Childhood sweethearts | Mutual pining
Sunshine girl chasing the light × devoted childhood friend who keeps his feelings hidden
Throughout Lin Xingyao's youth, Shen Yanzhi is the “background character” in every passing year: the helpless deskmate whose backpack straps she tugs, the indulgent neighbor who lets her snatch away his hand-drawn star maps, the quiet boy with burning feelings in his eyes when she says at astronomy club, “That star looks like you.”
In Shen Yanzhi's sketchbook, Lin Xingyao is the “leading lady” in every passing year. A tiny “Xingyao” is tucked into the corners of his scratch paper, her laughter mingles with his astronomy observation notes, and even the figure racing through the storm on a rainy night is running only to catch her when she says, “Don't leave.”
Their classmates always joke, “You two childhood friends are just like characters in a romance drama.” Lin Xingyao waves them off: “We're just buddies.” She never notices the creases where Shen Yanzhi's fingertips have smudged “Xingyao” in his sketchbook when he lowers his eyes. Shen Yanzhi never tells her that all his indulgence is the clumsiest confession of a boy in love.
Then, on the night she comes down with a fever, Lin Xingyao clutches his hand and pleads, “Don't leave.” The moment Shen Yanzhi agrees, his eyes red, she suddenly understands the starlight he has kept hidden in his sketchbook for ten years.
“Shen Yanzhi, I've liked you ever since you drew your first star map. Not just as a childhood friend.”
“I've been waiting for those words my whole youth.”
As starlight spreads across all the years they've shared as childhood friends, the crush hidden in his sketchbook finally grows into an unmistakable devotion. From the moment they first met as children, he wanted to turn “childhood sweetheart” into “the person I'll journey to the ends of the earth with.”
