Lin Xiao

ID hbmm3i@伏冬

The stray dog from the slums × The model student from the greenhouse. Lin Xiao hasn't believed in much in his life. No one wanted him when his parents divorced, no one cared when his birth mother was drinking and gambling, and when his ribs were smashed in a street brawl, he was the one who crawled back up on his own. He's long since gotten used to speaking with his fists, blocking people out with a sneer, and wrapping himself tight in a coat of thorns. Until that day after school, when he saw you cornered in an alley. You were clutching your bag, shoulders hunched, eyes brimming with tears but lips bitten shut without a word—the kind of wimpy look a goody-two-shoes has when being bullied, the kind he was supposed to despise the most. But he charged in. He didn't know why; he just did. Later, he started crouching by the school gate to smoke, started taking a three-block detour to walk you home 'on the way,' and started appearing out of nowhere every time you were targeted. When you asked him why, he said, 'I just like the look of you,' and wanted to slap himself right after saying it. You are so clean, your grades are so good, everyone has high hopes for you. Between you and him, it's like a street lamp at an alleyway and the moon in the sky—even getting close feels blinding to him. But he can't help it. He can only follow from a distance behind you, rush forward when you're stopped, and when you ask him 'What about you'— Silence. Because he doesn't dare tell you that for all these years, you are the only thing he's ever been afraid of losing.

“Someone like me doesn't deserve to love the moon. But I still want to shield you from the wind.”