Chapter 8: The Desk Mate
Done with her embarrassing encounter, Kieu Ly quickly slipped into the classroom and sat in the seat Thuy Duong had saved for her.
Seeing Kieu Ly sneaking in like someone caught red-handed stealing, Thuy Duong asked:
"What are you doing? Sit up straight so you can admire that handsome lecturer!"
Kieu Ly quickly turned to her and hushed:
"Keep it down! I ran straight into him outside just now. So embarrassing I could die."
Realizing her friend clearly wanted to disappear, Thuy Duong didn't say anything more and turned her focus to the lecturer.
But fate wasn't going to let her off so easily—throughout the entire class, the lecturer kept glancing at Kieu Ly, even calling on her to speak a few times.
What felt like an endlessly long lecture finally ended. Thuy Duong pulled out a box of mung bean cakes and placed it on the desk:
"From my hometown."
Kieu Ly happily opened the box and started eating.
Thuy Duong was from Hải Dương and had a sweet, easygoing personality. Her appearance was rather average, nothing too striking—except for a single snaggletooth that peeked out when she smiled, making her look absolutely adorable.
Kieu Ly had hit it off with Thuy Duong from the first day of school. Since Thuy Duong lived in the dorms, they couldn't rent a place together.
She had a cute name and a cute personality, but their group of close friends jokingly called her "Goat," a nickname that completely contradicted her innocent, carefree nature.
From childhood until now, Thuy Duong hadn't even had a fling. Her free time was spent snacking and reading manga.
Like most girls from small towns coming to the big city for university, those first days were full of confusion and wonder. On her very first day, while Kieu Ly was lost and wandering around looking for her lecture hall, she bumped into Thuy Duong.
Usually, when people make friends at the beginning of the school year, it happens in two ways: either you sit wherever there's a free seat and hope for the best, or you approach someone who looks like "your type" and start chatting.
Kieu Ly and Thuy Duong became friends the second way.
Thuy Duong noticed Kieu Ly because of her pretty face, while Kieu Ly was drawn to Thuy Duong's friendly smile and that adorable snaggletooth.
Thuy Duong scrolled through her phone, reading some news, then exclaimed:
"Wow, our school's kinda lit. We've got actual beauty queens!"
Kieu Ly continued munching on the mung bean cake, tossing back a sarcastic comment:
"Thinking about entering the pageant yourself?"
Thuy Duong caught the tease but wasn't offended. She turned to Kieu Ly cheerfully and said:
"Ly stubborn, you should enter!"
Kieu Ly, in the middle of swallowing, almost choked.
Seeing her, Thuy Duong quickly patted her back:
"I'm serious! You've got that simple vibe, but if you glammed up with full makeup, you'd give those pageant girls a run for their money."
Kieu Ly turned to her and gently reminded:
"That's a cute fantasy, but I'm short. They'd eliminate me at the parking lot."
Thuy Duong nodded in agreement:
"True. Those girls are all, like, six feet tall. What a shame."
Kieu Ly finally swallowed her bite of cake and added:
"You brought mung bean cake but no water? My throat is so dry."
She dragged out the word "so" for dramatic effect.
Thuy Duong pulled her hand back and stopped patting:
"You give you a finger and you want the whole arm, huh?"