Half-Ripe Highland Barley

[School life + secret crush + bittersweet romance + inspired by real events]

“Once you fall for someone, keep loving them, even if it leads nowhere.”

But that boy made her wait a full ten years.

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In her second year of middle school, Shen Tingxu noticed third-year student Jiang Jinzhen in the choir.

He always left his school uniform unzipped and spoke with a casual, distant air, but when he sang, it was as if he became someone else.

She added him on QQ. He only ever replied, “Mm,” “Okay,” or “Oh.”

Later, he began waiting for her before club activities.

They walked together down the corridor lined with blooming magnolias, sang “Farewell” together, and rehearsed “Slowly, Slowly.”

He gave her a puppy named “Sunshine,” sang an entire song to her over the phone, and told her on graduation day, “I'll come back to see you.”

Then he disappeared.

That summer, she waited in vain for a message from him. Instead, she heard his sister say over the phone, “Could you stop bothering him all the time?”

She deleted him. He added her back and demanded an explanation. Then she said, “I hate you,” and deleted him again.

From then on, they were lost in a sea of faces.

In high school, she got into his school.

Again and again, she recognized him, and again and again, she turned and walked away.

Later, she heard that he smoked, drank, and got into fights. Later, she heard that he had a girlfriend.

She locked away everything connected to him and deleted him from her friends list for good.

She told herself, “Shen Tingxu, you're too proud to keep waiting.”

But she didn't know