Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Unfortunately, he was far too organized about everything.

He never left anything behind.

After school, I packed my bag more slowly than usual.

Only after Xie Yu said goodbye and walked out of the classroom did I dawdle after him.

People streamed back and forth through the hallway.

I followed behind Xie Yu,

keeping a steady, unhurried distance.

Stalking him.

This was the closest thing to “having” him that I could do.

He walked ahead, completely unaware of me.

He had no idea how greedily I was tracing the outline of his figure with my eyes.

No idea I was measuring the scent he left behind with every breath.

No idea how many shameful thoughts had already churned through my mind.

I was the only one looking at him like this.

With a greedy, filthy, prying gaze.

Like some secret conspiracy-even if he didn’t know it.

Clack.

I saw something fall from him.

I rushed forward,

and picked it up.

It was a brown leather charm, shaped like a leaf.

There was also a faint scent of orange blossom.

It was the charm from Xie Yu’s schoolbag.

It was his.

Something that carried his scent, something he had hung on his bag with his own hands, something he carried with him every day.

And now it was in my hand.

I clenched it tight, so tight my palm began to burn, as if I were holding on to some part of Xie Yu himself.

The stalking continued.

My steps grew light as I tried to catch up.

However.

All I saw was Xie Yu getting into a car.

The door shut.

By the time I ran after it, all I could see was the back of the car driving away.

“…”

I lowered my head and glanced at my own legs, then fell silent again.

“…”

Even if I ran myself to death eight times over, I still wouldn’t catch up to a car.

After I got home, I took out the leaf.

The dark brown leather leaf lay quietly in my palm.

I leaned in to smell it.

That orange blossom scent was still there, faint and soft.

As if he himself were right in front of me.

I reached out and touched it gently with one finger.

The subtle texture against my fingertip sent a tingling numbness through my heart.

If only, one day, I could touch him like this.

I stared at it for a long time.

Then I started to agonize.

Should I put it under my pillow? Hang it in front of my desk? Or hide it on my person?

After thinking it over,

I opened my phone, connected to the neighbor’s Wi-Fi, and opened an image recognition app.

I aimed it at the charm.

The result popped up.

A charm from a certain luxury brand. Official website price-seven thousand eight hundred.

Even on secondhand platforms, it was around four to five thousand.

…

I was silent for a while.

I really didn’t want to admit that, as a poor person, I had an almost instinctive sensitivity to money.

Three thousand was enough to open a criminal case.

Haha.

I cried my way through four sets of practice papers.