**I sat by the library window,** notebook open, steaming lemon tea at my elbow.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAJ5NU1EptqJ
My phone buzzed.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAST7UmrdNLx
**[Lu Huai]:** *When are you free?*
80Please respect copyright.PENANA1vioIaFkun
...Since when did this STEM robot learn to text?
80Please respect copyright.PENANAhND3uIhPWa
I’d pegged him as the *read-immediately-but-never-reply* type. This initiative was unsettling.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAZWOg4j44Fk
**[Me]:** *Now?*
**[Lu Huai]:** *Library entrance.*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAQnC5Gosrso
I looked up. There he was beyond the glass doors—that familiar face, distant as a painting amidst the crowd and wind.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAsGkMH6wtfo
He approached, tone frostier than my iced tea: *"Team meeting. Now or never?"*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAZnZvCCkbQZ
Me: *"..."*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAyw6vWXCwTF
*I’m the hypocrite here*—I’d mocked him for *"ghosting texts,"* yet *I* was the one stalling?
80Please respect copyright.PENANAfx7KCgvUDr
---
80Please respect copyright.PENANAegYdygpaY8
We settled in the library’s deepest corner, shelves shielding us.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAMgcmcJeXKr
Lu Huai cracked open a physics elective, pen scratching across blank pages. I drafted our proposal, keyboard clattering.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAqlqpHtLA64
Silence. Only the whisper of pen on paper and my relentless typing.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAWM3qD2312l
Ten minutes in, I yawned, gulping tea: *"Must you overachieve *here*?"*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAXVpSqCwA2i
He didn’t glance up. *"Or you’ll draft alone while I loaf?"*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAu58hUv8OLh
*"Loaf away. You’re *naturally* gifted at it."*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAIlSVQSeQv2
*"...Does your novel’s male lead talk like this?"*
80Please respect copyright.PENANA3HpFqEvHZo
His pen halted. The question drifted past like a breeze.
80Please respect copyright.PENANASWIGalSget
My fingers froze.
80Please respect copyright.PENANALNc4Coo4Kt
*"...What novel?"* I feigned innocence.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAbvHjpeSY80
Still not looking at me, he flipped a page. *"Bottom-left of your desktop. A doc titled *‘Ch.16: Male Lead Stands Outside All Night’*."*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAdGNsZAGZBp
I slammed my laptop shut, coughing. *"Since when do you *snoop*?"*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAySLfvyqQKm
Finally, he met my gaze. His amusement glimmered like post-rain puddles—clear, unreadable.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAQgVrNAE4hS
*"Just noting,"* he said, *"your prose outshines your banter."*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAmmN9nusfit
Me: *"..."*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAN9jTra6m5s
*Thanks, Lu Huai. Even my fictional characters can’t retort to that.*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAmUkiJC14HQ
Worse—he resumed writing, utterly unbothered, as if he’d merely commented on the weather.
80Please respect copyright.PENANABtATSKvNRS
I *tsk*ed, vowing silence... until he spoke again:
80Please respect copyright.PENANAZvl0Fp5NiC
*"That *‘li’* account. A friend?"*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAtfCHLepxTA
*"...You know them?"*
80Please respect copyright.PENANADAwlrDHepB
*"No."* A pause. *"But you *stare* at their comments post-update."*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAmT4cROboLj
My lips parted. *How* to explain?
80Please respect copyright.PENANA5zp8dd2lVS
True—after each chapter, I’d scroll straight to *li*’s eerily perceptive remarks.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAlrNtw6Mhdp
Yet I *never* replied.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAiN9l3JAAsX
---
80Please respect copyright.PENANA01Q4aflga7
10 PM. I updated as usual.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAFQDXEvPLLv
This chapter: Lu Huai’s character helps the female lead organize files—terse as ever, yet meticulous.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAqen00yud9r
Mid-draft, I hesitated... then added: *"He’d known all along she hated noise."*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAaVNDsPfaQw
Posted. I refreshed the comments.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAfGySgyb06Q
**[li]:**
*"Guilty conscience *finally* cracking you open?"*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAO1AAEUxrdV
Me: *"..."*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAMGSoddXps9
*I’m *begging*—who *is* this person?! They *get* me better than I do.*
80Please respect copyright.PENANAuMORGRQVBW
I hovered over the reply box for ten seconds... and chickened out.
80Please respect copyright.PENANAOowSmlkkuD
Wind whispered past my ear. If my novel’s male lead materialized now—
80Please respect copyright.PENANA6pgtbgUDj3
He’d look *exactly* like Lu Huai.
ns216.73.216.8da2