Xiao Xiao turned to look at the girl who had just walked past him.
Her steps were unsteady, her frame slight.
She wore a simple white blouse and a plaid skirt.
Her slightly hunched back held none of the youthful vitality one would expect of a girl her age. Instead, she seemed weighed down by gloom.
The sharp angles of her shoulder blades showed through, giving her an almost painfully gaunt appearance.
The girl kept her head lowered and didn't look around, lost in her own world.
Her hanging hair obscured her expression.
But Xiao Xiao frowned. Those words...
The consequence of walking with her head down and her mind elsewhere was that the girl failed to notice something in her path. Her foot caught on it, and she stumbled sideways.
She instinctively reached out for something to steady herself.
Deep down, though, she knew there was no avoiding an embarrassing fall in the middle of the street.
Ah, everything was just awful.
Everything.
Just as she braced herself for the pain, she suddenly felt a force tug at her arm.
Then she regained her balance.
The girl blinked in a daze and followed the hand on her arm to the young man standing before her.
He looked only a few years older than her.
"Pay attention when you walk."
Xiao Xiao let go of the girl's arm. "That was dangerous."
The unexpected turn of events left the girl slow to react.
She had lost count of how many times she'd fallen over the past few days.
There were still bruises on her knees and elbows that hadn't completely faded.
For the first time, someone had caught her before she hit the ground.
She felt a sudden flicker of happiness.
A little light pierced her gloomy