Summer in Your Name - 2
Pale Ghost
First Monday of August, senior-year students were starting early.
Affiliated High had a lot of boarders, and with that came a tradition: returning early for evening self-study before school officially began.
Sheng Xia rode her little electric scooter toward school, the wheels humming against the pavement, setting sun painting the sky behind her.
She hadn't dared mention the little "accident" to Sheng Mingfeng. Her father was the type to make pronouncements about things. He'd decide she “wasn't cut out for riding” and take the scooter away.
But she'd grown to love riding. The wind rushing past her face seemed to smooth out all the tangles in her head. After a few days of practice, she'd even started having these little bursts of adrenaline, and twisted the throttle all the way. In that instant of acceleration, the world would blur and recede around her, as if she'd slipped free of time and space, hurtling forward on her own private track.
On that track, she was the only one in control.
She'd named her ride Xiao Bai.
---
6:30 PM. Half an hour until evening self-study began. Sheng Xia arrived at the school bike shed, thinking she was early. To her surprise, the shed was already nearly full.
This, she supposed, was the self-discipline of a provincial key school. At No. 2 High, on the first day of semester, you'd be lucky if half the students even showed up, let alone arrived early.
Sheng Xia nudged Xiao Bai forward, searching for a spot. She was just about to give up and try the next building when she spotted a gap in the corner.
Two mountain bikes were angled haphazardly across the space, taking up enough room for four.
She left Xiao Bai in the pathway and went over to rearrange them.
The bikes had those big spoked wheels and no rear racks. She wasn't even sure how to grab hold.
Then, she noticed one of them wasn't locked. A backpack hung from the handlebars, the main compartment's zipper was half-open. Either it hadn't been pulled tight, or the owner had just plain forgotten.
Some people were really careless.
It looked like she'd have to angle it out and push it back in straight.
Carefully, she maneuvered the bike out, got it positioned, and was just about to slide it back into place when a voice barked behind her.
"Hey! Who are you? What are you doing?"
"Let go!"
Sheng Xia's head snapped up. Her hands, reacting before her brain, obeyed instantly—
Clatter. The bike, suddenly released, tipped toward the side with the bag, its contents spilled out of the half-open zipper in a cascade across the ground.
"You gotta be kidding me!" The boy who'd yelled jogged over, staring at the “tragedy” before him. "I said let go, not drop it! You—"
He stopped short when he saw the frozen, panicked girl. "You again?" He glanced back at the other boy, who was ambling over at a leisurely pace. "A-Shu, your bike..."
Sheng Xia had no idea where to put her hands. Should she pick up the bike first? Or the stuff from the backpack?
Her eyes darted to the mess on the ground. She was about to apologize when her brain simply… stopped.
The sight nearly finished her off.
Magazines. DVDs. Everywhere.
Oh god.
Her eyes went wide. She froze for two full seconds, then quickly looked away.
She couldn't read a word of the Japanese on those covers. But she didn't need to. Some things translated just fine without words.
All those… fair bodies. The suggestive poses, the expressions, the parts of the human anatomy even she, as a girl, actively tried not to look at…
Her heart hammered against her ribs, threatening to burst out. Her breath caught. Her brain was short-circuiting. The tips of her ears burned, and her face flushed a shade more vivid than the sunset.
Now she didn't know where to look. Her voice was gone. Her body and expression were locked in place. She could only stare at the approaching figures, like a prisoner awaiting judgment.
Both boys were tall, one thin, one heavy, a stark contrast. The heavier one was the one who'd yelled. The thin one walked unhurriedly behind him with a can of soda in his hand.
As they drew near, the shed's overhead light caught the dark crown of the thin boy's head. His tousled bangs framed a pair of lazy eyes. The corner of his mouth curved slightly into something almost a smile, but not quite.
He looked aloof.
The summer sunset deepened, a tapestry of purple and red spreading behind the boy, evening breeze rustled the leaves.
The world seemed to pause. The scene before her was like a painting.
Something about them felt familiar. Then, accident from a few days ago flashed through her mind.
She'd been too panicked then to notice what the boys looked like. She just remembered one heavy, one thin. Riding mountain bikes.
Just then, the heavier one grinned and gave her the answer.
"Hey, classmate. The scam didn't work, so you're changing tactics?"
It really was them.
"I'm sorry. I was just… trying to park." Not trying to knock over your bike and discover your secret stash.
She didn't say the last part out loud, of course.
Both boys glanced at the familiar white scooter parked nearby. The heavier one snorted. "Wow, still dare to ride that thing?”
The thin one didn't seem interested. He crouched, scooped up the scattered books and DVDs, and stuffed them back into the backpack.
Sheng Xia’s gaze unconsciously trailed after him, watching as those long fingers landed on those… unspeakable images.
He was just picking things up. But it made her blush all over again.
His movements were unhurried, not a trace of embarrassment at being “caught.”
When everything was packed, he zipped the bag, slung it over his shoulder, pushed the bike to the far edge of the space, and tipped his chin toward the spot. "There."
Then he stepped aside, leaned against the railing, and took a long pull from his soda can, his Adam's apple bobbed along with it. He looked unbothered.
Sheng Xia stood there stupidly for a second. "Oh."
She move to park her scooter as fast as she could, grabbed her bag, and fled. She didn't even manage a polite nod of thanks on her way out.
She just wanted to leave.
If she could turn back time, she'd gladly walk the extra few hundred meters and park at the second year building.
At first, she walked briskly, but after a few steps, she broke into a sprint, vanishing around the corner of the teaching building.
"What's her deal? It's like she's being hunted. This girl is hilarious. A-Shu, did you see that? Her hands were shaking like she's got a seizure. Hahaha, is it really that scary?"
"That's enough." Zhang Shu shot a look at the snickering Hou Junqi. "Why'd you have to yell at her?"
Hou Junqi's laugh died in his throat. He stared. "?"
Zhang Shu tossed the backpack at him. "If you hadn't made a fuss, nothing would've happened. You asking for trouble?"
Hou Junqi clutched his precious, hard-to-acquire treasures to his chest. The gravity of the situation finally hit him. "Wait. You don't think she'll tell on us, do you?"
Zhang Shu: "She won't."
“Good, good.” Hou Junqi exhaled in relief. “But how can you be so sure? What if she does?”
Zhang Shu's mind flickered to the girl's wide, watery eyes, her bloodless lips. "Does she look like she has the guts?”
The mere sight of it had terrified her. And she was supposed to tell the whole thing to someone else?
He didn't really get what there was to be scared of. But one thing was clear: it wasn't just shyness. She was genuinely freaked out.
Hou Junqi nodded. "True. Every time we run into her, she's shaking like a leaf. Hey, Shu, she’s crazy pale. Have you ever seen a girl that pale? I swear she's paler than Chen Mengyao. And with that long hair flying everywhere in the wind, if her face wasn't flushed red, she'd look like a pale ghost..."
Zhang Shu: “All that concern for other people, and not a pound lost.”
Hou Junqi: …
They sat on the railing, letting the evening breeze wash over them. Hou Junqi checked his watch. "Still not here. These losers. They better not expect this dad to deliver this to their classroom."
Zhang Shu's patience had clearly run thin too. "Text them again. Now or never. If they miss it, they can forget about begging this grandfather next time. Bell's about to ring."
Hou Junqi laughed. "You? Worried about being late? That’s rich.” It’s good enough he doesn’t report the school for holding extra classes.
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