Running away from the Love-Brain

Dare

wkeinauadqtqb [Profile]: This guy is lazy and has left nothing behind.

SpongeBob, who fears water [Profile]: A person needs four hugs a day to survive. 0.0

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On the night of February 14th, Valentine's Day, Cui Xijin unlocked her phone screen, and the weather forecast for Chengdu that day showed—cloudy during the day and overcast at night.

According to meteorological classification, "cloudy" is defined as the sky being 40% to 80% covered with clouds. If the cloud cover exceeds this percentage, it is classified as "overcast".

This was Cui Xijin's twenty-sixth birthday. It seemed as though the clouds had parted during the day, only to gather more densely and chaotically again at night.

This night was overcast.

As of this overcast night, she had known Ran Yan and Chen Wenran for eight years, and Chi Buyu for eleven.

This was her first time mentioning her romantic history to these three people. For the first time, she was clearing away the clouds.

Suddenly, she wanted to take a peek at Sandy's social media posts.

What would the love-weather forecast at the bar's neon sign say about today's weather?

However, she still couldn't bring herself to look.

"Ordinary Friends" played once more to the end, and Twins began singing a song she hadn't heard before; the Brazilian turtle, attempting to escape the glass tank, fell flat on its back and couldn't turn over for a moment; Chen Wenran swallowed the last sugary tangerine, locked eyes with Ran Yan, and suddenly exclaimed,

"I can't believe you've actually been in a relationship!"

Cui Xijin slowly lifted her eyelids.

Before her was the shimmering, rich blue water pattern and Chi Buyu sitting opposite her.

She couldn't quite determine what expression Chi Buyu wore.

She only noticed that Chi Buyu's pupils were somewhat shallow and soft tonight, but her eyes were particularly lost at this moment, and after noticing Cui Xijin looking over, she instantly lowered her slightly trembling lashes and took a large gulp from the cup on her right.

It seemed she too was in disbelief.

Even after finishing, she took another sip, a bit of liquid glistening on her lips, and straightened her mouth. Until Ran Yan intercepted her action of lifting the cup, reminding her, "Hey, you've grabbed the wrong cup; this is my Baileys."

"Oh?"

Chi Buyu looked somewhat dazed as she set the cup down. She glanced at the milky liquid inside, paused for a moment, rubbed her finger against the cup's wall, pressed her lips together, and said,

"Oh, I guess I misread it."

She was about to return the cup to Ran Yan but then smacked her lips and said, "But it tastes really good, sweet like milk tea."

"I added some Oolong tea. If you want this cup, you can have it; I haven't tried it yet."

Ran Yan said, looking a bit uneasy as she picked up the cup to check the amount inside. Seeing it was not much, she added a little more Oolong tea before handing it back to Chi Buyu, adding, "But you're not great with alcohol, so drink less."

Not just poor with alcohol.

Cui Xijin thought, but Baileys is usually mixed with drinks; adding more Oolong tea would lower the alcohol concentration, so it probably wouldn't be like that fabled glass of Irish Mist from that night.