The Begonias Are Still Awake

"He was the brightest star of her youth, yet no one saw the path of his fall."

"Everyone loved Pei Qinghuai, who played guitar and ruled the field. Only Tang Li had seen him curled up in a corner, trembling during an episode."

(I love your brilliance, but I love your vulnerability even more.)

Tang Li is a science prodigy whose chemistry, physics, and biology scores have held the top spot in her grade for years. Others look up to her as someone who seems to master every subject without effort, but she, too, has secretly cried over math at night. "Tears soaked the scratch paper. I swore I'd get 140."

Pei Qinghuai is the golden boy in her eyes: he can play guitar and sing, and he's the center of attention on the soccer field. Deep in his ink-black eyes lies exhaustion and vulnerability.

No one knows that in the very back of his drawer, he keeps a stack of lyrics his mother tore up and he painstakingly pieced back together. On the back of every page, her name is written over and over.

"Between them was a game of pretense, each knowing what the other was hiding."

She pretended not to notice the lyrics in the margins of his physics notes. He pretended not to notice the love poems on her scratch paper.

Throughout their three years of high school, she was the girl who sneaked glances at him playing soccer beneath the crabapple trees, while he was the lead singer who didn't dare sing for her beneath the guitar strings.

"The crabapple blossoms remember every secret: every time she pretended to run into him, every glance he stole at her, and the 'I like you' neither of them ever said aloud."

- Mutual pining | A youth spent healing one another

Family pressure and inner turmoil | "We were both pretending to be the person the other loved."

"Tang Li, the night before he transferred, he returned the dried crabapple blossom to her. 'Science is your battlefield, but it was never mine.'"

Reunion

Pei Qinghuai, now the lead singer of a famous band, is forced by his manager to undergo therapy. The moment he pushes open the clinic door, he freezes.

Tang Li's music player suddenly squeals. The playlist has just reached "Crabapple Blossoms Awake All Night."

He: "Dr. Tang, you listen to underground bands like this?"

She: "...I'm just studying music therapy."

Theme: Crabapple blossoms have no fragrance, so I burn in silent stillness. The world is cold, but your guitar warms every star.