They are still close to me today despite their negative feelings

"...Well, let's just pretend you really don't know. Just now, that girl in our class named An Yu ran towards the park very quickly, and I'm a little worried." Xiao Lai said thoughtfully, propping up his bicycle.

"Don't bring up teacher ethics at a time like this. Isn't it better to just stick to your usual routine?"

"Hmm? I feel like I heard something very rude and offensive to my professional ethics?" Xiao Lai frowned at me, then clapped his hands as if he had thought of a brilliant idea.

"Ah, Ning Ruoyu, can I ask you to take care of my classmates? You see, you probably don't have many opportunities to interact with your classmates, especially the girls, so this little task is a win-win situation."

"Such words are incredibly disrespectful to my entire life."

"Oh, don't think like that. Would I, your teacher, harm you?" Xiao Lai said with a bright smile. "Although it seems like this is the teacher's responsibility, it's a rare holiday, and I have a dinner party to prepare tonight. You know what I mean?"

"If you ruin my chances of finding a good partner, I will also be sad because I can't be a good teacher."

"Could such a life-threatening tone really come from a teacher's mouth?" I sighed and reluctantly ran a few steps forward like a timid horse driven by a whip.

……

"I've heard that if you keep sighing, you'll sigh away all your good luck."

"Huh? Really?"

"I think it's fake. Rather, if you're lucky enough, who would want to sigh?"

"Yes, right... wait a minute, Ning Ruoyu?!"

An Yu, who had been slumped on a park bench, suddenly sat up straight.

"You, why are you here again? You still want to come here?"

My conscience is a little... ah, I didn't find such a thing, so it doesn't hurt.

"In that situation, who would feel comfortable letting you go home alone?"

I answered resolutely.

"...Could it be that I ran into a senior or a younger sister?"

"What exactly do you think of me...?"

How did this guy become so much smarter? Does the brain grow during puberty?

"He doesn't like to meddle in other people's business, hates trouble, says he likes being around people but actually prefers being alone, thinks others are useless so he's self-righteous and takes all the bad dangers and misunderstandings upon himself..."

"You're drenched in sweat, stop talking."

I felt a bit uncomfortable, like my sore spot had been touched.

"Oh……"

An Yu obediently stopped. Just like before, that strange silence lingered between us like a ghost.

"Speaking of which, I really owe a lot to my senior and the student council president today. They risked their lives to help me. I was really rude to my senior before. If I have the chance next time, I'll apologize..."

"I'm just lazy, I do whatever is convenient. It's not that I like to take on danger and misunderstandings."

"Eh?"

"Oh, sorry, the class monitor and Xu Xingxin have already told me about your alliance." I then realized that I had been too direct.

An Yu was stunned for a moment, then his face turned bright red.

"Hello? Still alive?"

I waved to her with a bit of worry.

She seemed to wake up suddenly from a dream and began searching for something all over the place.

"Tablecloth, cling film, plastic bags... oh no, there's none! Should I just kowtow here?! %￥#&#!"

She almost fell off the chair, then knelt down on the ground in a panic.

Can't stop it.

I was terrified.

"Are you really determined to send me to the police station today?"

Next chapter preview:

But I'm holding a gun, you know?

How did An Yu manage to resist the urge to engage in physical conflict and instead opt for only a verbal warning?

"There's a bad woman here, can I call the police now?"

...Aaaaaaah, a complete misunderstanding has occurred!!!

Chapter Nineteen: About the Misunderstanding I Made Initially

To put it simply: Although he wasn't arrested by the police, he was scolded by the passing headmaster of student affairs.

Similar to the righteous argument: "It's so late and they're still not going home, making such a scene in the park in their school uniforms. It's such a bad influence on others, what kind of behavior is this!"

Well, it was unexpected, but also quite reasonable.

"Ning Ruoyu, do you know the head of the teaching department?"

An Yu, his knees dirty, rubbed them with his hands and asked me curiously.

"No, I don't remember... Why do you say that?"

Didn't he just glance at you and say, 'That makes sense'?

...That damn Mediterranean guy, tomorrow I'll hand over the evidence of your abuse of power to the Education Bureau.

I looked at An Yu helplessly. Several minutes later, she finally realized what was happening and a look of displeasure appeared on her face.

"Isn't this an insult? He needs to apologize!"

"Forget it, it's too much trouble." I shook my head.

An Yu frowned.

"I don't like this kind of behavior of not speaking clearly and letting others talk about you."

She crossed her arms and looked up at the sky.

"Xiao Dan and Mom both said I'm an indecisive person... but Ning Ruoyu, you're clearly not like that, so why don't you explain it to them?"

An Yu's logic always jumps around very quickly, and it took me a while to understand what she meant.

Because I know it but can't do it myself, I hope that others won't be bothered.

"I'm just a lazy person."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"The prejudices people hold against each other have already accumulated into a mountain due to first impressions and daily interactions. Changing their opinions is meaningless and unimportant to me."

"The truth is meaningless. I don't like doing it this way, I just find it convenient."

It's like a movie I watched in a past life. In the end, nobody really cared how many bowls of cold noodles Liu Zi ate—they just wanted to see a trial, a fun-loving carnival of "exposing hypocritical justice" and "reaching a consensus among the group."

Taking things too seriously can get you ripped out. If I were Liu Zi, I'd give that troublemaker a sinister smile.

"You guessed wrong, I don't eat cold noodles."

But I'm holding a gun, you know?

"...I believe that truth and reality must have meaning."

An Yu spoke softly, pulling me back to reality from my reverie.

"what?"

"Because you see, I used to be a self-righteous idiot."

"I agree with this matter."

"Did it bite you?"

An Yu angrily punched my arm.

Didn't we agree to talk? Why did you resort to violence?

"...Now that I think about it, I didn't really know you at all before. But because I received messages and gifts, and heard everyone say how annoying you were, I started to reject you more and more in my heart."

It's a good thing you don't know "me," otherwise, if you had, I can't even imagine how torturous your first year of high school would have been.

"Speaking of which, I'm curious about what I did that drove you to the point of severing ties with me, An Yu? What was it about me that you couldn't stand?"

"Well, mainly because they inexplicably saved a seat for me in the cafeteria that day, and even left a big box of chocolates on it?"

"...Then I got surrounded and teased, and you stepped out from the crowd with roses and ran towards me. It was really scary. I heard Hu Dan say that when you rushed over, she was so frightened that she ran away without even eating, because it was really terrifying..."

"I was really hungry that day, but I didn't dare to go out to eat. I was also afraid of running into you when I was outside, so I could only hide in a corner of the stairs and secretly eat snacks. But because I hadn't eaten lunch, the more I ate the snacks, the hungrier I got..."

An Yu started muttering to herself, and her eyes lost their luster.

"I suddenly genuinely believe that your previous approach was correct..."

This first year of high school is already pretty torturous, right? Rather, how did An Yu manage to suppress the urge to engage in physical conflict and only choose to issue a verbal warning?

"But, but look at me now, I understand what kind of person you are, so I won't make such presumptuous judgments—that's the meaning of truth and reality!"

An Yu slightly puffed out his chest.

I glanced at it and silently looked away.

It's a little better than A, but still not enough... It's okay, little girl, you're only in your first year of high school, you'll grow up eventually... I guess so.

"Perhaps the past is the truth, but you just don't believe it now..."

"This kind of arguing will never end!" An Yu complained with a laugh, hands on her hips.

“That’s true.” I laughed along. “It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. I’m a selfish person, and I don’t care what other people think.”

"Ah, that's absolutely not what I thought!"

"It's okay, I don't care."

Haha, I hate you!

...Oh dear, I wasn't joking, why did I get my arm slapped while laughing?

But this lovely JK (high school girl) didn't give me a chance to explain.

"So, if I apologize now, can we make up?"

She slightly raised her eyes to look at me, her smile concealing obvious unease.

"Have we not made up yet?"

I was stunned again.

You already performed an astonishing kneeling act, so now high school students are expected to kowtow three times and bow nine times to apologize?

"No way! Whether it's an apology or making up, there has to be 'I'm sorry' and 'It's okay'! That's the bare minimum!"

This is truly a blind spot in my knowledge. In my past life, in the shop, customers who caused a scene because they were drunk the night before would often act as if nothing had happened and continue to request things the next day. As long as they could continue the conversation and get money, everyone assumed they had automatically forgotten about it.

When interests are at stake, adults really don't hold grudges overnight.

"I thought that the fact that we could chat like this meant that we had made up."

"I've told you before, I hate ambiguity!"

I'm clearly a natural airhead.

"...Because I'm a bit slow, I often can't keep up with other people's pace and don't know how to react, so I'm most afraid of misunderstandings that are hidden in each other's hearts."

"So this ambiguity won't do, absolutely not."

An Yu looked into my eyes, her gray-blue pupils reflecting my surprised expression.

For an idiot like me, that look is way too serious.

"Or, you can slap me now! Slap me until you're no longer upset!"

"I'm not upset, really not. This is too girly."

"It has nothing to do with whether a girl is young or not. It's just upsetting to be treated like this... I'm sorry, I talked big but did this—hurry up and hit me! I'm ready!"

She squeezed her eyes shut, her body trembling with fear, but she still managed to turn her face to the side.

I slightly shifted my gaze; this was just too bizarre.