The pair disappeared into the crowd.
Yiran had left his cup of tea. It would be a waste if no one drank it. Rui snickered to herself and filled her mouth with tapioca bubbles, chewing contentedly. The chairs had been cleared for the dance floor, and there was nowhere to sit. Time to remove her wretched heels.
She took a step back abruptly and bumped hard into someone, almost losing her balance. Just when she tried to apologize, a pesky bubble lodged itself in her throat. Tea spilled onto her dress as she started coughing.
A tall boy was next to her, as if he’d been there for a while. She didn’t know how she’d missed him. She knew every senior cadet in her cohort, but she didn’t recognize him. Maybe he was someone’s guest.
Unlike the sparkly masquerade masks that other cadets were wearing, the boy’s mask was that of a fox’s head, and it covered his entire face andall his hair. Even his eyes were shadowed. His inky suit was like the night sky full of stars, the fabric shimmering softly in an almost magical way. It was grand,regal-looking, and it fit him like a glove. It must have cost him a fortune. Rui wondered who he was trying to impress.
She could tell he was laughing at her embarrassment behind his mask, and she pounded her chest and subdued her coughing. “Sorry, I didn’t—”
“May I have the next dance?” he cut in, his voice muffled by the mask. He was extending his hand in a polite, old-fashioned way, and for a moment, she wasn’t sure what to do. He cocked his head. “Just one dance?”
Rui was about to reject him when she saw Ada gesticulating wildly from the side, urging her to accept. Her best friend had been harping on her to indulge in fun things instead of training all the time.
Oh, what the hell.Rui smiled half-heartedly at the boy and took his hand. It was warm, his grip firm, and oddly, it felt safe.
Wordlessly, he led her away. The song switched as they stepped onto the crowded dance floor. It was an upbeat synth melody with a bouncy guitar riff.
I thought I found you in the stars,
but they were just fading scars—
Rui froze.
It was the song.Theirsong. The one they’d made up silly lyrics to because the original ones were too sad.
“Is something wrong?” the boy asked.
She brushed past him through the crowd, then out to the reception. It was no good. She could still hear the music. Hands over her ears, she ran out the front doors and into the cold, finally halting by one of the sculptures that dotted the campus.
The snow had stopped falling. The sky was clearing, and a few stars twinkled. Teeth chattering, Rui rubbed her bare shoulders. Her coat was back in the ballroom, but she would rather catch pneumonia than listen to another bar of that song. She’d thought she was better now, that the hole in her heart had started to heal. But tonight proved how wrong she was.
The doors behind her opened and closed, and she sensed someone walking up to her.
“You’re going to catch a cold.” It was the boy with the fox mask.
She swiveled around. “Stop stalking me!” She hadn’t intended to scream at him, and he probably wasn’t stalking her, but her emotions were running high.
The boy took a step back.
First, she’d bumped into him, then she’d run out on him in the middle of the dance, and now this. He had to think she was a jerk. “S-sorry,” she stammered, shivering from the cold. “I didn’t mean to yell.”
In one smooth motion, the boy slipped his coat off and swung it over her shoulders, fastening the top button so it wore like a cape on her. Not expecting this chivalrous act, Rui tried to undo it.
He shook his head. “Keep it. The cold doesn’t bother me much.”
Everything stopped. The air, the noise, her breath—gone, as if the world had forgotten to move. Rui was still as the statue next to her.
She had heard that exact sentence from someone else before.
The boywasthe right height, but his eyes—she pulled off his mask, dropping it when she saw his face.
“Hey, Rooroo.”
Since she’d found his parting gift at the shophouse and her memories returned, Rui had imagined a moment like this. It was a foolish wish that had brought her hope, but it came with so much pain that she stopped wishing because it hurt too much.
Tonight it seemed like her delusions had finally gotten the best of her.
