The most famous girl at my high school was named Pham Minh Thanh.

  She was very beautiful, ranked in the top five of the entire grade, the school champion in the 100-meter sprint, and she always wore her long, silky black hair loose down to her waist.

  Let me repeat that—her long, silky black hair always fell straight down to her waist.

  Why repeat it? Because important things deserve to be mentioned at least twice. Maybe I’m a bit old-fashioned, but Vietnamese girls should have black, straight, long hair.

  Well… she wasn’t famous because of her hair. I suppose I was the only one who admired it that much.

  She was famous for her short-lived relationships.

  From the very first day she entered high school, she confessed to an extremely unattractive boy in our class. Since they had attended the same middle school, people assumed they had known each other beforehand. Yet the very next day, she dumped him.

  At first, no one believed the boy when he said she had been the one to confess first. Instead, everyone mocked him for not knowing how to appreciate his luck. The truth only came out two days later, when Minh Thanh confessed to someone else.

  After the first three months of the school year, Thanh had dated 48 boys from our school. At first, she was the one confessing, but later, once the rumors spread, boys began lining up themselves. Fat, skinny, tall, short—she nodded and agreed to all of them. No matter how perfect the date seemed, by the next morning, they would break up. Many tried to cling on, but Thanh never once broke that unspoken rule.

  Well, I didn’t count how many people she dated. And I certainly didn’t pay attention to what those guys looked like.

  I also never dared to imagine that I could date Minh Thanh. Even if she had once picked up my baseball cap on the first day of school and given me a beautiful smile, or even if I often happened to see her and her current date at the milk tea shop near school, or even if we occasionally passed each other in the hallway—there should never be any connection between us. She and I belonged to two completely different worlds. I hadn’t lost my ability to evaluate myself.

  “Man, what a waste. She’s so cute and yet… It’s really hard to understand…”

  Hai, my deskmate, was lying face down on a pile of textbooks. He was the most recent person to date Minh Thanh—and had just been dumped yesterday morning. For the first time in three months of sitting next to him, I secretly examined him carefully. Short, pockmarked face, notoriously ugly, and talked nonstop like an old gossiping aunt.

  I couldn’t stand his never-ending mouth or the way he spoke in that half-teasing, half-mocking tone, as if deliberately trying to irritate people. I had no idea what criteria Minh Thanh had used to nod and accept his ridiculously stupid confession that day.

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  He noticed my obvious look of judgment and said challengingly,

  “What? Aren’t you going to ask what Minh Thanh’s like?”

  I forced on a couldn’t-care-less expression.

  “Why would I ask?”

  He smirked.

  “She’s really cute, you know. She listened to everything I said. I even thought she liked me…”

  The words slipped out before I could stop them.

  “So… did you kiss?”

  The moment the sentence left my mouth, I wanted to find a hole to crawl into. It was true that I was a little curious about that. But hearing someone like him describe Thanh’s kiss felt like an insult to my dignity. H?i immediately sensed my interest and grinned wickedly.

  “If you’re curious, try it yourself.”

  I felt my face heat up, but I couldn’t lose my composure.

  “That’s not what I meant… I don’t really care.”

  “What if we already made out?”

  I swallowed back a sigh and didn’t respond. Of course they had. What century was this? And she was… like that.

  I didn’t want to say it out loud, but “easy” was an appropriate word.

  The image of Thanh and H?i kissing kept floating in my mind. With the others, I had felt a bit uncomfortable too, but since I didn’t know them, I couldn’t picture it clearly.

  But this guy—I knew exactly how annoying he was. Out of all people, why did it have to be him? Did it really not matter who it was?

  It was still early before class, ten minutes until the bell. Maybe she hadn’t accepted anyone yet today…

  “I’m stepping out for a bit.”

  H?i laughed loudly and called after me,

  “Hurry up, or someone else will snatch her first!”

  “I’m going to the bathroom, idiot!”

  I was in class 10A3. To get to the stairs, I had to pass by Minh Thanh’s classroom. Right—just one look. Just to see who her forty-ninth boyfriend would be…

  Minh Thanh sat in the third row from the back, by the window on the opposite side. Her long black hair fluttered gently in the wind, beautiful like a wonder of the world. The morning sunlight made her entire figure seem to glow.

  I felt stupid, liking someone so much that just looking at her made me this dazed.

  Then she turned her head slightly—and caught my gaze.

  She had discovered me staring.

  Immediately, Thanh stood up and walked straight toward the classroom door where I was standing. For a split second, I wanted to jump off the second floor to the ground below, but my legs were frozen. Time seemed to stop as I looked into her eyes.

  Just then, a huge guy suddenly jumped out of nowhere and blocked the space between us. He looked familiar—probably one of the notorious seniors from grade twelve. People called him Bao The Boss. I had once seen him fighting students from another school right in front of the gate.

  “Thanh, right? Go on a date with me today!”

  I was flustered. What kind of situation was this?

  “Sorry,” a gentle voice rang out, “but I think he came first.”

  Bao The Boss turned to glare at me, while Thanh smiled warmly. He spoke in a loud, unpleasant voice that quickly drew a crowd.

  “He hasn’t even said anything. That means I’m first!”

  Oh. So they thought I had come to confess to Thanh. I opened my mouth to explain, but Thanh smiled brightly.

  “You interrupted before he could speak. So, what did you want to say to me?”

  I glanced sideways. Bao The Boss was staring at me as if he wanted to bore a hole through my skull. His face practically said, Say it and I’ll show you what hell looks like. The smart choice right now would be to retreat quietly.

  “Is there something you wanted to say?” Minh Thanh’s gaze never wavered, her eyes seeming to pierce straight into me.

  “I…”

  “Yes?”

  “My name is Nguyen… I l-like you… Will you go out with me?”

  Ancestors of my entire family, what am I even saying?

  I heard knuckles cracking beside me, but honestly, it wasn’t louder than my own heart pounding wildly in my chest. Thanh smiled brightly when I finally managed to finish my sentence.

  And she nodded.

  “Alright. Thank you. Let’s go on a date today.”