(back to blank slate overview)
detailed outline
ganyu and keqing both frequent the same little café on/near their college campus that has those chalkboard walls and allows customers to borrow little boxes of chalk so that they can draw/write on the walls. they sit at the exact same table (between one of the chalkboard walls and a window facing the street, so that ganyu can stare daydreamily out the window at the incoming spring w/her chin propped up on her elbows as she's trying to mentally calculate her workload and remaining tasks, only for her mind to sort of drift away to other things and keqing can keep her eyesight sharp by taking advantage of the natural light and potential fresh air and just the ability to look into the distance in general w/the window)— but with the catch that they're never at the café at the same time.
one day, ganyu runs out of space in her notebook/planner, so she goes up to albedo (café owner & guy who is just generally there all the time, witnessing everything) and borrows a bit of chalk to use the wall as her planner space instead. they're mostly just little notes to herself, a to-do list analyzed and overthought a little, as well as some preliminary thoughts on an essay she's just been assigned for one of her classes on smth like "liyue & the early archon era", but she loses track of the time and can't erase what she's written on the chalkboard wall in her rush to pack up n get to her next class. she apologizes to the café workers abt this, ofc, asking them to leave if up for her if possible, but they don't mind since the chalkboard gimmick is meant to be like, a fun collaborative thing btwn guests n strangers anyway.
it turns out that ganyu n keqing are taking the same course (either polisci or history) taught by the same professor (probably zhongli lol), but while they share a discussion period, they have lectures at different times, so when keqing comes into the café not long after (might even pass by ganyu right outside the window lol), sees the to-do list/outline on the wall, she's like, "oh, this was written by a fellow student." bc she recognizes the assignment names.
and obviously, keqing being the extremely opinionated woman that she is, goes up to albedo the café worker for some chalk and starts marking up this stranger's outline/notes on their shared assignment on, like, "the importance of rex lapis's role in developing liyue" or smth like that, bc whatever this stranger had left behind, keqing considers it to have a weak counterargument!! it's nothing more than just her own questions and rebuttals, as she doesn't expect the other person to see it, let alone respond to it, but she's very pleased w/the fact that she does it bc now she feels more confident abt writing her own essay.
ganyu comes in the next day again and obviously, she sees all the annotations on her essay outline. and, while shocked n taken aback that someone would just Do That to what are obviously someone else's notes, she still wants to take this other person in good faith, so she pauses, thinks abt their comments for a bit, then takes a picture before erasing everything to write down her own detailed rebuttals, editing her essay to strengthen her arguments there, too, since it's due soon anyway.
keqing again comes in after ganyu leaves, sees the new arguments, scribbles down her own fresh rebuttals, edits her essay, and both women end up doing their final submissions just before midnight. normally keqing likes to turn in her work early (and in this case did so the day prior), but she was so passionate abt her chalk wall essay opponent that she went ahead and resubmitted her edited version.
anyway, keqing comes into the café again the next day, eager to see what this other person might've written, only to discover that the café workers have done their weekly cleaning of the chalkboard walls, and whoever was arguing with her hasn't written anything since.
a few days pass, they get their essay grades back, and keqing, ever-competitive, decides to reach out via the chalk walls and ask, "so what did you get on the zhongli essay? i got [xx] grade, which i have to say is in no small part thanks to you giving me a nuanced look into how the opposition looks, so… thank you for that." and she signs it off with a doodle of her constellation or something to maintain their peer-blindness.
ganyu comes in the next day, sees the note, and she borrows the chalk to respond:
"i also got [xx] grade, thanks to the way you challenged my arguments. i found your opinion that we have been overemphasizing rex lapis's contributions to liyue and the greater history of teyvat to be very thought-provoking, even if i ultimately completely disagree, but i never did get to hear your thoughts on how humanity could have been expected to do the same things he did in those (much more dangerous, technologically insufficient) days."
basically, the point is that ganyu compliments keqing's perspective, even if she doesn't agree w/how keqing thinks things would've worked out, which sparks further conversation on the café's chalkboard walls. they settle into this sort of routine where they talk via the chalk wall throughout the week, it gets erased by the workers over the weekend, and they start anew on mondays, gradually revealing that they actually have very similar life goals and long-term desires.
as they get to know each other, they both start to fall in love w/the way the other person portrays herself through words on the chalkboard—all while continuing to seriously butt heads during their shared discussion lol.
…i feel like keqing might've almost started a fistfight at some point, perhaps before the chalk wall letters started happening, but while the presiding TA managed to talk them down from it, that sort of thing would obviously leave them wary and with low opinions of one another's personalities lol.
but anyway, one day towards the end of the semester, keqing gets tired of all this through-the-wall middleman nonsense n suggests that the two of them meet up where they usually exchange letters one of these days. ganyu agrees, and they each dress up a little (but not too much) to make a good first impression, only to actually arrive at the café like, "YOU???????"
bc at the end of the day, the fic really is abt how gq think they have deeply incompatible clashing personalities, but once they start talking to each other more in good faith, showing each other sides of themselves they don't usually present at a first glance, it's pretty easy for them to grow to care for one another after all.
ofc, lesson learned, they decide to give the meetup/hangout a go anyway and end up hiking up mt. tianheng or whatever to stargaze together, and they get to talk more abt their pasts n upbringings— the sorts of things ganyu witnessed as an adeptus who survived the archon war, the sort of thoughts keqing entertains as a human being raised with an incredibly sharp education in history.
and over the course of their conversation, they adjust the images they'd previously been internally maintaining of one another, the images they'd previously developed during their heated in-person discussion arguments, and what they settle on is that their love is the core truth between them.
the end :3