Yan Youqing seemed to have caught her breath. She slowly straightened up from Chi Yan’s shoulder.

Her gaze was calm, her voice steady, as she quietly waited for Chi Yan to give her a reason.

Chi Yan’s mind spun quickly. “We haven’t walked home together in two days. Didn’t you say you were dependent on my scent?”

“Is that all?” Yan Youqing’s voice stayed calm, her thoughts sharp. “You could’ve told me that in the classroom. Why did you have to drag me out here?”

Chi Yan blinked, struggling to answer. “Because… I was afraid that if you spent too much time with Wu Zhuiyang, you might have a pheromone rejection.”

“But you didn’t seem worried about that before,” Yan Youqing pointed out.

Chi Yan started to lose her footing. She crossed her arms and said in a fake tough tone, “I just remembered, okay? What if he’s another Xu Minxue?”

“Alright,” Yan Youqing said with a quiet nod. Her eyes were steady and calm, holding a depth that was hard to read. Then she looked at Chi Yan and added, “But I think you might have misunderstood Ayan.”

Chi Yan had never thought Yan Youqing’s voice could bother her.

But when she said “Ayan,” it sounded awful.

Especially since Zhong Yi had joked before about how “Ayan” and “Yan” sounded too similar.

Chi Yan never imagined that something as small as a similar-sounding name would bother her this much, not even when people used to give them nearly identical nicknames.

That heavy stone in her chest felt like it had dropped even deeper into a tighter space. Frustrated, Chi Yan snapped without thinking.

“Yeah, I do have a problem. Because I like you.”

“It’s not just pheromone dependency. I like you.”

As the words left her mouth, everything around them went still.

The new cypress leaves rustled in the breeze. And for once, there was a small ripple in Yan Youqing’s usually calm expression.

Since the words were already out, Chi Yan decided to keep going. There was no point in holding back now.

“At first, I really didn’t like you. I hated how cold and distant you always seemed. You never changed your expression. You stood at the school gates like someone who couldn’t stand a single speck of dust in their life, always following the rules like your life depended on it.”

She listed out all the things she used to hate, but her voice had lost its sharpness.

Chi Yan’s eyes were clear and full of honesty. Beneath the emotion was a kind of quiet helplessness, like she was finally letting herself admit the truth.

“But even with all that, I still ended up liking you.”

“I know I’ve always broken the rules. I’ve done everything you probably hate. Even these past few days, I’ve kept showing up late, eating in class, skipping school to get milk tea, breaking the rules you’ve always followed. I’ve kept being annoying and reckless. And now, I’m confessing to you like this, out in the open.”

Her voice grew a little softer.

Maybe everyone feels like they are not good enough when they are standing in front of the person they like. As Chi Yan listed everything she had done, she couldn’t help but feel like she probably wasn’t the kind of Alpha Yan Youqing would ever want.

But Chi Yan had never been someone who said things she didn’t mean.

Now that she knew how she felt, there was no way she was going to ignore it.

Avoiding it had already made her feel miserable. If she ran away now, she was sure it would crush her.

After a pause, her voice grew stronger.

“But even with all of that, I still have to say it. I like you. I don’t want to see you with Wu Zhuiyang. I don’t want you smelling like another Alpha. And if I see it happen again, I’ll do exactly the same thing.”

“Go ahead. Report me if you want.”

Chi Yan lifted her chin slightly. Her expression was full of stubborn pride, like someone bracing for whatever came next.

Just as she started to doubt if she had gone too far, a calm voice reached her ears.

“Chi Yan.”

The afternoon sunlight fell quietly across the hidden grove, soft and golden as it warmed the space around them.

Some of the usual chill had left Yan Youqing’s expression. The sunlight seemed to have added a gentler touch to her features.

She stood across from Chi Yan, her voice steady and calm. But the weight behind her words made it clear that they had been held in for a long time.

“What if I told you that my pheromone dependency on you was never real?”

“What if I told you that I’ve been covering for you from the very beginning, letting you break the rules?”

“What if I told you that I’ve not been completely honest either? That I cheated on one of the tests?”

Chi Yan froze.

She had just come to terms with the fact that she liked this person. She had not even considered whether Yan Youqing might have felt the same.

Chi Yan had always burned bright, rushing forward like the sun. She had never imagined that the moon might turn and look her way.

But she had forgotten that when the sun sets, the moon is already standing quietly across the sky, watching.

The world felt like it had gone silent. All Chi Yan could see was Yan Youqing’s face growing closer, little by little.

Their shoes made soft sounds as they moved across the damp soil.

The familiar scent of sea salt and morning dew drifted through the air as Yan Youqing leaned in.

Something soft and warm brushed against Chi Yan’s cheek.

So close.

It passed gently across the corner of her lips.

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