Li Yan habitually reached for a cigarette. Of course, he could understand this story, and not only understand it but this direct reminder also stirred some memories in him.

Everyone has those years of youthful exuberance, often becoming a precious part of one's later memories. Li Yan had chosen to forget, but now being reminded by Qiao Huanxuan, his heartstrings were plucked, and he couldn't help feeling a bit wistful.

After lighting the cigarette and taking a puff, he saw Qiao Huanxuan looking at him. He felt as though he should say something. Even if it was just listening to a story, he should at least clap and say "good job" at the end.

"Hmm, that girl is you, and the class monitor in the story is me?"

"What do you think?" Qiao Huanxuan countered. Did I waste my breath telling someone else's story?

"Right..." Li Yan wanted to laugh to ease the atmosphere, but felt it wasn't appropriate. Laughing might make it feel too trivial. "This thing... I don't remember clearly, and I'm not good at storytelling, so I can't recount it from another person's perspective like you. But I can clarify the key points..."

"Go on. First, about the unrequited love issue. I don't think there was any, but you were outstanding at the time, and I was too..." Li Yan felt a bit embarrassed, did that sound self-praising? "Anyway, I guess we admired each other. Everyone was young then, having a good impression of you, an attraction to the opposite sex was natural, but it was at most a hazy adolescent feeling, not unrequited love. Otherwise, seeing you again, I should be really excited."

Though discussing past events, it felt a bit awkward. Li Yan watched her reaction; seeing she had none, he continued: "Second, about others causing trouble for you. I shouldn't have known about it, nor did I ask them to drive away other boys approaching you. But ultimately, because of me, it caused you some trouble back then. I'm sorry. Third, about the gift, I should have considered you a good friend at the time, without other meanings, so it was just a regular music box. Since you didn't want it, I couldn't give it to others, so I just threw it away."

Qiao Huanxuan was silent for a moment, then asked, "How did you know my birthday?"

Li Yan, just having taken a puff, was stunned after hearing it. So many years had passed; how could he remember how he knew? "Uh... could the class monitor see everyone's info from the teacher? Honestly, I don't remember. Maybe I saw your file from the teacher; maybe other girls told me... No, I remember!"

"Hmm?" Qiao Huanxuan also asked her question offhandedly. Upon thinking, back then, it wasn't a secret. Many ways to find out. "What do you remember?"

"When graduating from middle school, everyone seemed to have written yearbooks. Made some notebooks, wrote personal info, left messages and wishes. I probably saw it there. Then in high school, I wasn't the monitor, didn't have many chances to interact with you. Maybe other classmates suggested it, so I bought it. I think that's how it was..." He felt a bit embarrassed having to analyze to recall his own past.

Qiao Huanxuan smiled faintly, "So that's how it was... It seems all along, the so-called class monitor's unrequited love for years... was a misunderstanding by everyone. Back then, some events were well-intentioned but misfired."

It was just a brief incident... Li Yan thought to himself, but then he had doubts. If it was just a rumor about me liking her, why would it bother her after so many years? Why her reaction now... could it be she...?

Thinking of a possibility, he dared not continue.

It seemed this year he was destined for romance!

But while romance was good, too much romance would become a calamity.

Unfortunately, pretending not to have thought of it, he continued smoking, preparing to leave as soon as he finished. But Qiao Huanxuan spoke again, "That story has a sequel, would you like to hear it?"

Her words seemed to drift, as if lacking strength. Perhaps it meant after today, she might never speak of it again!

Though Li Yan knew it might not be good to continue listening, opting not to could also be bad.

"Hmm, go on, let's hear it." He softened, not for the past classmate bond or childhood friendship, but because after more than ten years, she still remembered him. He should at least hear her out.

"At that time, he left. Many of those classmates who had come up from middle school together knew about the birthday gift incident. So then there was a rumor that the class monitor was heartbroken because the girl rejected him, unable to bear the heartbreak, and was tormented daily seeing the girl. That's why he left home, far away..."

Li Yan felt a bit dizzy, wasn't that too far-fetched? He hurried to refute — a denial delayed by more than a decade: "It's definitely not like that; they wronged you!"

Qiao Huanxuan glanced at him and continued the story. Though she was the heroine of the story, she couldn't narrate in the first person and used the third person: "Because of these rumors, plus the class monitor already leaving, classmates no longer teased or disturbed her. Some who didn't like her felt even more distant. In reality... the girl believed these rumors herself, thinking the class monitor dropped out and left because of her. This caused her to be very remorseful; if she hadn't rejected the gift so harshly, but communicated more rationally, perhaps the result would've been different.

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