Strawberries and Blue Skies

Synopsis: Strawberries and Blue Skies

Between Lin Qingkong and Su Xiaoman lie a kindergarten graduation photo, a low wall they've been climbing since childhood, and fifteen years.

He's the golden boy, always at the top of the school's honor board, an untouchable ice-cold upperclassman in the girls' eyes. Only Su Xiaoman knows that the student council president everyone respects always keeps a carton of her favorite strawberry milk in his schoolbag. When she bombs a math test, he gently taps her forehead with his pen and sighs, “Xiaoman, I explained this problem to you just last week.”

“Then explain it again, Teacher Lin.”

“One explanation in exchange for a strawberry pudding you make.”

“Deal!”

She's his exception, the loophole in every one of his principles. What seems unattainable to everyone else is a tenderness within her reach. And all his casual acts of kindness, the way his umbrella always tilts toward her on rainy days, the hot milk he silently brings her when she's up late, the encrypted album on his phone called “My Blue Sky,” filled with pictures of her smiling, become the sweetest parts of her youth.

Then, on the day of the first snow, he stops her in front of the snow-covered swings. The tips of his ears turn red, but his voice is clearer than when he's ever explained a problem:

“Xiaoman, every page of my plans for the future, from my college applications to the places I want to travel when I'm eighty, has your name on it.”

“Will you... fill them in with me?”

This is a story about strawberry milk and sky-blue hair ties. It's about the ordinary morning question, “Shall we walk together?” and a simple promise made over all the years to come: I only want to be with you, from school uniforms to our hair turning white.