That Summer, I Mistook My Secret Crush for a Chance to Stand Beside You

[Secret Crush] [Mutual Pining] [Sweet Youthful Romance] [A Coming-of-Age Story] [Ensemble Cast] [College Life]

At Jiang University, half a step separates Xia Shishi and Lin Hua. That half-step is the hundred-plus kilometers between their high school classroom and their university campus, the habit of him silently switching to the outside whenever she walks on his right, and all of her youth spent secretly loving him for six whole years without ever daring to say it aloud.

Xia Shishi knows everything about Lin Hua: how often his fingers tap the desk when he thinks, how his Adam's apple bobs when he tips his head back to drink after playing basketball, and his ever-brief "Mm" and "Okay." But she has never known the ocean beneath his silence. Then college begins, and the boy who always walks on her left starts leaving silent annotations along every inch of ground she retreats from, in his own unmistakable way.

This is a long lesson in how to get closer. Through late-night talks in Dorm 302, laughter and mischief in Room 332, and the tangled laughter and tears of the Changjiang League, amid the starlight of Qin Xuewei, the intellect of Shen Yuwei, and the waves stirred up by Chu Xiaoxiao's directness, Xia Shishi learns to move from being "his shadow" to standing "by his side."

And Lin Hua's deep sea surges only for her.

This is a story about secret admirers learning to be brave, protectors learning to express themselves, and a group of young people clumsily falling in love amid laughter and tears. It isn't just about Lin Hua and Xia Shishi. There are seven couples, fourteen stories of youth. Here, you'll find the version of yourself whose heart once pounded for someone, and come to believe that someone will always stand on your left and shield you from the world.