A Story Reflecting the Realities of Love
That day, while wandering aimlessly through the streets with his mother, Minjia accidentally bumped into someone. Who could blame him? He was tall and imposing.
After muttering a quick “Sorry” to the unfortunate girl he had bumped into, Minjia continued his shopping with his mother. Ten seconds later, he turned around sharply, only to find that the girl was still looking at him…
The girl’s name was Siyi. Blushing furiously, she quickly fled the scene.
Siyi first noticed Minjia sitting on the bench as a substitute during the springtime.
Siyi was heading to the water room to fetch some water when she passed the basketball court and spotted the tall boy she had bumped into before the New Year. He looked lonely, sitting on the sidelines and blankly watching the players on the court. She wondered, how could such a tall boy not be a great player? Why was he just standing there as a substitute?
Suddenly, a ball that had been intercepted rolled toward Siyi. Her thoughts were interrupted, and she turned and ran away. She thought she saw Minjia smile at her as she left.
When Minjia smiled at Siyi, he was thinking, isn’t this the girl who was staring at me that day? She’s from our school too? He smiled because Siyi looked so frightened when she almost got hit by the ball, like a startled bird.
Later, when Minjia’s gaze returned, he met the coach’s eyes. Those eyes were cold. Minjia’s heart tightened—what kind of father would have eyes like that? He moved to the adjacent court and began practicing quietly. He was so engrossed in his practice that he didn’t notice Siyi watching him from a distance as she returned with her water.
Minjia gradually noticed that whenever there was practice in the afternoon, he would always spot Siyi. Of course, he didn’t know her name was Siyi, just as Siyi didn’t know his name was Minjia.
They were like two trees gazing at each other from afar. Just gazing, nothing more.
Many days passed without Minjia seeing Siyi. He suddenly realized that the timid girl was like a rabbit he once had. Absentmindedly, he began drawing a rabbit. Suddenly, he had an idea. He took out an A4 sheet of sketch paper and lightly outlined the shapes of a tree and a rabbit.
Then he found some crayons and began to gently color them in. Athlete Minjia could only draw like this. Apart from the crayon drawings he learned in kindergarten, he could be considered artistically blind.
By the time he finished the drawing, it was past 1 a.m. There were crickets chirping outside the window. Oh, had summer arrived?
But Siyi didn’t appear again. As summer approached, Siyi fell strangely ill. She had a persistent low fever and first went to the school clinic, then to the city hospital, then to the provincial hospital, and finally to a hospital in Beijing…
When spring came again, the hormones from her treatment had made her gain significant weight. She was too weak to go to the basketball court to watch the games. She didn’t know if the boy named Minjia was still sitting on the bench. She didn’t know that Minjia had spent a summer waiting for her appearance, just to give her a crayon drawing.
They didn’t know that many things happened and disappeared that summer.
As witnesses to this youthful event, let’s call it “Adolescent Amnesia.”
Short stories shared for free on our ” Sitestorys “. Thank you for reading!
