In the back row of Nancheng Middle School, Wang Luan and Zuo Kuan were once synonymous with "scumbag students" - passing notes in class to discuss last night's game, lying on the table after class to share a pair of headphones, their rankings on the report card hovering at the bottom all year round, making everyone sigh.
The turning point began one sultry evening. Zuo Kuan helped Wang Luan pick up the pen that fell on the ground. When he raised his head, he bumped into the other person's eyes looking down at him. The distance was so close that he could clearly see the dust on Wang Luan's eyelashes. At that moment, Zuo Kuan heard his heartbeat pounding against his chest, like a rabbit running amok inside.
From that day on, something quietly changed. When we were doing homework together, our elbows would "accidentally" touch each other. They were so hot that they wanted to shrink their hands, but they couldn't help but lean toward each other. When they were walking in the empty corridor after their evening self-study, the street lights made their shadows long, and Wang Luan would suddenly stop and say, "Shoelaces." "It's loose." When he knelt down to help Zuo Kuan tie it, the tips of his ears were so red that they were about to bleed; one time when he made progress in a mock test, Zuo Kuan gave Wang Luan the rewarded chocolate. The moment his fingertips touched, the two of them jumped away like an electric shock, but they couldn't hold back their laughter when they looked at each other.
The initials hidden on the back of the scratch paper, the playful touches during class, the excuse of "I still don't understand this question" on the phone late at night, and the louder and louder "thumping" sound in the chest accompanied them as they chewed up the paper of wrong questions and moved up the rankings little by little.
When he finally stood at the school gate with the 985 admission notice, Wang Luan suddenly bumped into Zuo Kuan's shoulder and said in a very soft voice: "My heartbeat disturbed me again just now."
Zuo Kuan didn't say anything, but quietly hooked his finger, letting the "bang bang" sound mix with the late summer wind and blow into the longer future.
Concept: Two straight men, from being scumbag students together, became comrades who rushed to 985 side by side.
They would grab the last half of an eraser and scold each other for having a "pig brain" in solving problems, but when the other party stayed up late to study the problem, they would secretly push the hand warmer over to them; they would raise their necks and laugh at each other's progress as "just like that", but when they saw the other party's name at the top of the list, they couldn't help but turn up the corners of their mouths.
Until one day, walking arm-in-arm across the playground, with the sun dazzling, Wang Luan suddenly found himself staring at Zuo Kuan's side face for too long - the "thumping" sound of his heartbeat seemed different from the usual scolding.
Later, while standing in the sun with the admission notice, Zuo Kuan bumped his arm: "Hey, something's wrong."
Wang Luan didn't look back, but his ears turned red: "Well, something is quite wrong."
It turns out that even steel is bent that day, hidden in countless "togethers", from brothers to people who want to be side by side for a lifetime.
