Chi Meng first met Song Baiye in her childhood friend's study.
It was a summer evening, with cicadas buzzing especially loudly, when she accidentally wandered into the frame of the boy's camera.
His fingers wrapped around the camera were long and slender. Faint blue veins showed beneath the pale skin on the back of his hand, and a black mole on his wrist stood out.
At her most sensitive and insecure age, she panicked and said she looked terrible in photos.
The boy rested an elbow on the windowsill, bathed in a hazy, tipsy glow, looking utterly relaxed.
He casually pointed to his right cheek. "You're very cute."
Chi Meng had a faint dimple, one that few people ever noticed.
She tucked his offhand remark away in her heart.
-
Back then, Song Baiye had everything going for him and was seen by everyone as a born star.
She was his inconspicuous junior, and when people mentioned her, she was simply his best friend's childhood sweetheart.
But nobody knew that every weekend at dusk, Song Baiye, who seemed unapproachable to everyone else, would patiently explain problems to her.
When people mocked or gave her a hard time, he would coldly stand up for her.
Asked why he was meddling, Song Baiye lazily lifted his eyes. "How unfortunate for you. I'm very protective of my own."
After that, she never heard anyone mock her behind her back again.
Chi Meng worked as hard as she could to get into A University. That summer, she cut her hair into a pretty short style and put on a long dress the color of jasmine.
The girl's cheeks flushed slightly as she asked nervously, "How do I look?"
Song Baiye replied coolly, "No different."
Chi Meng's heart sank.
But then he pinched her cheek and smiled lazily. "Just as cute as before."
-
Later, after they got together in college, Chi Meng unexpectedly discovered Song Baiye's photo album. It was filled with pictures of her.
Beside every photo was a sentence.
[The girl said she loved math like crazy, then fell asleep hugging her book a second later]
[The girl said she'd get into my university. Does she like me, even a little?]
[The girl I like has a crush on my best friend]
[Then I'll steal her away]
[The girl gets so dangerously cute when she's drunk]
[Her crush on my best friend was a misunderstanding]
[The girl has had a crush on me for so long. Has she ever cried about it in secret?]
In the last photo, the girl was smiling brightly, her white dress fluttering in the breeze.
The caption was dated the day Song Baiye confessed to her.
[My girl took ninety-nine brave steps toward me. For the rest of our lives, I'll be the one running to her]
-
Campus romance / Mutual pining turns to love
[As I tried to pluck the moon from the sky, the moon was coming toward me too]*
-
*Adapted from a quotation
Theme: The moon comes running toward you
