Like that, with longing days passed.
We could not count them in numbers, nor name them individually. They slipped quietly through her fingers, like water subtle, fleeting, and slow. One after another, they passed, without urgency or noise.
In those passing days, the university had begun again.
Anaya now walked through hallways she once knew by heart, holding textbooks in her hands, sitting in lectures, scribbling down notes while her mind often wandered elsewhere. Her routine returned, but it had changed too. Like, softly tinted by someone she had never met.
It wasn't a sudden obsession, nor a loud, youthful crush. It was something quieter. Deeper. A growing tenderness that rooted itself in the stillness of her days.
Each morning, before she left for class, her fingers would trace the same familiar path, Instagram, Weibo, RedNote. She had followed him on every platform she could find, her heart gently echoing with a kind of silent devotion. If he posted a photo, she noticed. If he shared a video or story, her heart fluttered, not just a little, but more she never thought. That, she had thrown herself into this.
But, she never did commenting.
Not a once...
She didn't press like. She didn't leave a heart emoji or a kind word beneath his pictures. She simply... watched. Quietly. Kindly. Like a star that glimmers from afar without needing to be seen.
Maybe it was enough for her to know that he was out there, smiling, singing and living happily.
Maybe this was her own kind of love. Not loud. Not demanding. Just the soft act of noticing someone again and again, even when they didn't know.
When she wanted to share about him for someone, she just took that keychain of her's. A little whale. And talked about him with it.
When classmates laughed around her, she smiled with them. When professors spoke, she listened with calm eyes. But somewhere, always, in the back of her thoughts, a small corner remained lit with his voice, his words, his laughter she'd only heard through a screen.
Sometimes, at night, she would lay in bed and think:
Will he ever know how he makes me feel. Can he see me , even when I'm invisible to him?
She never expected a reply.
She only listened to his songs again.
And somehow, in those quiet days full of unnoticed glances at a glowing screen, something in her began to grow stronger. not louder, but steadier.
She didn't need to be heard.
She just needed to feel.
And right now, Yu Chen was the softest feeling she held.
And like that, the year quietly began to draw its final curtain.
No loud fireworks. No celebrations. Just the ticking of days and the quiet heartbeat of a girl who loved from afar.
Anaya watched as the calendar pages grew thinner, as her classmates excitedly spoke about winter holidays and new year plans. She nodded, smiled faintly, but her heart was elsewhere, wandering across the miles that separated her from a boy who didn't even know what her name is.
His name had become like a secret prayer. Soft, sacred, and kept hidden beneath the layers of her daily life.
The seasons had changed. Flowers had bloomed and fallen. Festivals had come and gone. Her classes had started and paused and resumed again. But one thing remained steady. the slow, growing tenderness in her heart for him.
It wasn't the kind of love that shouted from rooftops or rushed into confessions.
It was the kind of love that lingered quietly at the end of the day.
The kind of love that watched him from behind a screen, her heart fluttering with every glimpse of his smile.
The kind of love that said "I'm here," even if he could never hear it.
The year passed gently, like a song played on low volume, just enough for her to hear, just enough to keep her company.
She didn't mark the days with grand events.
She marked them with the small things like,
A new photo he posted.
A song he sang.
The way he laughed in a behind-the-scenes video.
The soft blue of his fandom color that reminded her of sky and hope.
Anaya would sometimes look at her own reflection and wonder:
"Will this ever end? This feeling I carry so quietly?"
But she never wished for it to disappear.
It hurt sometimes, yes.
But it also warmed her.
It made her feel alive, present, human.
And so, the year ended not with closure, but with quietness.
A quietness filled with longing.
A quietness where her love for him didn't fade but deepened, silently, softly.
And though the world kept moving forward,
Anaya remained,
Loving him still.
Just as she always had...