Evanescent Dreams

32. Cage Unlock

The morning after knocking on Ye Xue's rigid door, Ye Zhen opened his eyes at the same time the world hanging above him awakened from its slumber. 

The rising sun casted its warm and gentle glow onto the playground sand and stirred awake his surroundings. The leaves rustled, the birds yawned, and the flowers stretched open.

The world seemed brighter to him than usual. He felt his forehead and found that the fringes were gone. He rummaged upwards and his fingers touched a rubber band. 

An unbridled giggle spilled out above him and he tilted his head to see Lin Xingren looking down at him. 

"I tied up your bangs, hee."

Ye Zhen's eyes enlarged in an innocent manner and sat up. The braid on the top of his head was up in the air like a grass sprout. 

 "When did you come?"

He had fell asleep on the hard playground bench alone the last night, but woke up on Lin Xingren's lap. 

"Uh, I couldn't sleep after that Ye Xue thing and found you curled up here last night and...and just thought you would be more comfortable like this," Lin Xingren's face twitched with shyness as she spoke. 

She did all that for me...was she able to sleep? 

Ye Zhen swallowed. "Thanks, but no need next time. You'll be tired."

"Oh..."Lin Xingren's eyes downcast.

"But no," Ye Zhen quickly reacted, "you didn't do anything wrong. I really shouldn't have slept here."

She nodded. 

"It's all worth it though. Just look at this view. The sunset...the sunrise...we have all seem them-" She stopped mid sentence and scratched her shoulder.

A smile finally cracked on Ye Zhen's face. "We've seem all of them together." 

The sun was finishing spreading its glow up and across the vast navy skies. The first sounds of human activity had come in to accompany those of the natural world. 

Ye Zhen touched the hair tie on his braid. 

"Heyy, don't pull it off. You look cuter without bangs, you know, "Lin Xingren teased. 

"I'm not." Ye Zhen chuckled. He evenly split the braid into two halves and pulled on both to tighten the braid on his head. 

Lin Xingren supported her arm on her lap and laid her forehead on her knuckles. She watched his movements in amusement. 

"What?" he gazed back at her. 

Lin Xingren brushed away the remaining small strands of hair left on his forehead. 

"You're beautiful."

She immediately covered her mouth with one hand and raised the other one over his mouth. 

It felt extremely odd for her to call a guy, a classmate, Ye Zhen, beautiful. But, at the second before those words slipped out her mouth, his gaze, his appearance, his existence, made her feel fine to say so. 

He didn't reply, but his eyes were blossoming brightly with insuppressible intimacy. It was as if she had charged the battery of his soul. 

She did, and she still does. She's Lin Xingren. 

She coughed a few times too obvious and looked away. 

He slowly reached his hand out towards her face. 

That morning, that moment, he wanted to confess to her. 

As the gentle fingertips came an inch away from Lin Xingren's face, however, her expression changed dramatically. Her hands that hid the lower halves of their faces dropped heavily onto the hard bench. She had not only turned her face away, but had also turned her heart away.