Can't Catch the Summer - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Oh my god, Chi Yi is actually dating someone!”

“My whole world just collapsed, sob.”

My roommates burst into a chorus of wails.

I pricked up my ears, but pretended it was casual.

“Who?”

Xiaoxiao practically shouted, “Chi Yi! Yesterday’s Golden Award Best Actor!”

Chi Yi.

How could I not know him?

Every frame of my youth, galloping past like a horse at full speed, had his shadow in it.

After we graduated high school, I heard he’d taken the art exam route back then and entered a professional academy ranked first in the nation.

Three years since his debut, no scandals, no publicity stunts.

And just yesterday, he became the youngest Golden Award Best Actor in history.

But then again, he had always been that dazzling.

Now he had a love life too. That was really great.

So why did I feel a little down?

“Even blurred into a mosaic, I can still tell his girl is a beauty.”

“Chi Yi looked so fresh in high school. Such a boyish vibe.”

“Wait… why do I feel like this girl looks a little like Zheng Xia?”

All three of them whipped their gazes toward me.

Xiaoxiao raised her phone and shoved it in front of my eyes.

In the photo, he held a basketball in one hand, his chin lifted in a faint smile, a bright and spirited young man in the prime of his youth.

The girl beside him was too embarrassed to look at the camera. Her head was slightly lowered, her lips pressed together.

They looked so perfectly matched it was almost unreal.

Even I froze.

That was us at seventeen.

The first photo we took together beneath the blazing midsummer sun.

And also the only one.

But back then, I had deleted all my accounts.

I lost contact with everyone.

We clearly hadn’t seen each other in four years, so why would he use that photo as his wallpaper?

My roommates compared the photo to me over and over, their faces full of disbelief.

“What is going on?”

I wanted to ask the same thing.

Chapter 2

Meeting Chi Yi was a complete accident.

In my second year of high school, I went to work at an arcade after school every day.

That day, people started arguing in the game hall next door. Afraid they would damage the equipment, the owner threatened my wages and made me go over to talk them down.

As stingy as I was, I only ever sprayed perfume on the philtrum under my nose so I could smell it myself.

So I had no choice but to bite the bullet and go.

When I pushed the door open, they were already fighting.

Boys in blue-and-white and black-and-red school uniforms were brawling with sticks and bats, but it was obvious the blue-and-white side had fewer people and was at a disadvantage.

Blue and white was our school’s uniform.

Screams, the sound of shattering glass, and muffled groans of pain all mixed together in total chaos.

Everyone nearby was avoiding them like the plague. I walked over, trembling.

“Um, excuse me…”

“Move, move!”

I stammered, “You… you can’t fight here.”

“Say another word and I’ll beat you up too!”

I already wanted to leave. But when I turned my head, I saw the owner huddled in the corner, begging me with a face full of misery.

If not me, then who would descend into hell?

I grabbed the boy who was fighting the most viciously with all my strength.

Everyone was stunned.

The boy turned back with a frown. The wind lifted his messy black hair, revealing a fair, aloof face completely at odds with the way he fought.

The boy he had kicked to the floor beside him scrambled up with a grimace and shouted, “Chi Yi, are you insane?! You brought your girlfriend to watch you fight?!”

Chi Yi.

So he was Chi Yi, that famous school tyrant.

I’d heard he was terrifying. Why did he have such a pretty-boy face?

The group of boys all froze.

Then they started howling like banshees.

It was like monkeys screeching nonstop on both banks of a river.

A boy with dyed yellow hair leaned over. “You’re dating? Chi Yi, you really deserve to die!”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Chi Yi impatiently shook me off. “Who are you?”

I was genuinely terrified.

The owner’s mission for me was to stall them until the police arrived.

So I could only start spouting nonsense.

“Uh, well, I saw you over there just now.”

His face was cold. “So?”

“I think you’re very special. You’re different from all the boys I know.”

Yellow Hair nodded. “Brother Chi is indeed extraordinarily handsome.”

I continued reciting lines I’d seen online. “You give me this sense of distance, this lonely feeling. Like you’re close but also far away, you know?”

The boys from both schools were drawn in and gathered in a circle.

The owner gave me a thumbs-up from the corner.

Greatly encouraged, I went on, “I’ve heard a lot of people say they’re lonely, but I think your loneliness is true loneliness. It feels like deep inside, you’ve always only had yourself. You’ve been pretending all this time.”

Yellow Hair was moved. “Little sister, I feel like I’m that kind of person too.”

The group of boys was also deeply moved.

“An intellectual! This is what an intellectual sounds like!”

“What did he ever do to deserve you liking him this much?”

“I never knew you were such a lonely person, Chi Yi.”

Chi Yi looked speechlessly at that boy. “Lonely, my ass.”

I was starting to forget the rest. “Uh, the feeling you give me is like, um, that quote by Bor… something. You’re nothing more than every lonely instant.”

He stared at me, the corner of his eyes lifting slightly. “Can’t make up any more?”

My palms were slick with sweat.

Sirens sounded not far away.

“Shit, who called the police?!”

“Chi Yi, just you wait!”

Chaos erupted. The crowd surged toward the door all at once.

I was shoved so hard I could barely keep my balance. Suddenly, a shadow fell over me, blocking the crowd.

“Chi Yi, why aren’t you running with your little girlfriend?” Yellow Hair shouted.

“You fucking…” Chi Yi sighed helplessly.

His school uniform was half unzipped, and beneath it was a thin white T-shirt. When the wind blew, the fabric clung to his body, faintly outlining the lines of his abdomen. He smelled pleasantly of soap.

I felt my earlobes burning.

He leaned close to my ear. “You called the police and still aren’t running? Do you really like me that much?”

What was wrong with this guy?!

Mortified, I shoved him away and ran. “I do not!”

Before I got away, I still heard a low laugh rumble from his throat.

This was way too embarrassing.