Yuan Su stood there without moving for a long time.
He watched her slender figure, watched her argue her case over a few yuan, and his heart felt as though a great hand had clenched it so tightly he could barely breathe.
"Pu Yu."
Yuan Su looked at the menacing words, "Pay back what you owe." His voice was soft, as though he feared disturbing something, or had finally made up his mind.
"A lot of people have been coming to the shop lately. There's been a lot of trouble, too."
Pu Yu was bending down to help him pick up a fallen stool. She kept moving as she spoke, forcing an easy smile into her eyes. "That's good, isn't it? It means people know how skilled you are. Has your business also..."
"You know what I mean," Yuan Su interrupted.
The stool froze halfway up in Pu Yu's hands. Her smile stiffened for a moment, then she lowered her head and stubbornly set it upright, brushing off the dust.
"I don't."
"Write down any questions you can't solve in your notebook and wait until I get home." Yuan Su lowered his eyes and said quietly, "Stop coming here all the time. Don't keep running over to see me."
Pu Yu stopped tidying altogether.
She slowly straightened and looked at the boy before her, bristling with thorns. The light in her eyes faded little by little.
"Are you trying to send me away? Why?"
Because of the rotten debts he could never repay.
Because of the door splattered with red paint.
Because...
"Dirty."
He forced that single word through his teeth.
The shop was dirty. Those people were dirty. And he was saying that he himself was... dirty.
She had a bright future, a clean life. She should never have