"What bad luck..."
Su Cheng finished his bread in one bite, tossed it into the trash bin, then turned to Ailiya and Cornelia with a look of disgust, spat, and walked away.
Running into Cornelia wasn't so bad, but encountering Ailiya was what really brought him bad luck.
What surprised him most was that this Ailiya turned out to be Cornelia's friend.
Birds of a feather really do flock together.
No wonder they both had an IQ of 4.5.
How could anyone improve by hanging out with someone like that?
His gaze toward Cornelia became somewhat disappointed, though not because of what she had just said.
He understood her tsundere nature.
"No... it's not like that..."
When Cornelia saw Su Cheng's expression, she felt as if struck by lightning. Her mind buzzed, and she stood frozen in place, her lips trembling as she tried to say something, but nothing came out, her voice hoarse.
"Su Cheng, stop right there!"
Ailiya's face was red with anger.
What kind of humiliation was this?
She had never been insulted like this before!
This guy was practically asking for death!
This dismissive and insulting attitude made Ailiya feel her dignity had been severely challenged.
So she decided to prove herself through action and moved to chase after Su Cheng to give him a piece of her mind, but she had barely taken a step.
She found a hand firmly gripping her arm. Glancing sideways, she saw it was Cornelia holding her back with all her might.
Then she looked at Cornelia and saw her face filled with deep regret, tears glistening in her reddened eyes as if they could fall at any moment, and her grip on Ailiya's arm revealed profound pain in her expression.
"Enough, that's enough!"
Cornelia said with trembling lips.
"You... how could you..."
Ailiya's expression instantly froze, confusion showing in her eyes, not understanding what Cornelia meant.
"That's enough! You've been the one causing him trouble from the start - he's never done anything to you!"
Cornelia shouted, her voice filled with anger and hurt, tears streaming down her face as her voice grew increasingly hoarse: "Yes, I like him! Are you satisfied now? Are you happy?!"
Ailiya stared at Cornelia blankly, seemingly unable to believe her words.
"Now are you satisfied? Are you happy now? What about me? What am I supposed to do? What should I do?"
Cornelia's voice was thick with tears, as if interrogating Ailiya.
"I... you..."
Ailiya stammered, her eyes glazed over.
"I forbid you from bothering him anymore!"
Cornelia cried out, then yanked her hand away from Ailiya and quickly ran from the scene. She ran fast, her tears falling to the ground like scattered petals.
"Cornelia..."
Ailiya stood stunned, watching Cornelia's retreating figure in disbelief, her heart suddenly feeling as if pierced by needles.
Her only friend no longer understood her.
Her best friend had said such things for the sake of some worthless guy.
She couldn't understand it; the impact of this incident was devastating to her.
Ailiya felt as if there was a massive stone pressing against her chest.
The pressure made her feel suffocated.
"Can't find him... how could this..."
Cornelia ran out to the lawn, reaching the teaching building, but couldn't see Su Cheng anywhere. Tears fell uncontrollably as she collapsed onto the ground, crying.
Passing students saw Cornelia crying and cast sympathetic glances her way, some even approaching to console her.
"It's none of your business!"
Cornelia looked up, roughly wiping the tears from her cheeks, then glared at a male student who had tried to comfort her.
She didn't need sympathy from strangers!
The male student felt awkward and sheepishly walked away.
Cornelia sat despondently on a nearby bench, staring ahead with lifeless eyes, crystal tears still hanging from her corners of her eyes.
Though her face was expressionless, it revealed her current heartbreak and despair. Her body shook violently from excessive sobbing, her shoulders heaving up and down as if suppressing some emotion.
"I'll contact you on WeChat later, that's all for now!"
Suddenly, a senior female student with short hair wearing black knee-high socks passed by, talking to someone on the phone.
Hearing this, Cornelia immediately snapped half-awake, quickly pulled out her phone to open the chat app, and found Su Cheng's chat window.
"He hasn't deleted me... hasn't deleted me..."
Cornelia prayed internally.
Usually, she was the one deleting others; this time, she finally experienced what it felt like to be on the other side.
Then she sent a message, and when she didn't see the dreaded exclamation mark, she immediately felt relieved.
"Thank goodness."
"No exclamation mark, no exclamation mark."
Cornelia repeated several times, now only hoping Su Cheng would see her message and reply soon.
Two streams of tears ran down her face, her expression full of grievance and hurt - a sight that would make anyone's heart ache.
"Ding dong~"
The sudden message notification startled her with joy.
She immediately picked up her phone to check and saw a simple message from Su Cheng: "I'm on the teaching building's rooftop!"
Seeing these words, her heart began to flutter anxiously.
But she didn't hesitate long, wiping away her tears before standing up and heading directly to the rooftop.
Soon, she arrived at the rooftop, took a deep breath, and pushed the door open. As soon as she did, sunlight flooded in, causing her to squint.
After adjusting to the light, she looked toward Su Cheng on the rooftop.
She saw him sitting cross-legged in a chair on the rooftop, the wind ruffling his school uniform, his face expressionless and cold.
"About what I said earlier, no..."
Cornelia lowered her head, biting her lower lip, feeling terrible inside, but before she could finish, Su Cheng interrupted her.
Su Cheng looked at her and asked calmly: "I didn't mind what you said earlier because I know you're tsundere."
"?"
Cornelia immediately raised her head upon hearing this, her face full of confusion, and quickly denied it: "No... I'm not tsundere!"
"Then were those words earlier from your heart?"
"No... of course not!"
Cornelia shook her head vigorously, like a rattle drum, indicating she hadn't meant it from her heart.
"Then you are tsundere!"
"I'm not, I'm just proud, not tsundere at all!"
Cornelia's tone was agitated, and she was slightly out of breath after speaking.
"Every tsundere thinks they're just proud!"
Su Cheng pursed his lips and said nothing more, turning his gaze to the sky outside.
"I'm not tsundere! I said I'm absolutely not tsundere!"
Cornelia hurried to defend herself.
"Okay, sit down first."
Su Cheng gestured.
Cornelia nodded and obediently sat down beside him, falling silent and quietly observing him.
After a while, Su Cheng suddenly stood up and asked: "Do you want to be a failure?"
Cornelia looked up at him, confused.
"If you want to be a failure, then I have nothing more to say!"
Su Cheng finished speaking and turned toward the rooftop door.
Cornelia froze there, not immediately understanding Su Cheng's meaning, but she still responded: "Who would want to be a failure? Of course I don't want to be a failure!"
"Good!"
Su Cheng walked back, pulled out a bottle of 'Eight Walnuts' drink from his pocket, handed it to Cornelia, and said: "Drink while you listen to what I have to say."
Cornelia was a bit confused but still accepted it and nodded.
"People actually have two types of desires, and only when these two desires align is one's will truly free!"
Su Cheng finished speaking and looked at Cornelia: "Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Cornelia seemed puzzled, not quite understanding what Su Cheng was trying to express, but still nodded to show she wasn't stupid.
"Based on my observation, your desires are fundamentally inconsistent. On one hand, you have a desire to depend on others. On the other hand, you have a second desire that rejects the first one. This conflict between these two desires represents the lack of free will. (The essence of being tsundere)."
"I don't depend on anyone!"
Cornelia only understood this sentence, the rest was beyond her comprehension.
"See, look at this," Su Cheng continued, "You've been depending on me these past few days. That's an undeniable fact. Are you going to deny it?"
"It's not like that, Su Cheng! I'm not depending on you!"
"Look, you're denying it again. If you refuse to accept reality, you'll forever remain a golden-haired loser!" Su Cheng sneered.
"Why did you give me such an awful nickname?!"
Cornelia became embarrassed and angry. She looked at Su Cheng and furiously said, "How can you say that about me? I'm not a loser! I'm not a loser! Shut up!"
"You are a loser, you are a loser~"
Su Cheng looked at her, refusing to back down.
"No, I'm not! I'm not! I'm not!"
Cornelia suddenly shook her head, launching an attack with her twin-tails.
"You are, you are, you are!"
Su Cheng wouldn't yield even while being attacked by her hair.
Cornelia's eyes turned red with anger as she heard him repeating those three words: "I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!"
Cornelia shouted, covering her ears, trying to block out his voice.
"You are!"
"I'm not!"
...
The two faced off like this, the atmosphere growing increasingly tense, as if the air around them had frozen.
"In ACG works, this might be considered a cute character trait, but in reality, this kind of personality just causes trouble for everyone!"
Su Cheng felt a bit of pity seeing her like this, but held firm and spoke.
"I'm not! I don't!"
Cornelia suddenly stood up, crying and red-faced as she shouted, then ran straight for the rooftop door.
"If you want to have a strong, independent personality, if you want to maintain dignity wherever you go, come find me. I can help you!"
Su Cheng called out to her retreating figure.
Cornelia's steps faltered, but she didn't look back. Instead, she ran even faster, clearly affected by Su Cheng's words that had touched her soul.
"Heh."
Su Cheng shook his head and chuckled as he watched her disappear.
He knew that making a tsundere recognize their tsundere nature was nearly impossible.
Let alone trying to tame those tsundere traits - that was just a pipe dream.
But this was fine.
Because no matter what.
Cornelia would feel guilty and responsible for what was said earlier.
Only this way would this Cornelia likely stop bothering him.
And she wouldn't feel burdened by those earlier words anymore.
Killing two birds with one stone.