Stargazing with You

My name is Jiang He, male, twenty, 1.81 meters (5 feet 11.25 inches). I just had a refreshingly handsome trim cut last night and at this very moment, am running along the coast.

I got dumped.

Even though we were never together in the first place.

The one who broke my heart is called Bai Ying. I don’t know where he is now, but I hope he’d never see me like this, so manly, yet so miserable. “Ahhhhhhh” Screaming and screeching like a lunatic, I’m too embarrassed to call out his name, even though it doesn’t really matter as everything would be drowned out by the sound of waves anyway.

Yes, you did not hear wrongly, the pronoun is correct, Bai Ying is also male, twenty, with a height of two— maaaaybe three centimeters higher than me by now. He’s someone who’d be worshipped as a God by anyone he meets, so to speak. Our genders aside, I don’t even dare to claim that I am worthy of Him either.

I was tired from all the running and shouting, and ended up kneeling and panting on the beach. If this is some teen drama, the credits and ED song would be up by now, let me see, how about “Summer Day” by Jay Chou as the ED:

Summer Day

Jay Chou

Tap to play and pause the music video

In the past, way back then,

从前从前

there was someone who has loved you for a very long time

有个人爱你很久

But yet, the wind gradually and slowly,

但偏偏 风渐渐

blows far apart the distance between

把距离吹得好远

Worked so hard to love you one more day

好不容易又能再多爱一天

But at the end of the story, it seems you still said

但故事的最后你好像还是说了

Good bye

拜拜

These few lines are enough. Lying on the beach, exhaustively closing my eyes, I feel like I’ve been sunk by the coming waves. In the midst of the waves, I heard people calling out on the beach: Hey, are you alright?

“You okay?”

“You look miserable bro…”

Bai Ying and I are childhood friends. We’ve been neighbors since birth, living in the same building in the same neighborhood. I’m on the ninth floor and he’s on the eleventh. My mum even kept a baby photo of us in the stroller. The two strollers are parked side by side at the neighborhood’s boulevard, with our mothers standing behind and smiling at the camera.

The photo is very embarrassing for me, as little me with a pacifier was trying to climb into his stroller and he punched me right in the face. There’s actually more photos of that time, but my mum still printed this particular one for the picture frame. I once asked her for the reason on not picking the other ones instead, ones that have me sitting still in my stroller like a gentleman with a pacifier, they’d look so much better. The answer I got is that no one would care about how the baby look, the reason she picked it is because she and aunty Song looked great in it.

After taking another look, she was right! Both of them could not care less about us at all!

Later, we went to the same kindergarten together. I was short at the time, so I kept getting mistakenly taken to the lower grades by irresponsible gardener and confused teachers, and then apologetically bringing me back to the middle grade. Honestly, it might be better to leave me at the lower grade, I was always bullied in class anyway.

The moment the teacher turn their backs, someone would slap my forehead and grab my things. It was impossible for me to defend myself against them all, and as I don’t want to take this willingly, I decided to sneak home by climbing over the wall.

That day, I pulled myself up with one leg over the kindergarten wall, I struggled until I was sweating all over and finally was able to see the vibrant springtime scenery outside the garden as well as the stall pup peeing with its leg up. I was soo close to freedom, until suddenly, my feet felt like it weighted like a tonne. I looked back, and Bai Ying is hugging my other leg, staring straight at me with his piercing eyes.

I told him to let go, but he said that he’ll tell on me to my mum if I run away. I couldn’t get him to let go, even with kicking, and I don’t know the words to describe this disgusting behavior of his, so I ended up crying out loud “Waaaaaaah” as I slid along the wall to the ground, complaining that everyone bullies me.

He patted my dirtied sweater and said that he had promised my mum to take care of me.

I shot him back that my mum is merely teasing him, who are you to take care of me, you’re just a kid, how are you going to do that? Why didn’t you take care of me when I was getting bullied!?

Bai Ying stood there silently. His expression showed that he’s getting serious. When he has his serious face on, he’ll become very evil, you know, the kind of evil a 5 year old brats can be. I was also 5 at the time and my tiny heart is thumping heavily at this sight, thinking that this person will definitely become the king of the kindergarten.

And so, my prison break failed and I still have to report to this living hell on time the next day. During snack time, Wang Pangdun, the head bully has come for my snack again, so I looked at Bai Ying angrily. He came over after seeing this and said to Wang Pangdun, who is twice his size, “If you bully him again, I will tell the teacher”

Don’t you have any other tricks up your sleeves? Do you only know how to tell on people? I thought to myself..

Wang Pangdun just told him to go ahead and tell on him, so what? He’ll get a scolding and then he’ll just do it again. What is Bai Ying gonna do about it?

I was hoping Bai Ying can be a little more ruthless, with more threatening lines like you’d feel the wrath of a thousand cuts and so and so, but he only said:

“Then I’ll tell your mother, your father, and I’ll also tell Maggie that you do not wash your hands after peeing and pooping before playing with her”

Maggie is the beauty of our class, Wang Pangdun just stood there stunned after.

My snack returned safely back to my plate as it dropped from a height of no more than one meter above sea level, but I wouldn’t dare to eat it anymore. I feel like the cake has been stained with poop..

But after this, no one would bully me anymore, and Wang Pangdun now knows to wash his hands after peeing and pooping. Even though his methods are a bit.. uncool, but Bai Ying has undoubtedly become my hero, he singlehandedly ended my hellish life here. For the first time in my life, the 5 year old me has the rush to want to like this person and be nice to him to repay him.

Bai Ying was excellent since Kindergarten, getting first place in all kinds of games and contests, and was rewarded with star stickers every day. I have always been envy of him for this, but this boy simply dumped the stars after school.

I was pained at the sight of this, so I picked the stars up, ran to him and told him that he dropped his stars. He turned to look at me and said that if I liked them so much then I should just stick them on myself. I argued that they are his and asked him why he threw them away. He just said he doesn’t like them.

Puzzled, I asked “Then why did you keep taking first place if you don’t like them?”

He said he love getting first place.

“Isn’t getting the stars the reason to get first place?”

Bai Ying thought for a second and asked me, “Do you like these stars?”

I said yep!

He then said that he’ll give me all his stars from then on. Just claim that you got them yourself, your mum will be so happy, he said. Hell yeah I said. He said he’ll put them on for me, so I puffed up my little chest and he gently stick them onto me. After sticking one on both sides, he asked me something that the little me did not understand then:

“How will you repay me? Jiang He”

I’ve only heard this line in TV dramas, so I just replied in a similar fashion, “I’ll give you my heart and soul!” 1

Bai Ying nodded and pinky promised with me. And just like that, we promised each other the rest of our lives.

以身相许 — usually used by ladies towards their lovers, promising to dedicate their heart and soul to them. Nowadays it’s used as a promise of their willingness of marriage to the receiving end. ↩