Hopeless Romance (GL) - Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Although high school was demanding, the school still provided occasional chances to unwind—even if the New Year’s Eve Gala didn’t feel like much of a relaxation for the students of Class 12. Cao Yijing had entered Yunchuan Middle School as the first-place winner of a provincial dance competition, so the school was always eager to showcase her talent. Whether for internal performances or external competitions, Cao Yijing was always the first choice.

As the finale act for this gala, she was torn between Chinese dance and ballet. Personally, she preferred ballet now, but she worried that middle and high school students might find it a bit dull in terms of both choreography and music. On the other hand, she had practiced Chinese dance for ten years and was itching for a breakthrough.

“Pupu, Cui Tong, help me choose,” Cao Yijing said. She had saved videos of both dances on her phone, but due to low storage, she had only been able to record blurry snippets.

“I vote ballet,” Cui Tong answered immediately after watching.

“I vote Chinese dance! It’s so cool!” Chen Pupu was still reeling from the splits and aerial flips in the video. “Cui Tong, why ballet? Your vibe doesn’t seem like the ballet-loving type,” Pupu asked, genuinely puzzled.

“Chen Pupu, are you seriously discriminating against my aesthetic?” Cui Tong jokingly threatened to throw her notebook at Pupu’s head but decided against it since the book contained all her hard-earned notes.

“Stop! One vote each. Great, I asked for nothing,” Cao Yijing sighed, realizing she was silly to ask an even number of people to vote.

“Hey, Tong Yuyao, come over here!” Cui Tong looked around and waved her target over.

“Here, take a look. Which one looks better?” Tong Yuyao, a sports student, had just swallowed the last bite of his burger and mumbled an agreement while covering his mouth.

“Which ones did you guys pick?” As an athlete, Yuyao didn’t have much of an eye for art. Seeing the figure spinning and tumbling on the screen, his first thought wasn’t “beauty” but “pain”—he thought about how many injuries it must take to move like that, much like how he lost track of how many laps he swam just to get a decent time.

“We’re asking you. Hurry up!” Cui Tong’s urgency made Pupu and Yijing burst into laughter.

“Then… this one?” Yuyao pointed hesitantly at the Chinese dance video.

“Yes! The people have spoken!” Pupu cheered. She was convinced that with Chinese dance, Cao Yijing would stun the entire audience.

“You picked that one too?” Seeing Pupu so happy and triumphant, Tong Yuyao couldn’t help but feel a surge of joy himself.

“Yeah! You have great taste,” Pupu said, generously validating her ally.

“Fine, I’ll perform a ballet piece for you in private later,” Cao Yijing told Cui Tong. She knew if she didn’t make it up to her, Cui Tong would complain every day about why ballet hadn’t been chosen.

“Really? Cao Yijing, I officially declare you the goddess of my heart!” Cui Tong had no artistic talents of her own but loved dance, so she couldn’t help but worship someone as skilled as Yijing.

“Cui Tong, you’re such a sycophant,” Pupu teased, peeking out from behind Yijing while already preparing to bolt.

Sure enough, Cui Tong lunged at her. Pupu didn’t even grab her backpack before dashing out of the classroom. After two steps, Cui Tong gave up. “Hmph, I won’t lower myself to your level,” she muttered, returning to her seat to wait for Pupu to inevitably come back for her bag.

…

In her haste, Chen Pupu headed straight for the Class 1 classroom. Although Class 1 didn’t have extra Friday lessons, many students stayed behind to study. When Pupu skidded to a halt inside, Ye Du was just finishing packing.

Ye Du felt a literal gust of wind hit her, carrying a familiar scent. “Why didn’t you wait for me in your room?” Since Class 1 was a floor above Class 12, Ye Du usually went downstairs to save Pupu the climb.

“Cui Tong tried to beat me up,” Pupu panted, lodging her complaint breathlessly.

“Huh?” Ye Du stopped and looked Pupu over carefully. It didn’t seem like she had come out on the losing end of any scuffle.

“Hahaha, she hasn’t actually hit me yet. You can’t see anything.” Pupu felt a bit warm from the run and started to unzip her school jacket.

“Don’t take it off, you’ll catch a cold. Let’s go,” Ye Du intervened before Pupu could shed the layer.

“Do you have water?” Pupu asked, skipping down the stairs ahead of Ye Du.

Taking the bottle Ye Du handed over, Pupu took a huge gulp. The opening was wide, and some water spilled down her chin and onto her clothes. When she realized Ye Du was using a tissue to gently wipe it away, Pupu nearly lost her grip on the bottle. She noticed Ye Du was still using the same thermos Pupu had gifted her—the one identical to her own.

Ye Du’s actions were so open and natural that Pupu’s internal nervousness felt completely out of place.

…

Back in Class 12, Tong Yuyao asked, “Shouldn’t we go find her?”

Cui Tong was busy scribbling a sudden flash of inspiration into her notebook. “No need,” she answered distractedly.

Cao Yijing, who was using a desk to stretch her legs, added, “She probably went to find her friend. She’ll be down in a bit.”

Just then, Pupu walked in with a girl Tong Yuyao hadn’t met before.

“What are you writing?” Pupu leaned in curiously, but before she could see the words, Cui Tong slammed the notebook shut.

“Literary creation. No peeking.” Feeling a bit of writer’s block anyway, Cui Tong tucked it away.

“Shall we go?” Cao Yijing pulled her leg down from the wall, ready to leave.

“I’ve always wondered,” Cui Tong said, watching Yijing’s effortless movement. “Do you just walk on one leg at home?” She asked the question that had puzzled her for a long time.

“Yes,” Yijing deadpanned. “When I have nothing to do, I take one leg off and put it away so it doesn’t get overworked.” She sighed inwardly; people who didn’t dance really had some wild misconceptions.

…

A few days later, Pupu finished her rehearsal right when Ye Du’s classes ended. She rushed to Class 1.

“Is today Friday?” was Ye Du’s first reaction, checking the schedule on the blackboard.

“Of course it is,” Pupu lied with a straight face, looking Ye Du right in the eye.

“Wait, really?”

Seeing Ye Du’s bewildered expression, Pupu burst into laughter. She hadn’t even laughed for eight beats before Ye Du covered her mouth. This was Class 1—a place where a study hall didn’t even need a monitor, and where anyone making noise would be reported to the teacher immediately. Pupu felt a bit stifled from the suppressed laugh, but being shushed by Ye Du was better than being lynched by the other students.

As Ye Du withdrew her hand, Pupu playfully stuck out her tongue. The fleeting, phantom touch sent a jolt of electricity through Ye Du’s veins, but she was a master of self-control; the impulse vanished in a heartbeat.

“What’s your class doing for the gala?” Pupu asked. She wasn’t wearing her school jacket today, instead wrapping herself in a pure white puffer coat. Following her mother’s advice, she wore pink oversleeves to keep her cuffs clean, making her look even more like a white rabbit.

“Gala? Is there an event?” Ye Du had only heard about various academic competitions lately.

“The New Year’s Eve Gala!” Pupu didn’t want to take the bus today. Once the bus reached her stop, her conversations with Ye Du would have to end, so she insisted on walking a stretch of the way together to talk her fill.

“I… haven’t heard anything about it.”

“No way? Several classes have already started rehearsing.” Aside from the hyper-enthusiastic Class 12, most classes had at least one act. Even though there would be auditions and not every act would make the cut, everyone was excited.

“Really, Li Jiangang (their class teacher) hasn’t mentioned it at all.” This made sense. Li Jiangang would rather add an extra hour of class every day; even PE wasn’t safe from him, let alone a gala.

“Is your class just special? Then you won’t be able to see me perform.” Pupu felt the pressure just thinking about a teacher who tried to isolate an entire class from everything except studying.

“Are you performing?” Ye Du suddenly felt that Li Jiangang was quite annoying.

“Yeah! I’m singing. Cao Yijing is dancing, Fan Ruru and Deng Yisong are doing a violin-piano duet, and Cui Tong submitted a script for a play. We don’t know if we’ll pass the audition yet, though.”

“You’ll definitely pass,” Ye Du said, swallowing a yawn while mentally calculating how many practice problems she had left for the night.

“Even if I pass, you might not be able to watch.” Pupu hadn’t performed formally outside of competitions, and Ye Du had never seen her on a real stage. Thinking back to all those days Ye Du had spent waiting for her during vocal lessons, Pupu felt she owed it to her to perform—to show Ye Du that her trust and help hadn’t been in vain.

Pupu’s brows furrowed in frustration. Ye Du reached out lazily to smooth the frown lines on Pupu’s forehead, but Pupu seized the opportunity to wrap her arms around Ye Du’s arm. “If I get selected, you have to find a way to come, okay?” Pupu was uncertain; Ye Du always prioritized studying and rarely showed interest in music or dance. The only exception was when Pupu had cried after being scolded by her vocal teacher, and Ye Du had sung “Ocean and Sky” by Shin for her. It was the first time Pupu heard her sing, and it was much more pleasant than she had imagined.

“Ocean and sky exist after bravery… Use persistence to break the locks of fate… Thank you, cold-hearted people, for once looking down on me… So I can live more brilliantly without bowing my head.”

At the time, Pupu just thought Ye Du sounded like Khalil Fong—as if she were speaking rhythmically. But once Pupu learned the song herself, she realized how much strength that moment had given her.

Ye Du paused. Several excuses for skipping class flashed through her mind, but none seemed quite right. Finally, she couldn’t bear to say no. “Then you’d better work hard to get selected,” she said, almost as if talking to herself.

…

“Class Monitor, how come our class hasn’t mentioned the New Year’s Gala?” Gu Nancheng, the class monitor, noted that this was the first time Ye Du had proactively spoken to him all semester.

“I’m not sure either. Maybe ask the Arts Representative?” Gu Nancheng’s primary duty, after all, was collecting class fees.

“Okay.” Ye Du paused, then asked, “Who is the Arts Representative?”

Gu Nancheng thought for a moment, adjusted his glasses, and realized something was wrong. “Uh… I don’t think our class actually has an Arts Representative.”

Ye Du nodded politely and silently gave up on that route.

“Wait, why are you asking?” Out of general concern for his classmates, Gu Nancheng probed a bit further.

“Oh, I heard friends in other classes talking about it, but it didn’t seem like we’d discussed it.”

“I’ll go ask ‘Jiangang’ about it at noon.” Ye Du knew Gu Nancheng was a favorite of the teacher, but she hadn’t realized they were on such familiar terms that he’d call him by his first name.

“Thanks, Monitor.” If she could get the whole class involved, that would be best. Unless absolutely necessary, Ye Du didn’t want to be the one student breaking the rules to attend.