Her arms swayed from front to back in a carefree manner, and her hair bounced up and down, dancing with the wind.

She had gotten yet another perfect score on a quiz she previously considered difficult. How it became easy, she had no idea. However, she didn't care either. All she cared about was the fact that she did it, and with ease, too!

She arrived at home, and opened the door.

"I'm home!" Even though she knew that no one was there to receive her greeting, she still spoke out because she was in a good mood.

"...Welcome." Jiang Zi Yun hesitated for a bit before answering.

"Eh?" Not expecting someone to respond, Zhou Zhenya was naturally a bit shocked. Upon seeing who spoke though, she let out a sigh of relief.

Not long after recovering from the initial surprise, Zhou Zhenya started scanning Jiang Zi Yun's face.

'Hmm, she really is a pretty sis! If I do this though, hehe...'

An idea sprouted in the little girl's mind.

Lying on a long sofa, Jiang Zi Yun held a thick book in her hands, reading it to pa.s.s the time. Zhou Zhenya's arrival was already out of her mind.

She wore a loose white t-s.h.i.+rt, barely tight enough to hang onto her small shoulders. Her thin figure didn't help either, but there was nothing she could do.

She a.s.sumed that the s.h.i.+rt was from years ago, as she remembered that Zhou Lei got fatter by the day when they were cla.s.smates. 'He must've gotten fatter while I was gone, he wasn't this big back then.'

Her thoughts wandered around, trying to distract herself from the lingering anxiety that started from the moment Zhou Lei left her in this unfamiliar place.

Although he a.s.sured her that there was nothing to be scared of, she couldn't help but worry.

Suddenly, she felt a small hand grab her arm and pull on it. The force made her let go of the book, and with her face directly under it...

Jiang Zi Yun found out the taste of paper.

"Oops..." Zhou Zhenya let go, startled by the abrupt descent of the book.

Removing the book off her face and placing it on a nearby desk, Jiang Zi Yun sat upright, crossing her arms. She showed Zhou Zhenya an annoyed yet curious expression.

"Um, sorry, pretty sis. I didn't mean it..."

Being the little girl that she was, Zhou Zhenya couldn't stand being angrily stared at. Such was the case for most children of her age, and she was surely no exception to the rule.

"...What do you want?" Jiang Zi Yun brushed the matter aside. It was only a small problem, and it was nothing to fuss about in her eyes.

Once Zhou Zhenya heard Jiang Zi Yun's response, she knew that the latter had essentially forgiven her, or at least put the matter aside for now. She turned enthusiastic again, grabbing the other party's wrist and pulling on it.

"Pretty sis, let's go to my room! I'll put some makeup on you!"

Without having any time to react at all, Jiang Zi Yun found herself across the living room and in front of the little girl's door. "Wait-"

Before she could finish, Zhou Zhenya rushed behind her and pushed her inside. The little girl went after her and closed the door.

.....

"We're here..."

Lin Guiying poked Zhou Lei, who seemed to be in a daze.

"Ah! What... oh." Zhou Lei raised his head.

The large entrance of the arcade entered his sight, and eventually, the familiar smell permeated through the atmosphere around him.

The scent smelled neither good nor bad, but it invoked a sense of nostalgia to anyone that inhaled it. Zhou Lei was one of those people.

'...I still remember 5 years ago when me and Zi Yun would skip school to come here. The good old days...'

Lin Guiying glanced at Zhou Lei beside her, only to see him nodding his head with closed eyes. "Hey. What are you doing?"

"Ah, just reminiscing." With a strange smile, Zhou Lei shook his head.

"Are you an old man or something?" Lin Guiying quipped.

"Can't I reminisce if I'm not an old man?" Shaking his head, Zhou Lei disapproved of his friend's constant verbal abuse.

They went towards the area where the Dance Dance Revolution machine was located. The two friends talked along the way, with topics ranging from idols to anime.

"You should support idols other than Lin Guiying, you know. She isn't the only one."

"Hmph, you wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you."

...

"I liked Fu Jianhe's latest single. It had a catchy tune."

"I've never heard it. I'm one of those people where I wait for the trend to die down before trying to get into it."

...

"Have you watched Stained Gate[1]? It's a new anime this season. I did, and it was boring."

"Maybe it's one of those slow build-up ones. There's only 2 episodes out, right?"

.....

As they walked along, Zhou Lei suddenly b.u.mped into a person. "Ah!"

The pair's conversation came to a halt when the person that Zhou Lei b.u.mped into crashed towards the floor.

Zhou Lei panicked, but he reached out his hand with a wry smile on his face. The person looked up, kind of ticked off at what just happened. However, as soon as she caught sight of the boy that b.u.mped into her, her building resentment washed away like sand on a sh.o.r.e.

"Miss, I am sorry, I wasn't paying attention..."

The person grabbed Zhou Lei's hand and stood up. Strangely enough, Zhou Lei didn't sense any trace of irritation from her.

"I'm fine, completely fine." The person spoke calmly, secretly scanning Zhou Lei's build.

With a cap preventing Zhou Lei from seeing her current expression, he wondered whether the stranger was being serious or sarcastic.

'Hmm, at second glance...'

Looking at the cap again, Zhou Lei's eyes lit up.

He grabbed the stranger's hands and enveloped them with his. "You... You're a fan of Lin Guiying?"

○●○●○

[1] This is, of course, an obvious reference to Steins;Gate. Just letting you know, I intentionally misspelled it.

h.e.l.lo guys, once again, after a drought of chapters I am back!

I can't guarantee a release rate anymore, I'd only be shooting myself in the foot if I do. I've realized the difficulty of keeping up with both school and this, and also the difficulty of maintaining my own motivation towards writing this novel.

As I said before, I have no intentions (for now) of dropping this novel, but do NOT expect a stable release or anything like that.

That's all for now, bye!

P.S. I didn't put this in the Author's Thoughts section since it didn't fit in the character limit.