At the start of her first year of high school, Ran Yan is one of the top five students in her grade. Quiet and disciplined, she has a boyfriend who is cold and indifferent toward her. Lonely, she begins to pay secret attention to Jiang Qingyuan, the boy beside her.
He gets poor grades and sleeps in class, but when she is stumped by a difficult problem, he awkwardly slides her a sheet of scratch paper. When she gets caught in the rain, he silently follows behind her. When she's sad, he comforts her in the most straightforward way he can.
Ran Yan's love isn't dramatic. It's a gentle affection shown day after day.
Before he falls asleep in class, she quietly leaves neatly organized notes on his desk.
When a teacher criticizes him, she silently offers him a cup of warm water.
When he's in a bad mood, she sits quietly beside him, neither disturbing him nor asking for anything, just keeping him company.
With the gentlest touch, she slowly opens his heart.
She works up the courage to confess, but Jiang Qingyuan turns her down. "Let's just be buddies. That's for the best."
Ran Yan doesn't give up and continues to stay by his side.
She doesn't know that Jiang Qingyuan has already fallen for her gentle kindness.
He starts to care about her feelings, how close she is to other people, and whether she still likes someone else.
He even begins secretly working harder at school for her, hoping to get a little closer to her.
But he is too late.
After being turned down again and again and treated as "just a buddy," Ran Yan's affection slowly cools.
She quietly puts away the love she has kept in her heart. She stops making the first move and stops hoping.
On graduation day, a cool wind blows across the sports field.
Watching Ran Yan turn and walk away, Jiang Qingyuan finally understands that what he has lost is the girl whose heart and eyes once held only him.
The greatest regret of youth isn't never having met. It's that I liked you, but you only saw me as a buddy; by the time I fell for you, you'd already left.
The words left unsaid and the feelings hidden in little gestures all end in a parting with no reason behind it.
Theme: The most painful thing about youth isn't that we never loved. It's that, as we kept missing each other, we lost the person we should have treasured most.
