The playground in September was as hot as a steamer.
After a brief warm-up, the gym teacher announced free time. The boys played ball while the girls jumped rope, a standard routine for killing time.
Lin Mo was pulled into a three-on-three half-court basketball game.
Dribble, pass, pull-up jumper.
His muscle memory was still there, and his movements were relatively fluid.
As he made his third shot, he subconsciously glanced toward the sycamore trees at the edge of the playground.
She was there.
Su Ran sat on a bench in the shade. A thick book was spread across her lap, but her gaze was clearly not on the pages.
The distance was too great to see her expression clearly, but Lin Mo could feel that gaze. It was like a physical thread, winding around his every move.
“Lin Mo! Catch!”
In that moment of distraction, the ball slammed into his shoulder and bounced away.
“Dammit, what are you spacing out for!” a teammate complained.
“Sorry.” Lin Mo rubbed his shoulder and ran to retrieve the ball.
When he looked up again, Su Ran had already stood up.
She closed her book and walked toward the campus store. Her pace was quick, her ponytail swinging behind her head.
Feeling a stir in his heart, Lin Mo tossed the ball to his teammate and followed her.
“I’m going to get some water.”
There was a line at the campus store. Su Ran stood at the back of the queue, looking down at her phone.
Lin Mo stood behind her, keeping the distance of one person between them.
He could see the dense text on her phone—it was a memo, though he couldn’t see the content.
When it was her turn, she said, “Two bottles of mineral water, cold ones.”
Her voice was very soft, but Lin Mo heard it.
The shopkeeper took the water from the freezer. “Three dollars.”
Su Ran handed over a five-dollar bill.
As the woman reached for change, Su Ran suddenly added, “I also need a pack of Band-Aids.”
“Which kind? Regular or waterproof?”
“Waterproof.”
She stuffed the water, the Band-Aids, and her change into her backpack. When she turned around, she nearly collided with Lin Mo.
The moment their eyes met, her pupils visibly constricted like a startled cat.
“Ex… excuse me.” She tried to sidestep him.
Lin Mo didn’t move. “Classmate Su Ran.”
Su Ran stopped instantly, her shoulders tensing up.
“Can you get a bottle of water for me too?” Lin Mo smiled. “I forgot to bring my money.”
In truth, he had his wallet in his pocket; he just wanted to test something.
Su Ran stared at him for several seconds, a span of time that felt like a century.
She lowered her head and pulled out one of the cold bottles she had just bought, handing it over sheepishly.
“Here.”
“Thanks.”
Lin Mo took it, his fingertips accidentally brushing the back of her hand.
She pulled her hand back as if burned and hurried away.
“Wait.” Lin Mo called out to her. “I’ll pay you back tomorrow.”
“No need,” Su Ran said without looking back.
“I have to.” Lin Mo raised his voice. “I don’t like being in debt to others.”
Su Ran’s footsteps faltered. She still didn’t look back, but she gave a tiny nod. It was such a small gesture that Lin Mo almost thought he’d imagined it.
***
During the second half of the basketball game, Lin Mo played absentmindedly.
That bottle of cold water sat by the court, the condensation dripping down the sides and forming a small, dark puddle on the ground.
Each time they took a break, he took a sip and subconsciously looked toward the sycamore tree.
Su Ran was back on the bench. Her book was open, but she hadn’t turned a single page in 10 minutes.
With 15 minutes left in the period, Lin Mo intentionally took a tumble while vying for the ball.
His knee scraped the ground, tearing a small patch of skin and oozing a bit of blood.
“Are you okay?” His teammates gathered around.
“I’m fine.” Lin Mo waved them off and limped toward the sideline.
He sat on the bench, looking down to inspect the wound.
Just then, a slender shadow draped over him, accompanied by a pleasant, clean scent.
Lin Mo looked up to see Su Ran standing in front of him.
With the sun at her back, she held the waterproof Band-Aids she had just bought, awkwardly tearing open the packaging.
“You— ” Lin Mo started to say something, but he was interrupted.
“Don’t move.” Su Ran knelt down and peeled off the adhesive backing.
From this angle, Lin Mo could see her downcast eyelashes. They were long and trembling slightly.
Her fingers were very cool. As she applied the Band-Aid, her touch brushed against the skin of his knee like a feather.
“Thank you,” Lin Mo said softly and sincerely.
Su Ran didn’t respond. She finished applying the Band-Aid, stood up, and brushed the dust off her skirt.
“Boys exercise a lot…” She suddenly spoke, her voice so soft it caught Lin Mo off guard. “You need to replenish your electrolytes in time. Just drinking water isn’t enough; sports drinks are better.”
After saying that, Su Ran turned and walked away quickly, her silhouette looking almost like she was fleeing in a panic.
Lin Mo looked down at the Band-Aid on his knee. It was blue, printed with a cartoon puppy pattern.
It didn’t match her usual simple style of black, white, and gray at all.
Lin Mo remembered his past life. Once, while working overtime late at night, he had bumped into the corner of a desk and scraped his knee.
The next day, Su Ran had “coincidentally” passed by his workstation and dropped off a box of imported waterproof Band-Aids, leaving without a word.
At the time, he had only found it creepy.
Now he finally understood—that had been an act of direct concern that she had practiced many times before daring to carry out.
The afternoon bell suddenly seemed a bit loud.
Lin Mo stood up. The Band-Aid on his knee fit perfectly, with no edges peeling up.
As he walked back to the locker room, he saw a familiar wrapper in the hallway trash can. it was a lemon candy wrapper, smoothed out perfectly and folded into a tiny square.
‘She ate the candy.’
***
It began to rain lightly as school let out.
Lin Mo hadn’t brought an umbrella and stood under the eaves of the teaching building, waiting for the rain to stop.
His self-proclaimed best friend, Chen Yu, had bolted long ago. Before leaving, he had brandished his umbrella and winked. “It’s not right for two dudes to share one umbrella. Why don’t you walk with Su Ran? I think she has one.”
Lin Mo ignored him.
The hallway gradually emptied, and the sky darkened, but the rain showed no sign of stopping.
Just as he was considering making a dash for it, he heard soft footsteps behind him.
He turned around, and it really was Su Ran.
She stood 3 meters away, clutching a long-handled black umbrella.
The wind blowing into the corridor was a bit chilly, tossing the hair draped over her shoulders.
After a few seconds of silence, Lin Mo spoke first. “You— “
“I have an umbrella.” Su Ran cut him off, her voice even softer than the sound of the rain. “We can… walk together.”
She didn’t dare look Lin Mo in the eye while speaking; her gaze was fixed on a point somewhere behind him.
Her fingers tightened and loosened around the umbrella handle several times.
Lin Mo recalled a psychological analysis report he had read in his past life—it was about Su Ran.
It read: ‘The patient exhibits significant anxiety when expressing kindness, accompanied by subtle compulsive movements, likely related to early emotional trauma.’
Back then, he had thought that was evidence of her being pathologically twisted. Now, he only felt heartache.
“Sure.” Lin Mo smiled, trying his best to look gentle. “Thanks for the help.”
They stepped into the rain together.
The umbrella wasn’t large; it would be cramped for two adults, but for two high schoolers, it was just right.
Su Ran held the umbrella very high.
She was 165 centimeters, while Lin Mo was 178. The 13-centimeter height difference made her arm tremble slightly.
“Let me.” Lin Mo proactively took the handle.
When their fingertips touched, Su Ran flinched again, but this time it wasn’t as violent.
The sound of raindrops drumming against the umbrella was dense, like white noise.
The two walked along the campus path toward the exit. Neither spoke.
Lin Mo noticed that Su Ran’s shoulder was a bit wet; she had been tilting the umbrella toward him.
“You’re getting wet,” he said, shifting the umbrella toward her side.
Su Ran immediately said, “It’s okay.”
Lin Mo insisted with unusual firmness, “It’s not okay. You’ll catch a cold.”
Su Ran went silent.
She kept her head down, staring at the toes of her white canvas shoes, which were splattered with a few drops of muddy water.
When they reached the fork in the road at the school gate, the rain suddenly intensified. Large drops slammed down, splashing against the ground.
“Which way are you going?” Lin Mo asked.
“Left.”
“I’m going right.” Lin Mo handed the umbrella to her. “You take it. I’ll just run for it.”
Su Ran didn’t take it. Keeping her head down, she said, “Your… knee is injured. You can’t let it get wet.”
Perhaps the Band-Aid in this life possessed healing powers, for Lin Mo had forgotten his knee was even hurt.
Su Ran simply refused to take the umbrella. Helpless, Lin Mo could only compromise: he would walk her to the bus stop first, then take the umbrella home and return it to her tomorrow.
Su Ran hesitated for a long time before nodding.
The bus stop had a shelter, but the wind blew the rain in at an angle.
Lin Mo stood on the outer edge, instinctively using his body to block the wind.
After a short wait, the Route 52 bus slowly pulled into the station.
Before boarding, Su Ran looked back. Lin Mo saw her lips move as if she wanted to say something, but nothing came out.
The doors closed, and the bus vanished into the veil of rain.
Lin Mo held the umbrella and started heading home, but after walking a short distance, a sudden intuition made him look back at the bus stop.
Something small was reflecting light on the spot where Su Ran had just been standing.
He walked back and picked it up. It was a school badge.
It was a standard pin-back school badge. On the back, tiny characters were engraved—so small that he had to strain his eyes to see them: *Lin Mo, Grade 12 Class 1, 0917.*
The engravings were fresh, with metal fragments still clinging to the edges.
She had engraved his information on the back of her school badge and carried it with her.
Lin Mo held that badge and stood in the rain for a long time.
Rainwater ran down the ribs of the umbrella, forming tiny whirlpools at his feet.
He finally understood one thing: Su Ran’s pathological obsession with him didn’t just happen overnight.
It was a long, three-year process of accumulation.
It had likely started with that piece of candy in ninth grade, snowballing until it became the sole center of her world.
And what had he done in his past life?
He had fought desperately to escape, uprooting her world in the process.
The phone in his pocket vibrated.
Lin Mo pulled it out. It was a text from an unknown number:
‘You don’t have to return the umbrella. See you tomorrow.’
Sent: 30 seconds ago.
Lin Mo looked at the number, his finger hovering over the reply button.
He hesitated for a moment before deciding how to respond.
‘I picked up your school badge. I’ll return it tomorrow. P.S. The engraving looks good.’
As soon as the message was sent, a new reply popped up.
Su Ran replied instantly, though it was only a somewhat cryptic ellipsis.
Lin Mo could practically see Su Ran on the other end, so flustered she nearly dropped her phone.
He smiled and tucked the school badge into his shirt pocket, resting it right against his heart.
The rain continued to fall, but some things had already changed.
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