Secretly in Love with the Stars

At sixteen, Bian Tao fell for a boy named Pei Chen.

Pei Chen was a born star, a celebrated figure, someone Bian Tao could admire from afar but never hope to reach.

She sat next to him in class. She was ordinary, with average grades, and had passed along love letters to him on behalf of plenty of girls.

From their first year of high school to their last, she spent three years looking up to Pei Chen, keeping her feelings hidden in her heart and never daring to confess.

She didn't dare. She thought she was too insignificant.

On the evening before the college entrance exams, she gathered her courage, clutched a love letter in her hand, and walked toward him.

The fiery sunset blazed across the horizon. The boy leaned against the railing while a girl confessed to him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "There's someone I like."

Watching from the side, Bian Tao finally understood that her three-year secret crush had come to nothing.

He liked someone else. The stars could never catch up to the moon.

No longer the unremarkable, introverted girl she had been in high school, after graduating from college she became generous and confident, a talented author with plenty of admirers.

She had tried countless times to erase him from her memories, but she just couldn't. She had never been in a relationship.

Later, she was invited to a rather grand banquet.

Many well-known figures were attending.

She spotted a man sitting at the bar, dressed in a suit and lazily swirling his glass. As if burned, she quickly looked away and pretended not to see him.

But the man came over, grinning with carefree confidence. "Classmate Bian, don't you remember me?"

Bian Tao froze, suddenly awkward.

"You remembered me pretty clearly when you mentioned your secret crush in that essay. How come you don't remember me now?"

Bian Tao knew he was a born star and figured he would never genuinely care for someone like her, so she fled in a panic.

But later, at a dance, just as the lights suddenly went out, Pei Chen cornered her against the wall.

His voice was low and husky, his eyes bloodshot. He kissed the back of her hand. "Can I pursue you?"

When nobody paid attention to Bian Tao, she had one little reader who always replied beneath her published stories.

She had written essays about secret crushes, about the shy sweetness of youth, and about life's bitter and sweet moments.

One day after the two of them got together, Bian Tao found his account.

In the drafts folder, among the comments he had never posted, was a line:

"You're not a star. You're my moon."

"I'm a little planet in the Milky Way. When I orbit you, I can see everything about you."

Mutual pining, happy ending, no romance before adulthood

Bold, carefree astronomer x insecure, sensitive author

Theme: Be confident