When Lin Zhi sees the name “Shen Zhiyan” on the class assignment list, her heart skips a beat.
He was the boy who sat behind her in third grade: white shirt, whale pencil case. The day he transferred away, she drew him a picture to give him, but no one knew where his family had moved.
What she doesn’t know is that Shen Zhiyan is standing right behind her.
He recognizes her. He sees her look up, draw a whale, then erase it. He sees the hesitation in her eyes. He says nothing.
His family is in debt, his mother is ill, and his father has told him, “Don’t make things harder for the family.” He can’t even bring himself to say, “I know you.”
For all three years of high school, they sit one behind the other. She doesn’t know he takes a detour every day to walk with her for part of the way. He doesn’t know that every time she turns around, she’s looking at him.
They both want to get into the same university. They’re both waiting for the right moment to speak.
That moment never comes.
