[In a tiny corner she never noticed, silently coming and going.]

“What am I doing?” he coldly retorted. “Zhou Leqi, what are you doing?”

He emphasized the word “you,” his tone clearly accusatory. But Zhou Leqi was baffled and asked him, “Me? What did I do?”

They were like chickens and ducks talking past each other.

Hou Zihao’s frustration gave him a headache. He no longer had the patience for convoluted reasoning and decided to cut straight to the point: “If he wants to have dinner with you and tells me to leave, does that mean I’m interrupting your romance or something?”

Zhou Leqi found this utterly absurd: “What are you talking about? Pei Qiming and I are just classmates—what romance?”

Hou Zihao sneered bitterly, his anger flaring even more: “Just classmates? Can’t you see he likes you?”

Zhou Leqi was equally exasperated: “Can you stop making things up? We’ve been classmates for three years—how could I not know if he likes me?”

“You don’t know anything,” Hou Zihao snapped. “You once thought I was trying to harm you when I got close to you. Now suddenly you’re an expert at reading people?”

Zhou Leqi was left speechless.

Hou Zihao took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, and continued as calmly as possible: “Fine, I don’t care whether he likes you or not. What I care about is whether you like him. Earlier, you wanted to have dinner alone with him—does that mean you’re considering accepting him?”

At this point, Zhou Leqi’s temper began to flare.

She had already been feeling conflicted because of Pei Qiming’s sudden return to their high school. And now Hou Zihao was harping on these irrelevant accusations—why was he interrogating her like this? She hadn’t done anything wrong!

Her response became equally sharp: “Whether I eat with him or what we talk about during dinner—it’s my own business. What does it have to do with you? How dare you question me like this?”

The phrase “How dare you” was particularly cutting.

It served as a reminder, emphasizing to him that he had never truly won her heart. Worse still, it made him realize for the first time that perhaps no matter how much time passed, no matter how many times he tried, no matter how deeply he loved her, she might never accept his pursuit.

When emotions were calm, Hou Zihao would never view the situation so pessimistically. But now, both of them were caught in the heat of the moment, and her “How dare you” stung deeply. For the first time, he felt a profound sense of exhaustion, fearing that her answer to him would always be rejection.

Young boys lack the experience to handle panic and pessimism simultaneously. At emotional crossroads, they often succumb to anger, which only leads to worse outcomes.

His voice grew sharp as he shot back: “How dare I? Zhou Leqi, you’re asking me how dare I?”

He exploded.

“Fine, maybe I don’t have any right. But does that mean your Tsinghua classmate does? Do you really think he genuinely likes you? If he cared about you, where was he last year or the year before? Now, with less than six months until the college entrance exam, he suddenly shows up here to boost his presence. Do you think he actually cares about your future?”

“Yeah, he’s successful now, but honestly, big deal—Tsinghua isn’t that hard to get into. Being the city’s top scorer is basically just being the best in our school. Who hasn’t been number one at some point?”

“Or maybe there’s something between you two—you like him?”

“Zhou Leqi, can you be fair? Is this how you treat me just because I started school two years later than him?”

A torrent of words poured out.

He was speaking irrationally, yet even in this near-uncontrollable state, he instinctively protected her. He didn’t bring up the painful experiences she had endured, nor did he use the countless times he’d helped her as leverage in their argument.

He liked her so, so much.

But this protection was invisible, and Zhou Leqi, swept up in her own emotions, failed to notice his bias toward her. She grew angrier, finding him increasingly unreasonable, and retorted: “Can you stop dragging Pei Qiming into everything? What does this have to do with him? I’m just meeting him to talk about the necklace...”

She suddenly stopped herself, realizing too late that mentioning the necklace might make Hou Zihao even angrier.

But it was too late—he had already heard her.

“A necklace?” His fury reached new heights. “You wouldn’t even tell me your birthday, but you accepted his birthday gift?”

Zhou Leqi was stunned—she hadn’t mentioned anything about a birthday. How did Hou Zihao know it was a birthday present?

Seeing her shocked expression, Hou Zihao immediately understood what she was thinking. He muttered a curse under his breath, then violently unzipped his backpack, almost aggressively pulling out a gift box and tossing it at her. His attitude was at its worst: “You didn’t tell me, so I figured it out myself. I just didn’t want to upset you, so I held off giving it to you. Who would’ve guessed that you don’t dislike receiving gifts—you just hate receiving mine!”

His shadow stretched long under the streetlight.

Zhou Leqi suddenly didn’t know what to say.

She caught the gift box he threw at her but didn’t have time to examine its contents. Instead, she was overwhelmed by the person standing in front of her. Should she feel happy about his thoughtfulness? Of course not—they were still fighting. But could she stay angry at him? Even less so, because she once again felt just how good he was to her.

He was overwhelmingly kind… far beyond what she had expected.

They both fell silent, each breathing heavily after their heated argument. The white puffs of breath were stark against the cold night air, lingering briefly before vanishing.

With them disappeared Hou Zihao’s patience.

He kept waiting for her to speak, even just a comforting word—or none at all, just a hint would suffice. He feared she had no way to back down, so he had given her the gift he’d hidden for days, hoping it might prompt her to say something. But minutes passed, and she remained silent.

He couldn’t interpret her silence anymore. No matter how he thought about it, he believed it meant she was rejecting him.

Her silence might simply mean she didn’t want to talk to him, or perhaps she didn’t know what to say. She knew he liked her, but maybe she had decided to choose someone else. Perhaps she felt guilty about him and didn’t know how to face him anymore.

Had he made her uncomfortable…?

Hou Zihao sighed inwardly, and the false anger slowly melted away. Only then did he realize he wasn’t truly angry—he was just afraid and powerless at the prospect of losing her.

Suddenly, he couldn’t bear to face her either. For the first time, he said nothing and turned to leave before her.

That evening, Zhou Leqi took the bus home alone.

On the swaying bus, she stared out at the flickering neon lights. Only then did she fully grasp the terrifying power of habit: she had grown unused to being alone.

Being alone used to give her a sense of security, but now it felt awkward. She realized she had grown accustomed to having someone beside her—a person who talked to her, whose subtle gaze made her feel cared for without being intrusive.

That person was so warm… He had saved her life, helped her through countless unspeakable difficulties, and given her companionship beyond measure. Those were the little notes passed back and forth in class, the sudden “goodnight” text messages late at night.

He had given her so much.

She suddenly missed him desperately, longing to hug him tightly and claim him as hers. But now he was angry, and she didn’t even know what she had done wrong—only that he had left.

...Perhaps he had finally realized she wasn’t worth his affection?

Silently, she lowered her head and looked at the gift box he had thrown at her earlier.

Her fingers trembled inexplicably, a complex mix of excitement and fear slowly wrapping around her. It was as if something inside her both urged and hesitated to untie the beautiful ribbon on the box.

After five minutes of effort, she finally mustered the courage to open it.

...Inside was a small rechargeable hand warmer, pink and compact.

Underneath it was a card with his familiar handwriting—slightly messy but elegant:

“Just over a hundred yuan, really not expensive.

Happy birthday.”

Zhou Leqi didn’t know why she suddenly smiled, nor why her vision blurred afterward.

Was it because she was happy he had somehow learned her birthday despite everything? Was it because she was touched that he remembered every word she said? Or was it simply... because she was increasingly missing him for reasons she couldn’t articulate?

She carefully took the small hand warmer out of the box and meticulously stored the box and card in her bag. Turning it on, it quickly warmed up, emitting steady heat into her icy palms like a little sun generously sharing its warmth.

Just like him… staying by her side on a cold winter night.

This small hand warmer was magical—it not only made Zhou Leqi feel warm but also gave her courage. As she walked alone through the dark, narrow alleys of her neighborhood and the dim stairwell of her apartment building, she didn’t feel afraid despite Hou Zihao’s absence today. Even the pitch-black corridor leading to her apartment didn’t frighten her.

The warmth in her palms provided her with constant support. While it comforted her, it also filled her with unease: what if… what if he wouldn’t forgive her this time? If she lost him… what would she do?

Caught between bittersweet emotions and uncertainty, she climbed the stairs alone. The old motion-activated lights flickered on and off floor by floor, plunging her surroundings back into darkness once she entered her home.

She never noticed that the boy who had always been by her side was still nearby today.

In a tiny corner she never saw, silently coming and going.