Ye Qingfeng had always thought that walking down the street was a perfectly relaxed activity. Today he was reconsidering that assumption. Every person they passed turned to look back at them.
It made him want to turn around and go home.
The reason was the person attached to his side.
Back on the sofa it had been manageable, but once he stood up, the height difference made it awkward for Anby to hold his arm properly unless she walked on tiptoe the entire way. So she had switched to holding his hand instead. Not a light, casual grip either, but fingers interlocked.
It was also the first time Ye Qingfeng had held hands with a girl like this. If he had to describe what it felt like: warm. Soft. He was not exactly blushing or short of breath, but he was aware of a certain shyness settling in. Anby, by contrast, appeared entirely at ease, as naturally comfortable as someone eating a meal when hungry.
He just felt it was perhaps a bit more intimate than the situation called for.
And yet he found himself reluctant to let go.
Still, he genuinely thought it was not great for her reputation, so he found a tactful way to mention it.
Anby's response was a single sentence that made him abandon the argument entirely.
"Qingfeng, you don't like this?"
Those clear, wide eyes and the white dress together were not a combination he had any defense against. He had to admit it. He was genuinely charmed.
If what he felt for Zhu Yuan was a straightforward affection, what he felt looking at Anby right now was harder to name. Something that called back the feeling of a first, unguarded moment of being moved.
A girl this genuinely innocent and unaware of herself, becoming someone else's one day. He found he could not quite picture it.
And so, on an otherwise ordinary street, an unusual pair drew every eye they passed. The height difference between them was perfectly proportioned. Their interlocked hands spoke plainly of closeness. Both of them, entirely unintentionally, were the kind of sight that made even strangers pause.
Under all of those gazes, Ye Qingfeng and Anby arrived at the supermarket.
He pulled her inside quickly, relieved to be out of the street. That relief lasted approximately two seconds before he noticed every person inside the supermarket looking over at them in turn.
Out of the fire and into the next one.
He had never thought of himself as someone particularly worth staring at. Decent enough looks, a collection of skills he was not especially proficient in, nothing worth writing home about. Being the object of a crowd's collective attention had always felt like something that happened to other people.
Now he knew what it felt like. It was difficult to describe. He could tolerate it, he could pretend it was not happening, but the goosebumps that rose on his skin were not pretending.
He was clearly not cut out for any situation that involved large numbers of people watching him.
He grabbed a shopping cart. Maneuvering it with one hand while Anby held the other was genuinely difficult. He understood she had reasons for staying close, and he respected that, but the groceries still needed to happen.
"Anby." He tried a gentle approach. "What if you just held onto my sleeve instead? I can't really steer this thing with one hand."
"No."
Anby remembered Nicole's instructions and held firm.
"But if I can't buy groceries, there won't be any hamburgers."
Anby's pupils widened slightly. She released his hand and gripped his sleeve instead. "Okay. But after we finish buying groceries, we hold hands again."
She was impossibly easy to read, and impossibly endearing about it.
Clingy today, usually indifferent. There was something about it that reminded him of a cat that normally ignores you and then one day decides to follow you around everywhere. The satisfaction was entirely disproportionate and entirely genuine.
Ye Qingfeng found himself wanting to finish the shopping as quickly as possible so they could go back to holding hands.
He pushed the cart efficiently, working through the ingredient list. Once the essentials were in, he steered them toward the snack aisle. He would not buy too much. Sister Nicole would be the first to object if the receipt came back unreasonable.
"Anything you want?"
He picked up two bags of snacks without looking too carefully and tossed them into the cart.
Anby considered the question with the air of someone giving it genuine thought.
"Hamburger."
"There aren't hamburgers in the snack section."
He pushed the cart slowly along the aisle, and almost immediately spotted a small package on the shelf in front of him.
Hamburger-shaped gummy candies.
"Oh. There actually are."
They were not real hamburgers by any measure, but they were unmistakably hamburger-shaped. He doubted Anby would be particularly interested in a candy version, but when he glanced over at her, her eyes were fixed on the package with clear interest.
The corner of his mouth curled. He picked one up and held it in front of her.
"Want it?"
This was a good opportunity.
"Yes!"
Anby stared at the package with undisguised longing. Her feelings about hamburgers, real or otherwise, were apparently non-negotiable.
"Do you have any Dennies on you?"
Anby reached instinctively for where she usually kept them, then remembered. This dress did not have pockets.
"No."
The light in her eyes dimmed immediately. Her voice dropped.
Ye Qingfeng watched the entire sequence play out exactly as he had expected and thought to himself that she was genuinely, completely transparent.
"Does Anby still want it, though?"
"Yes!"
"Answer one question for me and I'll buy it. Deal?"
"Mm!"
Anby nodded with the earnest cooperation of a kindergartener who had been promised a reward.
"Why did you take the initiative to hold my hand today?"
Ye Qingfeng leaned down, bringing his face close to hers. The tips of their noses were less than two centimeters apart. He could feel the faint warmth of her breath against his cheek, and she showed absolutely no sign of being flustered by the proximity.
He had the odd sense that even if he closed the remaining distance in the next second, Anby would not pull away. Not out of any particular feeling, but simply because something was keeping her from moving.
It was making him a little shy, which was slightly embarrassing.
But it also made him more curious than ever about what was actually going on.
"It's Ni... mm."
At that distance, under his direct gaze, Anby showed no panic. She opened her mouth, started to answer, and then stopped. The certainty in her eyes flickered and became unsteady.
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