Chapter 2

"Eva," he suddenly spoke, his voice a bit muffled. "Have you heard of... Hailey?"

I shook my head.

"She was a transfer student in middle school," Robert said, looking up at the scattered lights in the distant high-rises, his gaze distant in a way I'd never seen before. "She was just... different from anyone here. Like she stepped out of a painting."

He began to describe her. Hailey's first day in their chaotic classroom, wearing a light blue dress, her voice soft and gentle. When she read aloud, even the noisy cicadas outside seemed to quiet down. She took first place in the citywide math competition; when the principal announced her name on stage, sunlight happened to catch her dark hair, setting it ablaze like a golden halo. She was so dazzling, like a moon hanging in the distant sky.

"What happened to her later?" I asked, my nails digging into my palm.

Robert's voice dropped. "After graduation, her father was transferred to Oakridge. Her whole family moved. I never even got the chance to give her the music box I'd saved up for."

So that was the story behind the beautifully wrapped, unopened blue velvet box buried deep in his desk drawer. So those times he gazed out the window, lost in thought... he wasn't seeing me. He was seeing the memory of a girl in a blue dress.

Hailey became a perfect symbol in Robert's heart. Pure, intelligent, untouchable. And I was the tangible reality within reach. The little noodle shop in the alley. The cooking smell that never quite washed out. The jar of pickles that cured a craving.

For university, Robert desperately tested into a school in Oakridge. I stayed at a local ordinary college. Separated by thousands of miles, our contact became strangely frequent. Because Robert had finally found her on a freshman welcome poster for a top university in Oakridge. Hailey was featured as an outstanding new student representative, her smile still gentle, her eyes still clear as ever.

"Eva, it's really her. She hasn't changed at all. Still so..." On the phone, Robert's voice trembled with excitement, carrying a near-religious reverence.

"Congratulations," I said, my fingers unconsciously picking at the chipped paint on my dorm desk. Outside the window was a grayish sky, and in the distance came the sound of a street vendor packing up.

Thus began Robert's long and humble period of admiration from afar. He didn't dare approach her directly. Instead, he pieced together every scrap of information about Hailey through various channels. She joined the Student Union's PR department, so he immediately signed up for his department's PR team. She was part of an obscure classical poetry club, so he crammed knowledge of meter and verse. She liked a private vegetarian restaurant in the south of the city, so he scrimped and saved for a month just for one chance to bump into her there.

From then on, his joys and sorrows were all tied to Hailey.

"She smiled at me today. Even if it was just polite..."

"She seems pretty close with a guy..."

"She got into graduate school without taking the exams. She's really amazing..."

He poured out these trivial yet heavy emotions to me endlessly, like a devout believer confessing to a priest. And I was his only listener, the tree hole where he could unreservedly display his mess and his humility. I listened, responded, occasionally advising him, "don't dwell on it too much," while feeling as if a blunt knife were slowly sawing at my heart. I had seen him slam-dunk on the basketball court, full of vigor; I'd seen his eyes light up while explaining a tough physics problem. Now, all that light seemed sucked away by a distant shadow, leaving only anxiety and confusion.

Our four years of university ran like parallel lines. He was in Oakridge, chasing Hailey's elusive silhouette. I was in our hometown, plodding through classes, working part-time jobs, and helping out at the family noodle shop. By the time Robert graduated, Hailey had smoothly secured a spot in her university's top-tier research lab for her master's degree, continuing to shine at a height he could only look up to. He, armed with a decent but not stellar job offer, returned to our second-tier city.

"You're back?" I met him at the train station, looking at his travel-worn but still straight figure.

"Yeah." He set down his luggage, taking in the familiar, slightly shabby arrival hall. A complex weariness, mixed with a hint of something lost, flickered in his eyes. "Oakridge... It's just too big," he muttered, like an explanation or a sigh.

Ariana was absolutely thrilled. As far as she was concerned, our future together was set in stone. Once Robert's job was secure, Ariana started dropping hints about us making things official. "Eva is so steady and reliable," she'd say, "and we know her family so well." Robert never really agreed or disagreed; his responses were always vague. He still lived in his family's old apartment in the former factory complex, but he started showing up at our noodle shop even more often.

He still talked to me about Hailey.