The afternoon sun streamed through the large glass windows, illuminating "Sweetheart Magic" dessert shop, making it bright and warm.
The air was filled with the sweet aroma of sugar, cream, and caffeine, while soothing light music flowed in the background.
Kael stood in front of the refrigerated display, his gaze lingering over rows of exquisitely cute small cakes.
A few days ago, Kiana, that girl, "accidentally" threw the shot put out of the standard field during PE class. Although he had managed to smooth things over with the excuse of "aging equipment," seeing her dejected little face afterward, secretly observing his expression, Kael decided to buy her a sweet treat to appease her...
"Which one should I choose...?"
He stroked his chin, uncharacteristically finding himself indecisive. The strawberry mousse looked good, and chocolate lava cake was also that girl's favorite...
Just then, the wind chimes at the dessert shop's entrance let out a crisp "ding-a-ling."
Kael subconsciously looked up.
With just one glance, he froze in place as if under a spell.
The person who walked in was a young girl.
She wore a well-tailored everyday dress, but her unique aura could not be concealed by ordinary clothing.
Her waist-length purple hair, like the finest silk, shimmered with a lustrous glow in the sunlight.
Her skin was so fair it was almost translucent, and her features were as exquisite as an artisan's carefully crafted artwork.
However, what made Kael's heart stop was her eyes.
Brilliant gold, like molten gold, yet so cold there was no warmth in them.
They calmly swept over the shop's interior, carrying a sense of aloofness and superiority, as if everything around her was irrelevant.
Sirin.
It really was her.
Not a photo, but a living, breathing Sirin, standing less than ten meters in front of him!
Kael's mind went blank instantly. He could even hear the sound of his blood rushing through his eardrums, thumping loudly.
He almost instinctively snapped his head back, staring intently at the colorful cakes in the refrigerated display, as if he could discern something profound from them.
'She can't see me, she can't see me, she can't see me...'
He prayed frantically inside, his body taut like a fully drawn bowstring.
It wasn't that he didn't want to acknowledge her; it was just that Kiana was still outside the shop.
He didn't dare to gamble that if he acknowledged Sirin now, she wouldn't get jealous like she used to when she was little, and then cause a huge commotion...
That familiar urge to immediately flee the scene surged over him.
But his feet were rooted to the spot, unable to move.
Sirin didn't seem to notice him in the corner.
She walked straight to the counter, her voice clear and cool, like colliding jade, betraying no emotional fluctuations, and told the staff: "One steamed egg. No green onions."
"Alright, please wait a moment," the staff member replied with a smile.
From the corner of his eye, Kael could clearly see Sirin's profile.
She stood there quietly, her posture tall, yet exuding an aloofness that warned others to keep their distance.
This was a completely different person from the little girl in his memory who would huddle in his arms for warmth, and whose eyes would redden over trivial matters.
His heart felt as if an invisible hand was tightly gripping it, both aching and astringent.
She ordered steamed egg... Did she still have that habit?
Sirin paid and took the packaged steamed egg, but she didn't leave immediately.
She seemed to... turn her head slightly, her gaze subtly sweeping in Kael's direction.
Kael's heart skipped a beat. He quickly lowered his head, pretending to study the ingredient list of a matcha cake, silently thinking: 'It's a coincidence, it must be a coincidence...'
That cool gaze lingered on him for less than half a second before moving away.
Just as Kael breathed a sigh of relief, he heard Sirin add another sentence to the staff, her voice still flat: "And... one Black Forest cake."
'Black Forest?' Kael was startled.
He remembered that Sirin didn't like chocolate-flavored things much when she was little, finding them too bitter. Had her taste changed?
He dared not look again, only able to stand rigidly in place, feeling every second drag on endlessly.
He could clearly sense the low pressure emanating from Sirin, cold and powerful, completely different from the fragile aura he remembered.
Just then, the dessert shop door was suddenly pushed open again, accompanied by an energetic, almost noisy voice:
"Kael! You're too slow! Has This Young Miss's cake been chosen yet?!"
It was Kiana.
She had probably grown impatient and came looking for him directly.
This shout was like a huge stone thrown into a calm lake.
Kael clearly saw Sirin, who was facing away from them and about to leave, suddenly stop in her tracks! Her body stiffened imperceptibly for a moment.
Kiana was completely oblivious to the subtle atmosphere in the shop. She bounded over to Kael in a few steps, grabbed his arm, and complained, shaking it: "I've been waiting for you forever! Are you seeing things? I want the one with strawberries! The biggest one!"
Kael felt a tingling sensation where Kiana was holding his arm. He could almost feel the cold gaze behind him suddenly sharpen, like a tangible object pinning him to his back.
He opened his mouth, wanting to stop Kiana, but it was already too late.
"Kael—!" Kiana dragged out his name, calling it out loudly again with a hint of a whine, "Hurry up!"
"Fu... Chen...?"
An extremely faint, trembling voice, barely audible, came from the direction of the door.
The voice was very soft, yet it exploded in Kael's ears like a clap of thunder.
He stiffly, slowly, turned around.
Sirin, who had already had one foot out the door, had completely turned around at some point.
She was still holding the paper bag containing the steamed egg and cake, but her originally cold and indifferent golden eyes were now violently turbulent, like an icy lake into which a stone had been thrown!
She stared fixedly at Kael's face, her pupils contracting to their extreme in an instant.
Her gaze was filled with extreme shock, bewilderment, confusion, and a complex mix of incredulous ecstasy and fear, like a dying person seeing a lifeline.
She looked at Kael for a long time.
Her gaze swept over him inch by inch, from his brows and eyes, to his nose, and then to his lips, as if to confirm whether this was truly not an illusion.
From initial bewilderment, to a confirming scrutiny, and then to a gradually emerging shock and wavering.
Finally, all emotions converged into a fiercely burning flame that erupted from her golden eyes!
"!!!!!!!"
She didn't cry out, but her violently fluctuating gaze and slightly parted, bloodless lips said it all.
She recognized him.
At the moment Kiana called out his name, at the moment she clearly saw his face.
She recognized the person who should have "died" thirteen years ago.
Kael looked at the intense emotions in her eyes, almost overflowing with immense shock and a sense of something lost and found, his throat felt constricted, and he couldn't utter a single word.
Their eyes met, and time seemed to freeze at that moment.
Kiana finally belatedly sensed that something was wrong. She looked at Kael's unusually grim expression, then at the impossibly beautiful but frightening-eyed purple-haired big sister at the door. Her hand, which was holding Kael's arm, unconsciously loosened a little, and she mumbled, "...What's wrong?"
Sirin ignored Kiana.
Her gaze remained locked on Kael, her chest rising and falling slightly, her knuckles white from gripping the paper bag too tightly.
After a few seconds of deathly silence.
Sirin suddenly turned around, almost stumbling, and hurried out of the dessert shop without looking back, her purple hair tracing a hasty arc at the doorway.
"Huh? Why did she leave?" Kiana tilted her head, looking utterly bewildered.
Kael watched Sirin's disappearing back at the door, his heart a mix of emotions.
He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his turbulent feelings, and quickly told the staff: "Excuse me, I'll have that strawberry mousse, to go."
He just wanted to leave here as soon as possible now.
After paying and picking up the packaged cake, Kael practically dragged the still-confused Kiana out of the dessert shop.
The afternoon sun was a bit dazzling. The streets were bustling with traffic and noisy with people.
But Kael's heart was in a mess.
Sirin's reaction... was unlike any scenario he had anticipated.
There was no cold questioning, no indifferent disregard, but rather that kind of... immense shock as if her worldview had been overturned, and... excitement?
As he was thinking, his mind in turmoil, a clear voice with a barely perceptible tremor suddenly called out to him from behind:
"Wait... wait a moment!"
Kael's footsteps instantly froze.
He slowly, with difficulty, turned his head.
Sirin was standing a few steps behind them.
She seemed to have run to catch up, her breathing still slightly uneven, and her golden eyes were no longer cold, but filled with urgency, a need for confirmation, and an almost humble plea, locking onto him firmly.
The sunlight spilled over her, but it couldn't dispel the intense emotions that had suddenly erupted around her, so different from her previous indifference.
She looked at him, her lips moving a few times, before she managed to ask the question she seemed to have gathered all her courage to voice, in a trembling, extremely cautious tone:
"Please... please... are you... are you...?"
Her voice grew softer and softer, almost inaudible in the end, but her golden eyes, fixed tightly on him, were filled with a contradiction of longing and fear of hearing the answer.
"...Brother?"