That Quiet Transfer Student

In her second year of high school, Shi Miaojin's class got a new transfer student.

He was handsome, had excellent grades, and followed the rules. The sort of good student the homeroom teacher could always count on.

He just wasn't very sociable. Whenever classmates tried to befriend him, he would wear a cold expression and answer as briefly as possible, barely managing even the most basic pleasantries.

Gradually, his classmates stopped trying to get a response, and the transfer student managed to isolate the entire class all by himself.

At the time, Shi Miaojin sat about half a classroom away from the ice-cold transfer student, and naturally assumed they would have nothing to do with each other.

Until one day, the homeroom teacher rearranged the seats at random, making Shi Miaojin and the aloof transfer student deskmates.

Later,

Shi Miaojin learned that the transfer student had a congenital speech disorder.

He couldn't speak a complete sentence as fluently as ordinary people. Even when he managed to string a few words together, he stuttered. So, to avoid embarrassing himself in front of others, he could only force out a few words at a time, making him seem aloof.

Later still,

One evening, in the quiet, empty classroom after school,

the transfer student wept silently, looking utterly wretched. With trembling hands, he wrote on her sticky note: [I wish I could talk normally. I wish I were a normal person.]

When Shi Miaojin asked why he'd suddenly said that, he turned to her, his misty eyes full of hurt and sorrow she couldn't quite make out.

Before then, to maintain a dignified image in front of Shi Miaojin, whenever he wanted to say something at length, he would write it down.

But that day, for the first time, he opened his mouth and tried, clumsily and with effort, to say, "Someone like me, who can't even speak, being loved..."

He broke down sobbing, feeling a deep, painful shame and inferiority about his physical disability for the first time.

"I'm afraid people will laugh at you."

"I'm afraid you'll think it's embarrassing to be loved by me."

"I..."

"I really, really like you."

Theme: Study hard and make progress every day.