~~~
Twelve years had passed since high school graduation, and this was Ning Jiuwei’s first time returning to her alma mater—Jiangji No.1 Middle School.
The teaching building glowed brightly against the night sky. The black Porsche pulled up at the school gate, and the barrier before them slowly swung open. Su Jinglan stepped out with an umbrella and turned back to help Ning Jiuwei from the car.
The raindrops falling over the school carried the fresh scent of youth. Faint sounds of lessons drifted in from the distance, mingling with the earthy aroma of books and soil.
Ning Jiuwei hesitated for a moment before taking Su Jinglan’s hand and stepping out of the car.
“It’s raining again.” The fine drizzle stretched endlessly into the distance. Ning Jiuwei gazed into the horizon. More than a decade had gone by, yet the high school looked exactly as she remembered.
Su Jinglan caught the deeper meaning in her words. She followed Ning Jiuwei’s gaze toward the teaching building and smiled gently. “Come on. Let’s go see the place we once shared.”
The open gate was wide enough for a vehicle to pass through. The guard remained in the guard room without emerging to question them, waving them straight inside.
Ning Jiuwei glanced at Su Jinglan. She didn’t need to ask—she knew Su Jinglan had made the arrangements.
Once inside the campus, Su Jinglan unexpectedly slipped an arm around Ning Jiuwei’s shoulders and guided her toward the teaching building that had housed their classroom.
Ning Jiuwei wasn’t used to being walked like that. She started to push away but remembered this was her girlfriend and quietly lowered her elbow.
“We’ve walked this path hundreds of times, but this is our first time doing it together.” Su Jinglan glanced sideways at her, waves of affection swelling in her heart. “Jiuwei, what does it feel like for you?”
The familiar surroundings stirred up old memories, and long-buried past events slowly resurfaced. Ning Jiuwei clenched her hand and responded with a mild smile. “The flowers, grass, and trees all seem unchanged. It feels like we’ve gone back to our high school days.”
A thousand emotions welled up inside her, but all she voiced was that simple sentiment about high school. Ning Jiuwei stared straight ahead, ignoring the scorching gaze clinging to her face, enduring the tearing pain within.
Su Jinglan didn’t notice anything amiss with the woman beside her. She slowed her steps, savoring the wonderful sensation of strolling through the campus with Ning Jiuwei, and pulled her closer. “That’s not the feeling I meant.”
“This is my first time walking it with you too.” Ning Jiuwei brushed the back of Su Jinglan’s hand. “Let go, President Su. It wouldn’t look good if the students saw.”
“The students are all in evening self-study.” Su Jinglan had her excuse ready. “What if my Teacher Ning got caught in the rain and came down with a fever again?”
The umbrella was plenty large enough to keep them both dry, but Su Jinglan insisted on the intimate posture to ensure not a drop touched Ning Jiuwei. Recalling how Su Jinglan had cared for her during that fever, Ning Jiuwei couldn’t help but smile.
“I’m not worried. Not with President Su taking care of me.”
A tingle shot through Su Jinglan’s chest. She leaned close to Ning Jiuwei’s ear and whispered, her breath hot against her skin. “If Teacher Ning keeps tempting me like this, I might not be able to hold back.”
She was getting bolder by the day. Ning Jiuwei pushed Su Jinglan’s face away and cautioned her. “This is a school—a pure place for learning.”
“My feelings for Teacher Ning are pure too.”
They hadn’t been pure from the moment she called her “Teacher Ning,” but Ning Jiuwei knew better than to call her out on it.
The rain had washed the plants in the flower beds until they brimmed with vitality. Year after year passed, yet the greenery remained as fresh as ever. Ning Jiuwei felt a strange illusion of walking backward through time, back to the past.
“Do you remember our classroom?” Their leisurely pace didn’t stop Su Jinglan from staring at Ning Jiuwei. The light grew brighter as they neared the teaching building, and her words yanked Ning Jiuwei back to the present. “You sat at one end, and I was at the other.”
Each teaching building had two stairwells. Su Jinglan led Ning Jiuwei up the one she had always used, folding away the umbrella as they climbed the steps.
Water dripped steadily from the eaves, leaving scattered wet patches on the stairs. Ning Jiuwei nodded toward the other staircase. “I always took that one.”
Su Jinglan laced their fingers together and brought her to the floor where they had once studied.
During evening self-study, most classrooms were hushed. In a few, clear voices rang out through earpieces, audible even through the cracks in the windows.
They stood quietly in the corridor, gazing at their old classrooms, and turned to face each other as if by mutual agreement.
Their eyes met. Su Jinglan’s lips curved into a smile, and Ning Jiuwei smiled back.
Their tall figures drew attention, especially with the way they seemed on the verge of kissing. A passing teacher approached.
“Who are you two?” They didn’t look like teachers, nor like parents of invited students.
“We were students here before.” Su Jinglan had just begun to explain when she recognized the weary, weathered face. “Teacher Hu?”
Teacher Hu, who had taught math from their first year of high school all the way through to the third, was intimately familiar to Su Jinglan—her figure and features had been etched in her memory. But now, Teacher Hu looked like she had aged more than just twelve years, leaving Su Jinglan hesitant to even recognize her.
Hu Ziting pushed up the glasses perched on her nose and scrutinized the face before her, rifling through her mental database of students she had taught.
After decades devoted to education, she had instructed thousands of pupils. Teenagers and adults stepping into the working world looked worlds apart. Hu Ziting pondered for a few seconds before it clicked. “Su Jinglan!”
Students with stellar grades always left a lasting impression on their teachers. Hu Ziting glanced at the person standing beside Su Jinglan and was even more astonished. “Ning Jiuwei!”
The top two students from back in the school days had actually returned!
“That’s right, it’s us.” Hu Ziting had been Su Jinglan’s math teacher in that class—and Ning Jiuwei’s as well. Ning Jiuwei wasn’t surprised that she recognized her. “Teacher Hu, back for evening self-study again?”
Back then, Hu Ziting had a reputation for commandeering those sessions, always kicking things off with, “I’ll just take a few minutes to go over some questions,” only to claim the entire hour.
Caught red-handed, Teacher Hu adjusted her glasses once more and beamed with kindly warmth. “Come on into my office and have a seat. The other teachers are all there—they’ll be over the moon to see you.”
There was nothing quite like the joy of old friends reuniting after so many years. Unable to turn down Teacher Hu’s earnest invitation, Su Jinglan and Ning Jiuwei followed her to the office.
The teachers’ office was just a short walk from the classroom. Most were on the same floor, with only a handful on adjacent levels. Hu Ziting rapped on the door and called out cheerfully, playing it up like a game. “Everyone, guess who’s here!”
The teachers inside, busy grading homework and lesson plans, all looked up toward the entrance. A young biology teacher in her twenties piped up first with a guess. “Teacher Zhang’s boyfriend?”
Teacher Zhang shot her a playful glare. “What are you talking about? I already said that’s not my boyfriend—he’s just my childhood friend.”
Hu Ziting waved her off and stepped aside to reveal the two women behind her. “They’re two of our former top scholars from Jiangji No.1 Middle School. Teacher Yang, Teacher Guo—your star pupils from back in the day.”
Teacher Yang and Teacher Guo had been their homeroom teachers at the time. Reuniting with their old students brought tears to their eyes, and they enveloped the pair in warm, enthusiastic hugs.
Student rankings hadn’t been public knowledge back then, but in hindsight, they couldn’t resist bragging to their colleagues about their prodigies. In math, physics, chemistry, biology—any subject with clear-cut right answers—the girls either aced it perfectly or came achingly close, leaving third place in the dust.
What started as boasting devolved into a friendly debate over whose student had claimed first place more often. Ning Jiuwei’s gaze grew distant for a moment, her mind drifting back across the years.
Her hand was suddenly wrapped in a warm palm. Ning Jiuwei blinked back to the present. Su Jinglan, who had been watching her attentively, smiled and cut into the teachers’ lively argument. “Teachers, when it came to studies, Jiuwei and I were neck and neck.”
Evenly matched in academics—but what about everything else? Teacher Yang and Teacher Guo sensed there was more, while the other teachers quietly studied the pair’s body language, picking up on the unmistakable intimacy.
Who topped whom in the bedroom wasn’t polite conversation. Instead, Su Jinglan laid it all out for the teachers. “I chased after Jiuwei for ages, and now she’s my girlfriend.”
Dating wasn’t allowed for high schoolers, but for alumni? The teachers whooped and hollered like rowdy fans, shedding every ounce of their professional dignity.
“Who would’ve thought? When did classmate Su Jinglan fall for classmate Ning Jiuwei?” Teacher Yang asked.
Facing her old homeroom teacher, Su Jinglan answered candidly. “Back in our first year of high school.”
Hu Ziting hurriedly shut the office door, just in case any students overheard.
Teacher Yang might have been up in years, but her excitement for the gossip was infectious. “You liked Ning Jiuwei since first year? How on earth did your teacher miss that?”
Hu Ziting, who had taught both girls herself, hadn’t spotted it either—and she was even more intrigued than the homeroom teacher.
Ning Jiuwei’s heart clenched tight, a roar filling her ears as her thoughts scattered.
Su Jinglan had never breathed a word of it to her—that she’d liked her since first year.
“I had a crush on Ning Jiuwei.” Su Jinglan let the affection shine openly in her eyes as she gazed at the woman beside her. “A crush that’s lasted fifteen years.”
“Fifteen years!” the teachers chorused in shock.
Ning Jiuwei was just as stunned. How could Su Jinglan—superior to her in every way—have fallen for her back in first year?
“At the end of the first semester of first year, the rankings came out, and Ning Jiuwei overtook me for first place. That’s when it started,” Su Jinglan explained. “I’ve been in love with her ever since—right up to today.”
“Rivals who became lovers.” The young biology teacher clasped her hands to her cheeks, her fresh-faced enthusiasm for teaching still laced with schoolgirl vibes. “What a beautiful love story. I want one just like it.”
Teacher Zhang, who also taught biology, shot back: “This year, your Class 6 biology scores still can’t touch our Class 4.”
The young Biology Teacher declared, “You became a teacher five years before me, so you have more experience than I do. Just you wait—next year, my class will definitely surpass yours!”
Ning Jiuwei forgot how she had even made it out of the Teachers’ Office. The patter of wind and rain in her ears had transformed entirely into Su Jinglan’s gentle, indulgent voice—earnestly and freely baring the emotions she had buried deep in her heart for so long.
The homeroom teacher and Teacher Hu escorted them to the stairwell. Su Jinglan gave Ning Jiuwei a secret pinch, then flashed a smile and bid the teachers farewell.
“They look so perfect together,” Teacher Guo said, nudging Teacher Yang’s arm as they headed back. “Teacher Yang, you really didn’t notice they were dating back then? The way Su Jinglan gazes at Ning Jiuwei is so intense. If I’d been Su Jinglan’s homeroom teacher, I would’ve spotted her crush on Ning Jiuwei ages ago.”
Teacher Yang had sized up countless people over the years; no pair of secret lovers escaped her keen eyes. She racked her brain for a moment, then shook her head. “They were such stellar students. Even with those heated looks, I figured it was passion for their studies—a burning desire to outdo their rival.”
Who could have guessed they wanted to date their rival instead?
The fine drizzle nourished the world around them, while a flood of affection set their hearts pounding. Su Jinglan unfurled her umbrella, and Ning Jiuwei grasped the handle. “Let me hold it,” she said.
Su Jinglan smiled and released her grip, following Ning Jiuwei down the steps.
“Jinglan, did you really start liking me back in our first year of high school?”
The curtain of rain blurred their sight. Ning Jiuwei halted and turned to face Su Jinglan, her inscrutable eyes fixed on the girl just inches away.
In the dim light, Su Jinglan’s smile shone warm and radiant. She answered with utmost sincerity, “Yes, really. Jiuwei, now it’s your turn to tell me about those secrets you’ve kept locked away—the ones you didn’t want me to know.”
Her heart thundered uncontrollably. Ning Jiuwei looped an arm around Su Jinglan’s neck and, beneath the shelter of the lowered umbrella, kissed her.
~~~
