Peninsula: Starting with the nation's first love, the white moonlight

A week later, Li Luran returned to China after completing his trip.

This trip to the peninsula felt like a dream, especially the elevator accident. Every night, Li Luran would dream of that girl with a slightly chubby face.

Returning to China, it's time to wake up from the dream; life must go on.

Moreover, he is about to begin preparing for the college entrance examination, and he simply doesn't have any extra time to think about these things.

High school seniors wish they could make the most of every day.

Li Luran's life remains simple, consisting of just going between home and school.

At 10:30 p.m., Li Luran finished showering and returned to his bedroom.

The desk lamp cast a warm yellow light. Li Luran took out a copy of "Wuthering Heights," intending to read for a while before going to sleep.

His phone, which he had placed aside, suddenly vibrated. Li Luran casually opened it and saw that it was a text message from Zhang Kai:

"Lu Ran, are you asleep? Want to play a game?"

Li Luran decisively refused: "I'm going to sleep! Goodnight!"

He rubbed his temples, and just as he looked down to turn a page of a novel, his phone rang again.

Li Luran shook his head helplessly. Just as he picked up his phone to turn it off, he noticed that the sender's number prefix was "+82," which was actually the international dialing code for the Korean Peninsula!

Li Luran's eyes widened suddenly, and her heart began to race uncontrollably.

He quickly checked the text message, which was very simple, containing only a few English words: "Hello, I'm the girl from the elevator that day."

is her!

The image of that girl instantly flashed into Li Luran's mind: cowering in a corner like a rabbit, trembling with nervousness.

And... that kiss with tears in it.

Li Luran shook his head, clearing his mind, and quickly replied with a text message:

"I thought you'd forgotten about me. How did your interview go?"

Sending complete.

He stared at the screen, and less than thirty seconds later, the other end replied.

"Yes! I passed! The director said the audition was perfect!"

Even through the screen, Li Luran could feel the girl's excitement.

But he could also tell that her English vocabulary was probably only at a junior high school level.

Li Luran smiled and deliberately used the simplest words to reply.

"Congratulations. My name is Li Luran. What's your name?"

This time, the other side remained silent for a long time.

Five minutes passed before the phone vibrated again.

"Sooji. My name is Sooji."

Suzy.

Li Luran silently repeated the name in his mind. In fact, on the day of the accident, he seemed to have heard someone calling this name.

However, the scene that day was too chaotic, and he wasn't entirely sure.

"It's nice to meet you, Suzy."

And so, in the quiet of the night, a short message exchange spanning more than 2000 kilometers officially began.

They didn't say goodnight to each other until 1 a.m., ending their conversation.

Even as Li Luran slept, a faint smile remained on his lips.

The next morning, Li Luran, sporting heavy dark circles under his eyes, had just entered the classroom when Zhang Kai gave him a good laugh.

"Hey Lu Ran, I played games all night last night and I didn't look this exaggerated as you." Zhang Kai leaned over to examine his face, looking smug.

Actually, it was only 1 a.m. after he finished talking with Suzy last night, but Li Luran couldn't sleep.

Li Luran rolled her eyes at Zhang Kai and stuffed her schoolbag into her desk.

"You better take it easy, kid. Staying up all night playing games like this every day, you might just die of a sudden illness one day!"

......

The days of senior year in high school were tedious and long, but Li Luran still maintained a regular life of going back and forth between two points every day.

The only difference is that he chats with Suzy every day.

Every night at 11 p.m. is his secret time with Soo-ji.

However, Suzy is really busy.

She is a member of the rookie girl group miss A, and with her high popularity, her schedule is packed every day.

In addition to music shows, autograph sessions, and commercial performances, they now also study and film TV drama scripts.

She could only secretly send text messages to Li Luran from the nanny van or when she returned to her dormitory late at night and hid under the covers.

Since the two couldn't communicate in the same language, they always communicated in English. Every time Lee Lu-ran saw the text messages from Suzy, he couldn't help but secretly laugh.

"I practiced for ten hours today, and my legs are killing me."

"My agent took my fried chicken! I hate him!"

"My roommate said I'm a pig because I secretly eat ramen."

Looking at these childish complaints, Li Luran couldn't help but smile.

In front of this young man from China, Bae Suzy shed all her idol image, and they could speak freely.

Li Luran would patiently reply to each of her messages:

"Soak your feet. Use hot water with some salt, and your legs won't hurt anymore."

"Fried chicken is too high in calories, eat some low-sugar fruit instead. Don't get caught."

"Don't listen to them. You're my one-minute girlfriend, and I won't allow them to slander my girlfriend!"

Whenever Li Luran sent the message "One-minute girlfriend," the other side would always send a string of angry punctuation marks.

Li Luran could imagine that the girl in Seoul must be blushing furiously at that moment.

Gradually, this ambiguous relationship between the man and woman grew rampant in their daily interactions.

Time flies, and it's already the end of October.

Seoul welcomed its first snow, while autumn is in full swing across the country.

That evening, as usual, Li Luran leaned against the headboard, waiting for Xiuzhi's text message.

Twelve o'clock, one o'clock, two o'clock, but the phone remained silent.

Li Luran frowned slightly. Even if it was late, Xiuzhi would always send him a goodnight message.

Has something happened?

Just as he was about to make the call, his phone vibrated.

A text message came in.

There is only one very long Korean character.

Li Luran was stunned; he couldn't understand a single word.

He quickly opened the webpage translator on his computer and typed the line of text in one by one.

The machine-translated result was complete nonsense, but he managed to piece together the general meaning:

"Lu Ran, I'm so tired today. I twisted my ankle while dancing, and the director yelled at me on set. I don't know why I'm pushing myself so hard. I don't even have the energy to look up words in the dictionary... I'm sorry."

Li Luran stared blankly at her phone, a sense of powerlessness welling up inside her.

He could imagine Soo-ji enduring the pain in her foot while being criticized, and how helpless she looked.

He couldn't even offer her a word of comfort.

He turned off his computer and sat in the dark for a long time.

School ended the next afternoon.

Zhang Kai originally wanted to take him to an internet cafe to play a couple of games to relax.

"No time." Li Luran slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked out of the school gate without looking back.

"Where are you going?" Zhang Kai called from behind.

"Let's go to the bookstore."

At the Xinhua Bookstore in the city center, Li Luran picked up a book titled "Korean for Beginners" and a "Korean-Chinese Bilingual Dictionary".

Pay, pack, and put it in the backpack—all done in one smooth motion.

For the next month, in addition to her senior year studies, Li Luran squeezed every spare moment to learn Korean, and she became almost obsessed with it.

In just one month, his Korean proficiency improved at an alarming rate.

But he didn't tell Soo-ji, not a single word.

Li Luran possesses a deep-seated pride and romanticism.

He wanted to wait until the day he could speak fluent Korean with her and give her a big surprise.

Young people's liking is always accompanied by a kind of recklessness.

This was the first time Li Luran had ever fallen for a girl.

For Xiuzhi's sake, Li Luran went forward without hesitation, leaving himself no way out.