Her Tentacles 2

Chapter 2: The Gift

After folding her umbrella and getting into the passenger seat, Shu Yao fastened her seatbelt. She first took out a packet of tissues and lowered her head to meticulously wipe the water stains and mud from the back of her hands, her bag, and the sides of her shoes. Only after placing the dirty tissues and the clear plastic bag for her umbrella in the side pocket of the car door did she finish.

It was then that she realized the car was a little too quiet.

She glanced over quietly.

And met the gaze of the person in the driver’s seat, who had been watching her for who knows how long.

Lin Ran, who had started the car but hadn’t yet pulled away, was leaning one hand on the steering wheel. Her satin-black hair cascaded over her shoulder, and her lips were curved into a smile that was perfectly captivating from any angle—the same smile that graced the promotional banners for Nanshan Hospital, where she was the signature face.

She had been observing Shu Yao, who was like a small animal with its fur dampened by the rain, eagerly and meticulously cleaning itself the moment it found shelter. She hadn’t expected her subject to startle the moment she was discovered.

Instantly, the packet of tissues was offered to her.

“S-Sorry… I forgot just now.”

Lin Ran’s eyelids lowered slightly, her dark pupils fixing on the way the other woman pinched the corner of the tissue packet. Her smile deepened, melting into her bewitching voice. “Is that the only thing you forgot?”

“…!”

Shu Yao’s eyes widened. Reminded, she immediately ducked her head and rummaged through her pearl-strapped bag, retrieving the handmade creation she had spent all of last night contemplating.

Inside a round, transparent glass jar, a cork stopper served as the base. Dried rose blossoms were frozen in a state of full bloom—red, magenta, yellow—their petals arranged at varying heights, as if a corner of a balcony had been transplanted into this tiny world.

She held the glass jar of dried flowers toward Lin Ran and let out a breath of relief. “This, too!” she said quickly. “Today’s gift for my girlfriend!”

The cheerfulness in her tone echoed in the small space. Realizing this, Shu Yao curled her fingers and lowered her voice slightly.

“Do you… like it?”

Lin Ran’s jet-black eyes reflected the round, transparent glass jar. She studied it intently for a moment before saying slowly, “The third one.”

This was the third gift Shu Yao had given her.

Seeing how seriously Lin Ran remembered every gift she’d given, the tension in Shu Yao’s shoulders eased, along with her fingertips, which had been pale with nervousness. A small smile touched her own lips as she softly added, “It’s also the third day we’ve been dating…”

Although they had only been dating for a very short time, she knew Lin Ran loved these kinds of gifts.

It was just like their first meeting.

Back then, she had just escaped the crowded elevator when her foot sank into the plush carpet of the quiet banquet hall, where a symphony was playing.

Having never been to a matchmaking event before, all Shu Yao knew was that a social introvert like her was about to be drowned by the sheer number of people. She had been mentally prepared to become invisible, sneak some food and drinks, and fade into the background. She never expected the event to be so high-end; she was momentarily stunned at the entrance.

At the end of the red carpet, the lights were dimmed. Although many people stood in the spacious hall, their figures were hidden in the shadows, as if they were all entranced by the stirring music, no one speaking a word.

And yet, she felt countless naked and brazen gazes cast upon her.

They were sizing her up like a lamb about to be served.

Her friend’s repeated warnings from before she left rang in her ears.

“It’s a matchmaking event. Even though they’ve screened for education levels, the truly good ones are already off the market. You’ll inevitably run into some weirdos. Just bear with it and talk to the people you find interesting.”

Shu Yao took deep, steadying breaths, her mind torn between “Maybe I should just leave” and “I’m already here, the taxi fare was expensive.”

Until the person standing closest to the banquet hall entrance suddenly spoke, inviting her in. “Not coming in?”

Shu Yao jumped, and a light-colored strand of hair by her temple trembled, falling across the tip of her nose. She blinked, unsure how to respond, and could only hurry inside with her head bowed.

To coax her into coming to this event, Situ Jin had personally supervised her entire outfit, stopping just short of coming to pick out a partner for her.

The consequence was that she, who never wore heels, tripped on the edge of the carpet in her sparkling silver high heels.

Seeing the gift in her hand about to fly into the air and shatter on the floor, Shu Yao squeezed her eyes shut, desperately awaiting the moment of humiliation.

…

But neither she nor her gift fell.

A steadying force took hold of her arm.

She opened her eyes. Her white dress was spread out over the red carpet where her knees had buckled, and over it lay a sleeve of a cool, pure-black shirt. The owner of the shirt was holding firmly onto the wrist of the hand that held the gift.

Ink-black hair brushed against her cheek. At such a close distance, as she looked up, the first thing she heard was a gentle, concerned voice:

“Are you alright?”

Shu Yao, getting a clear look at her face: “!”

She nodded dazedly.

But the other woman’s gaze was on the matchmaking gift in her hand.

It was a miniature landscape inside a teardrop-shaped bottle, which had been modified from a pink quartz perfume bottle. Inside were small stones, with tiny mosses growing behind them. A shallow layer of sand was spread in front of the stones, upon which sat a Little Prince she had sculpted from colored clay. Tucked into the narrow opening of the bottle was a glowing moon lamp.

She had placed a planet inside this crystal bottle.

And a full moon.

“What a beautiful bottle.” The person holding her, who still hadn’t let go, stared unblinkingly at the gift in her palm. After a long moment, her long, distinct eyelashes lifted, and her dazzling dark eyes finally turned to the gift’s owner. “Can you give it to me?”

Too… too close! Shu Yao thought.

She forgot to breathe, staring blankly into those deep, dark eyes.

Her wrist had been held for so long that her circulation was being cut off. The invitation, tucked between her fingers and the landscape bottle, fluttered down like a snowflake and landed open on the carpet.

The woman, who had been waiting for an answer, had started to frown, but this interruption drew her attention. Her eyes flicked to the piece of paper.

Her voice was a soft sigh of dawning realization. “Ah~ So you’re here for the matchmaking event.”

“Have you found your match yet?”

“Is this the gift you’re planning to give?”

The barrage of questions left Shu Yao overwhelmed.

She shook her head dumbly, then nodded hesitantly.

These two contradictory actions, which would have baffled anyone else, made the person holding her suddenly break into a radiant smile. The symphony in the background had stopped at some point. In the dangerously intimate lighting of the banquet hall, they were the only two, one tall and one short, standing directly under a bright spotlight.

Shu Yao had been looking up for so long that she felt dazed by the light, and even more so by the woman’s smile.

In a haze, enveloped by a smile as bright as a spring day in March, she heard the other woman’s cheerful proposal. “Then I’ll be your match. My name is Lin Ran—”

“Will you give me the gift?”

[The bottle! Pretty! Mine!]
[It was supposed to be my turn.]
[It’s mine, it’s mine.]
[I want more. That one’s even prettier!]

The same clamorous voices from that day echoed in her ears. Lin Ran took the third gift from Shu Yao, examined it for a long time, then, satisfied, leaned back and stretched her arm out to place the gift on the back seat.

She even checked several times to make sure it wouldn’t fall.

Shu Yao watched her look at the gift with that same gentle gaze and, thinking of their first meeting, had a strange, sudden thought:

It seems that Lin Ran doesn’t like… me, but my gifts.

This self-inflicted cold water turned Shu Yao’s mood from sunny to overcast. The space inside the car seemed to grow extremely dark in that short time.

Though there were only two of them, Shu Yao felt a sense of cramped pressure. After blinking several times, she looked up at the car’s glass roof.

The rain, now lashing down, had blurred the sky into total darkness.

“It’s a bit dark…”

She muttered, feeling as if she couldn’t even see the person next to her clearly. Her fingertips subconsciously fumbled for the light switch by the door. “Can I turn on the light?”

In her blind spot—

The glass jar of dried flowers on the back seat had been knocked askew on the leather.

Lin Ran’s brows knitted together. In a world Shu Yao couldn’t see, she warned the troublemaker to behave, while casually replying, “Mm.”

Click.

The interior light instantly carved a path through the darkness.

And at that exact moment, the glass jar, which had been knocked about, rolled off the edge of the back seat!

As the car was suddenly illuminated, Shu Yao turned her head to the left, only to have a warm hand cover her eyes, accompanied by the other woman’s gentle reminder, “Close your eyes.”

She obeyed reflexively.

At the same time, the glass jar was righted by an unseen force and pushed slowly back into place, the slow movement even betraying a hint of guilt. Once it was safely back where it belonged—

Lin Ran slowly moved her hand away. As Shu Yao opened her eyes in confusion, Lin Ran smiled and pointed to the light above her head. “Don’t look directly at a sudden bright light. It can hurt your eyes.”

The warmth of her palm still lingered on the corner of Shu Yao’s eye. She nodded obediently.

A moment later, she thought, Lin Ran’s palm is so warm.

…

“Still the restaurant at Century City?”

“Mm… okay.”

Shu Yao stared at those fair fingers tapping on the navigation screen, a sudden urge to hold them washing over her.

But they had only been dating for three days. And she still felt that having such a gentle and considerate girlfriend was unreal, like a dream. Wouldn’t it be taking advantage of Lin Ran?

If her earlier guess was true, Lin Ran probably wouldn’t want her to hold her hand.

The car merged into the rain-slicked road. Shu Yao was completely lost in thought, staring at Lin Ran’s hands on the steering wheel for so long that she didn’t even notice the atmosphere in the car was the one thing she feared most when with other people: a silence devoid of conversation.

More than ten minutes later, the sleek car found an empty spot in the parking lot of the shopping center closest to Baiquan Vocational School. Lin Ran’s unhurried voice broke through her daze:

“We’re here.”

Brought back to her senses, Shu Yao reluctantly tore her gaze away from those fingers, which were like segments of jade bamboo. She habitually leaned over to grab the bag with her umbrella to get out, but was jerked back by her seatbelt, only then realizing she’d forgotten to unbuckle it.

She reached back to find the buckle. After hearing a “click,” she turned to open the door—

Only to be pulled back by the seatbelt again.

“!”

The force of the recoil made Shu Yao jolt in her seat. The person in the driver’s seat then leaned over, her shadow covering half of Shu Yao’s body. Shu Yao nervously lowered her gaze to avoid another close-range assault from her beauty.

And saw that Lin Ran was hooking a single finger around her seatbelt!

“W-What…”

“What are you thinking about?”

The other woman cut her off, her tone leaving no room for argument.

Shu Yao’s eyelashes fluttered like the wings of a captured butterfly. Believing that her brazen staring from before had revealed her thoughts, she took deep breaths but couldn’t relax. Instead, her face and neck grew hot.

In the small space between them, she could even smell the other woman’s scent.

It was much like a sea salt perfume.

Her mind uncontrollably associated the fragrance with the wrist, palm, and fingertips that surrounded her. Growing even more flustered, Shu Yao began to shake her head vigorously. “Nothing! I wasn’t thinking about anything!”

Lin Ran’s gaze took on the predatory pressure of a hunter.

She scanned every inch of her prey’s face, pinned between her and the seat. Her dark eyes bore down with an intensity that made Shu Yao’s palms, clutching the seatbelt, start to show indentations.

“I, on the other hand, just remembered something I forgot to say.”

Lin Ran answered her own unasked question.

“What?” Shu Yao peeked open one eye.

And then, she saw her picturesque girlfriend maintaining a distance where their breaths could have mingled, a crescent-moon smile on her face. Her lips parted, and she finally answered the question Shu Yao’s gift had prompted:

“I do like it.”

“Very much.”

…..

Thump.

Thump-thump-thump-thump—

The heart in her chest hammered violently, with the mutually destructive force of a thing about to slam into her ribs. The blood rushing past her ears screamed in her eardrums:

Damn you, Shu Yao!

How could you doubt your girlfriend’s love for you!