I Won’t Be Your Best Friend - Chapter 2

The first time Huo Wan saw Lin Dang was at the entrance to the senior class in kindergarten, when Teacher Zhang led in a transfer student.

She was a soft, sweet little girl with a small ponytail, her eyes clear and bright as she looked rather timidly at the unfamiliar classmates below the platform. She was terribly cute.

Huo Wan felt that she looked a tiny bit familiar, but she could not remember where she had seen this person before.

But that did not matter, because at the time, she made a great decision:

Such a cute girl—she was definitely going to bully her!

However, at that time, she did not know what this decision of hers would mean.

Nor did she know that the little girl in front of her would, in the days to come, gradually become an indispensable part of her life.

So when a little boy took the candy from his pocket and went over to curry favor with this new classmate, Huo Wan immediately sprang into action.

“Zhao Yangyang, yesterday you said you liked me the most, the day before yesterday you gave Xiaomei chocolate, and today you’re already stretching your wicked claws toward the new classmate.”

Little girls grew faster than little boys, so at the time, little Huo Wan was slightly taller than Zhao Yangyang, even though he was older than her.

When Zhao Yangyang saw Huo Wan suddenly appear halfway through, catching him red-handed, he felt a little guilty.

“I… Teacher Zhang just said we should take good care of the new classmate!”

Fine, he just thought the new classmate was too cute and could not help wanting to come over and show off his attentiveness!

By then, Lin Dang had already accepted the candy. After all, this was the first gift a new classmate in her new class had given her.

Her tiny palm was spread open, the tender flesh of it holding several colorful pieces of candy that lay there quietly. They were colors little girls liked.

Only, at this moment, another pair of hands suddenly appeared above it. Huo Wan reached out, grabbed everything from Lin Dang’s open palm, and snatched up every single piece of candy.

She was exactly like a little bandit!

Lin Dang looked at this girl who had suddenly barged in halfway, somewhat bewildered.

She blinked her bright, lively eyes, looked at her own empty hand, then lifted her head to look at the pretty yet strange little girl in front of her.

She did not understand why the other girl had stolen the candy Zhao Yangyang had given her… although she did not like eating candy anyway.

Huo Wan did not tie her hair into a ponytail. Instead, she chose to wear her long hair loose over her shoulders. Even at such a young age, she already knew how to dress herself to look prettier!

She, Huo Wan.

Was bound to be the coolest kid in all of Shuangye Kindergarten!

“Little girl, don’t eat this playboy’s candy.”

Huo Wan put her hands on her hips and began lecturing Lin Dang in a precocious manner. With that serious expression on her face, she really did have a bit of the proper air.

She opened her mouth and called someone else “little girl,” when she herself was still a tiny little sprout.

“I’m not a playboy!”

Zhao Yangyang had been slapped with such a label for no reason and immediately shouted in protest!

He just liked playing with pretty and cute girls, that was all. But if he absolutely had to choose one to be his girlfriend, then he felt Huo Wan was still the best.

Zhao Yangyang admitted that Huo Wan was the girl he liked most in the entire kindergarten.

Yesterday, he had even told his mom that when he grew up, he wanted to marry Huo Wan and make her his wife. But for some reason, after hearing that, his mom had laughed in an exaggerated way!

Seriously!

He was not a little kid anymore!

After New Year this year, he would be six!

“If you eat a playboy’s candy, you’ll get cavities.”

Huo Wan could not be bothered with Zhao Yangyang.

Zhao Yangyang was just a childish ghost, a little tagalong. Every day he followed behind her, annoying her to death.

Huo Wan had already begun calculating which day she should secretly scare this little tagalong so he would stop coming to bother her.

She needed a new friend.

The one in front of her was pretty good!

Today, Huo Wan was wearing the overalls her mother had just bought for her. She stuck her little hand into the pocket at her chest, and before long, she pulled out a small piece of chocolate with its wrapper perfectly intact.

She could not wait to hold it out in front of Lin Dang and wave it a little.

“Eat my chocolate!”

That precocious manner from just now collapsed all at once. In the end, she was still a five-year-old child; in the blink of an eye, she had changed into another expression entirely.

This was what Huo Wan had secretly saved at noon when the children ate lunch together, planning to eat it as a snack in the afternoon.

“That’s the piece I gave you!”

Zhao Yangyang cried out in shock!

Every day at noon, when the children ate together, the teacher would give each person a little piece of chocolate.

Zhao Yangyang knew Huo Wan liked eating it, so to please his future girlfriend, he had saved this piece from his own mouth.

“Then take it back. You’re so annoying!”

Who was lacking just this one piece of chocolate?

Huo Wan irritably slapped the chocolate against Zhao Yangyang’s chest, then turned around and took a second piece of chocolate out of her treasure pouch.

“Here, little girl!”

Zhao Yangyang stared, dumbfounded. At lunch, he had clearly seen Huo Wan already eat one piece!

Yet immediately afterward… he saw Huo Wan once again put her hand into her pocket and grab another three or four pieces of chocolate.

“Is one enough? I still have lots here!”

In order to make a new friend, Huo Wan could be considered to have taken out all her family assets. These had all been secretly stuffed to her by the little boys in class!

Borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha—this was exactly that.

Lin Dang looked at the four or five full pieces of chocolate in front of her, and the expression on her little face seemed rather troubled.

Because this matter of cavities had truly struck her right in the heart. Recently, she did not dare open her mouth too wide when speaking because she had lost a tooth.

An entire neat row of teeth had suddenly developed a gap. Anyone could see it at a glance.

Although her mother said it was normal.

Still, it was ugly to death!

“If eating Zhao Yangyang’s candy gives you cavities, then does eating your chocolate not give you cavities?”

She was clearly just twisting words around!

However, Huo Wan was not stumped by such a question.

She grinned, as if to prove the truth of her own words, revealing a mouthful of bright white teeth.

“Nope. My chocolate is different from other people’s!”

….

Although Huo Wan tried her hardest to prove that eating her chocolate really would not cause cavities, Lin Dang still refused her chocolate.

This made her feel very dejected.

Because she felt that this might mean the new friend she liked did not like her.

After all, Lin Dang had reached out and accepted Zhao Yangyang’s candy earlier, had she not?

So the next day, during the noon nap, she came again.

She used a piece of chocolate to bribe the chubby kid beside Lin Dang’s little bed, then successfully exchanged for a nap spot.

This way, she and Lin Dang were sleeping side by side. Only, there was a short little wooden railing between their small wooden beds.

Lin Dang witnessed the entire “transaction” from beginning to end. Huo Wan did not avoid her at all, carrying out her deal openly and aboveboard. Then she swiftly climbed into the bed that temporarily belonged to her and lay down quietly.

Because the teacher who inspected nap time had arrived.

Huo Wan closed her eyes, pretending to be obediently asleep. She waited until the faint sound of footsteps in the room grew farther and farther away, then disappeared.

Only then did she take out the doll she had prepared long ago from beneath the blanket and call softly to Lin Dang in the bed next to hers.

“New classmate, are you asleep?”

Lin Dang had already been drowsy and was just about to drift off when Huo Wan woke her up again.

She was a little annoyed, but when she opened her eyes and met the other girl’s clear gaze, she could not bring herself to get angry.

“What are you doing?”

In a milky little voice, she asked a very serious question.

“If you don’t sleep… I’m going to tell the teacher!”

Not taking a proper nap during nap time, secretly changing beds behind the teacher’s back, though she did not know what the purpose was… Even now, Lin Dang still had not realized that Huo Wan’s actions were meant to get closer to her.

Mm, pretending to sleep and disturbing other people too.

Every single one of these things, taken separately, was a very bad thing.

Lin Dang’s brows drew tighter and tighter together. The ideas her father and mother had always instilled in her were reflected in Huo Wan in a completely opposite way.

The legendary negative example?

However, Huo Wan did not know that she had already been disliked by the little person in front of her.

She knelt up on the small bed and leaned over the top of the little wooden railing, propping herself on her elbows as she placed the doll in her hands in front of her chest.

“This is my little rabbit.”

Her voice was very small, deliberately lowered, because it was nap time now and many of the other children were already asleep.

After going home yesterday, Huo Wan had still been immersed in the shadow of having been rejected.

She had rummaged through all her precious toys, wanting to find one thing she could give the new classmate as a greeting gift. After choosing left and right, in the end, she chose her most treasured long-eared rabbit.

The little rabbit that slept with her every day.

This was the most precious thing she had.

Now she was taking it out to give to the other girl.

This way, the other girl probably would not refuse to be friends with her, right?

“Here, I’m giving it to you. You can’t not take it.”

Huo Wan carefully brought the long-eared rabbit in front of Lin Dang, not hiding the reluctance and conflict on her face at all.

Since it was a beloved thing, of course it was hard to part with.

But compared with the long-eared rabbit, she wanted even more to become friends with the girl in front of her.

“I can’t take it.”

Even though the other girl had said she could not refuse, Lin Dang still opened her mouth and rejected her.

She pushed the long-eared rabbit back. By now, her sleepiness was no longer that obvious and had faded a little.

This was already the second time she had rejected this person.

Although she was young, she was very mature for her age, perhaps because her family was strict with her. Ever since she was little, her father had instilled many proper ideas into her.

For example, a gentleman does not take what another person loves.

Although little Lin Dang could not yet fully understand what this sentence truly meant, from the other girl’s expression, she knew Huo Wan was very reluctant to part with this rabbit.

Besides… Lin Dang was not a girl who liked playing with dolls.

But after seeing the flash of disappointment in the other girl’s eyes, Lin Dang felt that she seemed to have said the wrong thing and hurriedly added another sentence.

“It’s not that I don’t like it!”

The other girl did not seem to have any ill will. Earlier, she had only wanted to invite her to eat chocolate.

Mm, Huo Wan liked eating chocolate, so she had taken out all the chocolate in her pocket and given it to her to eat. She liked the long-eared rabbit, so today she had brought the long-eared rabbit too, and still wanted to give it to her.

At this moment, her little head finally figured it out. So this girl wanted to be friends with her!

Since she thought that in her heart, she asked it out loud too.

“Do you want to be friends with me?”

“Yes, yes!” That’s exactly it!

After hearing this sentence, Huo Wan’s eyes suddenly lit up. As she answered the other girl’s question, she nodded at the same time.

“Then what’s your name?”

“My name is…”

Huo Wan paused. She was afraid that words would not be able to accurately express her name.

So she climbed to the side of the bed, found the notebook hanging in the schoolbag beside it, and took it out.

Stroke by stroke, crooked and wobbly, she wrote her own name.

Then she spread the paper open in front of Lin Dang.

“My name is Huo Wan.”

“I’m very happy to be friends with you!”