Our Love, A Public Service - Chapter 13
Chapter 13
Chi Jia hesitated. Hesitation meant she was considering accepting the offer.
But when their lips were only centimeters apart, Jing Rui stopped, not letting her impulse take over.
Because Chi Jia hadn't made a move to kiss her.
Jing Rui simply smiled at Chi Jia and continued cooking.
Like a suggestive joke, stopping just at the right moment.
Chi Jia's tense nerves relaxed, but a slight sense of disappointment lingered.
She had thought Jing Rui would kiss her, she had even hoped for it, although the hope was fleeting.
But thankfully, it didn't happen.
Their first kiss was a drunken accident; the second was for show, to make Jiang Shen jealous; if they kissed again this time, Chi Jia would really think she was crazy.
While Jing Rui cooked, Chi Jia prepared the dishes.
They occasionally exchanged a few words, everything seemed normal.
"Are you always this casual?" Chi Jia couldn't help but ask Jing Rui.
"Casual?"
"Just now..." Chi Jia recalled what Jing Rui said about trying things out with her. "Isn't that casual enough?"
Jing Rui threw the question back at Chi Jia. "Is doing what you like considered casual?"
"You said you liked..." Chi Jia turned to look at Jing Rui.
"I didn't say I liked you." Jing Rui quickly interrupted Chi Jia, speaking frankly, "But I admit, kissing you feels good, I like it very much."
"..." Chi Jia was defeated by Jing Rui's logic.
In her opinion, something as intimate as kissing should be reserved for someone you liked.
What kind of person could casually kiss someone else?
Chi Jia sneered at Jing Rui. "Your ex-girlfriend broke up with you because she couldn't stand your promiscuity, right?"
"Just because I say that doesn't mean I have no principles."
"Principles? I haven't seen any."
"Miss Chi, do you know me that well?"
"No, and I don't want to." Chi Jia eagerly changed the subject; this wasn't a suitable topic for them, their views were too different. She urged Jing Rui, "Hurry up and cook, I'm hungry!"
"So many demands after all those free meals?"
Chi Jia: "..."
After dinner, Chi Jia and Jing Rui discussed the design concept, settling on a direction before proceeding with the detailed plan.
Construction at the café also began, and Chi Jia was incredibly busy during this period. Jian Yi called her several times, wanting to hang out, but she just couldn't find the time.
Jian Yi knew Chi Jia was busy with Jing Rui's design project. Every time she called, Chi Jia would start by ranting about Jing Rui.
Work finished, time to go home.
Sitting in the window seat at the back of the bus, Chi Jia rested her chin on her hand, lost in thought as she looked out the window.
The streets, bathed in orange light, slowly receded.
"Didn't say I liked you… But… kissing you feels good..."
Chi Jia replayed Jing Rui's words in her mind.
Not liking her, but liking kissing her?
What did that even mean…
If she wasn't interested in her, why did she keep flirting with her? Chi Jia thought, feeling frustrated.
Dragging her tired body home, Chi Jia collapsed onto the bed after taking a shower.
Closing her eyes, she couldn't help but recall the times she kissed Jing Rui. At the bar, at the café, and tonight in the kitchen...
Could she be falling for Jing Rui?
Impossible, Chi Jia firmly rejected the idea. Because of the Jiang Shen incident, she had always harbored negative feelings towards Jing Rui.
Moreover, Jing Rui was a woman.
As the night deepened, Chi Jia's mind became increasingly confused.
She couldn't understand her feelings for Jing Rui, but she didn't seem to dislike kissing a woman, and she even felt something. Tonight, when Jing Rui approached her, she had actually hoped Jing Rui would kiss her, a stark contrast to her reaction when Qin Dong kissed her that day.
The clock ticked past midnight.
Chi Jia, who once considered herself completely straight, was now struggling with one question: was she gay?
She seemed to be less and less interested in men; her reaction to her ideal type kissing her was to push him away.
Chi Jia pulled the blanket over her head. The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt.
Still unable to sleep, Chi Jia picked up her phone and searched online: how to determine your sexual orientation. The search results showed a bunch of tests and analyses. Chi Jia randomly picked a few and took them.
The results: all pointed towards her being gay.
Chi Jia facepalmed, feeling foolish. How could that be possible? She had been straight for over twenty years, how could she become gay after kissing a woman twice? She turned over and continued searching: lesbian...
A woman who is romantically and sexually attracted to other women. Reading this, Chi Jia's mind was filled with Jing Rui's face.
Chi Jia wasn't the only one suffering from insomnia; Jing Rui was too.
She tossed and turned in her large bed, unable to fall asleep.
She never pursued straight women, yet she had repeatedly provoked Chi Jia.
That night at the bar, there was no need for her to kiss Chi Jia. And at LEFT, when Chi Jia suddenly kissed her, she had felt a flicker of something.
But…
They weren't from the same world after all.
The next day, the alarm clock blared, ringing eight times.
Chi Jia successfully overslept, rushing to the company without any makeup, barely making it in time to save her perfect attendance bonus.
Despite the awkward encounter that night, Qin Dong hadn't given up on pursuing Chi Jia.
Chi Jia regretted sending that confession text to Qin Dong last year. The man she once idolized had now become a persistent, annoying presence in her eyes. She increasingly disliked seeing his face.
Qin Dong still went to N Bar to listen to her sing, as persistent as ever.
Because of this, Chi Jia hadn't been to N Bar for over half a month. She thought that after some time, Qin Dong's persistence would eventually fade.
She finished work relatively early on Wednesday, resting on the sofa for ten minutes.
Looking around her empty apartment, the silence felt suffocating. Without her usual nightlife, it was truly boring.
Unable to stand the loneliness, Chi Jia picked up her phone, wanting to find a new bar for a drink.
After scrolling for a while, still undecided, her eyes landed on a recommended bar, seemingly a…
Lesbian bar.
Chi Jia initially wanted to ignore it, but after a couple of seconds, she clicked on it.
Just to satisfy her curiosity.
This bar was the most famous lesbian bar in L City, incredibly popular. Chi Jia had never paid attention to these things before, so she naturally didn't know about it.
"Crazy," Chi Jia muttered as she browsed. "Why is it recommending this to a straight woman like me..."
Night fell.
At 10 PM, Chi Jia, dressed in a stylish, mature outfit and with carefully applied makeup, got out of a taxi.
A gust of hot summer wind blew towards her. There were quite a few bars on this street.
This area was unfamiliar to Chi Jia; it was her first time here.
Standing in front of a bar with a rainbow flag, Chi Jia casually looked around, making sure there were no familiar faces, then flipped her hair, and walked in gracefully in her high heels...
It wasn't much different from a regular bar, except everyone inside was a woman.
To be precise, they were all women who liked women.
Being in such a place for the first time, Chi Jia felt out of place.
From the moment she entered, Chi Jia attracted the attention of many women. Beautiful women were eye-catching in any setting, especially since Chi Jia had dressed up tonight.
Chi Jia found a relatively quiet spot and sat down, drinking alone.
Within five minutes, three people approached her. Chi Jia had never felt so popular with the same sex before.
"Hey, beautiful~"
Chi Jia looked up; the fourth person was approaching.
As the woman sat down next to her, Chi Jia instinctively kept her distance, especially when the woman leaned in suggestively. Chi Jia politely declined.
She couldn't quite accept it.
Chi Jia took out her phone, opened a social media app, and casually browsed.
As for why Miss Chi, the self-proclaimed straight woman, had an account on a same-sex dating app, her answer was: boredom, just looking around.
Ding! A notification popped up. The system had automatically matched her with a partner.
Based on their profile analysis, their compatibility was 99.99%, a match made in heaven.
Both were using avatars, their photo albums empty, so their appearances were hidden. However, the distance shown was only about twenty meters; they were likely both in this bar.
Since she was bored anyway, Chi Jia opened the chat window.
After exchanging a few messages, Chi Jia felt they clicked quite well, and their profiles both mentioned looking for someone to drink with. Chi Jia sent an invitation: "Want to drink together?"
The reply came quickly: "Sure."
The bar was too noisy, so they agreed to meet at the entrance.
Thinking she was about to meet someone, Chi Jia went to the restroom to touch up her makeup.
Unexpectedly, she ran into a familiar face in the restroom.
And that familiar face was Jing Rui...
As their eyes met, Chi Jia felt a myriad of emotions.
Jing Rui's makeup tonight exuded a queenly aura. She looked at Chi Jia for a moment before confirming it was indeed the Miss Chi she knew. The one who vehemently claimed to be uninterested in women, yet here she was, in a lesbian bar?
"Well, well, if it isn't Miss Chi." Jing Rui walked towards Chi Jia, her tone playful. "What's a straight woman like you doing here?"
"I..." Chi Jia's mind went blank, coming up with an obvious lie. "I'm here to… use the restroom..."
Chi Jia had originally planned to touch up her makeup, but now, seeing Jing Rui, she wanted to flee the scene immediately. She quickly washed her hands and prepared to leave.
"Want to drink together?" Jing Rui called out to Chi Jia.
"No time..." Chi Jia left.
Jing Rui sighed.
At the bar entrance, Chi Jia remembered she had a meeting and waited.
Shortly after, Jing Rui also came out, and happened to be standing at the entrance as well.
Chi Jia felt incredibly awkward. What if Jing Rui saw her meeting with a woman…
Then she wouldn't be able to explain herself!
Chi Jia decided to leave. Just then, she received a message: "I'm out, at the entrance."
The distance between them: 1 meter.
Chi Jia's heart skipped a beat, a sense of foreboding washing over her. The person she was meeting couldn't possibly be Jing Rui… could it?
Hmm
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