"not serious enough" eh? Even he friend saw through your bullshit Xiaoen....
Could just be to protect herself. Maybe just to "act mature".
Or there might be some hidden meaning to it but... I sure didn't enjoy that.

A lot of you seem to have forgotten the last convo Xiaoen and Xingyuan had on the subject. Xiaoen said in very clear terms that she only wanted a summer fling!

The problem was that Xingyuan couldn't stay longer than a month or two; after that she would leave and be gone for good—she was going to go to college and stuff. Xiaoen said that it was fine bcs she was ok with a short romance and some fun sex that would last only a few weeks and then be over. (She even seemed proud of herself as if this way of thinking seemed really super adultlike and mature to her!) Xingyuan gave her an ambiguous answer iirc and Xiaoen said she would keep pushing to persuade Xingyuan to have a fun and meaningless summer fling.

And this is what Xiaoen meant when she said she was not serious about Xingyuan! Her "official" position is that she only wants a short affair and Xingyuan's not gonna make her call an u-haul.

last edited at Feb 19, 2024 10:02PM

"not serious enough" eh? Even he friend saw through your bullshit Xiaoen....
Could just be to protect herself. Maybe just to "act mature".
Or there might be some hidden meaning to it but... I sure didn't enjoy that.

A lot of you seem to have forgotten the last convo Xiaoen and Xingyuan had on the subject. Xiaoen said in very clear terms that she only wanted a summer fling!

The problem was that Xingyuan couldn't stay longer than a month or two; after that she would leave and be gone for good—she was going to go to college and stuff. Xiaoen said that it was fine bcs she was ok with a short romance and some fun sex that would last only a few weeks and then be over. (She even seemed proud of herself as if this way of thinking seemed really super adultlike and mature to her!) Xingyuan gave her an ambiguous answer iirc and Xiaoen said she would keep pushing to persuade Xingyuan to have a fun and meaningless summer fling.

And this is what Xiaoen meant when she said she was not serious about Xingyuan! Her "official" position is that she only wants a short affair and Xingyuan's not gonna make her call an u-haul.

Sure, all that’s a given, but my original question stands: short-term or long-term, what does Xiaoen achieve by saying that to a person she sees as—and who she is treating as—a potential immediate rival?

last edited at Feb 20, 2024 12:12AM

Probably because she's feeling a little embarrassed for how over the top she was acting, especially since Xingyuan seemed unimpressed by it, so she's trying to course correct by being "fair" to Tianli and give her a chance instead of shoving her out of the way.

last edited at Feb 19, 2024 11:36PM

^ Yes, most likely. Also she's trying to make a point that she is a strapping adult (while Tianli isn't) and, as the op said, she seems to believe that having not-serious passing flings with cute randoms is a very mature thing.

"not serious enough" eh? Even he friend saw through your bullshit Xiaoen....
Could just be to protect herself. Maybe just to "act mature".
Or there might be some hidden meaning to it but... I sure didn't enjoy that.

A lot of you seem to have forgotten the last convo Xiaoen and Xingyuan had on the subject. Xiaoen said in very clear terms that she only wanted a summer fling!

The problem was that Xingyuan couldn't stay longer than a month or two; after that she would leave and be gone for good—she was going to go to college and stuff. Xiaoen said that it was fine bcs she was ok with a short romance and some fun sex that would last only a few weeks and then be over. (She even seemed proud of herself as if this way of thinking seemed really super adultlike and mature to her!) Xingyuan gave her an ambiguous answer iirc and Xiaoen said she would keep pushing to persuade Xingyuan to have a fun and meaningless summer fling.

And this is what Xiaoen meant when she said she was not serious about Xingyuan! Her "official" position is that she only wants a short affair and Xingyuan's not gonna make her call an u-haul.

Sure, all that’s a given, but my original question stands: short-term or long-term, what does Xiaoen achieve by saying that to a person she sees as—and who she is treating as—a potential immediate rival?

She's insecure about the situation and the nature of her relationship with Xingyuan and is also putting on a front. She's a bit conflicted and that leads her to speak out of both sides of her mouth at times, depending on her mood.

last edited at Feb 20, 2024 1:06PM

wow, those classmates sure are something, deciding for her that it’s no big deal right there in the group chat

Damn so Tianli deliberately outed her out of spite, yeesh. "She did better than me in school and the guy I liked wanted her contact info" is a pretty goddamn petty reason to betray a supposed best friend, yeah no shit Xingyuan isn't comfortable around her. I'm not sure how one even begins to make amends for doing that kind of evil on purpose, but Tianli barely even seems to have started beyond just putting herself in front of Xingyuan and hoping it just works somehow?? Just about the only hope for her I can imagine is one where she's still being dishonest: that text to Wang was phrased somewhat ambiguous and Xianyuan might not know it was an intentional act of spite. That would make Tianli an even worse person than how she appears after this chapter, though.
This context also highlights the importance of Xingyuan's relationship to Xiaoen, someone who's very open and uninhibited and an established adult who has basically no reason to ever be jealous of her. Xiaoen probably makes Xingyuan feel safe with all those character traits the other people around them criticize her for.

last edited at Feb 22, 2024 9:25AM

Damn so Tianli deliberately outed her out of spite, yeesh. "She did better than me in school and the guy I liked wanted her contact info" is a pretty goddamn petty reason to betray a supposed best friend, yeah no shit Xingyuan isn't comfortable around her.

I think it's a bit more than that. She also seemed to desire attention from Xingyuan and seemed envious of the affection Xingyuan was giving to others, more than anything. She seemed to feel abandoned in the way she felt abandoned by her family, wanted to separate Xingyuan from those people and wanted to harm Xingyuan for neglecting her (they were now asking for Xingyuan's contact info) and all of that led to a reflexive bad decision. I feel like she weaponized Xingyuan's sexuality as a method of getting those girls and others to leave Xingyuan alone. I'm not sure that the guy really had much to do with it, but I haven't done a close reading yet.

last edited at Feb 22, 2024 10:54AM

Damn so Tianli deliberately outed her out of spite, yeesh. "She did better than me in school and the guy I liked wanted her contact info" is a pretty goddamn petty reason to betray a supposed best friend, yeah no shit Xingyuan isn't comfortable around her.

I think it's a bit more than that. She also seemed to desire attention from Xingyuan and was envious of the affection she was giving to others, more than anything. She seemed to feel abandoned in the way she felt abandoned by her family. I'm not sure that the guy really had much to do with it.

yeah it's pretty clear that had Tianli had the courage to send the "why don't you care about me message" that all of this would have gone very different, but ultimately the message she did end up sending to the guy while voicing the exact same frustration was sent to someone she should not have voiced it to.

Like not to say that she didn't do anything wrong, but pretty clearly her goal whether she realized it or not was to get Xingyuan to look HER way again to be HER best friend again, to be HER.....

But then of course she didn't manage to voice those feelings and her frustration with it all got her to write a very bad message to the exact wrong person and now it IS her fault that Xingyuan had to drop out of highschool, has her entire famliy breathing down her neck, and feels like she'll never get to be happy again. And yeah Tianli seems to realize that at least.

last edited at Feb 22, 2024 10:41AM

Damn so Tianli deliberately outed her out of spite, yeesh. "She did better than me in school and the guy I liked wanted her contact info" is a pretty goddamn petty reason to betray a supposed best friend, yeah no shit Xingyuan isn't comfortable around her.

I think it's a bit more than that. She also seemed to desire attention from Xingyuan and was envious of the affection she was giving to others, more than anything. She seemed to feel abandoned in the way she felt abandoned by her family. I'm not sure that the guy really had much to do with it.

yeah it's pretty clear that had Tianli had the courage to send the "why don't you care about me message" that all of this would have gone very different, but ultimately the message she did end up sending to the guy while voicing the exact same frustration was sent to someone she should not have voiced it to.

Like not to say that she didn't do anything wrong, but pretty clearly her goal whether she realized it or not was to get Xingyuan to look HER way again to be HER best friend again, to be HER.....

But then of course she didn't manage to voice those feelings and her frustration with it all got her to write a very bad message to the exact wrong person and now it IS her fault that Xingyuan had to drop out of highschool, has her entire famliy breathing down her neck, and feels like she'll never get to be happy again. And yeah Tianli seems to realize that at least.

Especially since Tianli brought back up Xingyuan's line about "don't worry just because I like girls, doesn't mean I like any girl" while she was remembering Xingyuan with these new girls. I personally think Tianli resented it when Xingyuan said that line earlier. Then add on your "why don't you care about me" line and it feels more like Tianli was resentful of the attention Xingyuan was giving others. It reads to me like Tianli liked Xingyuan romantically back then and didn't handle her feelings well.

last edited at Feb 22, 2024 10:55AM

Turns out betraying someone, ruining their life, being the driving cause behind others psychologically abusing them, on of top putting them into a potentially dangerous situation due to the possibility of homophobic response involving physical violence as well, will in fact make them dislike you and spend even less time with you. Who could have guessed?

Well, wasn't too far off with my theory, there were just a couple of additional reasons for her telling him this as well. Incredibly stupid move, of course, but at the time she certainly wasn't in a state of mind where she could think clearly. As much quite understandable hate as she's getting here, I can't help but feel bad for her. This chapter really did do a good job of conveying her feelings to the point that I'm close to tears myself at seeing hers.

I'm surprised Xingyuan still uses "The Xingyuan who totes belongs to her Tianli" as her online ID. You'd think she would have picked a different username by now.

... unless she doesn't know it was Tianli who outed her? Damn, I can't remember if there was anything in Xingyuan's flashbacks about how the outing started.

This chapter really did do a good job of conveying her feelings to the point that I'm close to tears myself at seeing hers.

I feel you.

last edited at Feb 22, 2024 1:20PM

I'm surprised Xingyuan still uses "The Xingyuan who totes belongs to her Tianli" as her online ID. You'd think she would have picked a different username by now.

... unless she doesn't know it was Tianli who outed her? Damn, I can't remember if there was anything in Xingyuan's flashbacks about how the outing started.

No, no. I don't remember either but there's no frigging way she doesn't know.

This chapter really did do a good job of conveying her feelings to the point that I'm close to tears myself at seeing hers.

I feel you.

Tianli sure doesn't feel like an unsympathetic character to me. The bad stuff just kept piling up and she couldn't take the pressure. And she ended up hurting herself too, not as much as Xingyuan but still pretty hard.

And she wants to somehow make amends. This matters a lot, by my book. I hate the notion that when you grow up and become an adult you have to forget all the things that happened before because it was just unimportant children silliness. You know, like those assholes were saying in the chat? Thx god Tianli doesn't think like that.

So the childhood friend definitely isn't a rival, but just and S-tier, A-5 credit, grade-A bitch.
Notes doted.

Damn so Tianli deliberately outed her out of spite, yeesh. "She did better than me in school and the guy I liked wanted her contact info" is a pretty goddamn petty reason to betray a supposed best friend, yeah no shit Xingyuan isn't comfortable around her. I'm not sure how one even begins to make amends for doing that kind of evil on purpose, but Tianli barely even seems to have started beyond just putting herself in front of Xingyuan and hoping it just works somehow?? Just about the only hope for her I can imagine is one where she's still being dishonest: that text to Wang was phrased somewhat ambiguous and Xianyuan might not know it was an intentional act of spite. That would make Tianli an even worse person than how she appears after this chapter, though.
This context also highlights the importance of Xingyuan's relationship to Xiaoen, someone who's very open and uninhibited and an established adult who has basically no reason to ever be jealous of her. Xiaoen probably makes Xingyuan feel safe with all those character traits the other people around them criticize her for.

You've missed some subtext, and maybe some text there. I'm absolutely sure Tianli liked Xingyuan, not Wang. That "Why couldn't it be me" isn't about the guy, it's about her. She's sitting there thinking about how Xingyuan explicitly told her she wasn't interested in her romantically, and literally almost texted her "Why don't you care about me?" The girl has it bad, and not only is Xingyuan saying she isn't interested, she's becoming steadily more distant and distracted.

Xingyuan's getting more popular as she gets more successful, and it's distracting her from Tianli, who she takes for granted. Meanwhile Tianli is realizing that she likes Xingyuan and is hurt that she's becoming more distant while also taking opportunities away from her. All of that pain and jealousy and unrequited love overflowed until she did something she regretted.

Not saying it makes her okay, but it's not the kind of jealous spite you seem to think it is.

You've missed some subtext, and maybe some text there. I'm absolutely sure Tianli liked Xingyuan, not Wang.

The panel with Wang playing soccer while fangirls spectate from the stands is a hint like a hammerblow. All are watching him and cheering like madwomen except Tianli who looks like she couldn't care less and is instead watching her phone and desperately wishing for a text from Xingyuan.

last edited at Feb 22, 2024 10:26PM

you know a manga is spicy when half the comments are longer than the commenter's profile pics

You've missed some subtext, and maybe some text there. I'm absolutely sure Tianli liked Xingyuan, not Wang. That "Why couldn't it be me" isn't about the guy, it's about her. She's sitting there thinking about how Xingyuan explicitly told her she wasn't interested in her romantically, and literally almost texted her "Why don't you care about me?" The girl has it bad, and not only is Xingyuan saying she isn't interested, she's becoming steadily more distant and distracted.

Xingyuan's getting more popular as she gets more successful, and it's distracting her from Tianli, who she takes for granted. Meanwhile Tianli is realizing that she likes Xingyuan and is hurt that she's becoming more distant while also taking opportunities away from her. All of that pain and jealousy and unrequited love overflowed until she did something she regretted.

Not saying it makes her okay, but it's not the kind of jealous spite you seem to think it is.

I wouldn't call it text, there's some stuff we can interpret as potentially a romantic interest, but it could also be wanting to keep the attention of the cool popular girl who used to be very close to her and has left her behind. And those types of motivations can't explain all the elements in the chapter, like Xingyuan pulling ahead of her in the competition to get the study abroad scholarship Tianli's family was pushing her to get, and Wang, the guy she introduced to us as her crush, wanting Xiangyuan's contact info. She doesn't seem interested in him anymore, but that certainly doesn't mean she can't feel bitter about the thought of her best friend succeeding in yet another area where Tianli did not. And when she remembers Xiangyuan talking about not liking every girl, the image is not from that scene but rather Xiangyuan being popular with girls at school.

Is Tianli thinking "why couldn't it be me?" supposed to be her jealous of Xiangyuan being popular and successful and happy, or is it her being jealous of those other girls getting attention from Xiangyuan, or is it "why couldn't I be the girl she likes"? I think that's deliberately ambiguous. I don't think there's any one cut and dry "it's just this and not that" explanation for her actions, because I doubt she could fully tell you. Teenagers are stupid and impulsive like that. But spite or bitterness clearly seemed to be at least part of it. The framing makes it clear that no matter why she wanted to do it, she was doing it in the moment to hurt Xingyuan on purpose, and while she immediately regrets it she can't take it back. That's some real big heavy shit to deal with for them both. Xianyuan might tell her she's forgiven, but will the guilt go away? Will they be friends again? It doesn't seem likely right now.

You've missed some subtext, and maybe some text there. I'm absolutely sure Tianli liked Xingyuan, not Wang. That "Why couldn't it be me" isn't about the guy, it's about her. She's sitting there thinking about how Xingyuan explicitly told her she wasn't interested in her romantically, and literally almost texted her "Why don't you care about me?" The girl has it bad, and not only is Xingyuan saying she isn't interested, she's becoming steadily more distant and distracted.

Xingyuan's getting more popular as she gets more successful, and it's distracting her from Tianli, who she takes for granted. Meanwhile Tianli is realizing that she likes Xingyuan and is hurt that she's becoming more distant while also taking opportunities away from her. All of that pain and jealousy and unrequited love overflowed until she did something she regretted.

Not saying it makes her okay, but it's not the kind of jealous spite you seem to think it is.

I wouldn't call it text, there's some stuff we can interpret as potentially a romantic interest, but it could also be wanting to keep the attention of the cool popular girl who used to be very close to her and has left her behind. And those types of motivations can't explain all the elements in the chapter, like Xingyuan pulling ahead of her in the competition to get the study abroad scholarship Tianli's family was pushing her to get, and Wang, the guy she introduced to us as her crush, wanting Xiangyuan's contact info. She doesn't seem interested in him anymore, but that certainly doesn't mean she can't feel bitter about the thought of her best friend succeeding in yet another area where Tianli did not. And when she remembers Xiangyuan talking about not liking every girl, the image is not from that scene but rather Xiangyuan being popular with girls at school.

Is Tianli thinking "why couldn't it be me?" supposed to be her jealous of Xiangyuan being popular and successful and happy, or is it her being jealous of those other girls getting attention from Xiangyuan, or is it "why couldn't I be the girl she likes"? I think that's deliberately ambiguous. I don't think there's any one cut and dry "it's just this and not that" explanation for her actions, because I doubt she could fully tell you. Teenagers are stupid and impulsive like that. But spite or bitterness clearly seemed to be at least part of it. The framing makes it clear that no matter why she wanted to do it, she was doing it in the moment to hurt Xingyuan on purpose, and while she immediately regrets it she can't take it back. That's some real big heavy shit to deal with for them both. Xianyuan might tell her she's forgiven, but will the guilt go away? Will they be friends again? It doesn't seem likely right now.

Well put. Pretty much my feelings on her as well. At least for now. I'm leaning in the romantic direction though.

You've missed some subtext, and maybe some text there. I'm absolutely sure Tianli liked Xingyuan, not Wang.

The panel with Wang playing soccer while fangirls spectate from the stands is a hint like a hammerblow. All are watching him and cheering like madwomen except Tianli who looks like she couldn't care less and is instead watching her phone and desperately wishing for a text from Xingyuan.

This. You can't look at that scene and not realize that the author is trying to tell you something; ie, this girl is thinking only of Xingyuan and doesn't give a shit about popular boy anymore.

I can't stop screaming at Dat hand touched down. Aaaaaaaahhhh!!! Xingyuan is about to be save by her bae. Hopefully helping her to sort out this emotional drama.

This was like 2 bait-and-switches in one chapter and both worked well, this didn't go like I thought it would at all :P

Oh man, after all this Xingyuan still blames herself for everything when nothing was her fault. Like it’s her fault for being gay or smart. I really wonder what she thinks made her detestable, the guilt and self-loathing runs deep.

last edited at Feb 25, 2024 6:19AM

"Ah yes I still communicate with that group of homophobic assholes about you", very smooth...