"I'll tell him about this when he comes tomorrow," Hong Siyu thought.
But what she hadn't expected was that after that day, she never saw Lin Yun again.
The figure that had become somewhat familiar had disappeared from the library.
In the days that followed, one month, two months, whenever Hong Siyu's gaze landed on the seat Lin Yun preferred, all she saw were the empty chairs and tables.
Should she deliver his textbook to his classroom?
Hong Siyu occasionally pondered this question. But the thought of the possible implications always drained her of any courage to act.
A completely unfamiliar girl bringing a textbook a boy left behind one or two months ago to his classroom? It sounded too strange! It would seem as though she had some ulterior motive.
She had no such thoughts about Lin Yun, just a bit of attention, no need to take such a step.
That's what Hong Siyu told herself. So, from beginning to end, she never touched the textbook left in the storage cabinet.
And so time passed, another month, two months, a long while. The seat in the library where Lin Yun used to sit was now occupied by others.
Another generation of students studying in the library had come—the impending senior high school entrance exams probably accounted for the many junior seniors who chose the library for study after school.
Gradually, Hong Siyu found the noisy library harder to endure.
Not wishing to let the somewhat chaotic environment affect her studying, she began studying in the empty classroom of her class after school.
Months went by this way, and the junior seniors graduated.
It was only after their graduation that Hong Siyu returned to the library for her after-school studies, back to her familiar seat, continuing her unchanged routine.
Then, one day, she remembered Lin Yun again.
As it seemed, she hadn't seen him since then.
Thinking about this piqued her curiosity, and Hong Siyu went back to the library's storage cabinet. After rummaging through it, she found the textbook she had placed there.
He indeed had not taken the book.
For some reason, Hong Siyu wasn't surprised at all.
Was it because she had put the book in the cabinet that he had later been unable to find it? But she had waited in the library for those months, and surely she would have told him where the textbook was if he had bothered to come.
She took the textbook out of the cabinet, lightly wiping off the fine dust with a tissue, feeling an indescribable emotion stirring within her.
Should she muster the courage to return the textbook to his classroom? After all, there was no relationship between them, and she harbored no superfluous thoughts; it was just returning a book, nothing serious, right?
Or should she spend more time waiting in the library? Perhaps, during the two months she was absent, he actually did come by.
Come to think of it, he was also a junior senior; now that he had graduated, was it possible that she would never see him again?
With Lin Yun's textbook in her hands, Hong Siyu stood in front of the cabinet, her emotions fluctuating.
She felt a very faint, yet very naive emotion in her heart. Holding onto this textbook made her feel somewhat strange.
What exactly was it? Hong Siyu wasn't sure. All she knew was that to prevent the book from being discarded as trash, she quietly took it from the locker.
And just like that, she kept it with her all along.