One fleeting glance in a high school hallway became a secret Su Qingyuan kept tucked inside her workbook.
She knew the boy in the white basketball jersey: Lu Jingran from Yuying Middle School. He shone like the summer sun, but as they passed each other, all he left her was the breeze stirred by the hem of his shirt.
Perhaps he remembered her too, the girl from No. 1 High School who hugged her books and blushed to the tips of her ears. But in the cicada-song of graduation season, they became an unspoken regret in each other’s hearts.
She thought the blank space of youth would stay empty forever, until that familiar figure appeared among the drill instructors at her university’s military training ground.
Lu Jingran’s gaze swept over the new students, then froze the moment it landed on Su Qingyuan. Even after three years apart, the flutter in his heart had never changed.
He was a strict instructor who took special care of her; she was a freshman pretending to be calm while losing focus again and again.
A reunion over drinks back in their hometown during National Day broke the dam of silence. Sitting side by side in the library brought a warmth that flowed beyond tentative overtures. An accidental injury on the basketball court exposed the concern they could no longer hide.
There were cold wars born of misunderstandings, jealousy when they saw others getting close, and moments of hesitation and uncertainty under the weight of real-life pressures. From the camouflage green of the training ground to the scent of books in the library, from the confusion of graduation season to the certainty of a wedding dress trailing along the floor, they spent years proving that some sparks of love, once kindled, grow into something towering with time.
Where will this secret love, born of the feelings of youth, ultimately lead as it winds through the years?
