"I like you!"

The setting sun bathed the earth in a dim yellow glow.

Jiang Yueming was somewhat at a loss as he faced the love letter the girl handed him. Cherry blossom petals drifted down, landing by their feet, painted warm hues by the evening light.

By this time, the campus was empty of students. The vast school grounds held not a single soul. The clock tower in the distance stood tall beneath the warm light, its chimes echoing through the world.

Jiang Yueming watched the girl's rosy lips open and close, dazed, wondering if he had misheard.

‘She said she likes me? That eldest daughter of the Xia family?’

He observed the girl before him. Her eyes sparkled brightly, like a rare gem in the world, reflecting his own flustered figure against the sunset.

He was not unfamiliar with her—the Xia family held considerable standing in this city. Her name often surfaced in classmates' idle chatter; some envied her family background, others discussed her appearance, but no one truly understood her.

Now she stood before him, no more than two steps away.

Her loose school uniform could not conceal the emerging contours of her maturing figure. Her shoulders were slender yet supple, her waist drawing inward beneath the fabric in a pleasing curve. He dared not lightly use the word "sexy" to describe her—such a term felt vulgar and unworthy of her.

She was like a flower not yet fully bloomed, possessing every lovely potential, merely awaiting its blossoming.

And now the petals had loosened, revealing the tender yellow stamens within, still retaining that raw, clean purity of a bud.

She was extending a pink envelope toward him, sealed with a heart-shaped sticker. Combined with the "I like you" just spoken, it wasn't hard for Jiang Yueming to guess this was a confession scene.

But.

‘Why?’

Jiang Yueming looked at her—the slight bow of her posture, the expectant look in her eyes, her fingertips creasing the letter paper from a touch of nervous strength.

This sudden confession threw his thoughts into chaos. He couldn't utter a single word, standing there as if turned to stone while the girl spoke on her own.

She said she first noticed him at the opening ceremony, standing in formation, sunlight falling across his profile. She thought his side view was very handsome.

She said afterwards, every day during morning exercises, she would secretly glance toward his class's section. During breaks, she would walk past his classroom door pretending to just be passing by, just to catch a glimpse of him. She said she had saved up courage for a long time and only stayed behind today to wait for him.

After speaking for a while, her voice gradually faded, until finally it was too low to hear.

It was then that Jiang Yueming finally snapped back to his senses, his gaze focusing on the letter right before his eyes.

"I…" His voice was somewhat stiff, "I'm sorry... I can't accept."

The light in Xia He's eyes dimmed.

"How can that be..."

Jiang Yueming felt as if the girl before him had shattered in an instant. She looked at him in disbelief.

"Is it because I'm not good enough?"

"No!"

Jiang Yueming jerked his head up, so fast he startled even himself.

"It's just... we don't really know each other yet. I might not be as good as I seem to you," Jiang Yueming observed the girl's expression, choosing his words carefully. "Before this, we haven't even met properly."

Xia He listened blankly.

"Confessing at our very first meeting... to be honest, it really surprised me."

The distant clock tower chimed another resonant note. He saw Xia He's eyelashes quivering slightly, the chime seeming ready to shake tears from those fragile eyes.

"If I accepted, it would be irresponsible toward you."

Xia He's hand slowly dropped. She lowered her head, her voice full of unwilling resignation.

"...Are you saying all this because there's someone you like?"

Jiang Yueming paused, shaking his head instinctively.

"No."

"Then why reject me... I... I like you so much..."

Jiang Yueming saw what seemed like a few tears fall from her lowered head. He panicked instantly, raising a hand to comfort her, but found no suitable place to put it, gesturing clumsily in the air.

"No, no, didn't I say it? We just don't know each other. We can start as friends first. Please don't cry..."

Xia He's shoulders trembled. She looked down as tears dropped from her blurred vision onto her shoes, spreading damp marks across the tips.

"If... if we start as friends first... will you accept me then?" Xia He asked him through her sobs.

Jiang Yueming said awkwardly, "If we start as friends first, then maybe after getting to know me better, you'll discover I'm not actually as good as you imagined?"

"No!"

She suddenly raised her head, flinging a few sparkling tears into the air, her tone resolute.

"You are..."

The second half of her sentence went unfinished. Then she lowered her head again, and this time even faint sobs could be heard.

Jiang Yueming exhaled. He had never encountered such a situation and had no idea what to do.

He actually found himself recalling the melodramatic TV dramas he had watched, thinking about how the male leads in those soapy shows acted in this kind of situation, but after mulling it over, he came up with nothing.

He had suggested they start as friends first, but what he didn't say was that even starting as friends, the chance of them becoming lovers was infinitesimally small.

All he could say was, "I'm sorry."

Time seemed to freeze for an instant. He noticed Xia He's body shudder when she heard those words.

Xia He raised her head. The sunset glow slowly faded from her pupils.

The clouds on the horizon, which had seemed ablaze, gradually extinguished. The sun's disk was about to sink below the horizon.

The clock tower chimed again, louder than before, involuntarily drawing Jiang Yueming's attention.

He suddenly felt that something was off.

He remembered the clock tower should only chime on the hour. It had just rung at seven o'clock; it should now be a few minutes past seven. But the clock's hands...

"...Again, it didn't work."

Xia He's voice came through, and Jiang Yueming detected resentment and coldness within it.

"...Why... why won't you just like me..."

He looked at her. Xia He's shoulders were still trembling slightly, but that trembling now seemed not like crying, but like suppressing something else.

"...This time it had been going so well already..."

‘This time? What did she mean, this time?’

Jiang Yueming wanted to speak, but suddenly found he couldn't make a sound.

Not that he didn't want to—it was a physiological, uncontrollable inability, as if someone were clutching his throat tightly, leaving no room to breathe.

He wanted to step back, but his feet were nailed to the ground, immobile.

Xia He's face was still the same face as before, tear streaks on her cheeks, the same eyes, but the look in them was wrong.

She looked at him like one looks at a disobedient pet.

Though they were still two steps apart, Jiang Yueming felt Xia He was impossibly close, so close their breaths could intertwine.

The sound of the clock tower rang out again, malfunctioning, a frantic pounding—dong dong dong—as if heralding the arrival of some unknown entity.

Xia He seemed to have become a different person. The aura around her shifted abruptly. The image of the fragile maiden vanished, replaced by a rising menace that set his instincts on edge.

This bizarre phenomenon made Jiang Yueming's hair stand on end, like a beast encountering its natural predator.

"Then... let's do it again… Starting as friends first, huh..."

The clock tower's chimes accelerated to the extreme, merging together so fast the intervals became indistinguishable.

The sun sank completely below the horizon. The world rapidly darkened, an overwhelming blackness sweeping across everything abnormally.

The massive hands of the jumping clock tower froze with a click. And then, time itself began to reverse, accompanied by the frantic chiming. The entire world became abnormal.

"This time... don't disappoint me again... my dear."

Jiang Yueming was paralyzed, feeling as though he were falling. An abyssal blackness enveloped him. A kaleidoscope of bizarre, bewildering visions flashed before his eyes.

‘You... just who are you!’

He could make no sound, only scream within his heart.

Coldness. Darkness. That was his final awareness.

[Fifth simulation commencing... World correcting...]