Chapter 69: Innocent!
"Chengcheng~ Are you done with your shower? Come downstairs, we’re celebrating An Yuan’s birthday."
"Still showering! Mom, you go ahead!"
It was past 10 PM, and Chen Cheng, who usually showered quickly, had been in the bathroom for a long time tonight.
Conditioner… You’re supposed to apply it when your hair is half-dry, right? Does it really help with frizz and split ends?
Body lotion… Do you have to apply it all over? But I can’t even reach my back. And why does it feel kinda itchy after putting it on?
The bathroom had always had conditioner and body lotion, but the old Chen Cheng had never paid them any attention, assuming they were just things her mom used, nothing to do with her.
No wonder girls always smell nice. Must be because they marinate themselves in body lotion.
Muttering to herself, Chen Cheng sniffed her arm. It had a faint, pleasant milky scent.
"I’m heading down first!"
"Okay!"
With a bang, the front door closed. Not long after, Chen Cheng stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a long towel, shivering from the cold as she stood at the sink.
Since there was no one else home, it wouldn’t even matter if she walked around completely naked.
She ran her fingers through her half-dry hair. If I blow-dry it right after using conditioner, will it lose its effect?
Too lazy to think about it, she grabbed the hairdryer and blasted her hair while absentmindedly staring at the blurry reflection in the mirror.
She really didn’t feel like going to An Yuan’s birthday celebration…
For the past couple of days, she and An Yuan had both been keeping a bit of distance, only riding to and from school together but not interacting much otherwise.
Part of it was the awkwardness of not knowing how to face each other. The other part? She wanted to let things cool down, maybe they could go back to just being brothers?
Yeah, right.
In An Yuan’s eyes, she probably looked like some desperate pervert.
Chen Cheng covered her face with one hand in despair.
If she kept avoiding him like this, forget being brothers, she might not even be able to stay friends with him.
Her phone screen lit up on the sink. She answered on speaker, her mom was calling to hurry her up.
"Hurry up, everyone’s waiting for you."
Chen Cheng frowned, tilting her head back and swaying side to side, torn about what to do. After a long moment, she finally said,
"Um… I think I won’t go."
"You and An Yuan had a fight?"
"Not really…"
Afraid her mom would press further, she quickly hung up, flipping her phone face-down on the sink, avoiding seeing it. She focused on drying her hair again.
Her towel had slipped down quite a bit, barely hanging above her chest, revealing the upper part of her white and firm breasts.
At first, seeing herself like this would have made her embarrassed, but now, she could look at her body calmly. Sometimes, she even used herself as inspiration for certain… thoughts.
As she adjusted her towel, her brows furrowed slightly. She suddenly turned around and went back into the bathroom to get dressed.
Sure enough, just as she finished changing, the doorbell rang.
"I’m coming in?"
An Yuan used his key to unlock the door, poking his head inside while calling out loudly,
"Auntie asked me to get you. Come down and have some cake, it’s my birthday."
"Where are you? Not even answering me."
Looking around, he walked to the bathroom door and immediately spotted Chen Cheng in pink long-sleeve pajamas, still drying her hair.
Chen Cheng glanced at An Yuan’s reflection in the mirror but stayed silent, her expression indifferent.
"Auntie told me to bring you down for cake."
"Not a fan of cake…"
An Yuan knew she was deliberately avoiding him. Leaning lazily against the wall, he sighed, sounding exasperated.
"Your brother’s birthday, and I personally came to invite you. You really won’t come? We’ve known each other for how many years now?"
"It’s not that…" Chen Cheng put down the hairdryer, pursing her lips as she mumbled, back facing him, "It’s just… now that it’s a guy and a girl, acting like we used to feels a bit… you know."
"And who was the one saying we’d be brothers for life?"
"……"
Even she knew this was completely impossible, yet An Yuan actually took it seriously?
Chen Cheng rolled her eyes at him and handed over the hairdryer.
An Yuan took it without thinking and started drying her half-damp hair. As her hair spread out, the scent of shampoo and conditioner mixed with her natural fragrance and a faint milky sweetness.
Wait, hold on! Why are you pointing a gun at me again? It hasn’t even been that long!
Barely two minutes passed before Chen Cheng took a step forward, pulling away in disgust.
"Does this seem like something 'brothers' would do?"
She glanced at An Yuan’s lower half.
His expression immediately cracked. Scratching his head awkwardly, he tried to explain, "I can’t control it, okay? It’s a normal biological reaction… You know that, right?"
"As if I know what’s going on in your head."
"I wouldn’t go that far with a brother," An Yuan sighed. "Besides, weren’t you the one who started it that day?"
"!!!"
Chen Cheng’s face instantly turned bright red. She stammered, waving her fists in protest.
"What?! That was my mom’s fault for coming home so suddenly! How was I the one who started it? I’m not even interested in men, okay?! And besides, you should know this too. Normal biological reaction! Girls have them too!"
"If your conscience is clear, why are you getting so defensive?"
"I’m not! You’re the one who’s guilty! You can’t even look me in the eye!"
An Yuan forced himself to meet her gaze for a second, then they both quickly turned away.
"Look at you, blushing!" Chen Cheng smirked, mocking him. "Almost thirty years old, and you still act like some shy little virgin. Aren’t you afraid people will laugh at you? You were almost getting married, yet you keep telling me to get out in the world and experience life. But now? You won’t even dare to look at me?"
God, this girl is infuriating!
This was exactly why he always tried to maintain his image in front of her. Too bad that image had completely crumbled just a few days ago.
An Yuan, with gritted teeth, wanted to take action to put down Chen Cheng's cocky attitude, but because she was a girl, he was afraid of accidentally getting too rough during their playful fight.
"You’re not blushing at all?"
"I’m a pure-hearted, innocent virgin!"
Chen Cheng proudly put her hands on her hips, tilting her head up.
Seeing An Yuan speechless and flustered made her feel completely refreshed. The awkward tension from before disappeared, and with a satisfied grin, she turned to leave for her bedroom.
"Where are you going? Not eating cake?"
"Changing clothes!"
She couldn’t exactly show up to the birthday party in long-sleeve pajamas.
An Yuan shook his head with a sigh. He understood why Chen Cheng was keeping her distance, but it had only been a day and a half, and life already felt… empty. He couldn’t focus on studying, and in class, he kept glancing at her back, afraid she’d notice his gaze.
Chen Cheng wasn’t the only one who had leaned on him after they "transmigrated". Without realizing it, he had also become used to having her around.
When she finally walked out, she was wearing a knee-length dress with white stockings, looking light and elegant.
Her already beautiful face, framed by the soft fabric of the dress, made her look like an otherworldly princess. She was like a pure white canvas, so innocent and untouched that it made people want to stain her with color.
"Looks good, right?"
A slight blush colored her cheeks as she spun in front of An Yuan, the hem of her dress fluttering.
"Aren’t you cold?"
"These stockings are thick, almost like pants."
An Yuan forced himself to maintain a calm expression, looking at her dress seriously. He refused to give her another reason to make fun of him.
"Your eyes look like you’re about to eat me…" Chen Cheng lowered her head, fiddling with her dress hem. "You always look at me like that whenever I wear a dress."
She had been expecting him to get flustered and embarrassed, but instead, his intense gaze made her feel very uneasy.
"What? If anything, you’re the one who bit me once, like a little dog."
"You’re the dog! I’ll bite you again!"
Chen Cheng glared at him angrily as she walked ahead.
But An Yuan had a point, since both of them had completely innocent intentions, there was no reason to act awkward over a simple biological reaction. They were both almost thirty, after all, nothing to be embarrassed about.
…Though, deep down, Chen Cheng wasn’t sure if her thoughts were really that innocent. Otherwise, why was she starting to wonder what liking someone actually felt like?