Love You More Love Iced Tea - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Five minutes later, Brian was back to his usual cheerful self, and Selina’s Yahoo Messenger was being bombarded with Buzz notifications again:

“Hey! If I… stop being an idiot, will you love me?”

And so it went, day after day. Selina was tortured countless times by Brian’s ridiculous, half-serious, half-joking declarations of love.

Sometimes, when she found herself smiling for no reason, Selina would secretly wonder:

Could it be that I really do love this idiot?

But Brian’s constant teasing and his habit of saying things that were half joke and half truth made it incredibly difficult for Selina to figure out how he truly felt about her.

One of Brian’s favorite things to do was sit at an iced-tea stall every afternoon, no matter how busy he was.

Selina knew about this habit, but she still found it rather strange.

What kind of habit is that? He acts like an old man, she thought.

“Hey! What’s so good about iced tea that you have to spend every afternoon hanging around tea stalls?”

“I like it.”

“Why don’t you like something else? Why iced tea?”

Selina refused to let him off the hook.

And every time she asked that seemingly innocent question—one that happened to hit exactly the right nerve—Brian would launch into an epic, legendary lecture about the wonders of iced tea.

From its supposed weight-loss benefits to its diuretic effects, from being good for the heart to helping regulate the digestive and excretory system…

Selina would listen while repeatedly punching him in the back, desperately telling him to shut up.

But Brian’s mouth seemed to have no Pause button whatsoever. Once activated, it was ready to operate at full capacity.

“Maybe someday I’ll give up iced tea and start liking something else.”

Brian gazed up at the sky and spoke dreamily.

“Who?”

“The person I love.”

Valentine’s Day.

Early that morning, Brian sent Selina a short, blunt message:

“Are you going out tonight?”

“No. We’re not dating, so why would we go out together today?” Selina replied, teasing him.

“Uhm.”

Brian’s second message was just as brief.

Selina had expected the mischievous guy to send another message begging her to go, followed by the usual cheesy, ridiculously romantic lines he loved to use. But after that one short “Uhm,” Selina didn’t receive another message from him.

Throughout the entire class, Selina’s mind was somewhere far away. Every now and then, she glanced at her phone screen, absentmindedly tapped at the keypad, and sighed.

That strange behavior didn’t escape the notice of Hanh, who was sitting beside her.

“Did you get hit by a gust of wind or something? Why are you sitting there like a zombie? Or did some guy stand you up?”

“Stop talking nonsense! I’m perfectly fine—completely normal.” Selina tried to put on a cheerful face.

“Liar!” Hanh giggled. “One look at that face of yours, stiff as a block of butter, and anyone could tell.”

And she was right. At that moment, Selina’s face looked even more droopy than a melting stick of butter.

Luckily, the only person in the classroom who noticed was her mischievous best friend sitting beside her.

Maybe Brian was busy.

Or maybe he was really ignoring her.

At seven that evening, sitting absentmindedly in front of her dressing table, Selina secretly wondered what she meant to a handsome guy like Brian, who had countless girls chasing after him.

She thought about it, but her hand still unconsciously reached for her phone and began typing a message to Brian.

“Are you out somewhere?”

Selina had never asked him anything so cautiously and politely before.

Five minutes later, his reply came immediately:

“Wow! So you actually know how to call me ‘anh’ today!” Brian teased.

“Uhm.”

After sending the message, Selina could only worry that the “Uhm” would once again be followed by silence from Brian.

Fortunately, the idiot wasn’t quite that cruel.

“Iced tea, sweetheart?”

“No! It’s freezing! Who would go out for iced tea in weather like this?”

Only after sending the message did Selina realize she had accidentally given herself away.

And, once again, the ridiculous guy replied with his usual short:

“Uhm.”

But this time, there was another message right afterward—and its contents nearly sent Selina tumbling off her chair onto the floor:

“You’ve got me. You won’t be cold.”

The result?

Twenty minutes later, Selina was already rushing out into the street.

Not because having Brian beside her would somehow make the temperature outside warmer, but because that single sweet sentence was enough to lure her out of the house.