Chapter 498: The Confession (12)
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
Over these past few years, they had been strangers, and they had been close friends. They had shared many secrets and discussed many things, but both had skirted around this topic.
There was that one time when their conversation had wandered to their high school exam. Song Qingchun said that she had woken up early that morning and stayed in front of her computer waiting for the result announcement. However, Su Zhinian had fallen silent after that. Then Song Qingchun remembered that the day of the results announcement fell in the period when her argument with him reached its height.
Like that, the incident that night had become a taboo topic between them. Even though both of them would be reminded of that incident whenever a topic circled around it, they would both ignore it. However, that night, Su Zhinian brought it up directly.
That night six years ago was a nightmare that had haunted Song Qingchun for more than two thousand days.
Even though Song Qingchun could not pinpoint the exact time that she stopped being so hung up over it, it did not mean that she had let it go completely. However, when she heard Su Zhinian apologize to her with such sincerity, her heart first trembled slightly before that last bit of ill feeling dispersed like clouds touched by the wind.
"Let's just let bygones be bygones." Perhaps due to Su Zhinian's willingness to talk about this, Song Qingchun also found herself more willing to talk about that taboo topic. "Furthermore, I should apologize to you as well."
Song Qingchun lowered her face, and with her lips curving into a slight smile, she said softly, "We had a dinner date that night, and I shouldn't have stood you up."
Everything had a beginning and an end, and there was nothing without cause. He had also suffered an injury that night, and that injury was like a thorn that had stuck in his heart for years. Even though it had been years, whenever he thought about it, his heart still twitched with pain.
However, as they say, let he who tied the bell on the tiger take it off.
Following that sentence of apology, he felt much better, and the pain that had stayed with him for years gradually disappeared.
"No matter, the sin of the incident lies with me." His eyes, which were still staring at her, softened. "However, I really have no idea how that incident became news that spread through the school like wildfire."
If Su Zhinian had told her this six years ago, she wouldn't have believed him, but now, after they had been through so much, after they had gotten to know each other better, she believed him without hesitation. "At the time, I was really angry when I heard those rumors spreading through school, and that was after you…"
Song Qingchun did not know how to continue, so she paused. Even though Su Zhinian did not have contact with her body, he understood what she was trying to say; she was referring to the rape.
He nodded at her, acknowledging that he understood.
She then continued. "I really resented you back then; I couldn't think rationally anymore. That was why I went home in such a fit and tossed you out while saying so many ugly things to your face."
The more Song Qingchun said, the smaller her voice became. Apology was written all over her face.
"You had every right to do all those things to do. After all, it was indeed my fault; furthermore, I remember not acting so gentlemanly that day as well."
In a way, they had similar personalities.
Sometimes, one cannot fight fire with fire, and a little tact and distance goes a long way.