XinYue thought she finally understood school.
Friends, laughter, chaos, memories.
She thought she had seen every type of person already.
She was wrong.
He didn't enter like a storm.
He entered like silence.
He sat two rows ahead, near the window, where sunlight always landed first.
Clean uniform, calm eyes, headphones around his neck like he didn't belong to the noise of the classroom.
He wasn't loud.
He wasn't popular.
He wasn't trying.
And that was exactly what made him different.
While others looked at XinYue like she was something to win,
he looked at her like she was already complete.
They noticed each other slowly.
Not through stares.
Not through whispers.
Through moments.
A pen falling, him picking it up.
A shared smile during a boring lecture.
A silent laugh when the teacher turned around.
His name was Li Hanyan.
He never asked questions about her past.
Never pushed.
Never flirted.
He just… existed beside her.
For the first time, XinYue felt something unfamiliar.
Not excitement.
Not fear.
Not obsession.
Peace.
Xiu Fei noticed it first.
Zhao Xia teased her about it.
But XinYue denied everything.
Because this time, it wasn't a crush.
It was something slower.
Something scarier.
She didn't want him to like her.
She wanted him to stay.
And maybe that's when she realized
the most dangerous people aren't the ones who chase you
but the ones who make you forget why you were running in the first place.
That night, XinYue wrote one line in her notebook:
"I don't know what this is… but I don't want it to end."
So tell me —
is Li Hanyan a calm before the storm, or the beginning of something real?