Wu Ming's winter in his second year of high school was defined by silence.
The pages of "Luo Hua" hidden in his notebook became a public joke the moment his roommate found them. His secret crush was out in the open.
Luo Hua, the dazzlingly handsome, straight boy on the basketball court, frowned and spat out the word "Disgusting." From then on, their relationship sank into an abyss of silence.
They had shared a dorm for two years, sat diagonally across from each other in class, and were only a few meters apart. Yet that distance became an uncrossable chasm.
He got up early to avoid Luo Hua's morning workouts. He took the long way around to dodge him in the cafeteria. He pulled the covers over his head and pretended to be asleep when Luo Hua came back late. Even meeting each other's eyes became taboo.
Silence was a disguise, a wall between them, and an unspoken understanding as the countdown to their final year of high school ticked away.
Until the long-overdue "I'm sorry," the bottle of cold mineral water Luo Hua handed him on a rainy day, the awkward meal they shared in the cafeteria, and Luo Hua's stiff, blunt words: "Don't fall for anyone else."
Luo Hua was still clumsy and still couldn't explain himself, but with small gestures beyond words, he chipped away at the wall of ice, bit by bit.
Wu Ming had used up all his courage in the silence, then found himself falling for Luo Hua all over again through those rare responses.
It turned out there was more between them than silence.
The care they never voiced, their clumsy attempts to get closer, the burning feelings hidden behind their silence: those were the most moving answers of youth.
"Mutual testing of the waters · Reconciliation after a breakup · Secret school crush"
"Awkward straight seme × Sensitive, restrained uke"
"Silence is a disguise, and a hint of a racing heart"
Theme: The regrets and growth of young people, and the sincerity and redemption behind silence
