Fu Jingxuan studies international business. His shirt is always spotless, and he has a gentle, refined smile. Gu Jingcheng studies architecture. He's honest and quiet, and blushes when he talks to girls. They are close with Liu Ruyan, an accounting major, and Liu Qingqing, a tourism management major, half-sisters who share a father. The four of them often share a table at the library, go to Chinatown for sugarcane juice, and stroll beneath the flame trees on the sports field. Phnom Penh's rainy season is hot and humid, but the flame trees bloomed especially beautifully that year, their red flowers blazing like fire.
Fu Jingxuan likes Liu Ruyan. His affection shows in the seats he saves for her at the library, the biggest bag of mangosteens he buys from the fruit stand by the school gate, and the way he always arrives at the sugarcane juice stall fifteen minutes before her. He carefully keeps her notes, writes her initials on the title page of a poetry collection at the bookstore, and sends her a message saying, "Don't stay up too late," when she's studying late into the night. He thinks that if he's sincere enough, one day she'll look back and notice him. He asks her to meet him in Chinatown. The sunset turns Monivong Boulevard gold. He orders two iced sugarcane juices and waits for her.
Liu Ruyan knows how he feels. She has hesitated. This boy is just too good, so good that she can't find a single fault in him.
