Chapter Text
It’s graduation day and the entire class of 2017 is seated inside the school gymnasium. Winwin is in the back row next to Ten, both of whom were late. Reason? They had decided to take an early morning walk before they had to head to school but then got so lost in talking that they had ended up an hour away from their homes. And yes, they walked back all the way home, changed into their uniforms and begged Winwin’s mom to drop them to school.
Ten was fiddling with his phone while the vice principal started her speech.
“Keep your phone in your pocket you’ll get caught.”
“Winwin, we are graduating. We can break the rules today.” Ten whispered back. Winwin sneaked a look at his phone to see exactly what he was doing.
Sensing his gaze, Ten hid his phone before Winwin could see much. Just that he was trying to buy a train ticket online. Probably Tianjin, Winwin thought. They were going to start college soon and ticket prices would go up if you waited until the last minute to book them. Winwin made a mental note to book his train ticket as well or else he would end up being stuck in a car trip with his parents.
Winwin turned his attention back to the vice principal and shifted in his seat so that he was hiding Ten from the teachers on his side.
“Thank you.” Ten whispered and busied himself on his phone.
The school choir came on next and by that time a lot of people had started talking amongst themselves. Graduation day included a sort of farewell performance by the juniors but to be honest people only wanted to watch the girls dance. Every year they would choose a pop song and it drove the crowd wild. This year was no different.
As soon as the choir ended their song, some English song began to play on the speakers and the girls began their performance.
“Ooooh Fifth Harmony.” Ten said, finally looking up from his phone.
“Do you like them?” Winwin asked. He had heard of the band but never bothered to check out their songs.
“Some of their songs are okay.” Ten said. Like everyone else, Ten’s attention was now fixed on the girls dancing on stage. Winwin sighed internally. It was hopeless.
His feelings for Ten would always be one-sided.
Winwin forced himself to look away from Ten who seemed to be enjoying the performance. He was busy glaring holes into his hands when Ten spoke.
“Winwin, do you wanna dance?”
“Huh? Now?”
“Not now!” Ten giggled. “Afterwards when they ask the graduating class if someone wants to perform, will you dance with me?”
Winwin’s brain decided to ignore the entire context. Did not even think for a moment that he was agreeing to dancing in front of his batchmates and teachers without any prior practice. All he could think of was that Ten was asking him to dance.
For Winwin, this was peak romance.
“Yeah, sure. What song?”
“You choose.”
“K-pop?”
“If Winwin wants to…” Ten said, teasingly. “Okay but only if it’s Red Velvet.”
Winwin grinned in reply. It was a sort of myth at their school. Whoever got to perform at their graduation ceremony, would stay together even after high school. Of course, Ten knew of this as well. Was that why he had suggested they dance? Even if Ten wanted them to stay together as friends, Winwin was happy.
A few more teachers said their speeches and then the award ceremony started. There were so many categories lately because teachers wanted everyone to feel included. Both Ten and Winwin ended up getting called on stage; Ten for ‘Excellence in Academics’ and Winwin for ‘Best in Arts’.
The graduation ceremony was almost over. The vice principal was back on the podium wishing the students luck for their ‘future endeavours’. Next would be her choosing the person who gets to perform.
“Shit we’re so far at the back she wouldn’t even see us.” Ten said as everyone in front of them started raising their hands. Some of them even stood up. Winwin and Ten both stood up on their chairs but the vice principal chose someone from the first row. It was a group of four friends who went up to sing tian mi mi.
A lot of people sang along with them and once it was over, everyone started taking photos. This was one day of the school year we were allowed to use our phones because this was quite literally the last day we would be here. We had all our results, all our documents and once you move away for college you only ever come back during the new year holidays.
A lot of their classmates came up to take photos with Winwin and Ten. Some of the junior girls who were in the dance group earlier came up to the two and even gave them flowers. Winwin got a red rose too. They went around talking to the teachers and soon the hall began to empty.
They took a group photo with their class outside on the grounds and after that the teary farewells started. When their class president started going around hugging and bawling into everyone’s shirt, Ten nudged Winwin and gestured to the school building.
“Let’s go up to the terrace.”
“Hahhh? Terrace?” Winwin said but Ten had already started walking towards the staircase. “We’re not allowed.”
“What are they gonna do? Expel us?” Ten laughed and Winwin had no choice but to follow. “You already have a spotless school record, Win, breaking one rule on the last day won’t hurt you.”
“Okay, okay.” Winwin gave up. It’s not like he could say no to Ten anyway. “Wanna get ice cream on the way home?”
“Yes please.” Ten said. They had reached the terrace and Ten pushed open the door. “Wow I imagined it would be prettier.”
“Not everything is how they show in animes, Ten.” Winwin said. Old and broken desks and chairs lay scattered next to water tanks and an array of pipes. The two carefully made their way to the edge, looking down at the crowd of students that were still gathered despite the ceremony having ended hours ago.
The sun was setting and the two just silently took in the scene as the sky turned from orange to darker shades of blue.
“We should still do our dance.” Winwin said, suddenly as Ten gave him a surprised look. “What if it’s not in the hall. It counts if you do it on graduation day.”
Winwin thought Cupid had struck him with his arrow when he saw Ten’s face break out into a smile and eyes turn to crescents. Ten took his phone out of his pocket and played a song. Winwin remembered Ten had showed him the choreography but he couldn’t recall at that moment so he simply followed Ten.
Dancing with him in that moment was probably the best part of his school life. He would never forget the image of Ten laughing as he twirled around to the beats of the song and the evening sky grew darker and darker. He looked so beautiful that Winwin could do nothing but stand and watch.
Ten grabbed his hands urging him to dance along but his touch jolted Winwin out of his daze and he finally spoke out loud the words that had been going through his mind.
“I like you, Ten.”
And with those words, Winwin had seemingly flipped a switch in Ten. His smile turned into a surprised ‘O’ and he pulled his hands away from Winwin. The song continued to play only no one was dancing.
“Wh-why now?” Ten muttered. He took a step back.
Winwin had been calm until then but now he was seriously second-guessing his confession. Maybe he shouldn’t have dumped it on Ten out of nowhere. Should he add ‘as a friend?’ to his statement? But the damage was done.
Ten was looking at him with so much hurt and confusion that it broke Winwin’ heart into pieces. Pieces that did not have the courage to listen to Ten’s rejection.
“I am sorry, Winwin. I don’t…” Ten took in a deep breath before continuing. “I don’t think it’s going to work out.”
And with that he turned away and ran.
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-Flashback-
It was the first day of primary school and five-year-old Winwin knew no one in his class other than the homeroom teacher. She was a friend of his mother and that was mainly the reason why Winwin’s parents had decided to send him to this school. He was seated on the third bench while the teacher told them to write down the alphabets in their notebook, while he wondered who he would play with during lunch. He couldn’t play with the Mrs. Xu, right?
Winwin continued his work, struggling with some letters but managed to get to S before he forgot what came after.
He started reciting in his head from the start but could not get past S for some reason. Maybe it was only up to S? He confidently put his pencil down when the boy sitting in the row next to him whispered.
“It’s T.”
Winwin looked to his right to see a boy with short black hair and a pretty smile looking at his notebook.
“My mom said T is after S.”
Winwin nodded as he remembered that there were more letters after S.
“Thank you.” Winwin said back. “I always forget T.”
“My name is Ten. My mom said it starts with T so I only remember up to that.”
“I am Winwin.”
“Pretty.” Ten smiled again. “Do you know what’s after T?”
Winwin did not but now he knew whom to play with during lunch.
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-Flashback-
Winwin and Ten had miraculously always been in the same class all through primary school, junior and senior middle school. They lived two streets away from each other so for the last twelve years they had gone to school together every day, whether it was either of their moms driving them or the two waking up earlier so they could walk.
So even though Winwin was applying to a dance academy after school, he hadn’t realized they would be in separate colleges, let alone different cities until they had to fill out their college preference forms.
It was one month before gaokao and they were done with most of their syllabus. It was just revision and practice exams going on in school and all that was left was to apply for the colleges of their choice.
The two were in Winwin’s room sitting on the floor with a folding table between them, both busy with their forms.
Winwin had already sent his audition clip to Beijing Dance Academy and was waiting to hear back from them. He only needed to take gaokao as a formality. He filled in his second choice to Shanghai Theatre Academy and third was another school in Beijing. All of his dance instructors had told him that with his current credentials it wouldn’t be too hard for him to get in so he wasn’t overly worried.
He sneaked a peek at Ten’s form expecting to see Beijing at the top of the list as well.
“Why aren’t you applying to Peking or Tsinghua?” Winwin asked, picking up Ten’s form. Tianjin University.
“It’s too far. I want to stay closer to home.” Ten shrugged. He waited for Winwin to give the form back to him. “I thought of Beijing but I’m not confident if I will get in.”
“Your mock test scores are pretty good though.” Winwin said. “Also, Beijing is not that far either. It’s two hours if you take the bullet.”
“Beijing is too expensive, Win.” Ten sighed. It looked like he had had the same discussion with himself way too many times. “Tianjin is close and there’s a good scholarship.”
“But-”
“And the engineering department is good.” Ten said, as he took back the form seeing that Winwin had no signs of giving it. “I have thought this through, okay? My second and third are Beijing though so don’t worry.”
But we won’t be together. Winwin did not say that out loud. He knew Ten would take up a science subject but he had been hoping they’d be in the same University and share the campus and room space at least.
“Right. Tianjin has a good chemistry faculty too.” Winwin mumbled.
“We’ll see each other during holidays.” Ten said. “I’ll come visit you in Beijing sometimes too.”
“Really?”
“Of course! Just tell me whenever you have performances, I’ll come straightaway.”
Winwin knew he wasn’t lying. Ever since they had become friends Ten had not missed a single one of his dance competitions. He was always there cheering in the audience. Always waiting backstage after the show with flowers. Always took him to eat ice cream the day after.
But that always was now going to change.
Ten will be far from him in a different city.
And it seemed like Winwin was the only one heart broken over this.