Chapter 10

The introduction was so abrupt that even I couldn’t say for sure whether I had acted too impulsively at the time.

But since there weren’t many people present, and they were all close friends, everyone teased about it for a bit and then let it go.

Except for Duan Chen.

He seemed frozen in time, not joining in the playful banter. He just sat there, alone.

Even though I wasn’t looking at him, I could feel his gaze fixed on me the entire time.

When everyone had taken their seats, he suddenly stood up. The chair scraped against the tiles with a sharp, grating noise. “I’m stepping out for a bit.”

Duan Chen’s footsteps were hurried, his retreating figure carrying an air of disarray.

Xia Jialiang’s gaze shifted from Duan Chen back to me. After a moment of thoughtful silence, he leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Bro, it’s him, isn’t it?”

Sometimes I wonder if it’s because of the shared experience, but Xia Jialiang’s intuition is frighteningly sharp.

The reason I got to know Xia Jialiang was because he had broken up with his boyfriend and was drowning his sorrows at a bar, crying his heart out.

He was a colleague I was traveling with for work, and I couldn’t just leave him there. So I reluctantly stayed with him, becoming his unwitting confidant.

In the taxi ride back, he was quietly gazing out the window at the scenery. Suddenly, he turned to me and said something completely out of the blue, “Actually, you’re the same, aren’t you?”

I knew what he meant. I nodded.

Maybe it’s rare to meet someone similar, but Xia Jialiang always had an inexplicable sense of closeness toward me. We became friends quickly.

As part of the give-and-take of friendship, I shared some things with him, though only in bits and pieces.

But he’s smart, piecing together the truth with remarkable accuracy.

On the way back, he suddenly winked at me and said, “If he’s there for your birthday this time, do something with me, okay?”