Dreamcatcher Imagines

𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗴 | wǒ ài nǐ | 2023 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭

Reader Is: Younger (Non-DC AU)
Categories: Fluff
Summary: The reader tells Dong that she loves her for the first time in a memorable way.
Author's Note: Dialogue from my Reason : Makes experience ʚɞ

♡

The new exchange student at your school, Han Dong, was from China.

The most Chinese you had ever memorized was "chow mein," usually with the English word "please" tacked on the end.

But damn, that girl was attractive, and you made up your mind to learn some Chinese if it was the last thing you did.

Well, it might as well have been, because who knew the language was so complicated to speak? Tones, pronunciation – it was all too much for you to learn on crunch time. The only thing you managed to learn was the equivalent of "I love you."

When you were searching up how to flirt, it was the only thing that seemed to stick in your mind. But it wouldn't have been very helpful as the first thing you said to her, would it?

Writing Mandarin, as it turned out, was just as difficult for you. You gave up pretty quickly, deciding instead to simply scribble out your number on a piece of paper for her. There was no translation needed for that.

So, you resolved to keep thinking. But while you were still stalling over all that, Dong took initiative.

She sat down at your lunch table one day without a word, a manicured hand swishing her long dyed hair over her shoulder for her.

You were confident enough to compliment her outfit when you considered the fact that it would be easier to say so in English than in Chinese. Thus, your first conversation began.

That then turned into a handful of them. They steadily progressed from friendly to flirty until one day, you asked her out, she accepted, and you've been dating ever since.

It's been a while now, a handful of months. Every so often, Dong asks you the same question: when will you learn Chinese for her?

You made the mistake of mentioning in your first meeting that you wanted to. Now, she won't let up on it.

You're studying at your house with her over when she asks you again, for the first time in a few weeks.

After all this time, you haven't forgotten the very first thing you learned for her. And now, it finally seems like the right time to say it.

But first, teasing her won't hurt.

You roll your eyes and shake your head, the typical response she's come to expect. You take her out to her car and tell her to drive safely once she's started the engine.

And then, as she looks ahead and begins to focus on leaving, you speak.

"Jiêjiê, wǒ ài nǐ."

Dong is appropriately shocked, as neither of you have uttered the English equivalent of the phrase, but you can tell that you've touched her beyond belief.

Her eyes light up immediately, her face taking on a certain expression that you've never seen on her before. The hands she had placed on the steering wheel tremble a little as her lips part. You watch with a smile as her fingers curl reflexively towards her, a tiny tell of her happiness.

You back out of her way and head towards your house, but not before her soft voice reaches your ears, her tilted head offering a smile with every one of her beautiful features just as much as her voice.

"Oh, wǒ ài nǐ...!"