I Had a Crush on Him for Three Years, and He Was Secretly Watching Me Too

At Sheng Weiliya High School, Song Yi of Class 2-7 had a secret no one knew. Every day after the second afternoon class, she took a detour past the basketball court. She walked slowly with her head down, pretending to look at her phone. In truth, she kept her eyes on the boy in the white jersey, watching him out of the corner of her eye. His name was Zhou Yan. Class 2-1, top of their grade, captain of the basketball team, and first place in the school forum’s “Top Ten Handsome Guys” poll. No one at school dared to mess with him, and no one disputed his place at the top. She had been drawing him for three years. The last page of her sketchbook was filled with his profile. She had kept a diary for three years, every page devoted to him. She thought it was a one-sided crush. She had no idea that a gaze was always fixed on her from three rows behind. Zhou Yan had known her since kindergarten. He had liked her since kindergarten. But since eighth grade, he had not spoken to her once. She thought he hated her. He didn’t know how to tell her: every day, he took the long way past her classroom, waited at the basketball court for her to pass, and watched her from afar in the cafeteria. He had saved over a thousand photos of her on his phone. He had kept a diary for three years, every page devoted to her. He had bought the painting she made at fifteen, “Plane Tree,” and hung it in the innermost room on the second floor of the art museum. From that window, he could see the plane tree beside the basketball court. He had waited for her for ten years. She had waited for him for three. Separated by three years of silence, they had spent all that time secretly watching each other. Until one day, she left her sketchbook in the library. He found it.