Love Began with the First Meeting

"I knew you two must be here," Maggie said with a smile, sitting between them and pushing Benjamin off his seat with her bottom. "You two looked so sketchy just now, almost treacherous. I know you were talking about me." Monica took a glance at Benjamin, who looked aggrieved at having been shimmed out of his seat. She rolled her eyes and snorted, "It seems that your butt is more powerful than before, maybe because you've absorbed the man's... Right?" "I..." Benjamin started, but the sharp look Maggie was giving him made him decide not to go with the words he wanted to say. Instead, he said, "I gave my seat to Maggie of my own accord just now."

The corners of Monica's mouth twitched. She had forgotten that Benjamin was as obedient as a timid husky in front of Maggie. It was a long story. All three of them had been put into the same class when they entered the college. Although there had been some tiny changes since they went to graduate school together, they had quarreled and fought with one another for several years along the way. The difference was that the quarrels and fights between Monica and Maggie were between female friends and were always well- meaning and not at all intended to hurt. However, the quarrels and fights between Maggie and Benjamin always felt more real. So Monica was rather surprised when Benjamin and Maggie became friends, considering that they had been as incompatible as fire and water in the beginning. Moreover, since Benjamin became their friend, he had gradually turned obsequious and womanlike.

Considering that it would be a waste of breath to call him out, Monica chose to forget about it and instead decided to ask Maggie a question she was dying to know the answer to. After looking around carefully, she fixed her eyes on her friend. "So how long can your Captain Edgar last?"

Since the question concerned the pride of a man, Benjamin was immediately intrigued. He also looked at Maggie, waiting for her answer. "I'm going to guess ten minutes at most," he said.

Unwilling to agree with him, Maggie shook her head. "Nonsense! He can last for more than half an hour every time. I kept time for him once and found that it was only three minutes short of an hour." "Gasp!" Benjamin choked on his saliva and started to cough violently. "Cough!"

Monica peeped at him. She wasn't as shocked as he was, maybe because males and females chose to pay attention to different things. She rolled her eyes at Benjamin and then turned to Maggie. "Did you do anything else over the weekend? I'm guessing not. I'm guessing you only...exercised...you on top of him and he behind you...different angles...you know...different angles... Right? Maggie, no wonder you walked in an awkward way just now."

Maggie blushed and the corners of her mouth twitched. Thinking for a bit, she concluded that her friends' remarks were coming out of their jealousy. She looked at both of her friends with a smirk. "Maybe after you know what having sex feels like, everything would be different. Maybe the tables will have turned here. Even though you envy me very much, that will not help."

Monica slammed her fists onto the table in anger and then turned to Benjamin. "Listen to that! How dare she make fun of single people like us! Benjamin, if you can't find a girlfriend and I can't find a boyfriend, we might as well become a couple. Then we won't be laughed at!"

Benjamin stared at her, not knowing what to say. Monica was only joking around, but he had taken it seriously. Perhaps that was her confession or her urging him to make a confession of his own. Suddenly, his head was now filled with all these possibilities that might turn into an actual relationship between him and Monica.

Now that she had been in a relationship for a while now, Maggie had started to become aware of tiny details of budding romances or feelings between a man and a woman, and she couldn't help but notice Benjamin's expression, which was filled with yearning desire, as if he wanted to become Monica's boyfriend right at the moment. She had never noticed it before. 'Since when did this happen?' she wondered.

Sensing Maggie looking at him, he quickly tore his gaze away from Monica, like he was caught on doing something guilty. He did not meet Maggie's gaze out of embarrassment, but Maggie continued to look at him nevertheless.

When he finally met her gaze, Maggie raised her eyebrows, indicating to him that she didn't see anything. Then she gave Monica a smile. She decided to wait for the love story between Benjamin and Monica to unfold. When the day came, she could laugh at them at her own will, together with Edgar.

But her good mood didn't last much longer. As the saying goes, extreme joy begets sorrow.

Their examination would take place in a couple of days. Maggie planned to announce to Monica and Benjamin that she and Edgar had obtained marriage certificate after the examination. By then, she could stay in the lovers' sweet world with Edgar during their long vacation. However, things didn't go on as she expected. In a class on the next day, the professor announced, his voice full of pride, "The college has decided to carry out basic level intensive training and battle instruction training in advance for you. The intensive training will start from today and last two months, excluding ten days' vacation for the New Year."

All the students groaned. The announcement meant that they would not have the long vacation previously discussed, but instead only 10 days-it was 10 full days of vacation for students who came from S City, but for students who came from other places, it meant more time traveling and less time enjoying the vacation.

As the students continued groaning and whining, the noises eventually filled the whole room. Perhaps before Maggie would have been excited at the news of intensive training, but not this time. Maybe she was the most depressed student in the classroom. "Alas, somebody can no longer execute her plan of lovers' world! What a pity!" Monica said, mock sympathy on her face. As she laughed, the sting of the bad news got bigger for Maggie.

Maggie looked at Monica, about to say something when the professor continued, "All right. The instructor for your training is here. Now, let's welcome him."

At these words, everyone saw a figure outside of the classroom. All the students craned their necks to try and see who the figure was, forgetting about feeling sad. Maggie widened her eyes as she recognized the figure. Edgar, who was dressed in a well-ironed informal military uniform, walked into the classroom.

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