Delicious Popcorn

"Darling, I won’t let you escape~"

On the screen, a strikingly alluring woman held a scalpel against a man tied up in a basement.

"Mmmph! Mmmph!"

The man’s mouth was gagged with a cloth, his eyes wide with fury and confusion as he stared at his girlfriend. Anger and disbelief coursed through his entire being.

Why? Why had the woman he trusted become like this? She had driven wedges between him and his family, turned his friends against him, ruined his career, and then—just as he hit rock bottom—appeared to comfort him. She never showed a hint of abnormality, never grew weary of his occasional outbursts. Until...

Until every obstacle in her way was gone, and she finally bared her fangs at him.

"Hmm..."

Ye Feng shuddered as if struck by something unsettling.

The female lead in this movie must have some kind of psychological disorder—what was it called again? "Yandere"? No wonder she acted this way toward the male lead. Thinking about it now, it was terrifying.

Thankfully, there was no one like that around him. Otherwise, he’d be in deep trouble.

With that thought, Ye Feng exhaled softly, feeling much more at ease. But then he realized something odd—Su Yuxin, who had been munching on popcorn nonstop before the movie started, had gone completely silent.

Had she gotten too absorbed in the film?

Ye Feng discreetly glanced at her, and what he saw nearly scared him to death.

Su Yuxin’s lips curled into an eerie smile, her eyes wide and unblinking as she stared straight at him. The popcorn in her hand hovered mid-air, as if all her attention was laser-focused on him.

"Ye~ Feng~ Ge~ge~"

She drawled his name in a spine-chilling tone, her voice sending a frosty, needle-like sensation prickling across his skin.

Instinctively, Ye Feng recoiled, nearly jumping out of his seat—but in that same instant, Su Yuxin’s small hand clamped down on his wrist.

"Hehe, did I scare you, Ye Feng gege?"

"Yuxin, you—"

Only when he heard her normal tone did Ye Feng snap out of it. He turned his head fully, only to see Su Yuxin grinning mischievously, clearly amused at his reaction. Embarrassment and frustration flared inside him.

"You little brat! Even daring to mess with your teacher now?"

Realizing he’d fallen for her act, Ye Feng slumped back into his seat and raised a hand, ready to deliver a playful chop to her mischievous little head. But Su Yuxin, anticipating his move, quickly stuffed a handful of popcorn into his mouth.

"Hey—! Mmmph! Yu—Xin!"

Ye Feng felt an avalanche of popcorn being shoved into his mouth.

Crunch, crunch, mmmph...

Su Yuxin covered her mouth, giggling silently. A sense of foreboding crept over Ye Feng, but with his mouth full, he had no choice but to chew and swallow the popcorn while weakly raising a hand to stop her.

Crunch, crunch... "Yuxin, stop!"

Finally free to speak after swallowing the last of the popcorn, Ye Feng immediately protested.

But Su Yuxin had already seen it coming. Hugging the popcorn bucket to her chest, she leaned away, her eyes scrunched up in delight as she lost herself in her own little world.

Delicious... the taste of popcorn... so, so delicious!

Meanwhile, the movie screen erupted with a deafening sound—the male lead’s agonized scream.

"Good grief, you little menace!"

Ye Feng, realizing he was too slow, quickly fished out a tissue from his pocket and handed it to her.

"Yuxin, wipe your hands right now! How could you do that?!"

"Haah~ ♡"

Only after snapping out of her daze did Su Yuxin take the tissue and start cleaning her hands. Despite the excitement bubbling inside her, she put on a faux-pout.

"Hmph, I already let you have a bite of my popcorn. Isn’t that enough? The rest is mine—no sharing with Ye Feng gege!"

"Who cares about the popcorn?! Yuxin, since when do you feed people like that?!"

"Strange? Where?"

She tilted her head innocently, shrugging.

"I didn’t do anything strange."

"Of course there’s nothing strange now—you already destroyed the evidence!"

Whoosh.

Right then, the words "The End" flashed across the screen, and the dim theater brightened.

"Eh? It’s over already?"

Su Yuxin deftly changed the subject, hopping off her seat and handing the popcorn bucket to Ye Feng.

"Ye Feng gege, let’s go! I’m gonna wash my hands in the restroom. Be right back~"

Like a gust of wind, she vanished from the theater, leaving Ye Feng sitting alone.

Sigh... this is exactly why I hate going out.

......

Watching Su Yuxin skip merrily down the theater hallway toward him, Ye Feng still couldn’t resist giving her a light flick on the forehead.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Ye Feng gege~"

"Yuxin, you really ought to be more careful from now on, understand? You should act more refined. Even though I’m your teacher, you—"

"Ye Feng gege... do you hate me?"

"—but someone as adorable as you, Yuxin, is even more charming when you’re lively!"

Seeing her eyes well up instantly, Ye Feng hastily backtracked.

"I knew Ye Feng gege would say that~!"

Su Yuxin beamed, looping her arm through his as they walked out of the theater. Not a trace of her earlier sadness remained—her mood swings were truly world-class.

"Yuxin, there’s something I need to tell you."

Once outside, Ye Feng’s expression turned serious again. As much as Su Yuxin’s mischievous antics sometimes put him in awkward spots, he knew she genuinely cared for him. But moments like earlier—where she crossed into overly affectionate territory—reminded him too much of how Li Mucheng had once treated him. That was a line he couldn’t allow to be crossed again.

"Yuxin, you need to remember that you’re not just my student. You’re also the young lady of the Su Group, so in terms of—"

Thud.

Mid-lecture, Su Yuxin suddenly buried her face in his chest, her voice softer now, devoid of its usual playfulness.

"Ye Feng gege, I already know all that. I just... don’t want to keep my distance from you. For me, just having you by my side is more than enough. Today, getting to spend time with you like this... it’s the happiest day I’ve had in so long."

This time, there were no tricks, no teasing—just Su Yuxin resting quietly against him, her demeanor uncharacteristically calm.

"To me, Ye Feng gege isn’t just a tutor. You’re... my closest friend. And the one I... like the most."