Growing Old Together Under One Roof

When both their names appeared on the physics competition leaderboard, Chu Yu saw the light flare in Jiang Fan’s eyes and suddenly remembered that snowy night in their senior year of high school.

Back then, Jiang Fan had tucked a hand warmer into his arms. Their breath rose in white clouds as he said, “I’ll wait for you at A University.” Chu Yu thought it was just encouragement. He didn’t notice that when Jiang Fan turned away, the tips of his ears were as red as if the snow had burned them.

Later, they squeezed into the lab to adjust the parameters of star paths, shared a pair of earphones to listen to white noise, and huddled under the same blanket on winter nights. Jiang Fan was always ruffling his hair, his fingertips rough with the calluses he’d gotten from working through problems. Chu Yu had gotten into the habit of zoning out while Jiang Fan explained things, his gaze fixed on the bob of Jiang Fan’s throat.

From school uniforms to white shirts, from countdown boards to award certificates, the little cat doodles hidden in their notebooks of mistakes, the notes tucked into popcorn buckets, the umbrella they shared on rainy nights: at last, one autumn day at an art exhibition, their clasped fingers began to grow warm

“Actually, ever since the first time I tutored you, I’ve wanted to hold your hand.”

“Funny, so have I.”

This is the story of two physics students, about star paths and heartbeats falling into sync, and about the long confession that led from “I’ll wait for you” to “Let’s be together.”