Chapter 22: Chapter 22

Ch.22

The third class of the afternoon on Wednesday was also physical education, and as usual, the teacher asked them to run two laps.

Song Yu Meng and Yi Ran stood on the first and second rows on the leftmost side, and they were at the back while running too.

Yi Ran teased Song Yu Meng: “Make sure you run properly, don’t steal away halfway and hide in the grove again.”

Yesterday, Yi Ran realised Song Yu Meng had sneaked away halfway to avoid running another lap and hid in the grove before coming out at the end of the second lap to join in.

“Cheh, this lady just didn’t want to run yesterday!” Song Yu Meng didn’t want to admit her stamina wasn’t good and she couldn’t run both laps.

Yi Ran smirked and chose not to expose her, or else it’d end up in a fight again.

“Alright, then you need to finish both laps today.”

“It’s just two laps, what’s the big deal.”

After just 200 metres, Song Yu Meng was starting to pant. She would have already escaped and hid away at this point usually, but she just told Yi Ran she would finish both laps and she didn’t want to embarrass herself.

All she could do was to clench her teeth and hang in there.

After one lap, she was already out of breath and regretting it: I shouldn’t have said anything to Crazy Yi!

Song Yu Meng suddenly felt a pain in her abdomen, and adding on that she was already at her limit, she felt like there was no strength in her body at all.

Yi Ran looked to her side and saw that there was nobody there. Stopping, she turned around and saw Song Yu Meng crouching on the track about 10 metres behind.

Walking to her, Yi Ran teased: “I thought you said you’ll definitely finish the run? Why aren’t you running? Could it be that you can’t do it?”

Normally, Song Yu Meng would have jumped up and pointed at Yi Ran, scolding her. But after a few seconds, she was still not responding. She squatted down with her hair covering her face, both hands on her abdomen.

Noticing the odd situation, Yi Ran’s smile faded as she knelt down and held Song Yu Meng’s hair back from her face. She saw the sweat on her forehead and the look of pain.

Flustered, Yi Ran asked quickly: “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

“It hurts…” Song Yu Meng whimpered softly, like a small injured animal.

Yi Ran’s brows furrowed, she knew it must have been cramps. In the novel, Song Yu Meng had dysmenorrhea and whenever it started, she would slouch on the table at school, unable to move.

Without wasting a single second, Yi Ran reached out and scooped her into a princess carry.

Suddenly being carried, Song Yu Meng let out a yelp and before her brain could react, her arms were already wrapped around Yi Ran’s neck.

“Hold on tight, don’t fall off.” Yi Ran was only thinking of getting to the medical bay as quickly as possible.

With her body hovering in the air, all her senses were amplified but her reactions were slowed.

Song Yu Meng hadn’t even started holding on tightly, but her heart was already beating out of her chest and her face was flushed abnormally red.

She obediently tightened her hold on Yi Ran’s neck, but she didn’t dare to look at her. Burying her face in Yi Ran’s shoulder, she could smell her scent.

It was a refreshing fragrance of jasmine flowers drenched in melted snow, Song Yu Meng liked it.

Odd. Her abdomen was hurting so badly just now that she couldn’t even stand straight, but she didn’t feel like she was in that much pain now.

She could also feel the rise and fall of Yi Ran’s chest.

Yi Ran crossed from the middle of the field to the end, hurrying towards the medical bay. Even though her steps were rushed, Song Yu Meng felt incredibly safe and steady in her arms.

Most of the students running didn’t notice the two missing people, but when they were rounding the 300 metre corner, Su Xiao Xiao noticed Yi Ran princess carrying her best friend and hurrying across the field.

Shocked, she stopped and rubbed her eyes, wanting to take another look. But by the time she looked back, the two of them were gone.

Could she have seen it wrongly? Su Xiao Xiao hesitated, remembering how Yi Ran had posted another status update complaining about Song Yu Meng yesterday, while Song Yu Meng also told her before that Yi Ran was her enemy for life.

“Xiao Xiao, why did you stop running? What are you looking at?” He Xiao Meng was running with Su Xiao Xiao originally, and she stopped when Su Xiao Xiao stopped.

“I just saw Yi Ran carrying Xiao-Yu and walking in that direction, but I don’t know if I saw wrongly.”

He Xiao Meng didn’t believe it at all. “No way, you must have seen it wrongly. Aren’t they on super bad terms? It’s already great if they don’t fight, they can’t possibly be hugging.”

Su Xiao Xiao nodded. “I must have seen it wrong.”

After the run, there were indeed two people missing.

The gym teacher asked: “Why are we missing two students?”

Everybody else shook their heads in confusion as Su Xiao Xiao’s jaw dropped. Did Yi Ran really carry Xiao-Yu away??!

On the other hand, Song Yu Meng had buried her head in Yi Ran’s shoulder the whole way, afraid people would see her.

Once they got close to the medical bay, she kicked her legs and shouted: “Crazy Yi, put me down! I can walk!”

Seeing her energy, Yi Ran felt she shouldn’t be in as much pain anymore, so she set her down carefully and said: “Walk slowly, or it might start hurting again.”

“I know!” Even though Song Yu Meng’s tone was harsh, her face was still red.

Her abdomen was still hurting and she kept a hand on her stomach as she put a hand against the wall for support. Yi Ran stayed by her side, taking a step whenever she did.

Once they entered the medical bay, Yi Ran immediately said: “Doctor, her dysmenorrhea’s acting up, give her some medicine.”

Song Yu Meng had just sat down and she said: “I only just sat down, you’re being a bit too anxious.”

The school doctor stood up and teased: “It’s quite obvious your friend cares a lot about you.”

The both of them lowered their heads in embarrassment and blushed.

Song Yu Meng really wanted to say “she’s not my friend, I hate her the most”, but it couldn’t come out of her mouth.

Yi Ran stood by the door as the doctor searched for medicine for Song Yu Meng who was sitting down. When Yi Ran and Song Yu Meng’s gazes crossed paths, Song Yu Meng turned her head away quickly and hmph-ed as Yi Ran covered her mouth and smiled, head lowered.

The school doctor closed the cabinet door and looked at them apologetically. “Sorry, we’re out of medicine. How about getting an excuse note to go out and get some?”

Song Yu Meng wanted to say it wasn’t necessary, when Yi Ran quickly said: “Sit here and wait for me then, don’t go anywhere. I’ll go out and get it, I’ll be back soon.”

She wanted to pull Yi Ran back, but by the time she stretched out her hand, Yi Ran had already ran off.

Lowering her hand, she felt conflicted.

She wanted to say it didn’t hurt anymore, why did Yi Ran have to run off so fast. Wasn’t it inconvenient?

The doctor handed her a cup of warm water. “Your friend’s really good to you, she didn’t even hesitate to go.”

Song Yu Meng held the cup in both hands, her heart feeling as warm as the water.

Softly humming in agreement, she smiled imperceptibly.

Yi Ran ran from the canteen where the medical bay was, all the way to the office without stopping. But Tang Xiang Ping wasn’t around, nor was any of the other teachers, so she couldn’t get a note.

Looking at the block on the wall, there was only ten minutes to the end of the lesson. Seems like the only way was to resort to old tricks.

Five minutes later, Yi Ran hurried back to the medical bay with the bag of medicine.

“Medicine, take it.” Yi Ran tossed the bag to Song Yu Meng then went to take a paper cup of cold water.

Running back and forth three times, she was exhausted.

Song Yu Meng opened the bag and looked at all the boxes of medicine inside, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. She never expected Yi Ran to buy 10 boxes of cramp-relieving medicine, and a large bag of brown sugar for brewing brown sugar tea.

Looking at Yi Ran who was chugging down water by the water dispenser, Song Yu Meng’s mood was as sunny as the weather outside.

Yi Ran noticed her gaze and said awkwardly: “That… I didn’t know which would be more effective so I bought all of them. You can pick which one you want.”

Song Yu Meng hummed and lowered her head to pick a box, thinking to herself: Crazy Yi is so silly, can’t even pick some medicine.

Yi Ran tilted her head back to gulp down water and the doctor realised her clothes were dusty, so he teased: “You went out to buy medicine but your clothes got dirty?”

Yi Ran lowered her head to look at her clothes and said: “Oh, probably from when I jumped over the wall. It’ll be fine after a wash at home.”

“Jumped.. Jumped over the wall?” The doctor was dumbfounded. “You jumped over the wall to get out?”

“Yeah, none of the teachers were in the office, so I just scaled the wall and got out that way.” Yi Ran said nonchalantly while drinking her water.

Raising a thumb in amazement, the doctor said: “You’re amazing, if your dean caught you, the whole school would know about it.”

“It’s okay, nobody saw me. Baldy Qian was just leaving as I jumped over the wall on my way back.”

“Scaling the walls with him around, you’re super brave.”

Yi Ran was nonchalant about it, but Song Yu Meng was listening intently. After she heard that, she was incredibly touched.

Yi Ran was still talking to the doctor about how amazing she was, how she flipped over walls to get out when suddenly, a “thank you” rang out.

Soft and tender, there was no hint of her usual arrogance.

Yi Ran suddenly stopped and looked at her with the doctor, both in surprise.

After a few seconds of silence, the bell rang.

Yi Ran suddenly smiled and walked over to sit beside Song Yu Meng, saying happily: “Did you just thank me? I didn’t mishear it right?”

It was the first time Song Yu Meng had said thank you to her.

Turning her head away, Song Yu Meng’s hair draped down to cover her flushing cheeks. “I didn’t say it, you must have heard wrongly.”

The school doctor jumped in: “You didn’t hear wrongly, I heard it too.”

Song Yu Meng was growing more and more embarrassed as Yi Ran got happier and happier, two shallow dimples forming at her cheeks.

“You gotta mean it when you thank someone.”

“Oh, then I’ll pay you back for the medicine.” Song Yu Meng stuck her hand into her purse, acting as if she was looking for cash.

Yi Ran stopped her. “Who said I want your money?”

“Then what do you want?” Her eyes were wide.

“Emmm…” Yi Ran stroked her chin in thought. Suddenly, she looked at Song Yu Meng and smirked, knowing what she wanted.