The classroom of the third year of high school was always filled with the smell of chalk dust and endless test papers. Lin Yan thought that he would quietly grow moldy in this corner like he had for the past eighteen years, until Shen Ci appeared. Shen Ci is a transfer student, the squad leader, and the proud son of heaven who always stands in the light and is looked up to by everyone. Lin Yan, on the other hand, was just a transparent person who was accustomed to lowering his head and even breathing carefully.
But it happened that these two people who were supposed to have nothing in common, after countless evening self-study classes, in the empty playground stands and under the desks piled with books, shared the song in the same headphones and exchanged touches that were lighter than breathing. When Shen Ci was in trouble, Shen Ci would use a nonchalant tone to help him out; when Lin Yan was tired, he would silently hand over a mint candy. They are like two hedgehogs clinging to each other in the cold winter, carefully putting away their sharp edges, just to stay close to each other to keep warm.
But youth is too short, too short to even say "I like you"; reality is too long, long enough to smooth out all loneliness. On the day after the college entrance examination, the chirping of cicadas was deafening. Shen Ci only left a sentence of "don't wait for me" and walked into the vast sea of people without looking back. Lin Yan did not pursue him. He knew better than anyone that some encounters were destined to pass through each other's lives.
Many years later, when Lin Yan was sorting out old books, a note fell out of a yellowed exercise book. On it was Shen Ci's familiar and restrained handwriting: "If I had been braver that day, would the ending have been different?"
Lin Yan looked at the line of words, his eyes were slightly hot, but he just smiled calmly and put the note back into the book.
There are never ifs in this world. Between them, there are thousands of mountains and rivers that cannot be crossed, and they are missed after all.
Concept: Love at the age of eighteen cannot last forever