My Straight Childhood Friend Successfully Pursued Me After The Breakup - Chapter 2

The two fell silent simultaneously for a moment, then both subconsciously lowered their heads.

The orange juice at this café was mediocre, not as sweet and tart as the kind Zuo Xian usually squeezed at home. After a few sips, a lingering bitterness remained on her tongue.

She lowered her gaze and stirred the orange juice with her straw, the ice cubes clinking against the glass.

“I know,” Tao Ran suddenly spoke, and Zuo Xian’s stirring stopped. She looked up.

Tao Ran was looking at her, her fingers interlocked on the table, seemingly a little nervous.

She said, “I know it was you who met with me. Xue Shuangxi told me, and she also said you are currently… single.”

Once the first sentence was out, the rest seemed easier.

Tao Ran smiled, easing her tension, and looked at Zuo Xian, whose expression was rather placid.

“Xian, do you miss me?”

The bitterness on her tongue grew more pronounced, and Zuo Xian couldn’t help but furrow her brow, asking Tao Ran incredulously, “What do you mean?”

“It means I miss you very much.”

Zuo Xian suddenly felt the world was a bit fantastical. Her ‘white moonlight’ (first love), whom she hadn’t seen in ten years, ran to tell her she missed her after learning she was single.

Anyone else would probably be overjoyed, but Zuo Xian only found it laughable.

Every word of Tao Ran’s rejection ten years ago was still engraved in her heart.

In the first few years, Zuo Xian would constantly re-analyze those few short sentences every night, persistently telling herself that things weren’t that bad.

But no matter how hard she tried to privately defend Tao Ran and herself, Zuo Xian couldn’t deny the harm those words had caused her.

Even if Tao Ran hadn’t been intentional at the time.

She didn’t intend to hurt her; it was simply because she was straight.

That was all.

Yet the Tao Ran who spoke those words back then was now showing her affection, and Zuo Xian was no longer an ignorant child. She understood the implied meaning.

Time might change one’s perspective, but it wouldn’t change one’s sexual orientation.

“Young CEO Tao,” Zuo Xian’s slight frown, which began when she entered, had still not eased. She asked directly, “Aren’t you straight?”

As the word “straight” was uttered, Tao Ran seemed to recall memories of the past and paused.

Zuo Xian observed this subtle change in demeanor. The heavy stone pressing on her heart lightened a little; she was relieved that Tao Ran still remembered what happened that year.

If she were the only one brooding over it, Zuo Xian might not have been able to sit across from Tao Ran peacefully right now.

She stared at Tao Ran, waiting for her answer.

“I did say before that I wouldn’t fall for a woman.”

That wasn’t all she said. The latter half of the sentence automatically surfaced in Zuo Xian’s mind, making her breathing momentarily difficult.

The mature Tao Ran in front of her gradually merged with the image of the naive girl from her memory. Zuo Xian hurriedly looked down and took a sip of the icy orange juice.

“I was young then, just ignorant.” Tao Ran’s soft voice echoed in her ears.

Light as a feather, it scattered the image of the frowning girl in Zuo Xian’s memory.

Zuo Xian stared blankly at the tabletop, thinking that this passage of time must be haunted; could it really change a person’s sexual orientation?

After much thought, Zuo Xian still cast a negative vote on this question.

No, it cannot.

She let out a quiet, mocking laugh, unsure whether she was laughing at herself or at Tao Ran.

Tao Ran was temporarily unable to grasp Zuo Xian’s feelings, gazing deeply at her, her right thumb anxiously rubbing the back of her left hand.

After a moment of hesitation, her eyes grew firm, and she laid her cards on the table.

” Xian, if you’re looking for a girlfriend, could you consider me?”

A stunning realization, like a lightning strike, hit Zuo Xian. Her hand trembled, nearly spilling her drink.

Shock was immediately followed by the blare of her self-preservation mechanism’s radar.

Zuo Xian stared blankly for a long time, looking directly into Tao Ran’s eyes, as if she didn’t recognize the person in front of her.

“Tao Ran, are you messing with me? This isn’t the way to joke.”

“I’m not joking…”

“Don’t say anything more.” Zuo Xian looked away. “I don’t want to hear it, and there’s no need to meet again in the future. I don’t want to see you.”

Saying that, Zuo Xian quickly picked up her bag, stood up, and turned to leave, unwilling even to say goodbye.

It wasn’t until her figure became distant and disappeared from view that Tao Ran, who was still sitting rigidly in her seat, blinked her sore eyes, slightly bent her straight back, and softly sighed, her voice trembling.

“A Xian…”

The heavy rain began without warning, pouring down in sheets. Zuo Xian couldn’t wait for the rain to stop and rushed into her sports car, slamming the door shut with a bang.

Large raindrops hit the windshield loudly, and Zuo Xian took out a tissue, lowering her head to wipe the water off her body.

Her wiping motion gradually stopped. She looked up through the car window toward where Tao Ran was sitting.

From this angle, she could only see Tao Ran’s back, straight as bamboo, and the braid at the back of her head.

Zuo Xian just then noticed that Tao Ran’s hairstyle today was the one she wore most often in middle school, a perfectly appropriate blend of playfulness and demureness for a teenage girl.

But both she and Tao Ran were in their late twenties, nearly thirty; this style was arguably a bit youthful.

Still, it looked quite nice.

Zuo Xian shifted her gaze from the back of Tao Ran’s head, stepped on the gas, and decisively drove away.

After driving for a while, Zuo Xian’s phone, placed on the passenger seat, kept ringing. She glanced at it; it was a message from Xue Shuangxi.

She almost forgot about her; she’d essentially delivered herself right to Zuo Xian’s doorstep.

Good. Zuo Xian had many things she wanted to ask Miss Xue.

Zuo Xian secretly clenched her back teeth, turned the steering wheel, and headed toward Miss Xue’s house.

“Tsk, why isn’t she replying?” Xue Shuangxi was half-reclining on the sofa, staring intently at her phone screen.

After a long sigh, she suddenly seemed to think of something and smiled knowingly.

“She must be too busy to bother with me. Oh, I really am a do-gooder, aren’t I?”

Xue Shuangxi, happily fantasizing about the two meeting, got up from the sofa and hummed a tune as she walked to the kitchen. Just as she poured a glass of water, the doorbell rang.

She carried the glass and slowly walked over to the visual doorbell at the entrance.

The screen showed Zuo Xian’s face.

With a mischievous but feigned gentle smile, she looked no different to the Xue Shuangxi of the moment than the beautiful, psycho killers in movies.

Xue Shuangxi blinked, certain she hadn’t mistaken the person, but judging by Zuo Xian’s expression, she seemed to have misjudged the situation.

It’s over.

Play dead.

Good idea.

Zuo Xian outside the door waited for a while but received no response. She checked the time; Xue Shuangxi was definitely home at this hour.

Playing dead, are we?

Looking at the monitor, Zuo Xian slowly said, “If you don’t open the door, the next time I run into Sister Xue Ying…”

Before her words were finished, the tightly closed door was opened, and a head with a hairband popped out.

The “head” feigned surprise, saying, “Xian, why are you here? I was busy just now and didn’t hear the doorbell. Oh dear, you’re wet, come in quickly and change your clothes.”

Xue Shuangxi eagerly invited Zuo Xian into her home and settled her on the sofa before quickly turning back to the kitchen.

When she returned with a drink, she saw Zuo Xian sitting on the sofa with her arms crossed, looking ready to interrogate her.

Xue Shuangxi, thick-skinned, sidled up to her and handed her the orange juice. “Here, darling, I always have orange juice waiting for you in my fridge. How about that, aren’t you touched?”

Zuo Xian scoffed, “Touched?”

Xue Shuangxi quickly twisted the cap open and said with a flattering smile, “I’ll open it for you, I’ll open it for you.”

Zuo Xian glanced at her, took the orange juice, but didn’t drink it. Instead, she leaned over and placed it on the coffee table, making it clear that this matter wouldn’t be smoothed over so easily.

“Now you’re scared?” Zuo Xian shot her a look.

“I… sigh…” Xue Shuangxi tried to loop her arm through Zuo Xian’s but was shrugged off. She then said honestly, “I was just thinking of promoting your reconciliation, right? It’s been so long, and you’ve both grown up. What can’t be put behind you?”

“Can’t,” Zuo Xian insisted. “Anything can be put behind me, but not her. I’m through with her.”

Zuo Xian clicked her tongue in annoyance, turned to Xue Shuangxi, and said, “Xue Shuangxi, didn’t I tell you? We broke up, we broke up.”

The three of them were high school classmates.

During their school days, Xue Shuangxi loved to stick with Zuo Xian and Tao Ran.

When they first broke up, Xue Shuangxi cried almost as much as Zuo Xian, the one actually involved, and tried many times to trick Zuo Xian and Tao Ran into meeting.

Of course, she never succeeded.

Later, Zuo Xian transferred schools, and Tao Ran went abroad. No matter how unwilling Xue Shuangxi was, she had no choice but to keep in touch with both of them, occasionally dropping Tao Ran’s name in front of Zuo Xian.

She would then earn a dirty look or a scolding. After a certain number of times, seeing Zuo Xian’s clear resistance, she actually managed to hold back from mentioning Tao Ran again.

She behaved for several years, and now she was back at it, even worse than before.

“Then tell me, what exactly happened back then?” Xue Shuangxi seized the opportunity to ask. “You suddenly transferred schools that year, and you cut ties with Tao Ran. No matter how I asked, you wouldn’t tell me the reason. What was it?”

Zuo Xian was immediately silenced. She coughed twice, picked up the orange juice, and took a couple of sips.

“Why so many questions? We broke up, and that’s that. Isn’t it normal for young girls to fall out and stop getting along?”

Xue Shuangxi snickered, “Come on. Everyone knows you two were inseparable growing up. You only realized you couldn’t get along after playing together for so many years? And you clearly liked her back then…”

Zuo Xian stopped Xue Shuangxi, who was about to say more, with a look, then bent her index finger and forcefully tapped her forehead.

“Ouch! Did you have to hit me so hard!”

Zuo Xian: “Are you cross-examining me, or am I cross-examining you? Do you know who’s who here?”

Xue Shuangxi rubbed her forehead and argued, “I… I’m doing this for your own good, okay? Tao Ran is your childhood sweetheart. Although you’ve been apart for ten years, both your families know each other well. You broke up ten years ago, no longer friends, but who says you can’t be lovers?”

“The regret of youth, remedied in adulthood—it’s utterly romantic.”

“Stop talking!”

Zuo Xian felt incredibly embarrassed remembering what happened at the café earlier.

She was an adult in her late twenties, someone who navigated the social world with ease, so how could she have panicked like that, making a fool of herself?

She needed to act more composed the next time they met.

Forget it, let’s just not meet again.

She took a big gulp of orange juice, regretting her actions, and then glanced at Xue Shuangxi, who was looking at her with a mournful expression.

Zuo Xian laughed in exasperation, “What is that look? I’m the one you screwed over, yet you look more resentful than me.”

“Tell me what’s so bad about Tao Ran? What don’t you like about her? I can make her change, can’t I? At least give her a chance.”

“A chance?” Zuo Xian’s face turned cold, and she placed the orange juice heavily on the table. “Is my chance something just anyone can have?”