Chapter 18: Admit It, I’m Pretty Cute~
Su Moyu held onto the towel wrapped around her body. Seeing Bai Shuchuan’s surprised expression, she suddenly felt playful.
Although, after actually sitting on his lap, she did feel a bit of regret for acting so impulsively.
But since she had already done it, there was no way she would stop halfway.
In fact, she had wanted to tease him for a long time, but earlier chances had somehow all slipped away.
“What are you doing…?” Bai Shuchuan asked.
Su Moyu showed a mysterious smile. “Nothing. I’m just sitting on your lap.”
As she spoke, she gently swung her legs. Her skin, still fresh from the shower, looked soft and smooth. Bai Shuchuan could feel the weight and softness on his lap, and he could smell the faint scent of body wash. Her long hair rested on her shoulders, and her body shape showed clearly under the towel.
Seeing his slightly stunned expression, Su Moyu felt a bit proud.
“Where were your eyes looking just now?” she said, leaning her face a little closer, her tone teasing yet gentle.
Bai Shuchuan instinctively closed his eyes, but her pretty face still lingered in his mind. His heart started to feel restless, and he swallowed.
Seeing his reaction made Su Moyu enjoy it even more.
“Actually… you think I’m cute, right?” she said with a smile, her cheeks slightly flushed.
She lowered her eyes. Sitting on his lap, she was naturally a bit higher than him.
Bai Shuchuan took a deep breath, unable to understand how things had turned into this situation.
“Isn’t that right? Why won’t you open your eyes and look at me?” she asked again when he stayed silent.
“Stop messing around…” Bai Shuchuan replied in a hoarse voice. When he opened his eyes, he saw her pouting slightly and even blinking at him.
He couldn’t bring himself to look directly at her face. But when he looked away, his eyes naturally fell on her body, and the restless feeling inside him grew stronger and stronger.
The weight and softness on his legs, along with her gentle movements, made him unconsciously hunch forward, his body reacting in ways he didn’t expect…
“You didn’t deny it just now,” Su Moyu laughed softly. “Right? I really am cute now. I think so too.”
“Su Moyu… were you really a guy before…?”
“As you can see, yes,” she replied. “But maybe it’s just that before, my body was male, so I acted like a boy. Now I’m just expressing myself in a different way.”
“So I don’t understand why you keep rejecting me. If you really hated me,” she paused on purpose, then brushed her hair back, “with your strength now, you could easily push me away.”
Bai Shuchuan was left speechless by her words.
The surroundings were very quiet. He could even hear the faint hum of a machine and the occasional bird sounds from the forest outside the window.
But the silence between them made the uneasiness in his heart slowly grow.
“You said you admire my honesty, but you can’t do the same,” Su Moyu said after thinking for a moment.
“For example, you can’t even admit your own thoughts. Is it really so embarrassing to admit that you think I’m cute?” Her cheeks were red, and her expression showed a bit of hesitation.
“…Actually, I’m not that honest either,” she continued in a softer voice. “But I admit that I want your approval. I want you to praise me. Because right now, you’re the only person I know who understands what happened to me.”
“Sometimes I feel like I’m troublesome too…”
“But being praised really does make people happy,” she said. Then she gently reached out and patted his head.
“Thank you for coming out with me. Thank you for comforting me when I was feeling down. Bai Shuchuan… you really are someone who makes people feel at ease.”
Her voice was soft, and the way she touched his head was very gentle.
Bai Shuchuan froze in place, staring blankly at Su Moyu in front of him. The warm feeling in his heart kept rising, but at the same time, there was a kind of bitterness he couldn’t explain, making it hard for him to breathe.
“Thank you…” Bai Shuchuan said quietly.
“Hehe.” Su Moyu grinned. “But it does feel a bit strange for two guys to talk like this. Luckily, I look like a girl now, so I can trick myself into thinking it’s not so… awkward.”
After saying that, she got off his lap and sat beside him.
“When we were kids, your parents always scolded you. Every time I came to play, I saw you getting scolded. If I were in that kind of family, I think I would feel suffocated too,” Su Moyu said after thinking for a moment. “Luckily, my parents aren’t teachers. They never forced me to be a certain way.”
“So I always envied you. I envied you for having parents like that,” Bai Shuchuan said softly. “When I got scolded as a kid, I would go find you. Because… being around you really made me feel better.” He hesitated a bit, but still said it.
“Really? But when I was little, I thought you had great grades and were good at everything. I always felt like I wasn’t as good as you, and I was always clumsy.”
“That was just so my parents would stop nagging,” Bai Shuchuan replied. “If I didn’t do well, they would keep talking and complaining.”
“I’ve seen that myself… but honestly, there’s nothing for you to envy. My mom also kept talking about how great you were.”
Bai Shuchuan smiled. “Do you remember when you suddenly got first place in an exam and asked your dad to buy you a dress?”
Su Moyu’s face immediately turned red. “Hey, I was young and didn’t know better. Why bring that up now…”
Back then, she always played with girls, so liking dresses wasn’t that strange.
She told herself that in her heart.
“It just so happened that I did badly on that exam. My parents scolded me a lot. I remember my mom even tore up my favorite comic books. I was in my room feeling upset, and then you came to find me wearing that dress. You were so happy. You told me it was your reward for getting first place and even asked me if it looked good…”
Hearing this, Su Moyu suddenly understood.
“So that’s why you felt uncomfortable with me. You should’ve said it earlier! I was so happy at that time. I didn’t know you were feeling bad. I even got laughed at by other kids the whole way when I went to find you in that dress.”
“I can’t really explain it clearly. I just suddenly remembered it.”
“That must be it. After that day, you didn’t play with me for a whole week. I even had to treat you to cola before things got better,” Su Moyu complained. “You’re really petty, Bai Shuchuan. I even threw that dress away later because other kids laughed at me. I thought you were the same as them…”
As she spoke, she suddenly realized she had missed an important point.
“So when you first saw me that day, what did you actually think?” she asked curiously, looking at him with an expectant gaze.
Bai Shuchuan felt a bit helpless under her look. “Do we really need to think about that…”
“Just tell me, was I cute?” Su Moyu asked softly.
Bai Shuchuan felt like he really had no way to deal with her.
“…Yeah. You were cute,” he said quietly.
Su Moyu slightly raised her head. Her beautiful eyes curved into crescent shapes, and a smile appeared on her lips. “Good. That’s one less regret from my childhood.”
Bai Shuchuan froze again when he heard that.
So she still remembered something from so long ago…
So something he did without thinking had affected her for such a long time…
“That’s how people are. Unhappy things from childhood, when we grow up, we either make up for them in another way, or they become scars that stay forever.”
After saying that, Su Moyu let out a soft breath. “Then I’ll forgive you for not liking me before. If I were you, I might have been jealous of that version of me too. Maybe I would’ve even stopped being friends.”
“Bai Shuchuan, I’m even more petty than you.”