Chapter 41: The Night Before the Exam (Part-2)

Li Liu sighed and walked further into the room. “Same.”

A beat passed.

Then, she added, “Tomorrow, I’m… taking the A-Class certification again.”

Lin Fang turned to look at her, blinking. “Seriously? I didn’t know. You didn’t say anything over dinner.”

She shrugged faintly. “Didn’t want to. It’s my fourth try. Failed three times already.”

“Oh.” Lin Fang gave a tired smile and raised his beer. “Wanna join me, then?”

Li Liu glanced at him. Then, at the fridge, and gave a nod.

She padded across the kitchen tiles and grabbed a can from the fridge, cracked it open, and walked over to the couch. She sat beside him at the other end of the couch. Neither said anything for a while as the snow leopard chased prey on screen.

“So…” she said after a moment. “Nervous about tomorrow?”

Lin Fang didn’t answer immediately. He took another sip before replying. “I’ve been training like hell for it. Learned to run, dodge, get beaten up, and come back.”

He looked down at the beer and added. “But yeah… still nervous.”

Li Liu smiled faintly. “Well, I guess it wouldn’t be real if we weren’t a little scared.”

There were a few seconds of silence before Li Liu broke it, glancing sideways at him. “I think you’ll do fine, Lin Fang. Zhi Yan told me that you are working hard in the gym, practicing with Adam. She says you made great progress in just a week.”

Lin Fang blinked in surprise, “You know?”

As Li Liu nodded with a smile, a curious Lin Fang couldn’t help but ask. “Are you okay with it?”

Li Liu paused at that question, and her eyes lingered on his face for a heartbeat before she looked away. “Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters,” Lin Fang said, with a firm nod. “There are dozens of boxing gyms in the city… but there’s only one Li Liu.”

“Eh?” Li Liu’s eyes widened slightly, with a faint blush crept to her cheeks. “Wha… What do you mean?”

“Well… I mean a friend.” Lin Fang hurriedly replied, scratching his cheek and averting his gaze in a bit of embarrassment. “You know, we live together in the same house.”

Li Liu looked down for a second but raised her head to look at him, forcing out a smile. “Thanks. But really, I don’t mind it. Adam’s one of the best people you could train under.”

Lin Fang nodded in agreement. “He really is. He’s patient, calm, and never loses his cool. Most importantly, you know he is handsome and has a sculptural-like physique. I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed sometimes.”

Li Liu “Yeah… I can imagine how that feels. It’s like you want to hate him, but you cannot say anything. It was quite suffocating.”

“Sorry… I didn’t mean… I…” Lin Fang turned more toward her, looking into her eyes. “Can I ask… what really happened between you two?”

Li Liu looked at him for a moment, as if deciding whether to say it aloud. In the end, she spoke. “We met at university. He was a rising star with good grades, great athletic prowess, even into modeling back then, and most importantly, a certified hunter who liked to socialize, too. It goes without saying that he was popular. In our second year, we became a campus couple. But he was a bit too perfect, you know? Every girl on campus wanted to be near him. And a lot of them didn’t hide it.”

Her grip tightened slightly on the can as his facial expression changed.

“They used to send me nasty messages. Whisper things behind my back. Try to break us up. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, I should say. But, that’s not the true problem.”

Lin Fang listened silently while Li Liu continued. “Adam was always polite to everyone. Never pushed anyone away rudely. That was just his nature. But when you’re standing next to someone who seems untouchable, and girls are throwing themselves at him constantly… it starts to eat you. You wonder if you’re really meant to be there. And when you point out or care, you would suddenly become this obsessed person in the eyes of others.”

She gave a humorless chuckle, adding, “I couldn’t give up chasing after him, and neither could I bring myself to dump him. In the end, we graduated and our paths split, he went into monster hunting, I into monster training.”

She leaned back on the sofa, staring at the ceiling, and sighed.

“We tried to make it work. But with him constantly off in the wild, and more girls around him in every mission or guild meetup… I only got more anxious and jealous. And he never tried to remove that insecure feeling from my heart. I couldn’t take it anymore. So we broke up. I moved on and dated someone else who was a struggling actor. But just a few months in, he got famous with a role in a popular superhero franchise. And I was hit with the same anxiety all over again.”

She gave a bitter smile and looked at Lin Fang. “And now… It’s like I became too anxious around those with good looks. It took great courage to even have a conversation with you.”

Lin Fang blinked. “So… the reason you couldn’t talk to me properly before is…”

Li Liu’s eyes met his at last. Her cheeks were flushed, but this time she didn’t look away.

“I won’t sugarcoat it. You’re handsome. Simple.”

Lin Fang stared at her, not knowing how to react. He thought she was just uncomfortable around strangers. Little did he expect it was his looks. And he couldn’t help but feel happy about it.

She let out a shy laugh at his reaction. “It’s embarrassing, I know,” she added quickly. “But it’s true. That’s also one of the reasons Zhi Yan gave you the room. She thought that if I stayed around you long enough, I might get used to it… maybe even cure my anxiety a little.”

Lin Fang chuckled in the end, trying to lighten the conversation. “So, what do you think? Did it lighten your anxiety?” He leaned forward with a smile. “Hmm?”

Li Liu’s blush deepened. She turned her gaze to the side and chucked down the remaining beer to compose herself.

After a strange silence between them for like a minute, Li Liu slouched sideways, resting her cheek against the back of the sofa, her eyes looking slightly glassy. “You know something?” she slurred, poking his shoulder. “I screwed up by accepting his confession in the first place.”

Lin Fang blinked, swaying just a little as he leaned against the armrest. ’Is she drunk already? Just one can of beer? Ah, yeah, I almost forgot that she has a low alcohol tolerance and this beer also has 12% alcohol.’

“Well,” he said, grinning lazily to lighten the mood even further, “to paraphrase Shakespeare: ’It’s better to have loved and lost… than to stay home every night downloading increasingly shameful adult videos.’”

*Pfft*

Li Liu burst out laughing and reached out to grab his shoulder, nearly toppling over in the process. “That’s bullshit. There was no internet in Shakespeare’s time.”

Lin Fang chuckled too, rubbing his face. “Really? Well, that just makes it all the more absurd to say you screwed up. You’re kind, you’re sharp, you care about monsters, and monsters love you. There’s nothing wrong with you. Nothing.”

He paused, leaning his head back against the couch and looking at her. He stared at her for like few seconds, hesitating a bit, but in the end, taking a deep breath, he added while pretending to be drunk. “You know… don’t misunderstand or laugh at me when I say this. And don’t read too much into it either, but I kinda fell for you at first sight.”

“Eh?” Li Liu blinked with flushed cheeks, partly the influence of alcohol and partly not. “What?”

Lin Fang smiled as he continued in his slurred speech. “I originally stayed here, not because of Zhi Yan, but because of you. Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to go out with me or something. I have no interest in a relationship right now. With my current ambitions, a relationship will only lead to a breakup. So, don’t take it as a love confession. I’m happy to be a friend. Alright?”

Li Liu blinked, staring at him. She blinked once, twice, thrice. Lin Fang also just stared at her in return.

“Really?” she asked softly in the end, leaning in just a little.

He didn’t answer right away. Their eyes met… close, a little too close… and their vision went quite hazy as he leaned forward, “Yes, of course.” He whispered.

Li Liu stared at him again, this time as his eyes wandered over his face, before she suddenly grabbed his collar and pulled a bit.

Their lips met in a quiet, hesitant kiss.

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