Childhood Friends, Sweethearts

A young man rides a bamboo horse over, circling the bed to toss green plums.

I wrote this story in my senior year of high school. The initial inspiration came from a classmate's silk-screen roses. As the idea gradually took shape, I wove it into a story with a fairly light touch.

Back then, the pressure of heavy schoolwork, endless exercises and exams, teachers' earnest guidance, and parents' eager expectations made it impossible not to feel tense. Looking back now, perhaps that was the most fulfilling time of my life.

I'm posting it online now, first to celebrate the New Year, and also to commemorate that high school era, gone forever, which I both loved and hated. I remember someone once saying that romance on campus is the purest kind, far removed from the ways of the world.

This is only a short story, with all the side details cut away to focus on the two of them. There are barely even any lines of dialogue. It may not appeal to everyone, but I'm still grateful to all of you who stopped to read it. Thank you.

Theme: