[Youthful angst] [Double-sided personas] [Saving each other] [Intense push and pull] [Slow-burn healing]
The shabby basement pool hall at Xu Ran's home hides the crush of every girl at No. 3 Middle School.
It is late Friday night, and rain pours down. Xie Changfeng, the cool and otherworldly student council president who has ranked first in his grade for three years running, has an unlit cigarette between his teeth and oil-stained hands as he repairs someone's pool table scoreboard.
To pay off his alcoholic father's gambling debts, by day he is the flawless darling of the school, and by night he is the grimy repairman in the basement.
When Xu Ran pushes open the door with a bill in hand, the cool composure in the boy's eyes shatters. He looks like a cornered beast.
"Keep this secret for me." He blocks the door, his voice hoarse. "Name your price."
Xu Ran looks at his bloodied knuckles and slaps a bandage onto the table. "Then tutor me in math for two hours after school every day."
There is no savior who comes out of nowhere, only two souls clinging to each other in the mud. In the wreckage of their youth, they test the waters, cross each other's boundaries, and finally kiss one another's scars into medals.
