Peninsula: Aiming for a Grand Slam

"If she doesn't refuse, I can ask her to come watch my game next time!"

Laugh to death.

What normal 30-year-old woman would date a high school student who owes her money?

They can't even support themselves, yet they fantasize about having everything.

Whether it's Bae Joo-hyun or Yoo Ji-min... he suddenly froze.

Yoo Jimin?

She was genuinely nervous, and it was true that she called in the middle of the night to say "it's just a little bit."

But after these images flashed by, he began to have doubts.

"She spoke up for me because Kim Sung-joon said something that deserved a beating, and she just couldn't stand it."

"Perhaps, if someone else had been treated like that, she would have stood up too... She even dared to talk back to her seniors."

Liu Zhimin has always been clear about her grievances and affections, just as pure as her dedication to the stage.

So, isn't that favoritism?

He stripped himself bare from head to toe.

What does he have?

Karina works herself to the bone to become an ITF junior champion, but the prize money isn't even enough for one of her afternoon announcements.

Even the registration fee was raised with the help of others.

Of the two five million owed by Uncle Kim, he has only repaid one. The other will have to wait until after thirty more match days.

Bae Joo-hyun borrowed 800,000 RMB from him, and hasn't paid back a single penny yet.

He doesn't even have a driver's license.

Someone who isn't even qualified to hold a steering wheel actually fantasizes about dating two female idols at the same time.

Standing in front of the barbecue restaurant tonight, I even felt like I looked pretty much like someone else:

I changed out of my school uniform and put on a neatly pressed shirt, thinking that this would put me on the same level as her.

Think about it carefully,

When he says "I'll come pick you up," Bae Joo-hyun will only gently remind him "You don't have a car."

She had to be careful even when refusing, afraid that she might inadvertently damage his fragile dignity.

Chen Jixian mocked himself even more:

"Look at me, talking to you is so tiring, wouldn't I be depressed to death if I were in a relationship with you?"

……

……

Chen Jixian stood up and put on his baseball jacket.

"I'll go pay the bill."

Bae Joo-hyun looked up, opened her mouth as if to say something, but he had already turned and walked towards the cashier.

He crumpled the receipt into a ball and stuffed it into his pocket.

Pushing open the store door, a blast of cold air rushed into my collar.

The white sedan was parked under the streetlight, in the exact same spot she had parked "on the way".

Bae Joo-hyun took out her car keys.

"I'll take you back."

Chen Jixian smiled.

His tone was relatively relaxed:

"Nuna, you did everything tonight. You grilled the meat, you ordered the dishes, and you even set my chopsticks straight."

"At least let me go back by myself, so I can get back to the feeling of being treated."

He was still smiling.

That smile was his final act of dignity.

"On the way."

She repeated it again.

This time, his tone was even softer, as if he were coaxing a younger brother who was throwing a tantrum.

Chen Jixian did not respond.

He lowered his head, zipped up his jacket to his chest, then to his collar, and then looked up at her.

This time, there was no smile on his face.

His voice was much lower than before:

"Nuna, I can go back by myself."

He paused for a moment.

He added another sentence:

"I'm not a child anymore."

Bae Joo-hyun's smile faded slightly.

Hearing those words felt like someone had gently pressed the pause button.

"it is good."

Her voice was as gentle as before.

Only the ending note is slightly tight.

Send a message when you get home.

Chen Jixian nodded.

He said "okay".

Bae Joo-hyun stood there, watching his back disappear into the distance, before opening the car door and getting in.

She didn't start the engine immediately, but simply placed both hands on the steering wheel.

She remembered tonight—the first slice of pork belly he grilled, which he picked up and placed on her plate, saying, "Try it."

She actually really liked how well the meat was cooked, but she only said "it was alright".

She still owes him a "very good".

……

……

There weren't many people in the subway car.

Chen Jixian sat by the window, watching the GG sign on the tunnel wall outside the window rush past.

Bae Joo-hyun's profile was still swirling in his mind.

She taught me how to grill meat and when to flip pork belly.

Chen Jixian had broken half the plate, but she didn't take it. Instead, she put the broken pieces on her own plate and left the rest for him.

Maybe,

Is this the root of the problem?

In her eyes, Chen Jixian wasn't a man, but just a younger brother who needed to be taken care of? Or was it just a matter of table manners?

He couldn't tell the difference.

This is much harder than tennis.

That's not how tennis works.

Going out of bounds is going out of bounds, and crossing the line is crossing the line.

On the court, every point is there; there's no need to guess, no need to think, and no need to replay it repeatedly in the dead of night.

We no longer have to go through the motions of analyzing every single word someone says, only to find that we still can't grasp the meaning.

My phone vibrated.

Wang Hao's text message: "Are you still alive? Be careful."

You bastard.

The word "safety" was even put in quotation marks.

The meaning is obvious.

Chen Jixian smiled.

This time, it wasn't the self-deprecating, bitter laugh.

He was really laughing.

Whether you like Bae Joo-hyun or Yoo Jimin, there's one prerequisite—you have to be good enough.

Communicating with them is really tiring.

But Lao Wang didn't care about any of that.

He doesn't need you to be handsome, he doesn't need you to be rich, he doesn't need you to have a driver's license, and he doesn't need you to wear a shirt.

As long as you're not a bad person.

Or to put it another way

When Lao Wang became friends with him, he didn't expect Chen Jixian to amount to much.

Xiao Chen picked up his phone.

I typed a line of text:

"I'm not dead. See you tomorrow."

……

……

the next day.

Math test over

Chen Jixian lay on the table, staring at a piece of draft paper, as if waiting for the answer to grow out of it.

Wang Hao leaned over from the back row, intending to ask him how he solved the last big problem, but he saw his expression instead.

"Looking at you, anyone who didn't know better would think you'd been beaten up by a dozen big men."

Chen Jixian did not move.

He didn't sleep much that night, and as a result, he had a math test the next day.

Is the school targeting me too?

Wang Hao moved forward another half inch and glimpsed a line of English writing on his notebook.

"Power, give me more power."

The handwriting was very heavy, and the pen tip pressed indentations into the paper.

Wang Hao took one look and immediately laughed: "You didn't even solve the last big problem?"

Chen Jixian stared blankly, "I even got the arithmetic sequence wrong!"

王浩拿起他的草稿纸，越看越乐：「6减8借一位，你直接6加8等于14，再减8等于6……你是真不会还是脑子被门夹了？」

Chen Jixian turned his face away, with the back of his head facing him.

Wang Hao patted him on the shoulder: "If you don't know math, you just don't know it. No amount of 'power' will help."

Chen Jixian did not turn around.

Wang Hao shrank back, scribbled in his notebook, then tore off a piece of paper and handed it to Xiao Chen.

A line of Chinese characters on the paper:

"Love you, Powwa! Mopowwa!"

Xiao Chen was stunned for a moment, then flew into a rage.

That bastard is taking advantage of him!

He wrote Nero's first demonized lines for Devil May Cry 4:

"Power, give me more power."

Wang Hao wrote Vergil's lines from Devil May Cry 5:

"I need power, more power."

As is widely known, Virgil was Nero's father.

The implication,

I am your father.

Chen Jixian turned the paper over, wrote a few lines on the back, and pushed it back.

Wang Hao looked down and said: "Call me Dad, or I won't let you copy my homework."

Old Wang's smile froze on his face: "...Why are you so boring?"

"Hmph, you asked for it."