Tangled in Gardenias

[Ensemble cast + bickering couple + coming of age]

His arrival brought sunshine to my girlhood.

1.

That summer, the cicadas never stopped singing. The heat hung in the air like one huge piece of melted toffee.

Jiang Yuezhi met someone wild and unrestrained.

The boy had a face like a god and a cool, carefree nature. He was not someone you wanted to cross.

Back then, Cheng Ze’s image in her mind was all fights, bad grades, and womanizing...

He was a bona fide jerk.

To outsiders, Jiang Yuezhi was a good girl devoted to her studies, someone who had nothing to do with a golden boy like Cheng Ze.

But nobody knew that the boy had fallen for her long ago, whenever he looked her way.

As they spent more time together, she gradually changed her mind. Beneath Cheng Ze’s proud exterior was a kind and upright soul.

They had a romance everyone knew about.

What no one expected was that they would part ways in summer, too.

As the orange evening glow settled in the distance, Jiang Yuezhi sneered. “Let’s break up. If this goes on, you’ll drag down my grades. We’re not even from the same world.”

*

2.

A few years later, the boy had achieved his dream and become a hugely popular singer.

By chance, they met again at a dinner party.

Cold light fell across the man’s increasingly chiseled profile. He looked languid and aloof.

Someone beside him bent down to light his cigarette. Cheng Ze didn’t even look up. He remained cool and distant, the center of attention, with people gathered around him.

In a white dress, Jiang Yuezhi sat quietly in a corner, waiting for the party to end.

He didn’t spare her a single glance from beginning to end.

She thought they would never cross paths again. But after several rounds of drinks, the man dropped his guard, his eyes bloodshot as he grabbed her tight. “This time, I’m not letting go.”