"Yutong told me," I said, lowering my voice.
The corners of my lips curved upward unconsciously. "You're... Shen Yuze?"
He nodded, moving his chin up and down in affirmation. Then, for an incredibly brief moment—so subtle it was almost impossible to notice—his gaze shifted and came to rest on the boy sitting to his right.
Their faces looked as though they had been molded from the exact same cast. Their eyes carried the same sharp shape. But within one floated the warm glow of a gentle morning sun, while within the other—there was a dense silence, one that concealed itself with remarkable elegance.
"I'm Lin Anxi," I introduced myself politely.
"I know," he replied with complete simplicity. There wasn't the slightest hint of pretense in his voice.
I was just about to laugh when an odd shiver crawled across my skin. My pupils slowly shifted toward the right.
Shen Yichen.
For one extremely brief, almost invisible moment, he lifted his eyes from his book and looked toward Shen Yuze. Not a single muscle on his face moved, nor did his lips part. He immediately submerged himself back into the open pages of his book.
He didn't say anything.
Yet there was something in that silent glance that I couldn't quite understand. Whether it was indifference or something else... it was impossible to tell.
The bell rang, and the class officially began.
The teacher's monotonous voice floated through the background like a thin layer of fog. The nib of my pen moved continuously across the pages of my notebook, but my mind stood at an incredibly strange crossroads.
To my right—
A chilling, numbing silent presence.
To my left—
A warm, curious, friendly gaze.
And I—
A stranger trapped exactly between the two.
I pressed my palms a little more firmly against the desk, reminding myself,
'Lin Anxi, you came here to focus on your studies. Not to weave stories.'
But some stories don't wait to be written on paper.
They simply begin...
...whether you want them to or not.
The moment the bell announcing the end of class rang loudly, the silence blanketing the room shattered all at once. It felt as though someone had suddenly pressed the play button, bringing the entire classroom back to life.
Chairs scraped loudly across the floor.
Heavy textbooks snapped shut.
Whispers and laughter floated through the air.
I closed my notebook as well and slowly, almost mechanically, placed the cap back onto my pen.
Then, my eyes unconsciously drifted toward my right.
Shen Yichen still hadn't moved from his seat.
His book had already been closed.
He folded both of his arms across the desk and casually rested his head on them. His eyelids were completely shut.
He had fallen asleep.
Seeing someone sleep so naturally amid the noise of dozens of students and the short interval before the next teacher arrived felt strangely unbelievable. It was as though none of the chaos inside the classroom could ever reach his world.
For several seconds, I quietly watched his lowered neck and peaceful face.
'How can someone be so indifferent to the entire world?'
I quietly looked away.
From the far corner of the classroom, Xiaoran's and Lu Jingkai's loud voices echoed clearly.
"You didn't copy a single note from the blackboard!" Xiaoran said, tapping his empty desk with her finger.
"I memorized all of them here," Lu Jingkai replied innocently, gently brushing the collar of his blazer.
"That doesn't count in exams, Mr. Lu!"
"It does, Gu Xiaoran. It absolutely does."
Their argument carried such a familiar rhythm that it was obvious this was part of their everyday routine.
A faint smile appeared on my lips.
I looked a little farther ahead, where Tang Yuwei sat alone at her desk, carefully organizing her files.
I stood up from my seat and walked toward her with measured steps.
Stopping in front of her desk, I put a small, friendly smile on my face.
"Hi."
She raised her eyelids.
Her gaze rested on my face for a single moment before returning to her files without any visible reaction.
The silence surrounding her felt unusually heavy.
She didn't answer.
I remained standing there for a long pause, my fingers intertwined tightly with one another, before turning back toward my seat.
I unzipped my school bag and pretended to search for something inside.
'It's only the first day, Anxi. Not everything changes so easily.'
I quietly reminded myself.
"Didn't you like sitting beside me at all?"
The sudden voice startled me.
I hadn't even realized when Shen Yuze had walked over and stopped in front of my desk.
The same easygoing expression rested on his face, one that made it obvious he simply didn't know how to make situations feel awkward.
Yet hidden beneath his direct question was genuine curiosity.
Looking up, I gripped the strap of my school bag.
"The teacher ordered me to sit here."
"I know."
He rested one hand casually on the corner of my desk.
"But why didn't you try refusing?"
'Because even if I had refused... what would have changed?'
I thought silently.
I simply shrugged both shoulders.
"I didn't have another choice."
A faint smile appeared on his face at my straightforward honesty.
"We're neighbors."
"Yeah."
"So... you've never seen me around the neighborhood before?"
He raised one eyebrow slightly.
For a moment, I searched through yesterday afternoon's memories.
"No. Never."
That was completely true.
I had seen little Yutong.
I had seen their mother.
And...
I had seen one more person.
But I hadn't learned his name until much later.
Shen Yuze had just parted his lips to ask another question.
"So, how do you like this new city—"
"Do all of you come here just to chat, or are you actually here to study?"
A voice interrupted.
It was unbelievably cold.
Flat.
And so heavy that the temperature inside the classroom seemed to drop several degrees in an instant.
The conversations taking place in small groups throughout the classroom came to an abrupt stop in the very same moment.I turned my head to the right.
Shen Yichen was now sitting perfectly upright. His eyes were open, and his left palm rested on top of the closed book lying on the desk. His cold gaze first shifted toward Xiaoran, who was arguing with Lu Jingkai in the distance. Then it swept across the faces of the other students before finally—
—it stopped directly on me.
One second.
Just one second.
But there was nothing inside those pupils.
No curiosity.
No recognition.
No resentment.
It was merely a dry, mechanical observation, as though he had looked at me and dismissed me as nothing more than a worthless piece of junk.
Then his gaze shifted and settled directly on Shen Yuze's face.
And in that moment, for the very first time, something surfaced in his eyes.
Something I couldn't give a name to.
It wasn't a warning.
Nor was it affection.
It was simply a pause that silently said—
'Enough.'
Shen Yuze received that look without looking away.
The easy, friendly looseness that had rested on his face until now stiffened for an incredibly brief moment.
His jaw tightened ever so slightly.
Not a single word passed between the two brothers.
Yet within that silence, something impossibly heavy floated through the air inside the classroom.
Something old.
Something deeply complicated.
Shen Yichen looked away and returned to turning the pages of his book.
Shen Yuze paused for a long moment, looked at me one last time—his eyes still carrying that same mysterious expression I couldn't read—and then quietly, without making the slightest sound, walked back to his seat.
Little by little, the classroom returned to normal.
Voices gradually came back.
Xiaoran and Lu Jingkai resumed arguing about something once again.
But I...
I remained sitting there, numb, for several long moments.
To my right—
That boy had once again locked himself inside his own closed world, as though nothing had happened here at all.
To my left—
There was Shen Yuze's broad back, completely calm and motionless.
These two people...
I slowly let out the breath I had been holding, picked up my pen, and turned to the next page of my notebook.
At the very edge of the page, beside the thin margin line, I wrote in tiny, delicate handwriting—
"Two people. The same faces. But completely different eyes. One carries the light of the morning... and the other's hold something that never allows that light to enter."
I stopped my pen right there.
My fingers tightened slightly around the paper.
'These are only notes for a future story.'
'Nothing more.'
I tried to convince myself.
But at that moment...
...the place where my gaze remained fixed wasn't the blank page of my notebook at all.
— Chapter 3 End —