(POV : 𝙻𝚒𝚗 𝚃𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚡𝚒𝚗)
They say childhood passes before you even realize it was happening. But for me, it was loud. Messy. Full of scraped knees, mango stains, and the same three faces I saw everyday without fail.
We lived in a small neighborhood in Huali Town, where everyone's windows stayed open in summer and secrets floated through afternoon winds like dandelion seeds. Every morning, before the sun got too hot, I'd run barefoot to the big banyan tree at the corner—where they'd all be waiting.
Lin Junxi gege would be first to roll his eyes. "You're late again, drama queen", he'd say, adjusting his cap like a movie star.
Zhou Rui would offer me her last candy quietly, and I'd pretend not to see her shy smile.
And then, of course...
There was him.
Shan Jiasheng
The boy with a slingshot in one pocket, mischief in both etes, and a brain full of dumb ideas that somehow always became my fault. He was the reason I got scolded at least three times a week. But he was also the one who pulled me out of every puddle I fell into – with that annoying smirk on his face.
We played until the skies turned orange and our mother shouted from their windows. We fought, teased, laughed, and sometimes cried when no one was looking. Back then, I didn't know what love meant. I only knew that whenever Jiasheng wasn't there, something felt incomplete.
And I swear, at that time, we really believed we'd never grow up.