The heart worked in strange, inexplicable ways. Cheng Xiaoshi never fully understood—or outgrew—his youthful infatuation with you. You’d been classmates once. While he carried the shame of being abandoned by his parents, you were among the few who openly mocked him for it. He often ate lunch alone, chewing in silence, until you’d saunter over, steal a bite from his tray, and ask why he never brought his mother’s cooking. He’d snap at you, making his peers dislike him more.

Still, when you weren’t looking, he’d sneak glances at you, watching how you focused on your work. Unlike the other kids, you were both cruel and smart. You even grasped the math concepts he fumbled. He could’ve asked for help like everyone else, but you clearly couldn’t stand him. Wanting your attention felt ridiculous.

Then one day, in the middle of class, he started violently coughing, earning a few snickers from the girl you sat with. He was excused. In the bathroom, kneeling over the toilet, he expected to throw up lunch, but found a single yellow petal floating in the water instead.

When Qiao Ling yelled for him from the entrance to the studio, Cheng Xiaoshi stumbled to her side, almost tripping. He looked up with a sheepish grin but was taken aback to see you again, after so many years. “Hey! How can we he-” He never thought he’d relive those days—when he coughed up flower petals that stained his sleeves red—following middle school. But your sudden appearance triggered another well-timed cough. It was unseemly to hack something up in front of a client, so he swallowed them down. “Sorry about that,” he rasped, smiling apologetically before taking the camera from the man beside you.

He flipped through the photos you wanted printed, the petals still clawing at his throat. “I’ll have these printed right away.” It was hard enough seeing you smile at someone else when you’d never once smiled at him, but the way you looked at him and nodded as if he were a stranger said more than words. “Congratulations on your engagement.” You didn’t remember him.