"What exactly are you doing?" Su Jinning frowned and took a deep breath. "What did I do to offend you?"
But saying that only added fuel to the fire. In a fit of anger, Shen Moyu pushed Su Jinning several steps back: "What's wrong with you? Did I say I was angry?"
“No…” Su Jinning tried her best to explain, “That’s not what I meant.”
He was very tired today. The neuralgia had lasted for almost a day, and he hadn't slept well last night. He had also spent the whole day answering exam papers. He simply didn't have the brains to comfort anyone.
Shen Moyu took two steps back, her eyes looking away, clearly not wanting to hear him say any more: "Okay, I don't want to argue. I won't be going to your birthday party tomorrow, I have something to do."
Su Jinning was stunned. He couldn't understand why she was acting like this after being perfectly fine at school.
But he didn't want to see Shen Moyu angry. He hadn't been treated coldly by her for a long time, and he wasn't used to it.
"What exactly happened? Why didn't you come?" Su Jinning grabbed him and wouldn't let go, determined to get to the bottom of it.
Shen Moyu didn't shake him off. This time, he wanted to finish calmly: "It's nothing, it's just that the coffee shop is very busy tomorrow, and I can't get off work at five o'clock, so I can't go." As if that wasn't enough, he closed his eyes and said indifferently, "I'll make up for the birthday present later, but I won't go to dinner."
A birthday present? A replacement?
Su Jinning's heart tightened, and she tightened her grip on his wrist. She pulled him forward abruptly, her eyes blazing with anger: "I'll pick you up. You can eat whenever you get off work!"
"Don't fucking have a breakdown!" Shen Moyu tried to push him away with her elbow, but he wouldn't budge an inch.
Shen Moyu struggled, gripping his arm tightly: "You won't miss me, and you won't have to go either way, so why do you insist on making me go?"
Su Jinning's chest suddenly ignited with anger. He stared at him intently, as if he wanted to devour the person in front of him with his eyes: "Say it again."
"I fucking..."
"Hey, top student, Ning-ge, why aren't you guys moving?" Chen Hang noticed two people had fallen behind and called out to them from the front. At the same time, the rest of the group also stopped.
Feeling embarrassed, Shen Moyu pushed him, but this time Su Jinning didn't linger, and he easily broke free.
Shen Moyu turned around, rubbing her red wrist, and walked towards them.
"Ah, it's nothing, we just talked about some unimportant things." Shen Moyu forced a smile, but her expression wasn't very good.
"Okay, I'm almost home. See you tomorrow!" Chen Yuanyuan waved.
Shen Moyu smiled politely and waved. Catching a glimpse of someone slowly approaching from behind, his smile faded: "I have something to attend to, so I won't be going with you."
"Aren't we on the same path?" He Qing asked in confusion.
"Ah, I'm in a bit of a hurry," Shen Moyu said casually before preparing to leave.
"Oh~" Chen Hang suddenly put his arm around his shoulder, stopping him from doing the next thing: "Rushing to buy a gift for Brother Ning?"
Shen Moyu paused for a moment, frowned, and slung his backpack over his shoulder: "It's his birthday tomorrow, and I didn't have time to prepare. Have fun, you guys."
"Huh?" The three of them looked at each other.
"Aren't you coming?" Song Wenmiao and Chen Hang asked in surprise.
"Yeah, didn't we already make plans to have hot pot at his house?" He Qing was also a little incredulous, thinking that with such a good relationship between the two, this was basically impossible.
"I'm not going." Shen Moyu said without hesitation, "Something came up at home. See you when school starts."
Watching Shen Moyu's somewhat lonely figure, Chen Hang suddenly thought of something. He turned around and saw Su Jinning walking towards him forlornly. Her brows were furrowed, and she exuded a cold aura, completely different from the Su Jinning who had been laughing and joking with them just moments before.
“Brother Ning…” Song Wenmiao sensed something was wrong and nudged his arm: “What’s wrong with the top student? Why did he suddenly say he’s not going?”
Su Jinning was annoyed when he asked this question: "I don't know, don't ask me."
Song Wenmiao was speechless. He thought to himself, "It's clearly just the two of you having a fight, and you won't even let me ask you? Who am I supposed to ask then?"
"Brother Ning." In the quiet moment, Chen Hang suddenly patted Su Jinning on the shoulder, his tone serious: "Sometimes I really worry about you."
"What?" Su Jinning frowned.
"It's obvious he's angry with you, okay?" Chen Hang rubbed his forehead, looking at his bewildered face as he analyzed, "We all know it's your birthday, but he doesn't. We even made preparations, but you didn't tell him. If it were you, would you be happy? Do you think he really didn't want to go because of something, or is he just throwing a tantrum for no reason?"
Su Jinning felt as if something had suddenly pried open a certain part of her head, and she instantly woke up.
"Hold!"
Before Chen Hang could finish speaking, Su Jinning had already sprinted towards where Shen Moyu had disappeared.
Su Jinning ran to the corner and, watching Shen Moyu's retreating figure, called out urgently, "Shen Moyu!"
Shen Moyu heard the sound, but did not turn around. He just gripped the strap of his schoolbag and walked forward on his own.
He heard the approaching footsteps behind him and knew Su Jinning was definitely coming after him. Just as he was about to quicken his pace, his arm was forcibly pulled away by an external force.
"Why are you walking so fast?" Su Jinning gasped for breath, clearly having used a lot of effort to catch up.
Shen Moyu looked up at him, her attitude still unchanged: "What are you doing now?"
Su Jinning scratched her head, trying her best to appear innocent: "Um... just now, I didn't mean to be so fierce, it's just that when I heard you say you weren't coming, I..."
He wanted to say, "I just feel bad," but after hesitating for a moment, he didn't say it.
"Never mind." Shen Moyu didn't want to get entangled with him any longer, and was also afraid that he would lose his temper. He wanted to go home as soon as possible: "I'm not angry with you, no need to apologize, I'm going home now."
Seeing that Shen Moyu was determined not to come, Su Jinning held onto him even tighter: "Don't go yet."
Afraid that Shen Moyu would shake him off again, he simply intertwined his fingers with his to prevent him from escaping.
The warmth from her hand made a firework explode in Shen Moyu's heart. He trembled and his fingers subconsciously gripped the back of Su Jinning's hand.
"You!" Shen Moyu turned to look at him, but couldn't say a word. She just felt a vague heat suddenly fill her whole body, and her heart started beating faster.
This was the first time they held hands. But this fool didn't realize his heart was fluttering...
Su Jinning just didn't want him to leave; he didn't notice anything else: "I'm not apologizing just for this matter; it's because I didn't consider your feelings."
Shen Moyu's hand was being held tightly by him, preventing her from looking at him directly. She could only turn her head away, pretending to be indifferent: "Me, what do I feel?"