Distant Echoes

When she was eighteen, she had seen him at his most wretched, and, like countless others, had marveled at his dazzling brilliance.

-

From her very first day at school, Ji Yaoyao knew that the boy giving the freshman speech onstage belonged to a different world from hers.

He came from a privileged family and excelled academically. He was every girl's dream, and people always called him a born winner.

But when she was eighteen, a group of delinquents cornered her in a narrow alley, and he was the one who rescued her, reeking of alcohol, roguishly handsome and aloof.

That was the only time her heart had stirred, and it became her greatest disappointment.

To him, she was just one face among countless others. After graduating from high school, she tried to bury that cheap little crush deep in her heart. She applied to a school on the other side of the country, all so she could forget him.

-

On her twenty-fourth birthday, she returned to the city where she had grown up. She played games at a bar with a group of friends, and when she lost, they dared her to confess to the guy in the bar she found most attractive.

That day, she merely glanced up and saw a man who looked strikingly like him. He was tall, slumped drunkenly in a corner of the sofa, his features handsome and refined. Even with his eyes closed in sleep, his presence was extraordinary.

For some reason, her heart raced in a panic. She left with a quick excuse.

That night, she returned to the house she had just rented and ran into him in the hallway. Ji Yaoyao's breath caught, and she instinctively turned to flee.

But then she heard his weary, drunken voice call after her:

"Weren't you going to confess? Hurry up."

"Otherwise, I'll make the first move."

Both are each other's first and only love / Secret crush / They both pursue each other

Theme: What you can't forget will eventually find its way back to you