"Li Huaixu, I like you."
Qin Wangshu finally plucked up the courage to say these words, his voice as soft as if he was afraid of disturbing the cicadas chirping on a summer night.
"It's better for us... To be friends."
His answer was polite and distant, like an invisible wall that blocked out all her unspoken expectations.
--
Qin Wangshu had been secretly in love with Li Huaixu for two years. She thought those seemingly invisible tendernesses were special, until he lightly drew the line. After his confession was rejected, Qin Wangshu forced himself to forget all memories about the other party, and quickly eliminated everything about Li Huaixu.
Later, Li Huaixu discovered—
The figure that always followed him no longer appeared wherever he looked. And the empty space in his heart seemed to be passed through by the evening wind, silently, but bitingly cold.
--
"Qin Wangshu, we..."
"Li Huaixu," she interrupted him, "friends should not cross the line."
She thought she had given up long ago, but when he appeared in her sight again, her body was more honest than her memory. There was a slight muffled sound in the chest, not like a heartbeat, but more like the dull pain of an old injury being accidentally touched.
--It's not that I still like her, it's just that I liked her too hard and left sequelae.
◆Optimistic and stubborn × hindsight
Intention: On the way to pursue artistic dreams, those out-of-tune heartbeat moments will eventually compose the perfect harmony of youth