Ye Ruan sighed helplessly and turned his face to kiss the curve of his ear.
"You really forgot. When we were little, you used to sneak into the classroom every day to play the piano, and I'd listen outside the window... That piece was so beautiful."
"I loved it. Whenever I heard that cheerful music, my ears wouldn't behave. They'd stick up. I thought I'd hidden myself well, but you'd already spotted me."
Gu Cheng had a faint, hazy recollection: white gauze curtains, iron window frames, and morning glories climbing in from outside the wall.
He couldn't remember anything more.
Gu Cheng forgot his hurt feelings, too, and asked, "That was you?"
"Mm." Ye Ruan pushed at his shoulders and looked down at him, wiping the tear tracks from his face with his fingers.
"We were so young. Maybe I didn't understand what it meant to like someone, but... you were the one who led me out of the darkness. We never met, but every year, I secretly thought about you."
Whenever I heard piano music abroad, I thought of you. Whenever I saw flowers, I thought of you.
A line suddenly came to Ye Ruan. His eyes filled with a smile as he said softly:
"I will bid farewell to dusk, break free of the darkness where I hide, and fall into the light of longing for you."
Gu Cheng kissed his jaw and asked quietly:
"Fall where?"
Ye Ruan's eyes curved with his smile. He cupped Gu Cheng's cheeks and leaned in to kiss him.
"Into your arms..."
Murmansk, a city that seemed so cold, had a saying that was utterly romantic.
[You are the North Atlantic Current, and I am the Port of Murmansk. Because you came, my world became an ice-free harbor.]
Once everything was out