chapter 3: DISAPPEARING ACT

They thought she vanished because she was weak.

They were wrong.

Liang Yuxin didn’t disappear out of shame. She disappeared to learn.

She stopped crying after day three.

On day seven, she threw away everything Zhou Qian had ever given her—bracelets, notes, photos, even the lucky charm they’d bought together on a school trip in middle school. All of it burned in a rusted metal bucket behind her apartment complex.

By day ten, she had already started changing her wardrobe.

By day fifteen, she had rewatched every moment in her memory where she ignored a red flag.

By day twenty, she stopped remembering Zhou Qian as her best friend.

And by day thirty, she had planned her return.

The day she came back to school, she didn’t tell anyone. Not even her teachers. Not her mother. Not her cousin who offered to help her transfer.

She didn't want a new school.

She wanted the same stage, so they could all watch her performance.

Back in the present, she sat alone on the rooftop during lunch, her favorite quiet place before it was ruined.

She traced her fingers across the wooden bench beneath the faded cherry tree. The paint was peeling. Just like her memories. Just like the lie she'd lived

"I used to believe in people," she murmured to herself.

"How stupid."

The rooftop door creaked open.

Her body tensed—instinctively ready to glare, to defend, to slice someone with words.

But instead…

It was Xu Meiling.

Hair tied up in a loose bun. Holding a bent lunchbox and a carton of soy milk.

She froze when she saw Yuxin.

“Oh! I-I didn’t know someone was here…”

Yuxin didn’t reply. Just stared.

Xu Meiling stepped back nervously. “Sorry. I usually come here to eat alone. I’ll go—”

“Sit,” Yuxin said, her voice calm but cold.

Meiling blinked. “Huh?”

“You can sit. I don’t bite.”

Not unless I have to.

Hesitantly, Meiling walked over and sat on the far end of the bench, hugging her lunchbox like a shield.

Silence stretched between them.

Yuxin noticed the way Meiling kept glancing at her out of the corner of her eye. Like she was trying to figure out whether the rumors were true.

“Did you come to gawk?” Yuxin finally asked, tone neutral.

“N-no! I just…” Meiling looked down. “I thought… maybe you looked lonely.”

Yuxin blinked.

No one had said that to her in weeks.

“I’m not,” she said flatly.

Meiling smiled faintly. “That’s okay. I still like the company.”

Yuxin stared at her for a moment longer.

Interesting.

Not scared. Not fake. Just… soft. Too soft.

Perfect.

---

That evening, Yuxin stood in front of her bedroom mirror. She tied her hair a little tighter. Added just a hint more gloss to her lips.

“I need to get close to her,” she whispered.

“She’ll be the key.”

She stared at her reflection—the new her.

Colder. Stronger. Hungrier.

“For Zhou Qian to understand what she broke… I’ll make her watch me fall in love.”

She smiled.

“Fall in love with a girl.”

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