Chapter 4 You know what's popular now, mini sleeves

  At the time when students go to school and adults go to work, there are already many people walking quickly on the street. The cherry blossom trees on both sides of the street still have some cherry blossoms that refuse to wither, persisting in the warm breeze of early summer; under the cherry tree, although it's not as gorgeous as the cherry blossom rain in March, the occasional falling petals are more worth appreciating and cherishing, precisely because they're scarce, making them all the more precious...

  A white long-sleeved shirt, a navy blue fitted long pants, and a simple square backpack - that's what Li Qiu is wearing today; compared to Choi Soo-young, who wears sailor fuku and ultra-mini skirts that accentuate her slender figure, the short-statured Li Qiu looks rather inconspicuous. The two of them walk towards the only middle school in this area, a step apart from each other, at an unhurried pace.

  "Li Qiu, what happened between you and Boa sister last night? Why did Boa sister come back? Didn't you know when she came into the room? The two of you just slept like that for a whole night? And why was it so calm this morning? Just one loud shout and then nothing followed? According to my understanding of Boa sister, she shouldn't have let you off so easily!" Choi Soo-young's curiosity had been pent up until now, just like the cherry blossoms on the tree above her head that refused to fall, until a pink petal finally fell, and she couldn't help but ask.

  Choi Soo-young, who was walking backwards, had to slightly tilt her head up to see the ponytail that had been swinging back and forth, revealing a curved arc. Lee Choo didn't respond to her words, but instead continued walking forward. There wasn't really anything to say anyway. After Boa's shout, the two of them had flipped over and fallen off the bed, each rubbing their buttocks as they sat on the edge of the bed staring at each other. Boa then calmly remembered what had happened when she came home last night and said, "Let's go out first." And that's how the morning passed...

  "Speak up! I'm really curious!" Choi Soo-young was eager to dig out what had happened behind the door that morning, but the person who knew just kept quiet. Her curiosity was like a cat teasing her heart's soft flesh, making her a bit frantic.

  "Turned, watch out for the road."

  "Let's go!" Choe Soo-young turned around, stopped in her tracks, and waited for Lee Choo to catch up before walking alongside him.

  "Can you not stand next to me?" This height is too much pressure...

  "Hmph! Shorty! If you don't say, I won't ask. Tonight, I'll go ask Boa sister myself!" To be honest, Choi Soo-young really didn't dare to ask, or else she wouldn't have waited until now to ask Lee Qiu.

  ……

  Choi Soo-young, although debuted in Japan with another Japanese member Takahashi Mariko, doesn't seem to be well-known. With a bare face and twin tails, wearing a very ordinary sailor suit, she walks casually with Lee Qiu on campus, almost no students recognize her. Of course, she wouldn't go around loudly boasting that she's already debuted as a singer. The Korean-Japanese duo group route0 (with a slash in the 0) that Choi Soo-young is part of has released two singles, but the response hasn't been great. Compared to the grand selection process for the Korean-Japanese duo competition, where they were chosen from among 15,000 candidates, it's like thunder after which comes only a light drizzle...

  Choi Soo-young was possibly due to being an artist or because she was too tall, the teacher assigned her a seat in the farthest corner. Most Japanese students' seats were single-person seats, and after talking to Choi Soo-young, Lee Qiu took over her seat. Meanwhile, Choi Soo-young sat down at another empty seat, also in the back row.

  Looking at this unfamiliar environment and faces, Li Qiu suddenly thought of someone, his former deskmate, a girl named Zheng Xiuyan. Thinking of her, Li Qiu involuntarily turned his face towards the window. Outside the window was not like Tongde Middle School. This classroom was on the fourth floor, there were no grey walls, and outside was empty, facing a large playground. At this time, only the figures of those who were late and punished to run laps could be seen...

  Attending classes was indeed a boring thing, not because Li Qiu didn't want to attend, but because he couldn't understand, and also because most of the knowledge he had already learned on his own. Of course, there were some differences between the courses taught by professors from Japan and Korea, but it wouldn't be as different as the North Pole and South Pole. Early in the morning, Li Qiu was flipping through the Japanese textbook that Choi Soo-young had thrown at him last night, looking at it carefully. Learning a language wasn't that simple, just looking at it wasn't enough to learn, speaking was more important. Japanese was derived from Chinese, many words and phrases were mixed with Chinese characters, which made it easier for Li Qiu, who had learned Chinese, to pick up...

  Every morning, Cui Xiuying would fall asleep on the desk, occasionally lifting her head to glance at the blackboard. As soon as the class was over or when it got too boring, she'd put her head down again, letting the wind and rain blow from the podium, ignoring the hustle and bustle of students coming and going during class breaks...

  After the lunch break, after the last class bell rang, Cui Xiuying woke up very punctually. After seeing the teacher leave, she immediately pulled Li Qiu to run downstairs and walked familiarly to a small pavilion located in a quiet corner of the school. Entering the small pavilion, Cui Xiuying took out two lunch boxes from her backpack, handed one to Li Qiu, rubbed her palms together, and her eyes were completely free of sleepiness, shining brightly...

  "I'm starving to death, let's dig in!" The lunchbox was made by the aunt who came over to clean this morning. She lives next door and is a part-time housewife who earns extra money on the side. Previously, Kim Min-young, Boa, and Choi Soo-young were all kitchen-phobic, so this aunt proudly took on this part-time job.

  This corner is very quiet, just like the flowerbed where Lee Chiu and Jung Soo-yeon often stayed in Korea. It's just that there's an extra pavilion here, a bit more grass, but fewer flowers. The familiar scene always evokes memories as thin as silk threads. Usually unnoticed, when accidentally seeing a flower, a tree, or a person, it reminds one of the past, and those things often brew up waves of warmth, although not easily noticeable, but truly existing...

  "Aren't you going to eat?"

  "Ah, food.", He withdrew his gaze from the green grass outside the pavilion, opened the lunchbox, and found that the contents were simple: sushi, egg rolls, and a few small rice balls. This was a typical student's lunch.

  ……

  "Ah……ah, ah! Xiuying!" Not far away, a boy who looked like a beast ran over. He was wearing the same school uniform as Li Qiu, and his height and build were so impressive that his loud voice sounded like a wild animal, just like a gorilla.

  "He still found me even when I hid here!" Cui Xiuying seemed to have gotten used to this beast-like roar, didn't even glance at him, and was happily munching on a piece of egg roll with one hand.

  "Xiu Ying! They said you're with a short guy, I didn't believe it, but after class, I saw you pulling this little kid running around everywhere. Tell me, are you really with this little kid?"

  "Li Qiu, give me an egg roll, I've finished mine."

  "Oh." Seeing Choi Soo-young ignore the loud-mouthed, incomprehensible King Kong Ape, Lee Qiu also didn't bother to intervene, anyway it wasn't his business.

  "Ah! Youngster, I'm going to duel you! One on one!"

  "Hey! Gao Chenggang, stop bothering me! I'm with this person now! I won't look at you!" Cui Xiuying couldn't stand the guy who was disturbing her while she was eating and muttered a sentence to Gao Chenggang while chewing on an egg roll.

  "Su-Young, this guy is so short, how can he possibly be worthy of you." Ko Su-Young's yell immediately turned Go Seung-Ji from an angry King Kong into a soft giant worm, the beastly roar turning into a mournful wail...

  "You know what's popular now? Miniature! I, Choi Soo-young, like short boys! Don't disturb me while I'm eating, go do whatever you need to do!"

  Li Qiu didn't understand a word of their conversation, and was eating the rice balls from her lunchbox, her eyes searching the grass for something she might have forgotten...