Kong Lingyu’s gaze flickered back and forth between the two of them.
Kong Lingrou wore a subtle smile, while Shi Bei had the depressed look of someone whose boasting had been exposed.
“Speaking of high school,” Kong Lingyu said, not quite catching on to the situation, as she tried to find a lighthearted topic to continue, “my sister was a popular figure at our high school back then.”
“Oh.” Shi Bei glanced at Kong Lingrou. “What kind of popular figure? Still looking down on people like in middle school, throwing other people’s love letters straight into the trash can?”
Kong Lingyu thought she had misheard: “What?”
The corners of Kong Lingrou’s lips twitched slightly, but she remained silent.
Her long hair draped over her chest, and she sat up straight with natural poise; every gesture and movement exuded elegance.
Anyone looking at her would think she was a dignified, decent young lady with an exceptionally good personality.
No one would believe that during her middle school years, when Kong Lingrou received love letters and greeting cards, she would hand them to Shi Bei right in front of the people confessing, telling her to throw them into the trash can.
Which led to the time Shi Bei was confessed to for the first time in her freshman year of high school.
The boy nervously waited for a response while the surrounding classmates held their breath, unable to stop casting frequent glances over. For a brief moment, she too found herself in the position of the main character in a youth film.
Yet she couldn’t project her feelings into it at all.
In her mind, there was only Kong Lingrou’s slow, mocking voice: If there were even a grain of sincerity, one wouldn’t dare open one’s mouth.
Over the decade she grew up dependent on Kong Lingrou, Kong Lingrou’s aloofness and aggressiveness in how she viewed the world had influenced and practically shaped Shi Bei’s own worldview. Thus, after the second year of middle school, her world shattered into two halves—all other people merged into a giant shadow, leaving only a transparent her.
From then on, standing alone in a crowd, it was hard for her to feel any excitement from others’ cheers, or any difficulty understanding their sadness.
Kong Lingyu noticed once again that the atmosphere between them was a bit subtle.
Unable to make sense of it, she nevertheless explained earnestly.
“No… it was because my sister formed a two-person band with a girl who was an actress back then. Later, after that girl graduated, she continued working as an actress. Just a few days ago, I even went to see a movie she starred in. Takahashi Rin—have you heard of her?”
A band? Kong Lingrou had learned multiple musical instruments when she was young, so performing in high school events was normal enough. But forming a band with an actress classmate?
Shi Bei stared blankly at the person beside her, completely unable to imagine how someone with a personality that preferred sitting in the director’s chair behind the spotlight would be willing to stand on stage and perform.
“Why did you agree to form a band?” Being overly surprised, Shi Bei blurted the question out unconsciously.
Her voice was very soft, but Kong Lingrou heard it.
Actually, there was no special reason.
That Japanese girl, who had been working since she was a baby to support her mother’s luxurious lifestyle, was inexplicably dependent on Kong Lingrou for some reason.
She had said to her: Besides you, I’ll never have any other friends.
Staring at her with a pair of glistening, wet eyes, she put on an utterly helpless front.
Although some performance elements could be seen mixed within, Kong Lingrou had no particular desire to refuse.
Though called a band, it was just a band name casually thrown together when filling out the school performance application form; she was merely responsible for occasionally providing stage accompaniment for Takahashi Rin. It was nothing like other high school bands that held regular group rehearsals and performed all over the place.
Kong Lingrou didn’t answer, merely observing Shi Bei imperceptibly.
When they first met again, Shi Bei’s appearance clearly said she hadn’t forgotten their past friction.
Why draw close to her again then?
If it was because she later thought through it and decided that their childhood discord was no longer important…
Then why—
She wanted to figure out the reason behind her pretense of acting as if nothing had happened, yet forced herself not to pry. Only by calming her chaotic thoughts could she guard her hard-won peace.
Kong Lingyu said, “I still have the video from back then, let me show you!”
At those words, Shi Bei immediately leaned in.
Kong Lingrou had an instinctive urge to stop her, her hand pausing in midair, before finally just turning her face to stare at Kong Lingyu.
Fortunately, Kong Lingyu was looking down, scrolling through the videos on her phone, completely failing to notice her own sister’s terrifying expression.
“Ah, found it.”
She happily placed her phone in front of Shi Bei and pressed play.
Against the backdrop of a noisy school festival stage, the angle of the phone recording was uneven and shaky, but one could clearly see a lead singer wearing a performance outfit walking onto the stage.
She had a red guitar slung over her shoulder, a slender figure, and a beautiful face; the bright smile she revealed as she picked up the microphone was full of infectious warmth.
The moment she stepped onto the stage, it stirred up waves of cheers.
Kong Lingrou was dressed in the same dark suit school uniform as the classmates around her without any special styling, following behind her as she walked low-key toward the grand piano near the center of the stage.
Yet as soon as the performance began, the lights reflected off her pitch-black, smooth hair and profile.
Her slender fingers danced over the black and white keys, turning every single note into a shimmering spark that embellished the lead singer. Her presence was hardly weaker than the star singing and playing at the front of the stage.
Even without having heard the original song, one could tell that this actress girl had excellent singing ability, and her smile was of professional-grade sweetness and radiance. The organized cheering and support from the crowd below echoed in perfect unison, the bubbly atmosphere of youth feeling utterly foreign to Shi Bei.
In the past, she had only seen Kong Lingrou practice the piano alone.
She had thought playing the piano was something that could only be done by one person.
Shi Bei’s gaze lingered on the dark screen after the video finished playing.
They had spent too much time together; she had seen Kong Lingrou’s different faces on various occasions, and was once able to simulate her posture in different environments even with her eyes closed.
Yet in the video’s footage, the dark-haired girl in the navy suit uniform played the piano, the gentleness of every note acting as a foil for the other girl.
The stage lights flowed between the two of them.
The unfamiliarity of the six years that had slipped by struck Shi Bei’s mind for the very first time.
Seeing that it had finished playing, Kong Lingyu took her phone back, turned her head, and asked Kong Lingrou again, “Sis, are you still in contact with Takahashi-san now?”
“Occasionally.”
“Oh!” Kong Lingyu said very happily. “A lot of people stop chatting with their old classmates after graduating. For you two to still be in occasional contact while she’s so busy focusing on her acting career… Plus, it must be Takahashi-san who initiates contact, right!”
“…”
With her brow lowered, Shi Bei quietly pulled out her phone and typed the three characters “Takahashi Rin” into the search bar.
An encyclopedia page instantly displayed an exquisite face wearing a smile as bright as a sunflower.
She debuted at a year and a half old by filming a diaper commercial, and at age five, she stood out in a rigorous audition among a thousand candidates to star in a TV drama produced by the top crew of that time, setting a new record for viewership ratings.
Her acting resume was a long list—at twenty years old, she possessed quite a rich background.
So Kong Lingrou’s high school friend was someone like this.
After browsing roughly, Shi Bei clicked off her phone screen.
The pitch-black screen reflected a blurry and unreal face.
She thought of her own high school years—three years that could be summarized into a single day: waking up when the dawn light was faint, rushing to the classroom to write infinite test papers until evening.
She only dared to sleep six hours on weekends. If she slept too long, she might dream of Kong Lingrou.
Dreams interspersed with fragments of the past would rapidly rise like a flood to cover her nose and mouth, slowly submerging her into the water until she woke up struggling.
Every time she opened her eyes, her face would be a patch of cool moisture.
Yet Kong Lingrou’s high school life had been so rich and colorful—busy with studies and the band, living in a time without a trace of haze. She definitely wouldn’t spend a single second thinking about the past again.
She was destined to have a brilliant life.
Distorting someone else’s life without being affected herself in the slightest… was truly too unfair.
Shi Bei pursed her lips, barely managing to control the hatred surging in her chest.
She thought her expression had remained numb all along, and that her emotions naturally wouldn’t leak out. But Kong Lingrou’s gaze had stayed focused on her face the entire time.
For three or four seconds, there was a hesitation as if she wanted to say something.
She didn’t understand—if Shi Bei hadn’t forgotten their past friction, why did she draw near while pretending nothing had ever happened?
And if the past had already been forgiven…
Why again—
Did she reveal such a gloomy expression?
As if carrying an unappeasable old grudge, yet possessing a strong desire for ownership over her.
Kong Lingrou interrupted her involuntarily dispersing thoughts once more, warning herself not to think about it anymore.
“It’s getting late, let’s go.”
Kong Lingyu, who hadn’t stayed long enough, was about to protest when she turned her head and met Kong Lingrou’s gaze.
After a moment’s hesitation, she obediently stood up. “Alright, it really is getting late, so we’ll head out first. Bye-bye.”
The moment Kong Lingrou reached out to grab her bag, Shi Bei leaned forward and tightly grasped her wrist.
“Kong Lingrou, didn’t you come to teach me Japanese? I still have a lot of things I haven’t understood.”
Kong Lingrou froze, meeting her gaze.
There was no expression on Shi Bei’s pale face, and her eyes, slightly darker than average, stared at her without blinking, filled with a multitude of emotions.
“…”
Grasping Kong Lingrou’s wrist, her icy fingertips tightly pressed against the warm, beating pulse within.
“You can’t leave yet.”