My Aloof Rival Seems to Like Me - Chapter 24

Seeing Song Jin in a foul mood, Li Hang dragged and coaxed her into his group’s gathering. The crowd played straight through the night until seven in the morning. It wasn’t until then that Song Jin, dragging her exhausted body, fell dead asleep on her bed.

She hadn’t been this wild in a long time. The moment her head hit the pillow, she drifted off, sinking heavily into a groggy nightmare.

Rapid breathing gradually sounded in her ears, and the mattress beneath her seemed to grow softer. Song Jin realized what was happening and squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to open them.

As long as I don’t open my eyes, I don’t have to face it… right?

But the other person clearly had no intention of letting her off.

The most sensitive tip of her ear was lightly bitten. Song Jin’s eyes flew open instantly; with a burst of strength, she flipped “Wen Yu” over and pinned her down. The moment their eyes met, Song Jin reflexively averted her gaze to avoid eye contact. However, that inadvertent glance shocked her so much she practically jumped off of her.

“Wh-what on earth are you wearing?!” Song Jin felt a rush of heat surge to her face. Even without a mirror, she could guess her face was red enough to bleed.

“Didn’t you beg me to wear this the day before yesterday?” “Wen Yu” had discarded her usual shyness, arrogantly crossing her legs. Her lotus-white thighs were faintly visible beneath the black gauze skirt. She sat on the edge of the bed with her arms crossed, watching Song Jin with composed amusement. “What? You pull up your skirt and suddenly don’t recognize me?”

Song Jin was still out of the loop, her gaze blank: “Recognize who? Recognize what? What… is our relationship?”

“What do you think it is?” Wen Yu countered. She stood up, and the white mattress that had been depressed immediately sprang back to its original shape. Wen Yu’s slightly curly long hair fell loosely over her shoulders, and a thin silver chain was attached to the black collar around her neck.

Seeing her approach, Song Jin subconsciously took a step back. Little did she know that this movement would jerk Wen Yu, causing her to stumble; the cat ears on her headband gave a bouncy quiver. Only then did Song Jin realize the other end of the chain was in her own hand. Scared out of her wits, she immediately dropped the ring connected to the silver chain.

Wait, what? What is the situation? What kind of ‘play’ is this now?

Song Jin’s brain felt like a jumbled mess. Although there were many variations of her “doing things” with Wen Yu in her dreams, this was the first time it had been like this. The impact was significant.

Wen Yu tilted her eyebrows, her fair bare feet making soft tapping sounds on the wooden floor. She followed the path of the chain and flicked it upward, using the momentum to swing the ring back into her palm. Taking advantage of Song Jin’s daze, Wen Yu inexorably seized her hand and slid the ring back onto her index finger.

Wen Yu leaned into Song Jin’s ear. Her warm breath brushed against Song Jin’s cheek, and her voice was syrupy, sounding like a love confession yet also like she was acting spoiled: “You promised me that after today, you’d let me become ‘official.’ Are you going to go back on your word again? My dear [redacted].”

“Huh?” Song Jin doubted her own hearing. She immediately pulled away from Wen Yu and looked at her sideways. “What did you just call me?”

“[Redacted]. You said it yourself: after a one-month trial period, you’d see how I performed. I remember everything,” Wen Yu said, her expression serious. It seemed she wasn’t joking.

Song Jin understood. She could probably guess which website this fanfiction had been posted on.

Wen Yu continued to approach her relentlessly. Her gaze was innocent, but her mouth never stopped pressing for answers: “You’ve been very satisfied with me for the past month. I wore whatever you wanted me to wear, and I stayed wherever you wanted me to stay. Why the sudden change of heart? Is it because I’m not [redacted] enough for you?”

By the time she reached the last sentence, Song Jin had nowhere left to retreat. Her head bumped against the picture frame on the wall; wincing in pain, she crouched on the floor, clutching her head with both hands.

The previously aggressive Wen Yu’s expression softened the moment she saw Song Jin get hurt. She hurriedly knelt in front of her and asked with concern: “Does it hurt? Let go of your hands and let me see—”

“Don’t touch me…” Song Jin pushed away the hand reaching for her, burying her face in her knees. Her shoulders shook; Wen Yu then realized she seemed to be crying, though she wasn’t sure if it was from the pain.

“If you do this, your ‘White Moonlight’ will misunderstand…” she choked out, her hand covering the swelling bump on her forehead.

She didn’t want to cry, but it really, really hurt—!

Now it was Wen Yu’s turn to be dazed. She reached out to pull Song Jin up, forcing her to meet her eyes, and said in an unfriendly tone: “Misunderstand what? Where did this White Moonlight come from? Song Jin, why do you think I’ve been acting as your [redacted] without any official status?”

Seeing this, Song Jin cried even louder: “What kind of personality do you even have in the eyes of our CP fans? This is way too OOC (Out of Character), waah—”

“Why are you saying things I can’t understand today?”

Wen Yu felt a bit helpless and used her thumb to wipe away Song Jin’s tears, muttering: “What OOC? Haven’t I always been like this?”

“You’re talking way more than I am right now, waah—”

Wen Yu pursed her lips helplessly and decided to stop talking for a moment until she could soothe her.

Song Jin stared blankly for a while. Once her mood had finally calmed down, she looked down and happened to catch a glimpse of Wen Yu’s full cleavage, causing her to start sobbing again.

Wen Yu: “…”

She sighed and put back on the white lab coat that “Song Jin” had personally taken off earlier, covering herself up completely. “Satisfied? Happy now?”

“It’s alright.” Song Jin tried to stand up using her body for support, but because she had been crouching for so long, her left leg was numb. She nearly lost her balance; fortunately, Wen Yu was quick and supported her, otherwise Song Jin would have definitely gone face-first into the floor.

She awkwardly pulled her arm out of Wen Yu’s grasp, maintaining a sense of boundaries by retreating to a relatively safe distance.

“What is wrong with you today?” Wen Yu wanted to approach again, but seeing Song Jin’s intense resistance, she forced herself to pull back the step she had taken.

“I’m fine, I’m great.” Song Jin swallowed hard, her chest heaving. She took several deep breaths before calming down. “You… you put your clothes on properly first, then find somewhere to play by yourself. Once I wake up, everything will be back to normal.”

Wen Yu stared straight at her. After a long while, she uttered a few words: “You aren’t her?”

Song Jin’s foot slipped, nearly making her fall again.

“What do you mean?”

“Literally. You aren’t her.” This time, Wen Yu answered decisively. “The Song Jin I know isn’t exactly…” She looked Song Jin up and down and commented: “…a good person.”

Song Jin: “…”

She was going to find out who wrote this damn story as soon as she got back.

Song Jin curled her lips and looked over with a side-eye: “If she’s not a good person, why do you still like her?”

“I’m willing to.” Wen Yu shrugged and sat back on the bed. “According to what you’re saying, she’ll be back once you ‘wake up’?”

“Probably. Anyway, I’ll be leaving,” Song Jin said. But she quickly remembered something and looked at her in surprise. “Why aren’t you surprised at all? Aren’t you afraid that the person you share a bed with has been mysteriously replaced?”

“Let me clarify one thing: we do not share a bed. She never lets me stay the night,” Wen Yu said with a serious face. “Though I believe that day will come soon.”

Song Jin: “…”

Who asked you?!

As if reading the emotions in Song Jin’s eyes, Wen Yu patted the spot beside her, gesturing for her to sit down. “So, you’re from a parallel universe? She researched this topic before, but never found any useful clues.”

Seeing Song Jin’s confusion, Wen Yu paused and muttered to herself: “It seems your professions in the other world are different too let me re-introduce myself. I am Wen Yu. Like her, I work at the research institute. My specific identity is inconvenient to disclose for now.”

“Song Jin, actress,” Song Jin said succinctly.

“So, in your world, we don’t have any relationship? And I even have someone else in my heart?” Wen Yu narrowed her eyes, hitting the nail on the head immediately.

“Yeah.” Song Jin hummed a response. Because the person in front of her was no longer a “threat,” she subconsciously started venting her grievances:

“More than that, sister! We even have to ‘sell’ our chemistry (Fanservice/GL baiting) in front of the camera. It was supposed to be a simple thing, but I’ve been dreaming about [redacted] with her for I-don’t-know-how-long! You know what [redacted] is, right? Oh man, at first I didn’t even dare to get close to her. As soon as I got near, I’d think of all those messy things. I felt like a [redacted]!”

“And I could have just pretended nothing happened, but she has a ‘White Moonlight’ she can’t let go of! She hasn’t let go for five years! She’s like that, and yet I’m [redacted] with her in my dreams. What’s the difference between this and being a ‘Third Party’ in a dream? My god, I really feel bad about it. It’s just too [redacted]!”

Wen Yu gave her a subtle look: “So, the reason you were crying and wouldn’t let me touch you just now was because of this?”

“Huh? Oh, well, not exactly.” Song Jin swallowed awkwardly, not wanting to reveal the embarrassing true reason.

“From your tone, I thought you were being awkward because of unrequited love.”

Song Jin looked at Wen Yu strangely: “How did you reach that conclusion? Putting aside whether I like her or not, the ‘Wen Yu’ in my world already has someone she likes.”

“Impossible,” Wen Yu said. “I couldn’t possibly like anyone else.”

“No, my world is different from yours. Who ‘Wen Yu’ likes isn’t something ‘you’ can decide.”

“Impossible.”

“How do you know it’s impossible?”

“She has been here.” Wen Yu looked into Song Jin’s eyes and said word for word, “A ‘Wen Yu’ from another world has been here. She said… she only loves Song Jin.”

The situation had become even more complicated.

Song Jin nearly stared a hole through the ceiling, her mind a complete jumble.

She specifically went to search for that fanfiction. In the original story’s setting, anyone could be replaced by “themselves” from another world. As for whether they would return or when, no one knew the exact answer.

And the “she has been here” that Wen Yu mentioned actually referred to a plot point in the book: it was because of the appearance of a Wen Yu from another world that the “window paper” between the two (the thin barrier preventing them from confessing) was finally poked through.

So here was the problem: was this “Wen Yu” who had crossed over the real-life Wen Yu, or the Wen Yu from the author’s pen?

Song Jin’s head throbbed thinking about it. It wasn’t like she could just jump in front of the real person and say casually: “The weather is nice today. By the way, have you ever dreamed about [redacted] with me?”

How could that possibly be an option?!

Irritated, she pulled the quilt over her head and grumbled for a long while. Then, the phone tucked under her pillow buzzed.

Song Jin pulled out the phone to look. The message was from Wen Yu.

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