Seven Seconds of Tenderness
Work Introduction
One-Line Pitch
I have liked you since seven seconds ago, and I fall for you all over again every seven seconds.
Synopsis
Qiu Yingying is a girl with short-term memory impairment. Her memories automatically reset every seven seconds. To the world, she is the troublemaker who can never remember the way, people's faces, or which classroom her lessons are in. To herself, life is a puzzle whose pieces can never fit together.
She thought her youth would always remain this fragmented, until she met Cai Sida.
The captain of the school basketball team and the heartthrob all the girls look up to, he shows extraordinary patience with the one girl who can't even remember his name. He always happens to appear when she gets lost. When she asks him the same question again, he smiles and answers it for the hundredth time. He highlights his notes until they stand out like a rainbow, simply because he heard that color helps with memory.
"Don't you ever get tired?" someone asks him.
Cai Sida looks at Qiu Yingying, who has once again forgotten who he is, and smiles. "It doesn't matter if she doesn't remember me. It's enough that I remember her."
This is a story about forgetting and remembering. When the whole world tells her, "You'll never get better," one person shows her through his actions: It's all right. I can be your whole world.
Character Profiles
Female Lead | Qiu Yingying
Nicknames: Yingying, Little Mushroom (Cai Sida's special nickname for her)
Age: 18, first-year college student
Height: 158 cm
Appearance: Round, almond-shaped eyes and a soft, babyish face. Her naturally curly hair is always tousled, making her look like a little mushroom. When she smiles, two faint dimples appear. She's not the kind of beauty who turns heads, but rather the girl-next-door type who makes people want to protect her.
Personality Keywords: Scatterbrained, stubborn, kind, fragile yet resilient
Background: Damage to her temporal lobe in a car accident left her with a rare form of short-term memory impairment. She can remember her long-term memories from before childhood, but new memories last only seven seconds. She carries around a well-worn notebook filled with tightly packed notes on everything important, including "My name is Qiu Yingying," "My mom loves me," and "Remember to smile today."
Catchphrases: "Sorry, may I ask your name?" "Have we... met before?"
Inner Monologue: "I'm not afraid of forgetting. I'm afraid of being forgotten."
Male Lead | Cai Sida
Nicknames: A-Da, Captain
Age: 20, third-year college student
Height: 185 cm
Appearance: Sun-kissed skin, sharp brows and bright eyes, and a defined jawline. When he smiles, a small canine tooth shows on the left. He's always the center of attention on the court, but off the court he likes wearing loose hoodies, including one with two bear ears on the hood.
Personality Keywords: Gentle, persistent, a man of action, cold on the outside and warm within, surprisingly thoughtful for a guy
Background: His father is a surgeon, and his mother is a piano teacher. He comes from a wealthy family but never shows it off. At heart, he has a gentleness shaped by his excellent upbringing. In his second year, a torn ligament nearly forced him to give up basketball. During those dark days, he happened to see Qiu Yingying staring at her notebook in a hospital corridor, trying to remember that it was Wednesday.
That image struck him deeply.
From then on, there was someone in his world who needed to be remembered.
Catchphrases: "It's all right. I'll tell you again." "You look really lovely today, even if you might not remember me saying it."
Inner Monologue: If her memory lasts only seven seconds, then I'll be the breeze that reaches her in the seventh second.
Theme: Campus
