Volume 2 Chapter 46: T-Too… Too Close!
Tss—
She never thought there would come a day when she would draw a portrait of her sworn rival.
The pencil made a soft scratching sound on the paper as the girl kept lifting her head to secretly look at Gao Liang, who was sitting across from her.
He sat very properly, trying hard to keep his face still, looking almost like a perfect statue.
If she looked closely… This guy… actually looked quite refined.
She didn’t dare stare for long. She quickly buried her head back into the drawing board. Her face felt a little warm, her thoughts were a mess, and she even forgot where she was in the drawing.
Wh-What is this…
It’s just a sketch, right? Of course she had to look at his face to draw it. So why did it feel so embarrassing?
Ahh…
In the end, Lin Lin gathered her courage and peeked at his face again. Her pencil traced the curve of his chin, then outlined his sharp eyes.
From time to time, she lowered her head shyly. In her heart, she complained that she was too kind. She had drawn her rival way too handsome. But at the same time, she had to admit…
This guy really was handsome.
Maybe because all her attention was on this, she slowly started to feel that…
Drawing a portrait wasn’t actually that hard.
Maybe it was because she was already quite familiar with him?
After some time, the drawing was done. It was just a quick sketch, after all.
The girl stood up, waved at him, and called out, “I’m done!”
“Oh? That was pretty fast. See? You can draw,” Gao Liang said with a satisfied nod. He then walked over to Lin Lin to look at her work.
However…
When Gao Liang reached her side and looked down—
Tss—
Th-This… is that…?
His portrait?
Huh?
Lin Lin stood beside him, clasping her hands and blinking innocently. “Well? Well? How is it?”
“B-Barely… looks like a person,” Gao Liang forced out a few words.
Lin Lin scratched her head in confusion. Why did it feel like she had shocked her rival for an entire year?
“No, seriously, what is this?” Gao Liang pointed at the nose in the portrait.
Lin Lin blinked. “Th-That’s… a nose?”
“Why is it just one dot? Has my nose bridge collapsed?”
Gao Liang looked so pitiful that Lin Lin felt embarrassed. She lowered her head, rubbed her own hair, and said with some shame, “Well… I’m not very good at drawing.”
“Sigh…”
Gao Liang would never scold Lin Lin harshly. He was only trying to find problems in her work. He looked at the drawing again and shook his head.
“It’s too rough. A sketch like this won’t get a high score, and there are many problems. We—”
He turned to her and said seriously, “There are too many issues! We need to fix this properly. I’ll teach you by correcting this drawing together. Lin Lin, let’s do it hands-on.”
“Ah… th-that… can’t you just explain it while I listen…?” The girl was still embarrassed and reluctant.
But Gao Liang shook his head. “It’s better to do it hands-on. You’ll remember faster, and we can adjust things right away.”
“Mm…”
Hearing that, the girl, who had been unwilling, started to hesitate.
After all, first, she had just drawn a very ugly picture of him and felt awkward. Second, she was preparing for an art competition, so she really needed to improve. And lastly…
He really was trying to help her.
Maybe he really did mean well?
Lin Lin still felt cautious around her sworn rival, but this time, she decided to trust him once.
Alright. Let’s just do it.
The girl nodded. “So… how does this ‘hand-by-hand’ teaching work?”
“Like this,” Gao Liang said.
He stepped behind her, then used one hand to hold the hand she was using to hold the pencil. Their hands pressed together as they held the pencil at the same time. His other hand rested on her shoulder.
He lifted the pencil and began to look over the drawing, searching for a place to start.
As for Lin Lin…
Error… error… system overload—
She panicked.
Th-Th-This… what is going on?
So “hand-by-hand” really means hand holding hand? Like… actually touching?
Lin Lin could clearly feel how little space there was between their bodies. The distance was so small that even though she was already very familiar with her rival, she still felt uncomfortable.
A strange feeling rose in her heart. It wasn’t the same nervousness she felt when talking to strangers. It was something… different.
Some kind of… flutter?
Ahhh—she didn’t even know how to describe it. It was just… too close!
“First, let’s start with the nose,” Gao Liang said calmly.
Holding her small hand, he raised the pencil and guided her, trying to draw a proper nose.
Without noticing it, the distance between the boy and the girl became even smaller.
As Gao Liang adjusted his view, his head kept moving. Sometimes, it even lightly touched the top of Lin Lin’s head. She could clearly hear his breathing, his heartbeat… or maybe it was her own?
Anyway, one of them was beating way too fast.
Her vision slowly became blurry. She could barely hear what Gao Liang was saying anymore, and her hand movements became weak and loose.
Gao Liang tried to guide her hand, but noticed she wasn’t putting in any strength at all.
Then, without realizing it, a warm breath brushed across his face from below his chin.
What?
Gao Liang stopped drawing and looked at Lin Lin.
Her cowlick was standing straight up again.
“Uh… G-Gao Liang…” Lin Lin said with a red face, her eyes darting around as she stuttered, “It’s… it’s too close… I—I…”
“Too close?”
Gao Liang was confused. He looked back at the drawing.
“Too close? That doesn’t seem right. Look, Lin Lin, the distance from the nose tip to the lips is actually pretty good.”
“Mm… n-no, that’s not the ‘too close’ I mean…”
She was so embarrassed that she couldn’t explain it at all. Her legs kept shaking slightly, while Gao Liang still didn’t understand.
What exactly was too close? Everything else was drawn by Lin Lin herself, wasn’t it?
“The distance between the eyes?” Gao Liang thought aloud. “Yeah, that part does have some problems. We’ll fix it later. Alright, Lin Lin, let’s focus now! The nose is the key point. Concentrate! Come on, I’ll guide you.”
After saying that, Gao Liang firmly lifted her hand and strongly guided her movements.
And the girl, whose heart was racing wildly, slowly began to move along with him without realizing it.
It felt like being pulled into someone’s arms, hands held together, moving in the same rhythm, like dancing.
Lin Lin’s movements were stiff, and she could only follow her partner’s lead. Before she knew it, she was slowly sinking into a strange sense of comfort.
Mm…
She was…
She was being completely controlled by her rival!