Chapter 1
I remember vividly the day I first met her.
She was sitting at the corner of the classroom with her friend, lost in a deep conversation—giggling, laughing, completely unaware of the chaos around her. It was a dark and cold day, yet the classroom was deafeningly loud, filled with noise and restless energy. Somehow, in all that chaos, I felt alive.
It was our first day attending supplementary classes before the mid-semester exams were announced, so nobody really knew Wei Chen and me. We didn’t interact with anyone. As engineering students merging classes with psychology students, we naturally felt out of place. Chen and I sat at the front desk simply because he didn’t feel like walking toward the crowd.
Soon, we became regulars in our Human-Computer Interaction class.
Our teacher, Xu Qing, was both strict and strangely entertaining. One day, while teaching, he called out a few students whispering at the back and made them sit in the front row instead. I was half-asleep and barely paying attention—until they took the seats beside us.
That was when I noticed her.
An Pei Chen.
And beside her was her friend, Ma Li.
For some reason, I suddenly felt nervous. She smiled politely, yet approaching her felt impossible. She wasn’t the type to smile at strangers, not even at people she had met before. In some ways, she reminded me of Wei Chen—quiet, distant, unreadable—but unlike him, she softened around her friends.
What’s funny is that Wei Chen’s mom and my mom have been best friends forever. Back then, they promised each other they would settle in the same community one day. They never planned on getting pregnant at the same time, but somehow life synchronized them anyway.
We were born eleven minutes apart in the same hospital.
Wei Chen was born on December 31, 1999, at 11:56 PM.
I was born on January 1, 2000, at 12:07 AM.
My dad was so traumatised by our mothers’ friendship that he secretly admitted me into a kindergarten without telling my mom. What still creeps me out is that Wei Chen was already there. Somehow, my dad’s secret mission turned into a blessing in my mother’s eyes.
That was where Chen and I first met.
What stood out to me about him was how heartless he seemed. He never cared much about people and genuinely enjoyed being alone. I, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. I was loud, chaotic, always surrounded by a circle of friends who probably didn’t care whether I was there or not—yet I stayed with them anyway.
Back then, Chen and I barely talked.
Still, we somehow always ended up walking home together.
What annoyed me the most was that he never started conversations. If I didn’t say anything, we would just walk side by side in silence like two awkward strangers who didn’t give a damn about each other.
Well, he still doesn’t care.
And I still get annoyed.
Now, back in 2018, Chen and I had become regular in our Human-Computer Interaction supplementary class.
Xu Qing was in the middle of another lecture when he suddenly stopped speaking and stared toward the back of the room. A few students had been whispering again.
Front row, Xu Qing said.
The entire class groaned.
Two girls walked down the stairs between the desks while everyone stared like it was public execution.
Great, Chen muttered beside me. Now they’ll think we’re the teacher’s favourites.
“You think too highly of yourself.”
I barely looked up, still fighting sleep, until the chairs beside us scraped against the floor.
Then I realised—
It was An Pei Chen
“Move your bag,” she said quietly
I stared at her for two seconds too long before Chen kicked my chair from under the desk
“He heard you,” Chen said flatly
“Apparently not,” Ma Li said.
Chen glanced at me. “You’re staring.”
“I’m not.”
You haven’t blinked in ten seconds.
He rolled his eyes and went back to writing
I was still nervous,
I lowered my head and stared at my wristwatch
Thirty minutes left.
Great
A few minutes later, Ma Li slid a folded note across Chen’s desk.
Chen ignored it.
She looked at him, then tilted her head slightly toward me.
“What’s wrong with him?” she mouthed.
I smiled awkwardly and looked away.
That day passed quicker than I expected
By evening, Chen and I were walking towards the dorm
Chen stayed silent the entire time.
Why were you late? I shouted suddenly. “I waited for you at the ground for almost an hour. Where were you?”
He stared at me blankly.
I was in the library
“Don’t ask me the same question every day,” he added. “You already know where I go.”
A few seconds later, he stopped walking.
“What?” I asked.
Chen looked at me with his quirky smile
You like her, don’t you?
I frowned immediately. “What are you talking about?”
“That’s why you suddenly want to attend supplementary classes.”
I broke into a run immediately.
“No, I don’t like her!” I yelled without turning back.
“Yeah, you do,” Chen shouted from behind me.
After that, Chen wouldn’t stop giving me that annoying look whenever An Pei Chen walked into class.
Back then, nothing about that front row felt important.
Until it did..
