Chapter Text
The match ended at 8:43 p.m.
Gu Yichen leaned back in his chair with the exhausted expression of a man betrayed by humanity itself. “I hate solo queue. I hate ranked. I hate people.”
Across him, Chen Jianyu clicked through the post-game stats quietly.
“You say this every night,” Jianyu said.
“And every night I mean it.”
“You fed top lane twice.”
“I was creating narrative tension,” Yichen defends.
Jianyu ignored him.
The dorm room glowed dimly under desk lamps and monitor light. Instant noodle cups crowded by the window frame beside scattered computer science notes and unopened textbooks neither of them planned to touch tonight. Outside, the university stretched into blurred warm and blue lights beyond the dormitory buildings.
Somewhere in the distance, faint microphone feedback echoed through the night.
Yichen glanced toward the window. “The talent night thing started already?”
Jianyu removed his headset. “Probably.”
“You going?”
“You are.”
“That’s because communication department students are dangerously attractive.”
“You say that about every department.”
“This university supports my optimism,” Yichen tells Jianyu with a wide grin.
Jianyu stood slowly from his desk and grabbed his jacket from the chair.
During the day, the university moved too fast. Crowded sidewalks, bicycles weaving through intersections, students carrying deadlines on their backs like terminal illnesses. Night softened everything. Even the air felt quieter.
Students walked toward the university hall in small groups, following distant music and scattered applause.
Yichen checked his phone while walking beside him. “Apparently each college sends representatives or something.”
“Mm-hm.”
“Careers on the line.”
“It’s a talent show.”
“You lack artistic vision,” Yichen complains.
The university hall stood near the center of campus. Music spilled through the open entrance together with laughter and overlapping conversation. Dim lighting washed over rows of seats while string lights hung lazily across the small stage. Students filled nearly every section already, talking quietly between performances.
Inside, the atmosphere felt softer than Jianyu expected.
Yichen nudged his shoulder. “Seats near the back.” Jianyu followed him up the aisle. Halfway there, someone brushed past them moving in the opposite direction.
A girl carrying a guitar case. Dark hardwood-brown hair slipped over the sleeve of an oversized cream sweater as she walked beneath the theater lights. Two girls followed beside her talking over each other while she laughed quietly at something one of them said.
Jianyu looked up without meaning to. For a brief second, the noise around him blurred strangely.
The stage lights reflected softly against loose strands of hair near her face. Pretty enough that people turned instinctively while she passed. She didn’t seem aware of it. Or maybe she was simply used to it already. Then she disappeared backstage.
Yichen slowed slightly before noticing Jianyu had stopped moving for half a second.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Jianyu shakes his head as they settle down the seats.
The next performances passed by in fragments.
A dance cover group. Someone singing loud enough to destroy the microphone quality. A poetry reading that lasted far too long.
Yichen spent most of it typing insults into a group chat.
Then the stage lights dimmed again. A student host stepped onto the stage with cue cards in hand.
“Our next performer,” she announced brightly, “is representing the College of Media and Communication. Xu Reina!”
Applause spread through the hall. The room quieted almost immediately as the girl from earlier stepped into the light.
Jianyu noticed the silence first. Conversations lowered naturally as Reina adjusted the microphone before sitting on the stool placed center stage. Her guitar rested lightly across her lap while warm gold lighting caught against her sweater sleeves.
She looked out toward the audience for one short moment, then she smiled.
“Hi,” she said into the microphone. “I suddenly forgot how human interaction works.”
Laughter broke across the hall instantly.
“I’m Xu Reina. Um… nice to meet you all.”
Beside him, Yichen muttered, “Okay, she’s good already.” Jianyu looked at Yichen with a look of disbelief then back at the stage.
Reina adjusted the guitar strings once. Then she started singing.
[♪♫ Through The Night - IU ♪♫]
Jianyu couldn’t explain afterward why he kept listening so carefully.
Her voice filled the university hall gently, settling over the crowd like warmth spreading through cold hands. The audience grew quieter little by little beneath the music.
Phone screens dimmed, whispers faded, even the restless shifting of chairs softened.
Reina sang like someone letting people breathe for a while.
Jianyu sat still near the back row with his arms folded loosely across his chest. No dramatic realization, no racing heartbeat.
The night simply felt calmer listening to her as if time had slowed down slightly inside the hall.
Near the end of the song, Reina glanced absentmindedly toward the audience. Her gaze swept across unfamiliar faces beneath dim lighting.
For half a second, Jianyu thought her eyes passed over him.
Then applause crashed through the room and the moment disappeared immediately.
Reina laughed softly into the microphone, thanked the audience, and stepped offstage beneath warm yellow light.
Yichen exhaled. “Damn.”
Jianyu watched the empty stage a second longer before answering.
“…She sings well.”
Yichen turned toward him slowly, “you voluntarily made an observation.”
Jianyu stood from his seat with a sigh, “I’m leaving before you become annoying.”
“Too late,” Yichen replied, already following after him. “I am sensing character development.”