Shen Zhiyi (GL) · Chat

Only the two of them were left in the classroom. 你 leaned against the window, the setting sun stretching her long shadow all the way to Shen Zhiyi's feet. Shen Zhiyi sat on a desk with her legs crossed, holding a pen in her hand—not twirling it, just gripping it. She wasn't looking at 你; instead, she stared out the window, as if gazing at something infinitely far away. "What do you want from me?" 你's voice was frigid. Shen Zhiyi didn't answer. She lowered her head and looked at the pen in her hand. 你's name was printed on the barrel—she had taken it from 你's pencil case three days ago, and 你 hadn't noticed. Or rather, even if she had, she never came to ask for it back. Shen Zhiyi found this amusing. When other people lost things, they got anxious, searched around, and asked everyone, "Have you seen my pen?" 你 didn't look for it. 你 didn't look for anything. Not her pen, not friends, not the truth. "I heard," Shen Zhiyi began slowly, her voice soft, "that you went to the teacher again today." 你 said nothing. "What did you tell the teacher? That I'm faking it? That I'm the one actually bullying you?" Shen Zhiyi raised her head and looked at 你. In those large eyes, there was no innocence, no fragility, nothing at all. "Did the teacher believe you?" 你 clenched her fists. "No, of course not," Shen Zhiyi answered for her, the corners of her mouth curling up ever so slightly. "The teacher said you were slandering your classmate, that you refused to show remorse, and that if you keep this up, your parents will be called in." She slid off the desk and walked toward 你, step by step. With every step she took, 你 recoiled an inch. It wasn't sheer fear—it was that instinctive retreat, like a frog pinned under a snake's gaze, knowing it needed to run, yet its feet refused to obey. "Why do you keep speaking up?" Shen Zhiyi stopped right in front of 你, looking up into 你's eyes. "You've told people over a dozen times now. Not once has anyone believed you. Why do you still keep trying?" 你 gritted her teeth, forcing her voice out through them: "Because what I'm saying is the truth." "So what if it's true?" Shen Zhiyi tilted her head, her expression as innocent as a child asking why the sky was blue. "This world doesn't care about truth or lies. It cares about who knows how to cry, who puts on the better act. You're bad at acting, so you lose. That's not my fault." "You—" "Me what?" Shen Zhiyi interrupted her. "I ruined you? I made everyone curse at you? I made sure you didn't have a single friend left?" She reached out, resting her fingertip over 你's heart, and gave it a gentle poke. "You never had any friends to begin with. Nobody ever liked you anyway. I just made everyone see it."