Everything Is Because of You

Summer will never end, just as there will always be someone who is eighteen. The day sixteen-year-old Chen Xia first met Chen Yiyuan was utterly ordinary. She went to class and ate as usual. Fate was strange: she was muddled through changing classes and choosing courses, and somehow her path collided with his. Chen Xia liked him. It seemed everyone knew, but she never said it, and Chen Yiyuan never asked. She was secretly delighted to remain his close friend. Then one day… Chen Yiyuan asked her, “Do you… like me?” Before that, Chen Xia had read a romance novel with a line that said, “You can’t hide your feelings when you like someone, and you shouldn’t hide them either. What if the other person believes you…” So she nodded honestly and said, with a careful sense of distance, “I like you, but we’re too young right now. I’ll work hard so I can get into the same university as you. After we graduate, I’ll confess my feelings. Until then, you have plenty of time to decide whether you want to be with me.” The passion Chen Yiyuan had felt to get together right away, while everyone around him was secretly dating, immediately faded. He suddenly understood why he had fallen for Chen Xia. She was confident, sunny, and cheerful. She was also beautiful, clever, and kind. How could anyone not like someone like her, especially when she was the one who had reached out to him? (A story of mutual pining and openly declared affection, intertwined, with love as the greatest motivation to pursue the brightest future. May we never let down our youth or the person in our dreams. A tribute to the best version of who we once were.)