Don't Remember My Name

[The full story is already written. Short story, expected to finish within a month of starting.]

[High school campus / BE / Shen He × Meng Zhaoyao]

Shen He had a record book.

It was filled with the same person's name.

"Meng Zhaoyao, Meng Zhaoyao, Meng Zhaoyao, Meng Zhaoyao, Meng Zhaoyao, Meng Zhaoyao..."

Once for Meng Zhaoyao being late to morning study. Once for passing notes during evening study. Once for getting into a fight...

After being summoned to the homeroom teacher's office for the Nth time, Meng Zhaoyao came back in a fury, carrying an egg pancake he'd gone out of his way to buy. He slapped it down on class monitor Shen He's desk and snapped, "It's hot. Eat it already."

"Don't write my name down again."

Meng Zhaoyao had never met anyone more ungrateful than Shen He.

He went out of his way to buy the egg pancake from Shen He's favorite shop, was late for morning study, and got his name written down.

He passed Shen He a note during evening study to ask if he wanted to go home together, and got his name written down.

He taught a student who'd been badmouthing Shen He behind his back a lesson, and got his name written down.

Shen He only ever said the same thing: "Study hard."

Fine. He'd study.

Little by little, Meng Zhaoyao's name appeared less and less in the record book.

Until it stopped appearing altogether.

On the eve of the college entrance exam, everyone in class started signing each other's uniforms.

Meng Zhaoyao's uniform was covered with names, except for the patch over his chest.

On the last day of the exams, Meng Zhaoyao skipped the graduation party that evening.

He dug out the record book he hadn't seen in ages and, imitating Shen He's handwriting, signed his name over the chest of his uniform.

Later, at the university he and Shen He had once planned to attend together, Meng Zhaoyao skipped class and took an overnight train back to celebrate Shen He's birthday at his grave.

His college roommate messaged him in the middle of the night: Damn, the class monitor wrote your name in the record book.

Reading those words, Meng Zhaoyao leaned against the cold tombstone, and time seemed to return to a few years ago.

The seventeen-year-old stood before the seventeen-year-old Shen He, furious. "Don't write my name down."

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