Peninsula: Who taught him to make that connection?!

Chapter 21 Is he going to kiss me?!

As night fell, Kim Tae-yeon walked to the small practice room.

Her heart was beating a little fast.

Just thinking about how dazzling Jiang Tang was in the evaluation room today, making everyone stare at her, made her cheeks burn.

What will he say to me?

Kim Tae-yeon took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

"Bang--!"

A sharp crack suddenly rang in her ears, startling Kim Tae-yeon so much that she shuddered.

next second.

Colorful fireworks filled the sky, like a dazzling meteor shower, falling down from above her head.

Kim Tae-yeon stood there blankly, watching the fireworks fall on her.

"Surprise!"

Jiang Tang's cheerful voice came from the side of the door.

He held a strawberry cake in his hand, with a burning sparkler sticking out of it, hissing and spitting out dazzling sparks.

The firelight illuminated the boy's features, making him so gentle that it was impossible to look away.

"Congratulations to our Jeonju's little singing prodigy, Kim Tae-yeon, for successfully passing her first end-of-month evaluation!"

Jiang Tang walked up to her with the cake, looking at her with a smile.

Kim Tae-yeon's eyes immediately welled up with tears.

"You... how can you be so childish?" Kim Tae-yeon sniffed, trying to put on a serious face, but her voice was trembling with tears.

"Hey, I sacrificed my precious rest time to buy this cake, and your attitude is really hurting me!" Jiang Tang sighed, feigning hurt.

Kim Tae-yeon burst out laughing.

She suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly reached into her sweatpants pocket for a while, finally pulling out a silver digital camera like Doraemon.

"Ding, ding, ding, ding!"

Kim Tae-yeon held up the camera, her eyes beaming with joy, "To celebrate that we both passed the end-of-month evaluation, I begged Yoona for ages this afternoon to borrow this camera!"

Jiang Tang looked at the vintage digital camera and raised an eyebrow in surprise: "Wow, our Xiao Jiu is quite the ritualist."

"Of course!"

Kim Tae-yeon proudly raised her chin, then walked closer to Kang Tang, "Quick, let's take a picture before the sparkler burns out!"

Digital cameras in 2004 didn't have front-facing cameras, so if you wanted to take a selfie, you had to rely on your intuition and blindly find the right angle.

Kim Tae-yeon held up the camera, but because her arms weren't long enough, she couldn't manage to frame both of them in the shot at the same time.

She was so anxious that she stood on tiptoe and unconsciously leaned closer to Jiang Tang.

"Oh dear, you're too tall, come down a bit," she muttered.

Jiang Tang looked at the girl so close to him, chuckled, and reached out to take the camera.

"Idiot, I'll get it."

He stretched out his long arm and pointed the camera at the two of them.

Their shoulders touched lightly, and Kim Tae-yeon's body stiffened for a moment, but she quickly relaxed and gave the camera a bright smile.

Jiang Tang held up the camera, her eyes full of tenderness.

"Click."

The flash went off.

In this small practice room filled with sweat and tears, a 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl took their first photo together, transcending time and space.

After taking the photos, the two sat cross-legged on the floor and shared a strawberry cake together.

"Delicious! Jiang Tang, where did you buy this?!"

Kim Tae-yeon scooped up a large spoonful of cream and stuffed it into her mouth, speaking indistinctly, with a ring of white cream still stuck to the corner of her mouth.

Seeing her eating in such an unseemly manner, Jiang Tang couldn't help but laugh. He grabbed a tissue, naturally leaned over, and wiped the cream off her lips.

"Eat slowly, no one's going to take it from you."

Kim Tae-yeon paused abruptly, her cheeks instantly flushing red.

She stammered, "I...I can do it myself!"

The boy smiled and let her snatch the tissue.

After finishing the cake, Kim Tae-yeon looked at the mirror covered with sticky notes.

Those colorful notes recorded every breakdown she experienced, every time she gritted her teeth and persevered, and every time Jiang Tang offered both sharp words and encouragement over the past month.

She turned her head and looked intently into Jiang Tang's eyes.

"Jiang Tang, thank you."

"I was really scared when I stood in the comments section today."

"But when the music started, all I could think about were the things you taught me. If you hadn't practiced with me, if you hadn't offered those... those strange words of comfort, I definitely wouldn't have made it through today's evaluation."

Kim Tae-yeon's eyes reddened again: "So, thank you so much. Not only for teaching me to dance, but also for... for making me believe that I could stay."

Jiang Tang looked at the gentle girl.

He knew how high she would stand in the future, and he also knew how much darkness and loneliness she would experience.

He suddenly reached out and gently ruffled her fluffy head.

"Kim Tae-yeon, you've got one thing wrong."

Kim Tae-yeon stared at him blankly: "What?"

Jiang Tang withdrew his hand, his eyes gentle yet firm: "My help is secondary. You are the one who truly stands on the stage facing those critical eyes, and you are the one who practices every night until your ankles are red and swollen without stopping."

He said, word by word, "The one who truly put in the effort and deserves all the applause today is yourself."

"So, Kim Tae-yeon, the person you should thank the most is not me, but the person who didn't back down no matter how scared they were when they boarded the bus in Jeonju."

"Remember to say thank you to yourself."

Kim Tae-yeon was stunned.

From childhood to adulthood, everyone around her has told her to be grateful to her teachers, her company, and her parents.

This was the first time someone had told her—you should thank yourself.

Tears finally welled up in her eyes, and she lowered her head, not wanting Jiang Tang to see her crying so badly.

Looking at the girl's slightly trembling shoulders, Jiang Tang's gaze softened even more.

"Kim Tae-yeon, close your eyes."

"Huh?" Kim Tae-yeon looked up at him, her eyes blurry with tears.

Jiang Tang smiled and said, "I have another gift for you."

"Can't we just send it directly?"

"cannot."

Why?

"Because it feels more ceremonial that way."

Kim Tae-yeon looked at him suspiciously.

"You're not going to stick sticky notes on me again, are you?"

Jiang Tang asked seriously, "Do you think I'm the kind of person who only delivers sticky notes?"

Kim Tae-yeon burst into laughter through her tears, "It's like that."

"Just shut up when I tell you to." Jiang Tang deliberately put on a stern face.

"overbearing……"

Kim Tae-yeon muttered something under her breath, and seeing the smile in Jiang Tang's eyes, she felt a strange sense of anticipation.

So she slowly closed her eyes.

However, when darkness descends upon the world, other senses are amplified infinitely in an instant.

She could hear her own heart pounding like a drum, "thump thump thump," as if it were about to burst out of her chest.

She could feel Jiang Tang's breath slowly approaching.

The boy's warm breath gently brushed against her cheek.

At that very moment, an absurd and uncontrollable thought took root in Kim Tae-yeon's mind.

She had watched a classic romance movie on videotape at home before.

The male protagonist in the movie also gently coaxed the female protagonist to close her eyes on such a quiet night.

Then... the male protagonist took the opportunity to kiss her!

"ah?!"

Kim Tae-yeon let out a scream like a groundhog in her heart.

"Jiang Tang... he wouldn't be trying to kiss me, would he?!"