“Don’t tell me we’re love rivals?”
Before the words had even fully left his mouth, Fu Chun Shen’s gaze stabbed straight toward him, making Ren Yu’s scalp go numb.
Fu Chun Shen said nothing. After only a brief silence, he withdrew his gaze and turned his bicycle around.
“Sorry.” Ren Yu looked at his back, his tone full of sincerity. “I didn’t know you liked her too. We can compete fairly. If you win, I’ll back off.”
A long leg braced against the ground, bringing the bicycle wheel that had just begun turning to a stop.
Fu Chun Shen got off the bicycle and walked back toward him. In the most ordinary tone imaginable, he asked, “How are you planning to apologize?”
“I… I already apologized just now.”
“Just apologizing with your mouth? Fine.” Fu Chun Shen suddenly reached out, removed Ren Yu’s glasses, and smoothly covered his eyes with his palm.
The old alley was lined with rows of willow trees. In spring and summer, waves of green rolled through their branches, but once winter arrived, only bare willow twigs remained.
The willow branches were slender and supple, swaying gracefully whenever the wind blew. At that moment, Ren Yu felt as though one had lightly brushed against his lips.
The touch was so faint it almost seemed like an illusion. By the time Ren Yu pulled away from Fu Chun Shen’s hand, the willow branch had already drifted aside.
“You… what are you doing?”
His glasses were steadily placed back on his face, and Fu Chun Shen’s features became clear once more. In the dim light, the boy’s face looked especially cold and sharp, with a faint trace of red hidden in his eyes.
“What do you think I did?” Fu Chun Shen countered instead of answering.
Ren Yu brushed aside the willow branches and stepped back, replying with an evasive answer of his own. “These willow branches are so annoying. Always brushing around everywhere.”
After Fu Chun Shen left for the second time, he never came back.
From that day onward, Fu Chun Shen seemed to disappear completely from Ren Yu’s life. Not a single phone call came during winter break, and after school resumed, no one waited for him by the bicycle shed anymore. Those two weeks they had spent together seemed like nothing more than a shallow dream; once he woke, not even a trace remained.
Things continued like this until Ren Yu ranked first among the regular classes and was admitted into the elite class.
He moved to the top floor, started using the restroom filled with perfume fragrance, and naturally began seeing Fu Chun Shen often again. But Ren Yu’s mind was entirely occupied by Qiu Wei, while Fu Chun Shen treated him like air, not even sparing him a sidelong glance. Ren Yu was quite satisfied with the arrangement. Love rivals staying out of each other’s way made for a peaceful existence.
Occasionally, he would secretly compare himself with Fu Chun Shen. Their looks each had their own appeal. Ren Yu’s grades were slightly worse, but his personality was a little better than Fu Chun Shen’s. Although he too had a reputation for being arrogant and overbearing, he still fell within the category of a “normal person.” He had close friends, participated in club activities, and all in all possessed the warmth and vitality of someone genuinely alive.
Just when Ren Yu thought the two of them would continue coexisting peacefully, Fu Chun Shen suddenly placed a condom on his desk in full view of the entire class.
The condom had already been opened. It was cylindrical, with a protruding tip.
“You forgot this in the restroom.” Fu Chun Shen’s voice was flat and emotionless, yet the entire classroom instantly fell into dead silence.
Ren Yu pricked his finger on the point of his compass. Only when blood welled out did he finally feel the pain. Snapping out of his shock, he hurriedly explained, “It’s not mine.”
“It isn’t?” Fu Chun Shen looked mildly surprised. “I just saw you holding it in the restroom.”
Ren Yu’s face flushed bright red, and for a moment he was speechless. Blood stained the pages of his textbook. Fu Chun Shen took a bandage from his pocket and held it out to him. “In the future, remember to keep things like this properly stored. Don’t lose them again.”
The more he spoke, the worse it sounded. Ren Yu hurriedly explained again, “I… picked it up in the restroom.”
Fu Chun Shen, who never voluntarily interacted with anyone, slowly tore open the bandage beneath the entire class’s gaze and gently wrapped it around Ren Yu’s fingertip. His voice was clear enough for everyone to hear. “This thing is dirty. Don’t pick up other people’s used ones anymore.” Sharp inhales rose from every direction, and the entire classroom seemed to hold its breath at those words. Ren Yu’s face turned ashen. It took him a long while to find his voice again. “It was still unopened when I picked it up. I only opened it to take a look.”
Fu Chun Shen smoothed down both sides of the bandage and straightened. Sunlight streamed through the window and fell directly across his somewhat indifferent face, making his elegant bearing impossible to ignore.
His voice remained as calm as ever. “Mm. Got it.”
That day, Ren Yu never got another chance to explain himself. He swept the cylindrical rubber object into the trash can, then looked up and met the gaze of the girl he liked. She was still young and had not yet learned to conceal her emotions; the disgust and contempt on her face were painfully obvious.
Just like that, Ren Yu’s long-cherished first love came to nothing, while the rumors spread like wildfire, burning fiercer by the day.
“The condom was my teaching aid,” the physiology teacher later stepped forward to explain. “I accidentally dropped it in the restroom that day. Ren Yu was just curious and picked it up to take a look. It’s no big deal.”
But nothing changed. The girl Ren Yu liked still avoided him like the plague. Whenever other girls saw him, they either flattened themselves against the wall or changed direction entirely, like flowers encountering a boar or a swan spotting a toad.
＊
Fu Chun Shen lightly tapped his fingers against the bar counter, pulling Ren Yu out of his memories.
“You were the one who pursued me first back then,” Fu Chun Shen said flatly. Ren Yu sneered, his eyes full of ridicule. “Yeah, I pursued you, and we dated for half a month. Fu Chun Shen, what kind of couple doesn’t hold hands, hug, or kiss? Every day you walked me to my doorstep, said goodbye, and that counted as dating? Ten years ago, you were just fantasizing all by yourself!”
Fu Chun Shen didn’t argue. He merely lowered his eyes to his wristwatch as though watching the traces left by passing time. “November 7th, Dove hazelnut chocolate; November 19th, hardcover edition of Norwegian Wood; December 6th…” With every date he recited, Ren Yu’s grip around his glass tightened another fraction. “And on the back of that final Polaroid, you wrote, ‘I wish to be your Christmas gift.’”
The guitar strumming onstage suddenly intensified. Ren Yu abruptly downed half a glass of rum. The burning sensation spread from his throat to behind his ears as those long-buried details broke through the surface one after another. He really had written the date on every gift and signed each one with the single character “Yu.”
And Fu Chun Shen bringing all this up now amounted to only one rebuttal: You were the one who left those gifts. You were the one who pursued me. I wasn’t fantasizing.
“I really did mistake the person back then, but you took revenge by spreading sexual rumors about me and making every girl in school avoid me. Fu Chun Shen, you’re fucking vicious.”
“It wasn’t a rumor. It was the truth.”
“The truth is that I already threw the condom into the trash, and you dug it back out and brought it straight to me!”
Fu Chun Shen fell silent for a moment before suddenly asking, “Ren Yu, do you still remember that kiss from ten years ago?”
Ren Yu’s pupils abruptly contracted. He didn’t even stop Fu Chun Shen from removing his glasses. “That time… you really kissed me?”
Beside Ren Yu, willow branches seemed to sway again, carrying the bitter cold wind of years past as they lightly brushed across his lips, cold and soft. For ten whole years, he had repeatedly convinced himself that it had been nothing more than a ridiculous illusion. Only today did he realize it had merely been self-deception accumulated year after year.
“Mm.” Fu Chun Shen lowered his eyes halfway, his gaze falling on Ren Yu’s lips. “Do you still remember what it felt like?”
When no reply came, he continued as though following a program written in advance. “I don’t remember anymore either.”
Without any warning, Fu Chun Shen suddenly leaned forward and pulled Ren Yu tightly into his arms. One hand lifted Ren Yu’s chin, forcing him to tilt his head back and meet his gaze. There was not the slightest trace of gentleness or hesitation. The next instant, his lips came down hard. “Ren Yu, you’ve kept me on the hook for ten years. It’s time to reel me in.”