I first met Lin Zicheng during a summer rainstorm.
That day, still recovering from a serious illness, she wandered through the rain in a daze and bumped into him.
The boy gently removed a butterfly that had fallen onto the back of her neck. His gentle words of comfort settled deep in her heart.
She watched him carefully put away the dead butterfly, thinking this would be the only time they would ever meet.
She never expected to run into him at school the very next day.
Only then did Lin Wei learn that the boy was a transfer student in her class, named Lin Zicheng.
Her heart fell beyond her control. She nursed her secret crush with care, until the day of her eighteenth birthday, when Lin Zicheng appeared outside her home.
The thousand butterflies painted on the wall looked dreamlike and beautiful. At their very center was the dead butterfly. It was his gift to her.
That night, under the dim streetlights, the hyacinths in the boy's hand were dazzling. Lin Wei found herself wanting to confess her feelings.
-
One day, Lin Wei noticed that the butterflies on her wall seemed to be dwindling. In the end, there were so few she could count them.
It seemed like some kind of omen. As the number of butterflies dwindled, Lin Wei began falling deeper and deeper into her dreams, until she could no longer tell reality from dreams.
Lin Zicheng was nowhere in those dreams. There wasn't even a trace of him, and in her panic, she put away the confession letter she'd written long ago.
Lin Wei knew that if she confessed, Lin Zicheng would never appear by her side again.
-
In the end, Lin Wei made up her mind. On the day they parted, she gave him the letter.
As the boy turned to go back and fetch something for her, Lin Wei cried.
She knew she would never see Lin Zicheng again.
“A thousand butterfly skeletons sleep on my wall.”, Lorca.
- [Upcoming story, A Confession Before Summer Arrives. Please add it to your wish list! Blurb below:]
**“To you, it was a passing moment. To me, it was the whole summer.” A secret crush comes true.
The day the countdown to the summer solstice reaches zero, I'll confess to him.
Seventeen-year-old Lin Xia first saw Chi Ye in an empty alley.
The boy in a white school uniform was surrounded at the end of the alley, battered and disheveled.
She hurriedly took out her phone to call the police, but a few minutes later, when the boy emerged, his pure white uniform was completely spotless.
Lin Xia hurried away from the scene, never imagining that the boy would become her desk mate.
Later, wanting to save a wayward boy, she began helping him out of kindness.
She kept him from sleeping in class, tutored him, and even secretly stuffed motivational books into his desk.
It wasn't until the monthly exam results came out and Lin Xia saw the name next to first place that she realized what was going on.
But he had already found the motivational books in his desk. Lin Xia stammered, “Let me explain.”
The boy only looked down at her, his tone cocky and carefree. “You're so concerned about me. Do you like me?”
At that moment, Lin Xia panicked.
It seemed she really did like him, at least a little.
*
That summer, at seventeen, Lin Xia fell for a boy named Chi Ye.
The girl's secret crush was cautious, hidden deep in her heart.
She decided to confess to him on the summer solstice, when she turned eighteen.
But she never expected that one second after midnight on the summer solstice, she would receive a call from Chi Ye. “Happy birthday, Lin Xia.”
And then he said one more thing.
The boy's confession was shy yet passionate.
“I like you. Will you go out with me?”
Theme: Keep your heart turned toward the sun.
