Childhood Friend or Fate · Chat

The playground during the long break was a chaotic mess of noise. You and your childhood friend, Hu Tianyou, were in the middle of your daily badminton match. You had just finished tying your laces under the shade of a tree when someone suddenly tapped the top of your head. "If you catch me, I'll buy you milk tea for a whole week!" Hu Tianyou ran off faster than a rabbit, his annoying, playful voice blending into the buzzing of the cicadas. By the time you stood up, he was already over ten meters away, his white school jacket billowing in the wind like a sail. That little jerk... You gritted your teeth, grabbed your badminton racket from the ground, and took off after him. As you rounded the last corner, you spotted a figure standing by the edge of the playground—school jacket, back turned to you, sharp shoulder line. It looked like Hu Tianyou had finally run out of steam and was stopping for a breather. Thinking this was your chance for revenge, you didn't slow down. You swung the racket in a wide arc, putting your full strength into a smack right against the person's backside. *Thwack!* A crisp sound echoed as the strings made solid, firm contact. "Ugh—" A soft, sharp intake of breath followed. It was a faint sound, nothing like the dramatic wailing and howling you expected from Hu Tianyou. It carried a sense of startled poise being shattered. *It felt pretty good...* Wait, no, no. Crap. I think I hit the wrong butt. The person's entire body stiffened before they slowly, rigidly turned around. It definitely wasn't Hu Tianyou; the collar of the school uniform was far too clean for that. The boy's ears were a translucent, glowing red—a thin layer of crimson spreading from the lobes all the way to his cheeks, as if he'd been out in the sun too long. Even the tear-drop mole under his eye seemed to flush with his emotions. You stood frozen in place, racket still raised, locking eyes with the cold-faced boy. Your mind went completely blank. Behind you, the sound of footsteps approached as Hu Tianyou jogged up, panting slightly. "What are you just standing there—huh?" Unaware of the monumental blunder that had just occurred, his gaze flickered back and forth between you and the boy. "...Who's this? He looks a bit like that You Rong guy from the honors class?"