After the car accident, my boyfriend got straight

The plane cut through the clouds, leaving a long trail behind it. Only when the clouds closed back up as if nothing had happened did Shen Li finally drive away in the opposite direction.

At the beginning of the new semester, the campus was still lively, filled with youthful energy. The warm spring sunshine lit up everyone’s faces, and smiles were everywhere on campus.

On the basketball court, after making a three-pointer, Shen Li signaled to Chen Xu and then stepped off the court, sitting on the steps and looking at his phone.

On the court, a few guys who had just been relentlessly outplayed by Shen Li gathered together.

“Chen Xu, what’s up with Shen Li? He’s been acting strange lately.”

“Yeah, either he’s completely distracted when playing with us, or he’s going all out and crushing us. It’s starting to mess with our heads.”

After Jiang Shiyu hung up the phone, a white boy from the same dorm rushed over, tilted his head, and smiled at him, asking in English, “Were you talking to your boyfriend?”

Jiang Shiyu nodded.

“You manage to find time to call every day even though you’re so busy. Your relationship must be really good. Wonderful love! When’s it going to be my turn?”

Jiang Shiyu pressed his lips together, smiling with an unmistakable happiness.

“Oh, darling, your smile is so sweet! No wonder so many boys in the college ask me about you.”

Jiang Shiyu looked serious. “Leo, don’t give them my number.”

The white boy made an expression that said, “Of course I know that.” He added, “Don’t worry, I didn’t give it out. And look at them—what kind of guys are they? How do you say it in Chinese? ‘Toads lusting after swan meat.’”

Jiang Shiyu laughed so hard that his dimples showed.

The white boy lay back on his bed, full of envy. He really admired him for having such a loving, clingy, and handsome boyfriend.

Jiang Shiyu was taken aback for a second.

Clingy.

Was Shen Li clingy?

From what he remembered, he was the clingy one. Because of his insecurity, they were almost always together when they were dating, and Shen Li indulged him, taking him everywhere. Several times, their friends had joked that Shen Li had found himself a clingy boyfriend.

Leo, hanging upside down off the side of the bed, asked, “You two haven’t been together long, have you?”

“Not that long—just under two years.” Of course, there was that time they were apart due to the car accident.

Leo was surprised. “Two years? That long? The way you two talk, it sounds like you’re still in the honeymoon phase.”

Jiang Shiyu stopped writing his homework, looking puzzled. Was that true?

“It’s been two years, and you’re still so lovey-dovey. How did you bring yourself to go abroad for an exchange year?”

Jiang Shiyu had a photo of him and Shen Li at the beach on his desk. In the picture, he was smiling at the camera, and Shen Li was looking at him, with his smile reflected in Shen Li’s eyes.

“Because he’s so amazing, I want to become better too, so I can be worthy of him.”

Leo clicked his tongue. Jiang Shiyu was a new exchange student, and several teachers had already praised him in class. Wasn’t that excellent enough? He was curious about how exceptional his boyfriend must be to make him feel this way.

At night, lying in a foreign bed, Jiang Shiyu stared at the bright moon outside the window. France was six hours behind Jiang Hua, so it was almost sunrise there. What could Shen Li be doing now?

The busyness of the day made him feel like a spinning top, his mind filled with academics and sheet music. But once night fell and everything grew quiet, the longing grew like wild grass, invading every nerve.

Jiang Shiyu curled up in the blankets, missing the familiar scent and warm embrace. Loneliness and yearning entwined around him, and the silent tears that fell had no one to wipe them away.

It was much better now than when he first arrived in France. At first, he felt so unfamiliar with everything—so far from home and from the care he was used to. Alone for the first time, he would cry into his pillow after hanging up the phone with Shen Li every night, then put on a brave face the next day as if nothing had happened.

In the midst of these emotional struggles, Jiang Shiyu gradually adapted. He got used to classmates from different backgrounds, to the cultural differences in food, to the different ways of communicating, to not having Shen Li by his side, to forcing himself to engage with others, to relying entirely on himself.