"I choose him."
The background music was still playing tirelessly, but everyone's voices had vanished.
Zhou Ye and Li Mo's teasing expressions froze, while Lin Fei mouthed a silent "Awesome!" from across the table.
Chen Ming was also stunned.
The beer glass in his hand was still suspended in mid-air; for a moment, he forgot what he was supposed to do next.
He had imagined countless possibilities, but he never expected Xiao Qingyue to be so direct.
This script wasn't right.
According to his past experience, in this situation, shouldn't girls shyly choose the least threatening person, or simply pick their Best Friend to get it over with?
"Ahem, well, the timer starts now!" Zhou Ye was the first to react, clearing his throat and breaking the eerie silence.
He pulled out his phone, pretending to press the stopwatch: "One minute, no laughing, no dodging, begin!"
Everyone subconsciously held their breath.
Chen Ming put down his glass, leaned back, and put on his usual devil-may-care expression, meeting Xiao Qingyue's gaze.
Between them, there was an empty seat symbolizing "safe distance," and also the crumbling remnants of their old days.
Initially, Chen Ming was at ease.
He even raised an eyebrow at her, trying to use his foolproof flirting techniques to defuse the awkwardness.
But Xiao Qingyue's gaze was entirely unaffected by his small gestures.
In her clear, almond-shaped eyes, too many emotions he couldn't comprehend were swirling.
There was grievance, unwillingness, a desperate stubbornness, and a trace… of the unextinguished deep affection he most feared seeing.
The nonchalance on Chen Ming's face gradually became impossible to maintain.
As time ticked by, he felt his carefully constructed facade peeling away inch by inch under that gaze, revealing the pathetic core beneath.
In his mind, a scene flashed uncontrollably—that rainy night in his senior year of high school, she had looked at him with the same eyes, crying and asking why.
He had dodged then.
And now, he had nowhere to hide.
Thirty seconds, forty seconds… He watched Xiao Qingyue's eyes gradually redden, a thin mist welling up, as if they could burst at any moment.
But she stubbornly kept her eyes wide open, refusing to blink, as if blinking would be an admission of defeat.
"Time's up!"
Lin Fei's perfectly timed voice was like a life-saving whistle, instantly freeing Chen Ming.
Xiao Qingyue abruptly turned her head away, as if trying to avoid something.
She raised her hand and pretended to rub the corner of her eye with her fingertip, discreetly wiping away the tear that was about to fall.
The atmosphere in the private room came alive again; everyone started laughing and playing, as if the suffocating minute just now had been an illusion.
Only Chen Ming knew that something had changed.
The social event ended at midnight, and everyone walked out of the KTV in twos and threes.
"Oh no, I suddenly remembered I left a package at the supermarket! Zhou Ye, Li Mo, come with me to get it!" Lin Fei clapped her forehead, dramatically pulling the two boys in another direction, "Qingyue, you and Chen Ming go back first, we'll be right there!"
Before Zhou Ye was dragged away, he looked back at Chen Ming and winked, giving him a "good luck" gesture.
Chen Ming: "..."
This wingman was so obvious, it was clear he was doing it on purpose.
So, as the lively crowd dispersed, only he and Xiao Qingyue were left on the way back to the dorms.
The late summer breeze carried a hint of coolness, rustling the leaves of the plane trees along the road.
The dim streetlights stretched their shadows long, then shortened them under the next light, over and over again.
The journey was silent.
Awkward silence fermented in the air until the dorm building was distantly in sight.
"That…"
Xiao Qingyue suddenly stopped, lowering her head, her voice trembling almost imperceptibly in the quiet night.
"Can… we add each other back on WeChat?" She looked up, glanced at him quickly, and added, "It's not very convenient to talk in the group."
Chen Ming looked at her in silence.
The streetlight spilled light over her head, giving her soft hair a fluffy golden edge.
Those eyes, which had just been red, now looked at him with a mix of apprehension and anticipation.
A few seconds later, he still pulled out his phone from his pocket and opened his QR code.
With a soft "ding," the friend request was successfully sent.
Back in the dorm, Zhou Ye and Li Mo were already in bed; one was chatting animatedly with a new girl he'd met, and the other was already asleep.
Chen Ming took a shower, lay in bed, but his mind replayed Xiao Qingyue's reddened eyes like a movie.
Annoyed.
He abruptly sat up, grabbed his phone, and clicked on the avatar that had just lit up again.
The chat window was clean, with only a system notification.
Without any hesitation, he clicked on transfer, entered a number, and pressed confirm.
—[5000.00 yuan has been deposited into the recipient's account]
For the transfer message, he only typed three words: [I owe you.]
The moment it was successfully sent, sealed memories were reawakened.
That year in senior high, his father's company went bankrupt overnight, and his mother absconded with the last bit of money from home.
He, once a favored son, instantly fell into the mud.
His monthly living expenses, which used to have no limit, became a mere two hundred yuan.
It was the darkest period of his life, and the only bright spot was Xiao Qingyue, who was his girlfriend at the time.
He remembered once, to treat her to her favorite Western meal on her birthday, he ate steamed buns and pickles for a month.
At the restaurant, he held the menu, his palms sweating, every zero after each dish seemed to mock his predicament.
Just as he was about to make an excuse that he wasn't hungry, Xiao Qingyue pulled out an exquisite card from her purse and playfully waved it: "Don't worry, I have a membership card for this place, super VIP, after the discount, two people for two hundred yuan is enough."
He believed her.
From then on, every time they went to those seemingly expensive restaurants, it was Xiao Qingyue who paid with her "all-purpose membership card."
He would then, with a clear conscience, transfer his "discounted" share of the money to her.
He even secretly congratulated himself on finding a girlfriend who was not only beautiful but also excellent at managing household finances.
The real shock came during the summer vacation after they broke up.
He went to that Western restaurant again, wanting to get a membership card exactly like hers, as a memento.
However, the receptionist smiled and told him: "Sir, I'm sorry, our restaurant has never offered any form of membership card service since its opening."
At that moment, Chen Ming felt his mind go blank.
It turned out there was never any all-purpose membership card.
There was only a girl who, to protect his pathetic and sad self-esteem, had repeatedly, secretly paid for expensive meals with her own pocket money.