The Childhood Friend Says Nothing

Lin Xia pushes open the squeaking iron gate. The old swing sways gently in the breeze, as if still waiting for a child to sit on it. Ten years have passed, but the backyard once shared by her family and Lu Yuxuan's has barely changed.

“Xiaxia, you're home?” her mother calls from behind her.

Lin Xia turns and sees a few more silver hairs at her mother's temples. Her eyes grow hot. “Mom, I'm home.”

“Yuxuan's back too, you know?” her mother says softly, glancing toward the house next door, where the lights have come on again.

Lin Xia's heart skips a beat, then settles. “I heard.”

How could she not have heard? Ever since news broke in their high school group chat three days ago that Lu Yuxuan had returned from abroad, her phone hasn't stopped buzzing. Everyone keeps tagging the two of them, teasing that “the top-student couple is finally going to reunite.”

Ten years have passed. The last time she saw Lu Yuxuan was at their graduation party after the college entrance exams. He had won a full scholarship to a prestigious American university, while she had chosen to attend college in China. They didn't get together the way everyone had expected. They hadn't even managed a proper goodbye; it had been rushed and painfully awkward.

“He's a famous architect now. He's even been on TV,” her mother says, unable to hide her envy. “You two used to be inseparable. How did things end up...”

“Mom,” Lin Xia interrupts her. “That was all when we were kids.”

Back in her room, Lin Xia opens her laptop. She's a web novelist who's just begun to make a name for herself, and her editor has been asking for her next manuscript for half a month. She had planned to write a modern romance, but at that moment, her fingers...