I'll wait, however long it takes

Pu Yu's ears rang from those words.

"Even selling you wouldn't cover it." The words carried a boy's distinctive arrogance and a hint of something ambiguously intimate. Suddenly, the portable cassette player in her hands felt even hotter.

"Then... then I don't want it."

"I can't afford... labor that expensive..."

Yuan Su looked at her bowed head. His earlier urge to tease her quietly faded, replaced by a warm, inexplicable flutter in his chest.

He took a step back, putting some distance between them again.

That aggressively overpowering presence vanished at once.

"Who said you had to pay me?"

Yuan Su turned around and picked up the solder wire on the table, winding it haphazardly. His tone returned to its usual nonchalance. "It's taking up space here. If you don't want it, I'll take it apart right now and sell it for scrap."

As he spoke, he made as if to reach for a screwdriver.

"Ah, don't!"

Startled, Pu Yu instinctively hugged the cassette player tighter to her chest and stepped back, like a little animal guarding its food.

Yuan Su stopped what he was doing and turned his head toward her. "You don't want it?"

Pu Yu hastily shook her head in denial. "I do!"

"It's yours." He sat back down, his expression difficult to make out. "If it matters that much to you, pay me back some other way."

He didn't want to settle accounts with her, much less make her repay him with cheap labor.

He just wanted her to accept it without feeling guilty.

Pu Yu didn't understand what he meant and was about to ask.

The boy lifted his eyes. His deep gaze met hers directly, his voice low and clear, as though he were merely making an offhand remark:

"Come first in the next exam. Show me."

Pu Yu froze, her eyes widening slightly.

First in the whole year?

How was that possible?

"What? Can't do it?"

Yuan Su raised an eyebrow, a hint of challenge in his tone. "Then leave the cassette player here. Pretend I never fixed it."

Pu Yu met his dark eyes.

She could see her own reflection in them, small and flustered.

As though backed to the edge of a cliff, she bit her lip and nodded with reckless resolve. "I can."

Once she'd said it, she felt less sure of herself. Her voice weakened as she stammered out an addition. "I-I'll try, but I can't promise when I'll manage it. You might not even see it before we graduate..."

Watching her anxious, embarrassed expression, Yuan Su unconsciously lost the swagger in his voice. In its place came a flatness that betrayed no emotion:

"Fine. I'll wait, however long it takes."

To Pu Yu, those casually spoken words took on an entirely different meaning.

I'll be watching you the whole time.

If you don't come first in the year, you're dead.

Standing by the door, Pu Yu watched the boy work with his head lowered. "Will you come to class tomorrow, then?"

Yuan Su's hands paused.

"Depends."

"Teacher Cheng asked about you today," Pu Yu said. "We also went over a new paper in physics. It was a little hard."

Yuan Su said nothing, merely continuing to fiddle with the coil of solder wire.

Pu Yu waited a little. Seeing that he didn't want to keep talking about class, she said softly, "I'll head home, then. I really like this cassette player. Thank you."

She turned to leave.

"Wait."

The boy's voice came from behind her.

Pu Yu looked back to see Yuan Su rummage a cassette tape out of a drawer and toss it to her.

"English listening practice."

"Recorded it at an internet café. Listen or don't."

Pu Yu caught the cassette. Scrawled across it in black ink were the words "Senior year English listening, units 5-8."

He did the gentlest things, yet insisted on saying them in the harshest tone.

"Yuan Su," she said suddenly, "are we friends?"

Even she was taken aback by her own question.

Yuan Su was clearly stunned too.

After a long while, he said quietly, "Think what you like."

It wasn't a yes, but it wasn't a no either.

Pu Yu's eyes curved with her smile, which looked especially gentle in the dim light.

"Then... friends are supposed to help each other, right?"

"If you ever need my help with anything, make sure you tell me."

"I'm going home. Bye!"

With that, she turned and ran out of the repair shop, as though afraid he might change his mind.

Yuan Su stood where he was, watching her almost fleeing figure disappear into the darkness of the rundown street.

Dead silence settled around him again.

The fresh, clean scent of her seemed to linger in the air.

Friends.

She said they were friends.

The boy lowered his lashes and turned the word "friends" over and over, repeating it many times.

Over the next few days, Yuan Su came to class.

He was the same as ever, often entering the classroom just as the bell rang, sleeping with his head on his desk during lessons, or sketching complicated circuit diagrams on scrap paper.

Whenever Pu Yu encountered a physics problem she truly couldn't solve, she gently poked him with her pen cap.

He would merely frown, pick up a pen with an impatient expression, and swiftly write out the steps in her neat, tidy notebook.

His handwriting was wild and scrawling, but his explanations were simple, clear, and straight to the point.

"So stupid," he would say as he tossed down the pen.

Pu Yu didn't get annoyed. She just dutifully copied the steps out in neat handwriting.

Before long, it was the Friday after the solar term Frost's Descent.

The weather had been gloomy for days. By evening, the heavy rain forecast by the weather bureau finally broke.

When school let out, the sky was as dark as if the world were ending.

Gales swept fallen leaves off the ground and roared past, rattling the windows.

"The sky looks so scary." Xu Suiran hunched her shoulders. "Yu, did you bring an umbrella?"

"I did." Pu Yu glanced outside. "Isn't your mom coming to pick you up? Go ahead. Don't keep her waiting too long."

"Okay, I'll head home, then. Be careful."

"You too. Bye."

The students left the classroom one after another. Some shared umbrellas, while others held their bags over their heads and charged out into the rain.

Soon, only a handful of people remained in the classroom.

Pu Yu packed her schoolbag and glanced at Yuan Su beside her.

He was still asleep.

His face was buried in the crook of his arm, with only a few tips of black hair showing.

She hesitated over whether to wake him.

Just then, Yuan Su stirred on his own and lifted his head. His eyes were slightly red, and he looked genuinely exhausted.

"The rain hasn't stopped?" His voice was hoarse from sleep.

"No. It's coming down even harder."

Yuan Su looked out the window, his brow creasing slightly.

Pu Yu gathered her courage and asked, "Did you... bring an umbrella?"

Yuan Su didn't answer, but the answer was obvious-there was no umbrella anywhere near his seat, and he hadn't brought one when he'd arrived at noon.

"How about..." Pu Yu pressed her lips together. "We walk together? I'll take you to the repair shop, then go home."

The corridor lights were already on, and the rain wove a hazy gray curtain.

Yuan Su stared out the window for a while.

"No need."

His refusal was decisive. "I'll wait for the rain to stop."

"But it doesn't look like it'll stop anytime soon." Pu Yu's voice grew a little more insistent. "And it's nearly dark. The streetlights near the repair shop are dim, too. It's not safe at night."

Yuan Su looked at her and suddenly smiled.

The weariness in his voice eased, mingling with a softness he didn't notice himself:

"Do you think I'm in danger, or that I need someone to protect me?"