A Moment Too Late [GL] by cat喵

Chapter 2

The meeting place was at a nearby café. Shu Yubai parked the car, opened the door, and turned to look out. She saw the glass window with swirling snowflakes.

A woman sat elegantly by the window.

With long, flowing hair and a graceful profile, she held a white porcelain cup to her lips, her slender waist resting on the coat draped over the leather chair. She glanced at Shu Yubai through the window, not too far away, not too close.

They stared at each other for a while. The woman’s red lips curved into a smile, though she remained silent.

Shu Yubai paused for a moment, feeling slightly awkward, but gradually began to smile as well.

She looked down at the avatar and nickname in WeChat, then looked up at the woman in front of her.

What a coincidence.

It was her.

A university classmate.

It had been so long since they last met, her memory was hazy.

Shu Yubai opened the glass door and exhaled.

The past, with its blush of romance and all its laughable moments, seemed to dissolve in the night's mist.

*Ding.*

—"When are you coming back?"

A WeChat message popped up.

Nan Xue looked down, staring at the message, her pale fingers tapping the screen to type a few words, then deleting them. The chat box remained empty.

The message was from her father.

Nan Xue was raised by her single father; her mother had remarried when she was young.

The message had been sent a few days ago. Nan Xue hadn't replied, and her father sent another message: "Come back. Don’t cling to Shu Yubai like you did when you were little."

"She has her own life. Marriage, children. What’s the point of following her around all the time?"

Nan Xue looked at the message, her fingertips trembling slightly, hovering in mid-air, then stopping.

*Ding.*

The elevator doors opened. Nan Xue put her phone back in her bag without replying to her father's messages.

The place she lived was just a single apartment, a two-story duplex. It was nicely decorated but very cramped. The first floor had only space for changing shoes, dark and narrow. Her high heels quickly soaked the wooden floor with melted snow.

She silently removed her deer-skin short boots, sighing softly.

Shu Yubai hadn’t been doing well these past years.

Nan Xue looked through the small, dim window and thought that after all these years, this might be the first time Shu Yubai lived in such a cramped space.

The first floor was very small, with a light-colored oak staircase spiraling upwards. There were some miscellaneous items piled under the stairs—brushes, paint, canvases. The smell had a slightly pungent spiciness. In a corner, a small bucket contained brushes soaked in green paint used earlier in the morning.

She changed into slippers and, as usual, gazed at the stairwell. The air carried a faint scent of ink and watercolor.

A small window across the room allowed light from the closet to spill in.

It illuminated the paintings piled up under the stairs.

Covered in dust, the paintings were stacked—some framed, some just paper or canvas. The framed ones had been sold; the unframed ones hadn’t found buyers.