The breeze that day carried the scent of paint and lotus flowers.
Xia Ningning's gaze caught on an unfinished painting, and on the lone character "orange" in the lower-right corner of the paper.
Few people knew that many years ago, when she was lost in darkness, timid and afraid, a gentle boy had quietly saved her. But so much time had passed that she hadn't dared to recognize him.
On an impulse, she picked up the broken charcoal pencil lying on the ground, bent over, and carefully added one more character after "orange."
"Hey."
The voice behind her startled her, and the charcoal pencil slipped from her fingers. She turned around and saw a slender boy holding two bottles of ice-cold water, his eyes on the characters she had just changed.
"I..." Her cheeks instantly burned. "It looked unfinished..."
Cheng Sinian looked at her, first startled, then understanding. A faint smile slowly spread in his eyes. It seemed he had recognized her long ago.
He picked up the charcoal pencil and deftly drew a round little orange beside the word "orange," then lightly added a small lemon beside it.
He looked up and handed her a bottle of water, its surface beaded with cold condensation.
"To make it up to you." He pointed to the little lemon, his voice full of laughter. "It's yours now."
And so, Mr. Orange and Miss Lemon officially reunited in the word they had completed together.
He helped her escape the boxes labeled "rules" and healed all the darkness and unease she'd carried since childhood. In his freewheeling life, she was the only one who understood him, the only one who read him.
They thought that putting a word back together would be enough to piece each other back together, and to build an entire future side by side.
But they didn't know that a gentle salvation in their youth, and a perfect reunion as adults, had made the character she added with her own hand the most complete full stop in their story, one that could never be written again.
Theme: An orange and a lemon, reunited in their youth and healing each other.
