JINHAO, WEDNESDAY. 10AM.
—
Yunjinna had made a mistake.
She realised it approximately thirty seconds after Chu Jintan walked through the main gate.
Not because he'd done anything wrong.
Because of the way he looked when he did it.
Relaxed. Confident. The easy stride of a man who moved through the world like it had been arranged for his convenience. Dark jacket, sharp features, the kind of handsome that turned heads without trying.
She had always loved that about him.
The way he walked into places like he owned them.
Today it made something cold move through her chest.
Because she knew what was going to happen.
She had invited him here.
She had thought — I want him to see this place. My place. I want him to remember that this is mine.
What she had not thought about was that Yun Jiao was also here.
She had not thought about that at all.
Too late now.
She smiled and walked toward him.
"You made it," she said.
He pulled her into a brief hug. Kissed her temple.
"Of course." He looked around the courtyard. "Nice campus."
"I know." She took his arm. "Come on. I'll show you around."
They walked.
She talked, He listened.
Everything was fine.
Everything was perfectly fine.
Right up until they turned the corner toward the main building steps.
And Chu Jintan stopped walking.
—Yun Jiao was sitting on the steps, Alone.
Notebook open on her knee. Pen in her hand. A small frown on her face like whatever she was reading was mildly disagreeing with her. Lollipop stick between her lips. Hair loose over her shoulders catching the morning light.
She hadn't noticed them yet.
Which meant Chu Jintan had approximately four uninterrupted seconds to look at her.
And in four seconds—Something happened to his face.
It was fast. Controlled. The expression of a man who had spent years learning to keep his reactions exactly where he put them.
But Yunjinna was standing right beside him.
She felt it.
The almost imperceptible change in the quality of his attention.
The way it moved and stayed.
Her hand tightened on his arm Just slightly.
—Now.
Yun Jiao, If the universe had one day decided — for reasons known only to itself — to pour every standard of beauty into one person and then stand back and watch the chaos unfold—It would have produced Yun Jiao.
And then probably felt a little guilty about it.
She was small. Delicate. The kind of figure that made you think of porcelain and immediately feel like you were being impractical about porcelain.
Her face—Her face was the problem.
Features so perfectly balanced they looked like someone had drawn them slowly and carefully and then stepped back and said: yes. Exactly that. Flawless skin the colour of the first light before sunrise. A nose that belonged in a painting. Lips naturally pink — the soft pink of cherry blossoms in the moment right before they fell — curved upward at the corners even in rest so that she always looked like she was one second away from a smile.
And her eyes.Large. Dark. Bright and Clear in the way that deep water was clear — you could see into them and still not see the bottom.
Beautiful eyes.
Eyes that, if you looked at them long enough, made you realise they were also the most dangerous thing about her.
But most people didn't look long enough to realise that.
Most people got as far as the face and forgot what they were doing.
Chu Jintan was currently forgetting what he was doing.
He caught himself.
Looked away.
Looked back.
She had looked up.
Their eyes met.
And Yun Jiao—Smiled at him.
The warm, polite, completely indifferent smile of someone acknowledging a person they had met once and placed firmly in the category of: not my concern.
Then she looked back at her notebook.
Just like that.
Gone.
Like he was furniture she had noted the existence of and moved on from.
Something moved through Chu Jintan's chest.
He did not examine what it was.
"That's her," Yunjinna said beside him.
Her voice was perfectly even.
"I know," he said.
"You met her briefly before."
"I remember."
A pause.
"She's just another girl, Jintan," Yunjinna said.
He looked at her.
She was smiling at him. Warm. Easy.
Her eyes were doing something different from smiling.
"I know," he said again.
He meant it.
He absolutely meant it.
He looked back at the steps.Yun Jiao had already gone back to her notebook completely. Pen moving. Frown in place. Lollipop. Completely, entirely, utterly unaware of him.
Or appearing to be.
Something about the appearing to be part—He looked away.
"Show me the library," he said to Yunjinna.
She took his arm and walked out.
Behind them, on the steps, Yun Jiao did not look up.
But the pen in her hand had stopped moving for exactly three seconds.Then started again.
—
In her earpiece—"Master," Hawk said. Very carefully.
"I know," she said quietly.
"That was—"
"I said know, Hawk."
A pause.
"He looked at you for four seconds."
"I know."
"And then looked away and then looked back."
"Hawk!!!"
"I'm just documenting—"
"Document it quietly."
"...Documented."
She turned a page in her notebook.
Wrote nothing on it.
Looked at the blank page.
Chu Jintan.
In this life he was twenty-two. Yunjinna's boyfriend. Charming and confident and moving through the world like it owed him something.
In her other life he had held her brother's head.
She pressed the pen to the page.
Wrote one word.
Patience.
Underlined it.
Closed the notebook.
Stood up.
Walked to class.