Chapter 268: I'm Sorry and It's Okay (9)
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
Song Qingchun was shocked and slowly answered as she came to, "Of course not."
"Are you sure?" Qin Yinan asked in a soft and firm note as he continued to stare at Song Qingchun, as if trying to figure whether she was lying or not.
The girl's eyes were calm, and her lips were smiling; it didn't look like she was hiding anything from him. Could it be that he was merely overthinking things?
Qin Yinan thought about it and winked at Song Qingchun as he pulled his gaze away. Then, he pulled a carefully wrapped small box from his suit and passed it to Song Qingchun. "This is your New Year present."
Song Qingchun accepted it with a big smile. "Thank you, Brother Yinan."
Qin Yinan stood there and glanced several times at the box in her grasp. Finally, he couldn't help himself and asked, "Aren't you going to open it?"
"It's the same even if I open it later at home." Song Qingchun smiled softly at Qin Yinan as she put the present away. After a pause, she added, "This way, the mystery will be kept alive."
Qin Yinan didn't say anything, but his previously mild-mannered expression turned rather severe.
If he was doubting whether or not he was overthinking stuff before, now he was certain he most definitely had not.
Song Qingchun would demand a present from him during every big holiday, and as time passed, it had become his habit to prepare a present for her every time a holiday came around.
Whenever she received his present, she would ask excitedly what it was as she tore it open. Most of the time, he would gift her girly accessories, which she would put on before him and ask him whether it looked nice on her or not with an eager smile.
Sometimes, there would be people around them when she did that, but she never seemed to mind, unlike today, where her reaction after receiving his present was mild at best. She held it listlessly in her hands, showing almost zero interest in it.
Qin Yinan hardened his lips and studied Song Qingchun. He repeated his earlier question. "Song Song, I feel like we have been getting further and further away from each other recently, are you sure I have not done anything to make you unhappy, or have I done anything wrong?"
"Brother Yinan, you have gotten awfully sentimental after you found yourself a girlfriend," Song Qingchun said half-mockingly with a pair of smiling eyes before adding in a much more serious note, "Brother Yinan, you're overthinking this. We're still as close as before. You're my Brother Yinan, so it's impossible for there to be much distance between us. Furthermore, didn't you promise you'll always be my Brother Yinan? Or are you saying all of this because you want to renege on that promise?"
That's right, you would always be my Brother Yinan like how you were in the past, like how you are now, and how you will always be in the future.
However, he would never know behind that simple statement hid the years she had spent loving him.
She didn't distance herself from him; she merely stopped loving him.
In other words, it was not that he wasn't good enough; he simply hadn't noticed her enough. Honestly, it wasn't his fault; he didn't make her unhappy or offend her in any way. This was her own mistake for holding onto hope in a one-sided relationship.
Therefore, she wasn't lying. After the haze of the blind hope had dispersed, he was still the Brother Yinan she had known since childhood; that identity hadn't changed.
Even though it was his question to begin with, in the end, he was the one being jokingly mocked as Song Qingchun turned the question around and placed him in the hot seat. Qin Yinan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. However, looking at her acting this way, it did neutralize his worry quite significantly. He replied, "Nonsense, why wouldn't I continue to be your Brother Yinan?"